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Show Ikm Of "Thrse R' RetamMg? By TOM BUSSELBERG The days of the basic three R's are returning-almost, to the American classroom. THE DAYS when readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic were about ab-out all that was served up to public school students are more in vogue than the "proliferation" "pro-liferation" of courses offered during the 1960's and 70's, writes M. Donald Thomas, superintendent su-perintendent of schools in the Salt Lake City School District. Addressing "Graduation Requirement and High School Courses", he notes the trend to fewer classes along with some other major changes in emphasis: a trend at the university uni-versity level to strengthen entrance en-trance requirements, such as the University of Utah has recently re-cently announced. ALSO COMING forward is "a general belief in the educa- tion community that the proliferation pro-liferation of courses has weakened scholarship and lowered lo-wered academic achievement." achieve-ment." A trend to have vocational voca-tional programs prepare students stu-dents for specific jobs is also noted although such courses are not viewed as general education edu-cation for all students, he writes. "A general desire by the public to make the high school a more rigorous educational experience, require more courses, have more demanding deman-ding teachers, attend more hours, require competencies before graduation and 'make the diploma more meaningful," meaning-ful," expresses another strong feeling. QUOTING FROM education-oriented literature, Dr. Thomas takes from the "NASSP Bulletin" of February, Febru-ary, 1983, "High school students stu-dents would be better served if extensive consulting among schools and colleges preceded major revisions in college entrance entr-ance requirements so that schools can plan the necessary staffing and curriculum adjustments adjust-ments and so that problems can be thoroughly explored and negative consequences minimized." It went on to say that "high-risk "high-risk students" present a problem prob-lem between colleges and high schools. Often recruited by colleges, "extensive consultation" consulta-tion" is advised with high school counselors or teachers who had previous experience with such students. NOTING THE trend for stricter admissions require- ments by universities, he quotes from the "E.R.S. Bulletin" Bul-letin" of January noting 27 of 50 state universities have raised admissions requirements require-ments or currently are reviewing review-ing them. Speaking of noted differences differ-ences between "effective" and "ineffective" schools he quotes from "Focus, 1982", "The real difference in effective effec-tive schools is made by teachers and not curriculum. Whatever the courses, unless a high school has effective teachers, no improvement is achieved. "URBAN SCHOOLS can be improved if there is a determination determi-nation to act on the knowledge we already have about what creates excellence in high schools-leadership, hard work, rigorous courses, discipline disci-pline and periodic assess- ment." Noting how some have called cal-led for high school reform Dr. Thomas quoted B. Frank Brown, "The evidence is clear that the high school curriculum lacks intellectual vitality." "THE TEACHING of civic values must be at the core of the high school experience," says R. Freeman Butts. "Such unifying values as justice, equality, authority, participation participa-tion and obligation for the public pub-lic good must be better understood under-stood if our free democratic society is to survive." Five differences between "effective" schools and others were also listed: in attitude atti-tude toward learning, teachers in more effective schools assigned more homework. Touching on teacher strategies, strate-gies, teachers in less effective schools often ended lessons early, while speaking of rewards re-wards and punishments, he said teachers in effective schools praised students more. CONCERNING student conditions, he noted that effective effec-tive schools provided such conveniences as telephones for student use while the level of student participation and responsibility re-sponsibility showed effective schools had more ways for students stu-dents to be actively involved in the life of the school and to play an active role in learning. The Salt Lake School Board held a special meeting centering center-ing on college graduation requirements re-quirements and what might be done in the district, Tuesday night, while the Davis Board has also been studying the issues and recently imposed some more stringent requirements require-ments but is further investigating investigat-ing other possible changes. |