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Language
Enrichment Activities Program
Lee Cullum: Innovative school solutions take off right here in Dallas 12:00 AM CST on Sunday, January 9, 2005 No one has worked harder on public education than attorney Tom Luce, and now, after years of effort, he has good news to report in his new book Do What Works, written with Lee Thompson. "In 1983," he said in a telephone interview, "you had to convince people there's a problem. Today you have to convince them there's a solution." Mr. Luce and his foundation, Just for the Kids, have spent a lot of time looking for solutions, and some of them they've found right here in Dallas. Nell Carvell, of Southern Methodist University, has created the Language Enrichment Activities Program for preschools, which has shown great results at the Margaret H. Cone Head Start Center. Average test scores there have leapt from the 20th-to-30th percentile to the 60th-to-70th. Moreover, when Cone students have gone on to Frazier Elementary, they've outperformed their peers in reading. What is the secret? It's a four-point plan: 1) Develop a curriculum that's rich in language and vocabulary. 2) Train teachers to be excellent. 3) Collaborate with civic and corporate groups to fund a more complete approach. The Texas Instruments Foundation was instrumental in bringing LEAP to the Cone Center. Now Don Williams is working with a coalition to take the program to every disadvantaged child in the Dallas Independent School District. 4) Monitor and readjust constantly. "What is so powerful about LEAP," Mr. Luce explained, "is it's a replicable model. They've shown they can train existing personnel. They didn't go out and get a new group of people." Some critics say Head Start "is like child care in too many places," Mr. Luce said. "Child care is better than no care, but we need developmental care. Maybe if we can demonstrate Head Start works, it will get full funding" in Congress. Helping young children is central to Mr. Luce's work, but high school students are critical, too. In their book, Mr. Luce and Ms. Thompson praise Advanced Placement programs as a splendid tool for challenging teenagers. Once thought of as serving only high achievers in suburban and private schools, this program today attracts a growing number of minority and disadvantaged kids. This program "has an impact (even) on students who take AP but who don't pass the national exam," Mr. Luce observed. "They still do better in college." These are only two of the productive practices identified by Just for the Kids around the country and disseminated to other schools in similar circumstances. Invariably they arrange themselves along these lines: •Define clear and specific academic objectives by grade and subject. Break them down into component parts. •Hire strong principals and teachers and give them continuous training. •Develop instructional materials based on scientific evidence. •Monitor, monitor, monitor. •Reward, intervene or adjust. What is essential to the success of any school, said Mr. Luce, is "constant assessment of what a child is learning and immediate intervention so a child doesn't get behind." What also is essential is for more schools to try what works and stick with it. The first step is to read the Luce-Thompson book, which can be found at www.communitiesjust4kids.org. It is based on concrete experience and has useful ideas. It has hope. Lee Cullum is a free-lance journalist who lives in Dallas. Her e-mail address is lcullum@swbell.net.
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© 2004, Language Enrichment Activities Program |
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