Major Education Conference to Focus on School Improvement Law

8/26/2003

From: Billie Spellman, PDK St. Louis Conference, 1-800-766-1156 or 812-339-1156, or bspellman(at)pdkintl.org; Lowell Rose, 35th Annual PDK/Gallup Poll, 812-333-7408 or lcrose(at)indiana.edu; both of the Phi Delta Kappa International

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Aug. 26 -- According to the recent PDK/Gallup education poll, 76 percent of Americans dont know much about the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the centerpiece of the Bush administration effort to improve schools. Many educators are in the same boat. Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK) hopes to change that.

PDK is inviting educators from across the United States, Canada, and around the world to participate in a major education conference to be held in St. Louis, Missouri, November 20-23. The conference theme is "Leave No School Behind: Challenges and Opportunities." Registration information is available at 1-800-766-1156 or on the Web at http://www.pdkintl.org. Parents and community members also are invited to attend.

In addition to sessions on NCLB, the conference will include some 50 professional development programs and give participants opportunities to hear prominent speakers. Keynoting the conference will be Mary Curtis Aranha, director of character education at the Maryland State Department of Education; National PTA President Linda Hodge; Claudio Sanchez, National Public Radio education correspondent; and the national 2002 Teacher of the Year, Chauncey Veatch.

PDK, an 80,000-member professional association in education, organized the conference to follow the association's release of findings from its 35th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. The influential poll found that a majority of Americans know little or nothing about the No Child Left Behind Act.

When the poll went on to ask about school improvement strategies built into NCLB, the public showed a marked lack of support for the strategies. For example, NCLB judges schools based on a fixed percentage of students passing a standardized test. Most of the public (84 percent) favor using student improvement as a gauge of school success.

Sixty-six percent of Americans say judging schools using a single standardized test will cause teachers to "teach to the test." Sixty percent say that's a bad thing. NCLB also judges schools using only math and English test results. Eighty percent of the public are concerned that this will mean less emphasis on art, history, music, and other subjects.

The PDK conference in St. Louis will provide a forum for educators, parents, and policymakers to discuss NCLB and what the law means for schools and to learn about programs and practices for school improvement both in the U.S. and abroad.

Phi Delta Kappa International, founded in 1906, provides service, research, and leadership in education. A complete report of this year's public opinion poll can be found in the September issue of the association journal, the Phi Delta Kappan, also online at http://www.pdkintl.org.