EDUCATION

EVELYN VUKO, Washington Post Education Columnist, March 4, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: For those of us who have difficulty remembering things and have a tendency to drift off topic and start discussing things unrelated to what they started talking, like sports and whether Washington will get a baseball team and are baseballs stitched more tightly so the balls travel further. My question is: do you think the increase in home runs is due to juicing balls?
Also, how do you get people to stay focused?
VUKO: I don’t know jack from juiced baseballs, but I do have some suggestions for getting people to stay focused. First, find a friend who knows umpire signals who will shoot one at you when you veer off track. Behavior modification specialists use hand signals with kids who have attention deficits and they work well because they’re subtle and private. Next, when you have to give a presentation, set the timer on your watch to beep when your time is up. Sometimes, just setting the timer is enough to make you conscious of the time and to use it wisely. Play ball.

MAUREEN McLAUGHLIN, Education Professor, East Stroudsburg State University, April 15, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: How bad is adult literacy? I read statistics where one third of some cities’ graduates are functional illiterates, and there likely is an even higher rate of illiteracy amongst the drop-outs. How many functional illiterates become functional literate? Is literacy something that can be developed by oneself over time, or does a functional illiterate probably need to enter an adult literacy programs?
McLAUGHLIN: Adult literacy is a continuing challenge in our country. For detailed information about statistics on this issue, I would encourage you to read Illiterate America by Jonathan Kozol. The high level of illiteracy is some sections may surprise you. Often times working with volunteers who promote adult literacy is extremely helpful. One important issue is to lint the learning to the reader’s experiences—health, food shopping, gardening—whatever interests the adult. Incorporating informal writing—stories about the person’s life, note to friends, reflections—will help the adult to see his/her progress in learning to be literate.

KEVIN BUSHWELLER, Editor, Education Week, May 8, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: Whatever happened to the belief that students learn different topics at different speeds and that a student should not move to the next level until the current level is mastered? Thus, all students of the same age would have home room together, yet during the day when classes of Math, English, and Science meet, each student would go to the class that is appropriate for their level of understanding. To me, this seemed like such a logical solution. Yet, opponents in Pennsylvania knocked the idea down. Is this such a flawed idea and I am missing the flaw, or isn’t this really the practical solution to many learning challenges facing our students?
BUSHWELLER: You seem to be giving a nod to the controversy surrounding adaptive testing.
There is general agreement that all students learn at different paces. But Federal law requires that students be tested to ensure that they are at least meeting grade level standards.
Still, adaptive testing advocates say this form of assessment has the potential to accomplish both goals: Ensure students are meeting grade level standards while also getting a better sense of what each individual student is capable of achieving.

ROB PEGORARO, Washington Post Personal Technology Columnist, August 25, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: I take notes with pen and paper. Today, students take computers to class and take notes. Instead of dogs eating our homework, today bugs eat them. How far reaching is this trend? Am I really a dinosaur and don’t realize that most students now need to take computers to school with them, or is this just in a minority of schools and pen and paper still rules in most places?
PEGORARO: I hate to generalize from my own experience, but what I hear from readers, I think this trend is for real.
I suspect I’m further along the electronic-notes trend than most people, though. The vast majority of reporters here take notes on paper, but I use a Palm handheld for pretty much everything but interview notes (I can write faster on paper than in Graffiti). The reason why I do this is because I can easily copy, move and back up the notes on my Palm, and I can also search them much more easily.
The “back up” part is especially important. My Palm gets backed up to my computer all the time. But if you take notes on a computer, you’d better be backing *that* up frequently.

DANIEL A. DOMENECH, Fairfax County, Va. Public Schools Superintendent, August 26, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: What ever happened to the idea that, since children learn their various subjects at different rates, that (at least in the earlier years) all major subjects would be taught during the same time periods and students would attend the grade level appropriate for their level of learning? Thus, for example, a student could join all his classmates in grade three homeroom and then, perhaps, go to grade four Science, grade three Math, and grade two English. No student would move ahead in a subject until he or she has mastered a subject at his or her current grade level. Otherwise, promoting a student ahead of time means the student will likely be forever behind in that subject. Do any schools have this?
DOMENECH: We have a program called “Success by 8” that provides multi-aged, continuous progress instruction. Children are grouped by their ability to deal with a particular lesson, regardless of their age. Regrouping takes place on a regular basis. Children can thus spend as much time or as little time as they need in order to master a particular learning objective. We see this type of instruction as representative of what education should look like in the 21st century. Technology adds to the mix by allowing further individualization of instruction.

RICHARD RESTAK, neurologist and neurophyschiastist, September 16, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: We are learning that different parts of the brain are stimulated from different types of learning. That is why it is so crucial to stimulate young minds of even infants. It assists their learning later in life. I understand the human brain is designed with the capability of learning several languages, yet it is easiest to learn languages if this type education beings while young and that part of the brain is stimulated early in life. What parts of the brain are stimulated most from Internet use, and are there ways to stimulate that part of the brain in early childhood (and is that advisable)?
RESTAK: I don’t know if there is a specific brain (part) that is stimulated by Internet use. I know that there parts of the brain that are stimulated by computer games—many of which are on the Internet. They stimulate the frontal lobes, cerebellum, occipato cortex. Going on the Internet and checking your email and the such, we don’t have studies for this yet. Obviously, when you are looking at something on a screen instead of reading a letter you are stimulating different parts of the brain. Just looking at a screen tends to stimulate the right hemisphere. You are looking at a dynamic screen. It is a perceptual intake that is processed by the right hemisphere. That detracts a little bit for your ability to read correctly. Studies have shown that if you want to detect errors in a written product you are much better able if you print it out and read it on paper than you would be looking at a screen—simply because you wouldn’t be creating conflict between the two hemispheres. The paper version stimulates predominately your left hemisphere. Reading things on a screen which is composed of scintillating and changing light patterns involves both.

HOWARD GREENE and MATTHEW GREENE, college consultants, October 22, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: What is your impression of online degrees offered by such colleges as the University of Phoenix and Walden University? Are these respected degrees, or do employers look down upon online degrees?
GREENE and GREENE: This is a newer vehicle for getting a college degree, but one which is rapidly emerging, and which more people are taking advantage of. On-line degrees are becoming more common, and employers are only now having to consider this more in their hiring decisions. Most students at the programs you mention are adults (i.e. over 25, so-called “non-traditional” learners) and this is the best means for them to continue, or being, a college degree. In some cases, these are career-changers seeking to develop new skills. We are of the opinion that employers will respect these efforts. It is a good idea to create a portfolio to show employers, which shows some of the accomplishments of an on-line program, to show quality and content of what one has done. What is lost in these programs for “traditional” (i.e. high school graduating) college-bound students is the residential college experience and learning environment.

LILY ESKELSEN, National Education Association Secretary-Treasurer, February 24, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: After reading what the Bush Administration had to say: what is your response to being labeled a terrorist?
ESKELSEN: How do I feel about being labeled a terrorist? And how do I answer that question using appropriate words where I would not find myself being placed on Time Out?
Of course, we were stunned. We deserve an apology. And any of my 12 year olds knows how to say “I’m sorry.” I believe Secretary Paige should be ashamed of himself.

PATRICK WALSH, T.C. Williams High School (Va.) Teacher, May 3, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: There are some researchers who claim that the schools with the best chances at improving their academic successes are those where the principals are teachers have the liberty to structure their school and classrooms with minimum obstruction from supervisors so they may respond to the dynamic needs of the students. Yet, this is totally against the trend requiring that schools receive greater supervision and greater uniform structure, including testing all students the same after following mandated learning requirements. Do you have any thoughts on the debates as to what allows schools to best improve?
WALSH: I have too many thoughts to get down now. I will say that the Virginia SOL exams and others like it throughout the country are dumbing down education. The Virginia tests are supposed to be among the most rigorous in the country yet any fairly bring kid can pass them using common sense alone without taking the course. I know of kids who flunked courses, then got “highly proficient” when they took the SOLs on the subject matter.

ANN BRADLEY, “Education Week” Assistant Managing Editor and KATHY DOHERTY, Editorial Projects in Education Inc. Special Research Projects Director, May 12, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: Please let me take an exaggerated cynical view: we have moved from schools which were 100% White and 100% Black to schools that are 95% Black/5% White and 95% Black/5% White. If we wish to achieve actual school integration, don’t the courts have to recognize they must (at least in Pennsylvania) integrate beyond county lines? In Southeast Pennsylvania, the inability to integrate beyond the Philadelphia city line has only created new types of segregated schools.
BRADLEY and DOHERTY: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1974 in a case involving Detroit that there would not be cross-district remedies involving suburban Michigan districts for desegregating schools. This really truncated efforts to desegregate many districts; instead, lots of court action after that turned on providing extra resources to all-Black schools. Some civil rights advocates had hoped that Congress, in reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2001 (now called No Child Left Behind) would allow students to transfer to other districts if their own schools were failing. That didn’t happen. So we are at a point in time where districts have to “go it alone”.

MARY ELLEN SLAYTER, Washington Post Columnist, May 17, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: Government employees are being criticized for obtaining fake degrees. How are distance learning degrees perceived?
SLAYTER: I think distance degrees are becoming more accepted, but it depends on the school they came from—not so different from their brick-and-mortar counterparts, really.
If I were to pursue a degree through this format, I would stick to the online programs established by more-established colleges and universities. For example, the University of Maryland has an extensive catalogue of online classes.
I suppose it really depends on why you are pursing the degree. Is it just to have an MS or an MA on your resume? Or do you really want to further your understanding in your field? The people who get themselves in trouble with “fake” degrees are usually doing the former.

ROBERT REICH, Former U.S. Labor Secretary, January 5, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Your proposal (to repay government guaranteed student loans as a percentage of the first ten years of earnings) is an interesting one. One of the difficulties seen in attracting young professionals, especially in health care professions, to work in low income areas is they can not afford to accept such jobs because they have large loan debts to repay. Do you think acceptance of your loan idea would allow more college graduates and health care graduates to go to urban and rural areas that need professionals yet will not pay as well as suburban or wealthy urban areas will pay?
REICH: Yes, absolutely. I’ve spoken with many undergrads and also student sin graduate programs across the United States who would like to go to urban and rural areas that need their services, but who can’t afford to because of the crushing burden of their student loans. In other words, this proposal isn’t just good for young people who’d like to make a difference, it’s also good for the country.
CZIKOWSKY: How would you determine annual income under this program to avoid cheating? Would it be taken according to an amount listed on tax returns, or how?
REICH: Yes, the easiest way to do this would be to take the annual income that appears on one’s tax returns. Of course, there’s no guarantee that someone won’t cheat on their taxes, just like there’s no guarantee that someone won’t cheat on this program. But cheaters often get caught. And this vast majority of people don’t want to cheat anyway.

LYNN SWANN, President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Chairman, June 29, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: I was surprised to learn that so many school districts have eliminated or reduced physical education requirements. Please explain how much of a mistake this is.
SWANN: This has been an ongoing struggle for schools across the country. When money is not available for all the school programs, physical activity, sports, arts programs seem to be the first cut. I agree that cutting out physical education and sports programs that benefit the entire school population is a mistake. We need to continue to encourage young children and adults in America to be more physically active, not less. If your school is not providing an outlet for physical activity, then it becomes very important for parents and families to find other outlets for activity. Any teacher in school, without cost, can use the President’s Challenge program, and implement the program.

KEVIN JENNINGS, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, October 12, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Is has been suggested that the state create a law against bullying. How would you advise such a law to look? Bullying is wrong, yet how do you define it and how do you react to a juvenile incident without going overboard while also protecting those who are abused?
JENNINGS: The key to an effective law is a clear definition of bullying and harassment which essentially is repeated behavior directed toward an individual over time because of their membership in a particular group that demonstrably impact their ability to learn.
Schools need to have such a definition to draw the distinction between the first amendment rights of free speech that students have and inappropriate behavior that is not legally protected.

LOIS ROMANO, Washington Post Staff Writer, October 20, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Should we change our emphasis from “no child left behind” to “advance no child until they are ready?” Why don’t schools allow students to work at their own rate at different subjects, allowing them to pass to higher levels when successfully completing their current level, yet allowing students to be at appropriate levels for each subject rather than at one grade level for all subjects. Then much of the inequities between the boredom with subjects they’ve mastered while struggling with difficult subjects they are falling behind would be conquered.
ROMANO: Private schools have the luxury of being able to let kids go at their own pace. Unfortunately, it’s harder for public schools on tight budgets.

VALERIE STRAUSS, Washington Post Staff Writer, June 13, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: To me, one of the solutions to a major educational problem is simple and obvious: It is not ‘leave no child behind’, but pass no child before the child is ready.
The concept is simple. All home rooms and all official general grade levels are assigned according to age, so children do not feel stigmatized. All basic courses are taught school wide during the same time periods. The child attends the grade level for each course that is appropriate for that child. Many children will be ahead in some subjects and behind in others. No child is promoted to the next level in a subject until proficient at the current level. Thus, for example, a home room grade level 5 child may be taking level 4 Math, level 6 English, and level 5 Science.
Why do we fail students for entire years in all subjects, or pass them ahead in all subjects? Both failed and excellent students get bored with the subjects they’ve already mastered, so why do we force them to remain in these classes?
Isn’t this a simple solution to a major problem?
STRAUSS: We think this a terrific idea that would require schools to allow teachers in different grades to cooperate more actively.

HILDA QUIROZ, National School Safety Center Program Director, October 3, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Shouldn’t schools be during more about bullying issues? They should do this not just because of the shootings, but it makes sense. It is such a widespread problem and schools, since they don’t have the time and resources, often look the other way at bullying. Too many students are made fearful to go to school because of bullies, and that lessens their ability to learn. Bullies themselves are exhibiting symptoms of some other problems that may need special attention. One common theme that is found of many school shooters is they had been victimized by bullies and shooting was often their overreaction to their hurt. I know school administrators argue that when they barely have the funds to sustain teaching the basics that they don’t have the resources to tackle the very difficult of bullying, but isn’t it time we wake up and realize we need to give schools these resources?
QUIROZ: You are right about the issue of school bullying and its ties to school violence. Many schools are currently involved in creating the strategies for prevention and response that are making a difference. The story regarding the student who shot his principle may be fuel for this fire.

VALERIE STRAUSS, Washington Post Staff Writer, October 10, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Despite the protestations of school administrators, haven’t we figured out what just about every teacher states privately: school time is focused more on improving test scores than on what children learn? Isn’t it time we reevaluate the amount of testing and how well we evaluate teachers and schools based on these test scores?
STRAUSS: Lots of people agree with you. Others believe standardized testing has made a lot of bad schools better by forcing them to focus more on teaching basics.

BEN KAPLAN, author, February 1, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: Is your book (“How to Go to College Almost for Free”) limited to undergraduate costs? What would you recommend to keep graduate school costs down?
KAPLAN: The book focuses on scholarships for students of any age, including high school students, college students, graduate school students, and adults returning to school.
In terms of graduate school, there are a lot of scholarships available. For instance, the Jacob Javits Fellowship Program is for graduate students (and undergraduate seniors) working toward a doctorate or MFA in the social sciences, arts, or humanities.

ROBERT MARANTO, Villanova University Political Science Associate Professor, December 10, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: Are you familiar with the hearings that were held on the issue of academic freedom before the Pennsylvania state legislature? It seemed that even legislators who feared there was academic bias conceded they could find no one who could testify that academic bias existed, at least in Pennsylvania. Does academic bias exist in any Pennsylvania university of college?
MARANTO: I’m very familiar with those hearings, and I think they needed to be done confidentially / closed door. I’ve seen people say things privately on this matter that they would never say publicly, for fear of offending everyone where they worked and perhaps spending the next five years teaching 8 am classes!

HELEN JOHNSON, author, August 14, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: Are there enough peer counselors on most college campuses, and are they effective in reaching out to prevent students from beginning a downward spiral into more trouble?
JOHNSON: Most college campuses are working hard to meet the increasing need for counseling. Particularly in the first year, most colleges are keenly aware of the adjustment issues that surface. The first line of help is usually residence hall staff who are trained to notice and deal with students they feel are in distress. It would be helpful to sit down with your student and talk frankly about the challenges he or she will be facing as new college student. Discuss the possibilities that concern you and remind your student that there are resources on campus to help through difficult situations. Let your student know that you understand that life on campus may not always be smooth and carefree and that you are confident in his or her ability to get help if it’s needed. Most students, with a few bumps in the road, end up coping just fine but it’s always helpful to discuss what might occur and help your student brainstorm with difficulties.

JESSICA ROZLER, author, August 11, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: What are your thoughts on what has been written about “mean girls” and how there seems to be a growing number of psychologically abusive groups of women who prey on girls they don’t like?
ROZLER: Celebrity culture and the Internet have pushed “mean girls” into the spotlight. Sadly, there has always been that element of mean behavior with girls (and boys, too), but now with these negative role models and access to cell phones, email, IM, etc., it can be so much harder for kids. I just hope that we can continue to teach our girls to value themselves and each other. I also hope that we can use the recent celebrity spotlight famous mean girls as a way of teaching girls how NOT to act.