My feeling is basically that any teacher that folks a kid want to be deducted something off that teacher salary because what we're saying is the teacher did not do will fill his or her responsibilities of teaching the child what it was supposed to know. That's a very simplistic way and I know it's stretching a point. But basically that's what's happening. The kids aren't the ones that are failing. It's the school. It's failing them if we could have a Continuum of learning Anna exposure ongoing sort of an exploratory type of education would be beautiful and the creativity that were scratching could all be used. We don't want to create event inform citizens. We want conforming and manipulative people. Are our schools failing our children these to Southwest Minnesota Educators field that in many ways. They are good morning with producer Vicky sturgeon. I'm Kim Hodgson. And this is home for the weekend Bay possible this morning in park with funds provided by the Western Bank and Trust of Marshall and the Otto Bremer Foundation of st. Paul. Today is World literacy day and our program this morning is about the institutions which take most of the credit or blame for our success or failure in producing a literate population. The school's it's going to be an interesting program. I think so do stay tuned. Our program began with a harsh assessment of our public schools from Darren gislason & Elementary School teacher and Title 1 director from Minneota and from Bernice Gunderson and associate professor of education at Southwest State University in Marshall, the two are professionals who have spent most of their lives teaching and both are profoundly disturbed by what they feel has been the failure of our schools know your which includes lack of success in teaching basic skills, but is even more serious than that. It's the same claims. I wouldn't say very clearly the school is committed psychological murder an accomplice kids. They've turned into feelings of failures. Why? Because they continually demanded he knew things he's not capable of doing or at least not capable at the moment. He's asked for he may be capable of doing it in another year and then in addition to that they clobbered him with failing grades are you know, I'm I'm really against great ice cream about apps. I won't say there should be no obstacle system, but the effort to go to the brightest kids the best kids the kids who know how to read and can do the work and don't get it done there are places for apps, but they are not for the kids who are on the bottom of the shelf and are trying and working hard competing with themselves and everybody else and they don't come up to the standard that they set for the kids were already know how to read the way we're living as Educators and have continued to live over the while I all the time that I've been out in education, even though I've thoroughly enjoyed it and even though I You literally worked my heart and given every enthusiasm to it. I see now that by and large schools are meant to contain the children not to educate children. That has been a very disillusioned Discovery to me because I think children are where it's at and enthusiasm and initiative and just ensure energy. We have need of the energy of children and yet we are controlling and just containing them through many years of their lives when they should be happily exploring rather than doing the things they are the Reading itself as it's being taught is in the hands of the corporate publishing Empire totally and we have no control either on input nor how it's used nor any any part of the basic reader system which by the way are in 95% of the school there seems to be two places in our society where what you accomplished or don't accomplish depends entirely Upon a Time. One of those is school and the other is Bree you're sentenced to prison for so many years you're sent to school for so many years now whether you learn anything in prison or not, whether you're better or worse for it or not makes no difference when your year is up. Don't you go the same thing at school when your 37 weeks in the fourth grade are up you go to the fifth grade. when you had 37 weeks of chemistry. That's it. Took you 45 weeks to learn the chemistry. That's no good. You didn't get it in 37 weeks. You got an F. And if you could have learned to chemistry intent makes no difference you sit there for 37 weeks. We won't adjust the time schedule and Bernice Gunderson are not the only ones concerned about the effectiveness of educational institutions during the past year. Those institutions have come under heavy attack from many different quarters for failure to teach the basics Reading Writing and arithmetic critics cite declining scores on college entrance exams and parents and Educators alike are concerned that too many children are graduating from high school without adequate preparation for anything. The public is demanding to know in an increasingly loud voice why Johnny can't read and why Johnny can't write. One answer that some critics find attractive is that schools have strayed too far from concentrating on basic skills and now allows students to many esoteric choices, which distract them from what they the critics feel should be the main goals of public education these critics feel that school should drop the astrology course drop the independent studies drop the Leisure Time course drop Photography in short drop the Frills and get back to the basics Vicki sturgeon spoke to Don Hill president of the Minnesota Education Association and asked his views on this back to the basics movement. Mistake to believe that the schools ever got away from the basics because I really believe that even with all the expansion of curriculum and the adding new extracurricular activities addition to the creek and I've been toward the same in and that's the motivate kids to try to do a better job of the educational process is available to them while we respect teachers to teach people of what we're really talking about is learning process going about motivating kids and I think it would be a real mistake for us to to think that the problems of the world can be better settled. If we just get back to teaching the basic Reading Writing and arithmetic and stopping education at the age 15. We could go all the way back but the world at war in right now and we're Educate kids in is considerably different than the world even 5-10 years ago and it's some really important that we use every available resource. We have to try to motivate kids to want to learn. We will try to think too often to him pretend that because something doesn't identified as mathematics and then we aren't teaching mathematics, but I think that the whole development of vocational area operation the march of the expansion of our Our curriculum has been to teach basic mathematics in different ways. And the same is true. I think of reading and Communications of all kinds. Okay. What do you say there are high-end and disproportionate number of people coming out of high school's who really do not have a solid foundation of English grammar telling you that we are are not doing as good a job as we possibly should be doing her that we'd like to do and they are many reasons for and I'm not going to be defensive about education, but when we Want to try to educate everyone we we take more kids in school and all of your head before and we are trying to hang on to them longer and in doing so we perhaps come off in the statistics in a little bit and say that the quality of the graduating at the average graduating students. Probably someone below what it was past. But I think also that the more tests that we have in the more statistics of come out and where it's being pointed out to all of us that the the numbers of students or we're not able to function. Nowhere near to just accept that came out in the original test. We have I really believe that we're doing a better job and education out of me did 10 or 15 years ago and Simply put I guess when you try when you have the commitment that we have the education that we're going to educate all the kids K through 12, or the to the best of our ability that we have to stay at that commitment. And one of the problems we're having right now is in the face of criticisms of the quality of Education or the cutbacks and the finances around education which in my mind is going to compound a problem certainly not making any better. Dunhill president of the Minnesota Education Association Let's just have the schools get back to the 3 hours and stay out of the rest of all you have to go back cuz everybody's single back and I'm I don't like to be a part of anything that goes back. That's how the principle of Worthington Senior High School back to your hometown. You can go back to anyting. What was it that they are talking about how gay I had a lot of questions one at me? So I've given some thought to it. The school day was the same length for many many years is it is now so what did the students do during those and I were reflecting at the secondary level that's my area pay the students were required to take an English social and possibly fired that requirement has been reduced only in recent years. So there was three of the hours while we found out a lot of kids weren't meant to be in physical education. We have a lot of people who have very negative feelings about physical education. Then we said while wearing to make scientists out of everybody so and the remaining two or three hours or in the put all them in science classes. Well that really didn't work we found out we used to have in science classes and we took them out than the Sputnik Panic came along and we Quicksilver and make scientist out of everyone we found out that everybody is not lock science. And what is not a mathematician you do not have to be a wizard algebra to do your checkbook and to live in society. Okay. I will right now can see the point. Yes, but you should be able to do minimal skills. I will accept that to get back. You don't have to change anything except what we're doing in the areas of what is called the basic skills of Life survival. And that is yes. We should do our best to teach students to read we should do out the best teach students how to write and we should do our best to get a scale of math that's acceptable to survive. Everyone doesn't agree with that skill isn't any one of those three are what level it should be in General Lee and if I can make a generalization is somewhere around the 7th or 8th grade level of Reading Writing and math to survive in an American society. I'm making a generalization there. I said, yeah, we have that obligation. But in defense a lot of people site schools of the fifties, that's when education was where it supposed to be. Okay. We didn't have the same percent of students in schools as we have now. So a lot of those students who aren't making it now learned in school dropout rate was high and those kids that didn't have the reading ability weren't around. So I test scores all looked a lot better cuz they weren't there to drag them down. They're here now. We should be complimented for But we had a little trouble coping with those kinds of kids. We didn't know I think we're getting there and I think we've got the obligation. I I will not deny it. We've got to do it through the whole system. Not just a secondary or not. Al Johnson principal of Worthington High School, he defends expanding the curriculum to offer a number of electives to students and he liked Don Hill president of the Minnesota Education Association is afraid that the back to the basics movement May retard Innovative educational programs. There are other Educators. However, who feel that the back to the basics movement might actually prompt Innovations in the present system and one of these is Professor Gunderson the basic the basic skills reading and math and those two in particular. That may not be all bad. I have the feeling that my ideas on teaching may include more of what I might call the traditional type teaching getting to the bare-bones elementary skills that you Jolly well can't do without and I don't mean by, you know adding like I say 89 phonics rules that is silly ridiculous and impossible for both the teacher and the student but to identify a basic core skills and get back to Jolly. Well teaching those skills may be a very important part of the program. There might be an extremely Unbelievable result if we went back to the one-room schoolhouse because in many cases those classes weren't very large sure the teacher had all eighth grades, but they were probably only two students in the first grade and she only taught to students reading she wasn't teaching them all 30 of them at one time. She only taught to 5th grade students there meth. The rest of the kids were doing something else. So in some respect that one-room schoolhouse is exactly what some of us are asking to go back to smaller groups of students the views of Professor Bernice Gunderson Southwest State University of Marshall and elementary teacher Darren Criss. Listen, Speaking of Basics one of the most basic concerns of all educational institutions is money. And that's a neat way to get us over to the next topic five years ago a new formula for the allocation of State funds to Local Schools was instituted by the Minnesota Legislature. The purpose of the formula was to provide a more equitable distribution of money to the schools since then the formula or the Minnesota Miracle as it has been called has created a number of problems especially for Rural schools. You take the a set amount of formula allowance, except by the Minnesota state legislature like this year to be $960 per pupil and your mother pilot $960 times. The number of pupil units on Minnesota kindergarten pupil is worth a half a unit or 5/10 because they go to school half-days elementary student grades 1 through 6 is worth 1 Unit 4 1.04 the secondary student grade 7 through 12 is worth 1.4. So one of the situation like in 518 where we had between 31 and 3200 pupils, we still end up with between 35 and 3600 units because the 1.4 wait waiting for the secondary students increases the total people yet. See you take the night or in the 60 times between 3500 and 3600 units and that gives you one number and then from that you subtract a local tax. Helm superintendent of school district 518 which includes Worthington he was explaining the Minnesota Miracle. This is the formula that determines how much State money the local school districts will get or to look at it from a different point of view how much money each district will have to raise to support their schools the formula begins with a formula allowance determined by the legislature this year. It is $960 per pupil. Then this figure is multiplied by the number of people units in the district from that you subtract the local effort Now set at 29 meals times the adjusted valuation of the assessed property taxes for a district. Well this value then has to be adjusted because local assessor's office and under assess the value of local property. This adjustment is done by the earc the equalization Aid Review Committee superintendent held explain how these two assessments have affected the school formula as they have varied over the past 5 years. List of Assessments in each School District 1 is made by the local assessor and that's call the assessed valuation for taxing purposes at the local level. Then there is another what we would call the equalize Aid Review Committee, which is a commissioner of Taxation Commissioner of administration Commissioner of Education. They send someone out and they take samples of sales and property in every County in school district at least every 2 years and on that basis. They say what this land is worth or what the real estate is worth in each School District now in the 518 are we've had a terrific raise and what you call a e a r c that is decided upon by the state tree State Commissioners. And for instance in 1971. The Arc and I are in District 518 was a little bit over 39 million and the assessed valuation by the local Assessor. What's 34 and 1/2 million? So if we know that that's not very much different 39 to 34 and 1/2 million. However by 1975 the 39 million valuation by The Arc or The Equalizer Review Committee had gone from 39 up to over 60 million or an increase in a four-year period of 54 7/10 % but the assessed valuation has gone from 34 and 1/2 million up to 42 and 1/4 Megan or an increase of 21 between 21 and 22% So the arc is going up 54% in 4 years and the assessed valuations gone 21% Now 3D effects CRC, it hurts us hurts. All school districts of the arc goes up very quickly and it hurts because it in the formula allowance for State AIDS the main thing is Ercu The Arc if it's too high, that means there's a shift of tax burden or taxes for schools from State support to local support or two local taxes. And that's happening in the district 518. Where were used to receive between 65 and 68% of tax support for the maintenance from the state know it's shifting to where it's very close to 50% and it appears that next year. The support would be a little less than 50% by the state. So 1971 to probably 75 this new formula was working very well, but with the rapid increase in the Arc of the new formula is really permitting a shift back to local taxes instead of our state support value of property rights. So does Local District financial obligation to the formula so many people are concerned over the discrepancy between the local assess. And the state assessment by the earc Dennis erno is Administrative Assistant to the Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue. I asked him why the erc's assessment is so much higher than the local one of Revenue have to look at the worth of properties in school district is because assessors tend to undervalue the property. For example e Property might be worth $30,000 in one area, but just has to put it on the books at $15,000. all the purpose of the state revenue department valuation of property is to ensure dad can eat School District throughout the state the properties. are on the What schooling purposes are on at their Market worth and these are the figures That are plugged into the school aid formula now in most cases these figures that are set by the Department of Revenue are much higher than what the local assessor shows on his book. And the reason for this is the assessor just has not caught up with the inflation. We have seen in recent years in his valuation of property. Another word for Spanish lie under assessing properties in some areas. They might be under setting properties more or to a larger degree than they are. In other areas. Not only are the county assessor's behind and their own local assessments. But the value of Farmland has risen drastically within the last 5 years in farm value since 1971. Don't remember that the Department of Revenue or it will be called legalization age Review Committee is looking at what the market worth the properties are what they would sell for today in the marketplace. And take a look at the increases and inflation since 1971. It shows eventually that we've had at least. 17th annual increase of about 17% each year in that case just about a doubling of the values of farms. Now, I'm sure there's no farmer in that school district that would sell his property anywhere near with assessor has been on the books for Assessor. Value in their properties in this area just have not kept pace with inflation chains of the erc's assessment is not hire an accurate is just the value of Farmland has gone up so high when that Highland value or property tax assessment is plugged into the school formula many of the rural schools are getting less State money. Another factor that is cutting. The amount of state aid to rural schools is declining enrollment over 300 districts in Minnesota have declining enrollment at this time. Superintendent's held using District 518 is an example talked about the effect of such a decline on the school budget ever had was a 1971-72 and we had just about exactly 3500. We are we are averaging losing approximately 60 people units every year. If we use lose 60 people units every year and the formula allowance allowance a $1,000 for each pupil. You can multiply 60 * 1000. That's a $60,000 loss in state aid and that under the formula. So the $60,000 loss and when you do lose 60 students, it's very difficult to adjust to also cutting $60,000 $60,000 would be equivalent to 6 teachers practically. See when you lose enrollment are cost for heater cost for light or cost for insurance on the buildings are cost for almost all of Maintenance of the buildings in the grounds and their cost for all those kind of items are not decreasing it just see it ends up with those costs remain the same or by the way. I really going up from 5 to 20% each year, especially in the in the area of He threw all utilities. So we just can't seem to the districts that are losing population are losing people units. There is just isn't any way within the present formula at The Weeknd adjust to the loss of us a 2% of unit. So in 518 where we had 3500 pupils in 1971-72. It appears that we will be having just under 2800 pupils in 1981-82. So that's a loss of a very close to 700 pupils and 10-year period dissipated or the people who put the formula together. I guess never anticipated the declining enrollment to the degree that it that we have it nor did they anticipate the amount of inflation that we face and it put the two of those together and when you pay or when you have stayed aids to a school district in a per cap situation like per-pupil And then all the sudden have a few left students and he had before that means there's less money, but it doesn't really hold that you can have any less faculty and if you were buildings or any less maintenance just means you have less money and that coupled with the fact that the inflation is has been next extreme while it's down on right now if we went through a double-digit. That really raise Havoc with everything and education. So the combination of those things would put us in a position that's very difficult to make that dollar stretch that's downhill the president of the Minnesota Education Association and he agrees with superintendent SL held that the declining enrollments have posed a real problem within the financing formula. He also feels there should be a modification in the formula that considers categories of students according to their needs instead of just numbers of pupils. 12 going to have to fund school by by the categories and by the kinds of Education rather than the percap the basic concept in the formula that every student should have the same amount of money spent in each of their behalf. Well, whenever you have the wide variety of school district sizes and Geographic locations, we have that become so they have me ways of subsidizing that program to maintain it for one thing will have to be able to afford the faculty that you have when you have an example when you cut back 50 kids out of one school district over a k through 12 program. It doesn't necessarily hold you can cut two teachers even if the first class a 25 because you can't cut two teachers out because they will actually be representing a large part of the total curriculum than just the two jobs because all the kids were in the same classes. So you just have to have some waited to carry on a subsidy that will allow you to have that quality of Education in extracurricular activities and the enrichment programs for all the students. And so we're going to have to pay for some of those categories in ways other than a straight for cap. Arrangement, finally Hill thinks it's special consideration can be given to rural schools with declining enrollments without undermining the original concept of the formula. Well, I think the farming was right. It was a good idea and I think everybody supported it because the two basic concept for that one. That's all students have the same amount spent on the other than all people pay the same toward that I think that's a very honorable position to take the problem is winding down School District Center in and the declining enrollments and some people claim that the only way to do that is solid at the school district. I'm not so sure that's the right answer either but I are going to have to be ways to subsidize those programs that even if we can even if we maintain the present funding program, which I would guess that we probably will for the next few years at least and and come up with other ways of subsidizing at school district to be able to hang on to them the kinds of programs at the people that Community want Downhill president of the NBA Finals I asked superintendents held if there was any way school districts with declining enrollments could get revenue from other sources to supplement. The state's allocation. Well, it's possible to have what you call a local referendum for increased taxes for school purposes that has to come as a result of the board making a resolution to have a vote of the people on a certain amount of money toward the end that increase and would go into effect the next tax year. So anyone having such a referendum and a referendum Accords have to pass by 50% + 1 volt and there are various referendums most referendums that are passing are passing in school districts that are small and enrollment because they are just at the point for a lot of survival whether they can serve. Turn up where they have to have some more Milledge. There are some Milledge is summer a friend of his for several meals that have passed in this area Hills. Minnesota has passed such a referendum several years ago Lakefield is pass at your referendum, but those referendums are are very difficult to pass. But still we don't know in 5:18 hour on January 11th will be talking about $258,000 in cuts and curtailments and the cuts and pretty ailments that we're proposing will affect the education of children and they're just no question about it that's very painful process and it's going to affect the education of children and the only way that we can we really can't avoid that cut but the only way you can avoid touching the future would be either that the legislature would do something in the formula or they would allow a couple extra meals of Taxes or the people in District 518 would choose to vote for an increase of a few males and taxes feel that schools with declining enrollments will have to look to the Minnesota Legislature for help. It is hoped that the formula allowance per pupil will be raise this year this year. It was $960 per pupil unit. And while Minnesota Prides itself on that support of Education that figure is several hundred dollars lower than what was spent per pupil in Iowa. There are other modifications to the formula that would help the real school districts. The legislature is being urged to give special consideration to schools with declining enrollments and finally is also been suggested that the per capita income as well as the assessed property values be considered as part of the community's ability to support their school. This might lighten the burden on real schools whose budgets are being affected by the high price of farmland. It's estimated that 50% of the students graduating from high school today. Cannot read well enough to function adequately in today's complex society. That means they're not able to read many of the forms and signs that are essential to perform everyday tasks. Now that's a dismal piece of information for this world literacy day. Brings Gunderson claims that the inability of many graduates to read adequately is a direct result of three factors within the classroom which caused the students to fail. the first of these is the large number of students in each classroom II is the practice of dividing the students into three groups bus dooming the bottom group to failure Factor operating here in to defeat children is the materials factor that we are stuck with what I call materials that are controlling us totally and which we have no way of changing or altering or getting out from under Now you're talkin about text bucks right about the basic reading text books, which have been out as long as I've been all of which is you don't die on to a hundred years and they have not changed so that they can do things that no matter what you might want to tell me or as a publisher. They might want to tell me that their Series has changed. So my dear if you get the honest opinion of consultants in the field, they say that most of the basic readers are very much as I like and they have not changed very much in the last 50 years or number of things are wrong with Dick and Jane Chief among them is it if you gave the Kids Choice it never choose them. Which which might be the true test of materials for children is would the child choose to read it as a the instrument of pleasure or information never will they choose the basic reader? I've tried that but you know disguising them among the library books and that does not succeed. The basic readers are geared toward that middle group. They are geared toward middle class white Society was a woman in an apron in the kitchen and the daddy with his briefcase out on the driveway with a two-car garage and they have continued to be this way all the time that I've been out. I'm sure all teachers are aware that the children would not choose them. Now the reason for not giving the children the choices on the is the presumption that the basic readers are inviolable and foolproof, which they are not and in some of my writing I say that the skills that we need to teach and reading are so hidden away in those basic readers that the good Lord himself could not discover where they are or what they are. They are hidden in like 16 levels of books and workbooks and cut boxes of cards and no one knows what they are surprisingly when you come to Sarah Dalton try to discover for yourself what those skills are they don't even complete one book. They won't fill one book so you can see the problem if we did away with the if we hunted off the skills. We wouldn't need the series Professor Gunderson is so concerned about the control that the corporation through textbooks have over the educational system that she's writing a letter to President Jimmy Carter to see if something can't be done at the national level. I asked her about some of the changes and she would like to see made and wondered if she herself could select the materials and have the perfect. Turn situation. How long will it take to teach a child to read even without the perfect situation you can take first grade children and get them there in one year. Are you saying we should teach kids what to read first grade and let him out of school or think of all the beautiful things they could do with their minds like create and inquire and discuss and get into political thought and economics. We have to we don't have time to fiddle around with basic readers for 8 years children don't have that kind of time in their lives. They're having to lose and let something go by because they're not able to get out of the buying of the book workbook syndrome that they're in and they don't have any option of the different of an opinion or of questioning that you know, the program Bernice Gundersen an associate professor of education at Southwest 8th and Marshall in the Minnesota school system while he agrees with Gundersen that the school itself is to blame for the inability of many children to read. Well. He doesn't feel that the problem lies in the textbooks. He says that there are any number of textbooks and programs that will teach a child to read the school and the teacher just have to give the right book to the child at the right time to me the fact that the school won't wait for the kid who takes longer to learn that has been our problem know the right to read program has suggested that we organize our reading programs not by first grade books I can read books. Great book, but simply by level instead of having six books by grade for the first sixth grade. We now have 15 books 15 levels. Some companies have the highest 21 levels. They're shorter and kids go through them faster. and what you do is pretty-much basically identify three groups within the class the kids that can learn it quite rapidly and go faster the kids that learn it quite slowly and take a lot of repetition and need more time. And then the kids in the middle the middle is generally your largest group and then simply teach them this way the first group can go through the material faster. They need less repetition. They don't need to read the stories as much they move through the 15 levels at their own rate. The second group the middle group comes along the same way. They may be in some classroom not very far behind the top group in other classrooms and maybe quite a ways behind. And then the third group bottom group do the same thing. They will be coming along but more slowly and I think if we do this, we will find that. The kids will be able to read what they're being instructed at. And if they can read that they're going to learn from it. But if we won't wait for these kids and we throw all the kids in 4th grade in the fourth grade book. Some of those kids can handle the 5th grade very nicely. Some of them cannot handle the fourth grade book at all. Why should we ask them to and by breaking up the program into the three groups like this? I think we will find that well in our school it definitely has shown an improvement on test scores and everything else we've done in the teachers all say the same thing. We were always hurting on comprehension understanding what the kids were reading. Basic phonics rules and things like this that can sound out a word or something. They weren't too bad. They're they were about average since we've gone into this program. The results in our comprehension areas have shown increases that some of us we just don't believe you know, we correctly we say know who told the kids holy answers because they are doing much much better is also the director of the title 1 program at Minneota that is a federal program designed to give students having trouble with the basic skills additional help, but guess what since he's the same problem in title one that he sees in the rest of the reading program. That is the title 1 program will not allow the student to learn it his own rate, but it tries to push him up to a standard level Title One certainly recognized what was going on. And what we originally were doing in title one, I think mostly is saying alright, this kid is in the sixth grade book in the sixth grade. He's only at a fourth grade reading level. All right, he's got to have help to get through that sixth grade book. So get him some extra help somebody sit down and help him with his lessons teach him what he needs to know to get through that book. What we're saying now is that he shouldn't have been in the sixth grade book in the first place. That was the problem. If you look at it the first way that he's in the sixth grade book and he needs help to be in that sixth grade book. You're going to approach title loan from one point. You're going to take him out and give him some more help. If you look at it the other way that he never should have been in the sixth grade book at maybe the fourth grade level is the highest he ought to be at what you will say, then is not that he needs additional help or time. To get through the material but what do you need is additional teacher time to teach him what he hasn't been able to learn yet. Gislason also feels that the concept of title one which is to help children who are having trouble with the basic skills should not be supplemental to or outside the normal class time, but then it should become an integral part of the reading instruction that the child is being given that everybody seems thinks everybody wants the kids to read to the level of variability. I think that's true. There's one added comment to make on that. However, I see it as everybody wants that and in addition to that the school demands that they read at above that level of ability again, we're not waiting for him to get there. We decide what that level list 6th grade level and then the books are printed at that level and we had them to all the sixth grade kid and we say right now you all read that and they can't Weenie Man that they do a high school of course is much worse on this and it's not because of high school teachers. That's just the nature of the Beast a high school teacher who recognizes and wants to do something about it is like meeting your her head or his head against the wall cuz she can't change the whole system into a just frustrated as she wants to she can do about it. It's got to be a coordinated effort administrator School Board. Everybody's got to get in there and I don't know raise the roof make a mess throw things out and then sit down and put it back in and take what you want and who teaches reading in the middle of the school system. He maintains that many learning problems and failures that students experience throughout their school years off and stem from Reading difficulties student should be tested throughout their school years and given text books that match their individual rate and every subject Al Johnson principal of Worthington High School agrees and next year. All of his students will be tested. So that each student can be given a textbook that fits their own reading level all of our incoming sophomores take for quarters of composition grammar literature media and speech Communications and every student must pass every one of those four subjects or repeat it. In addition, what we are doing is each teacher at the end of the nine weeks of that particular area is going to write a report of every student that he or she has to give to the advisor of that student regardless of the student passed with an A or a D minus and say here is where the student is in literature. This is the type of reading he or she is capable of these are the interests of the student now when you elect future English courses or future courses use this information in placing the student and this is very important this year Vickie for the first time our science and social studies teacher new the reading abilities of all of our students now we can go back to the good old days. We talked about before and every sophomore who took biology took a book that had sophomore reading in it. That was a level. It was directed that we had some kids were far above it. We had the kids were bloat. Never understood it every kid it was in social study. They read a history book that was geared for that quote 10th grade reading ability this year. We took students where they were at in the reading ability in the non-english courses and today. It's not your fault. Maybe that you're at a 7th grade reading ability here now is a 7.5 or 1/8 and attempting to program students just above where they were at and then I'm in which areas until we're attempting to do these things. I guess my thing that I am really trying to do and I would hope the school district becomes committed this thing take students where they are and take them a little bit further before we past month rather than beans a lock stepped into K-12. That's been the biggest fallacy of school whether you want to go back to the good old days or the present. Al Johnson principal of Worthington High School some parents and Educators have proposed that high school graduates should pass a competency test. They feel this would be one way of making sure the basic skills were being taught while he sees some validity in this idea Johnson does not want to go back to a test like the old state board exams. What we don't want to do is go back to what many states had including Minnesota back before my time was called state boards and which all teachers taught for that test. Okay. That's just exactly let's take driver education as an analogy. We really aren't expected by parents are students to teach driver education. We're expected to teach passing the driver's test and there's a lot of difference between those two so we could go we could have mandated to us to have a competency level in Reading Writing and math and teachers with me. Because one it's threatening as heck because what you can do is measure the effectiveness of a teacher but why mrs. Jones kids are all passing this test but Mrs. Smith's kids aren't and so what happened the State Board just do not because teachers. For the test a very tunnel type of educational philosophy and I don't think that's what we want any more than we want total freedom or open. It's either I think there's a middle ground. And with the views of Al Johnson principal of Worthington Senior High School on competency-based education. We come to the end of our program for this morning other participants included Darren Wilson Elementary School teacher and Title 1 director from Minneota Bernice Gundersen associate professor of education at Southwest State University in Marshall, Don Hill president of the Minnesota Education Association, SL held superintendent of Public School District 518 in Worthington, and Dennis are no administrative assistant to the commissioner of revenue in Saint Paul. We intended on this program to include a feature on the funding of higher education in South Dakota and Vicky has gathered a good deal of material on that subject, but we're running a little short of time this morning. So we'll look at the South Dakota higher education situation two weeks from today on January 22nd when we're scheduled to look at a number of issues facing the South Dakota legislature this year. Next week on home for the weekend will be considering the 1977 legislative outlook for Southwest Minnesota and our guests will be many of the legislators who serve our region. We hope that you'll be with us. And that's it for today or program was made possible in part with funds provided by the Western Bank and Trust of Marshall and the Otto Bremer Foundation of Saint Paul Miki sturgeon produced this program Dale Connolly render technical assistance, and I'm Kim Hudson. Have a good week.