Memo from Hershkoff and Cohen to Counsel Re: Quality Education Meeting with Slavin and Dolan

    AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION 
132 WEST 43RD STREET 
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10036 

ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT -- PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL 

November 27, 1991 

MEMORANDUM 

TO: Sheff Litigation Team 

FROM: Helen Hershkoff and Adam S. Cohen | 

RE: Quality Education and Meeting with Robert Slavin and Lawrence Dolan 

The litigation team asked us to identify and meet with potential experts on 
"quality education." This memorandum will give a brief overview of quality education 
theory, and then will report on our recent meeting at Johns Hopkins with Robert Slavin 
and Lawrence Dolan. 

lity E tion 

"Quality education” is the general term for educational enhancements that are 
used -- in some cases as part of a desegregation remedy -- to improve educational 
opportunities for educationally disadvantaged students. A recent article in 
Metropolitan Education notes that there are two main purposes behind “quality 
education" components of desegregation: 

First, the programs are designed to give additional necessary remedial 
assistance to students suffering from educational deficiencies as a result 
of historical segregation. Desegregation alone cannot wipe away these 
deficiencies. Second(], in improving the level of education offered in the 
district, quality education programs can have an indirect desegregative 
impact by making the targeted district -- generally, a predominantly black 
city district -- more attractive to students, thus enhancing the district's 
ability to retain the white students already there and to attract additional 
white students. 

The article goes on to state that in the last decade, quality education programs have 
been included as components of desegregation plans throughout the country, 

 



including in such major cities as Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Nashville, Wilmington, 
Cleveland, and Buffalo, as well as smaller communities. 

Quality education programs that have been implemented as part of the 
remedies in previous desegregation lawsuits include five major components: 

q Effective Schools. Traditional effective schools models are based on 

five characteristics: a clear mission statement; continuous monitoring of student 

progress; a principal who is an instructional leader; high expectations of teachers; and 
an orderly and safe school environment. In the Kansas City case, the city district 
proposed a plan whereby each elementary school with a reading level below the 
national average would be eligible for grants of up to $100,000 in each of three years 
to implement effective schools programs. 

9 Reduction in Pupil-Teacher Ratios. Research in the past decade has 
shown that smaller class sizes enhance student achievement particularly for 
educationally disadvantaged students. Significant positive effects appear when the 
pupil-teacher ratio is less than 25 to one, with the greatest improvements occurring 
when the ratio is 15 to one or lower. In the Kansas City case, significant class 
reductions were ordered and the state was required to fund the full cost of these 
reductions up to a three-year maximum of $12 million. 

  

q Early Childhood. Considerable research indicates that early childhood 
education programs have a positive impact on the academic and social readiness of 
pre-school children and that children who participate in these programs are more likely 
to be socially and academically successful in school. The district court in St. Louis 
approved an early childhood component of the settlement agreement and required the 

state and city to share its cost. 

  

9 Buildings. The condition of school buildings has a critical relationship 
to public perception of the quality of education provided in a particular school and to 
student attitudes and learning. This relationship was confirmed in a 1988 study by the 
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and by an independent study 
of the District of Columbia’s public schools earlier this year which found that student 
achievement on standardized tests would be five to 11% higher if the physical 
condition of the local schools improved. A study commissioned by the Kansas City 
school district concluded that the total cost of necessary improvements in school 
buildings would be between $55 and 70 million. The district court ordered the state to 
pay $27 million for immediate facility improvements with an additional $10 million 
coming from the city. These funds are to be spent according to the following 
priorities: (1) eliminate safety and health hazards; (2) correct conditions which impede 
the level of comfort needed for the creation of a good learning environment; and (3) 
improve the facilities to make them visually attractive. After these improvements are 
made, an additional plan is to be developed to bring Kansas City facilities "to a point 
comparable with the facilities in the neighboring suburban school districts."  



q Staff Development. Research indicates that the successful 

implementation of new programs and the improvement of quality education requires 
teachers and administrators to participate in staff-development programs. The St. 
Louis settlement provided for the creation of a Staff Development Division that assisted 
schools in the implementation of the effective schools program; provided staff training 
in the development and implementation of new curriculum; and provided human 
relations training programs for staff. The district court in Kansas City ordered the city 
district to establish a staff development program and ordered the state to provide a 

$500,000 fund to be used for stipends for after-school, weekend, and summer 
sessions for teacher training, when it is impossible for such training to occur during 
the regular school day. 

Meeting with Slavin and Dolan 

On November 15, 1991, we met for two hours with Robert Slavin and Lawrence 

Dolan at Slavin’s office in Baltimore. Slavin is Director of the Center for Research on 
Effective Schooling for Disadvantaged Students at The Johns Hopkins University, and 
Dolan work with him there. They are the architects of the highly regarded "Success 
for All" program for educationally disadvantaged youth. Success for All is a schoolwide 
program for students in pre-K to three, with options for expansion to grades four and 
five. The program is designed to take advantage of the availability of Chapter | funds. 

At our meeting, we focused on four major topics: (1) the relationship between 
a quality education remedy and desegregation; (2) the adequacy of Hartford’s current 
programs for educationally disadvantaged students; (3) the components of a quality 
education remedy and why they are effective; and (4) the potential cost of and funding 
for a quality education remedy. 

First, Slavin and Dolan see no inconsistency between a quality education 
remedy and integration. Although it is true that quality education programs are 
frequently provided as an alternative to desegregation, Slavin and Dolan agreed that 
there was no reason that they could not be implemented in conjunction with a 

desegregation remedy. In particular, Success for All programs are based on a 
concept of cooperative learning and have been implemented as part of desegregation 
remedies in Rockford, lll., Fort Wayne, Ind. and East Allen, Ind. Dolan promised to 
provide us with information about the decrees entered in these school districts. 

Second, Slavin and Dolan believe that in order for them to construct a quality 
education remedy for the Hartford area, it is necessary for them to have an 
understanding of the programs now in place in Hartford and the surrounding suburbs. 
We provided them with a variety of reports that Martha had given us about special 
programs in the Hartford school system. Slavin and Dolan do not, however, want to 
undertake a comprehensive review of these programs. Instead, they have asked that 

we find a Connecticut expert to review those programs and to help them with the 
portion of their study that describes programs now in place. They are familiar with 
Herman LaFontaine and Francis Archambault.  



  

Third, Slavin provided us with two reports that describe in different ways the 
components of a potential quality education remedy. The first, "Preventing Early 
School Failure: What Works?," discusses the effectiveness of nine principal types of 
early school intervention programs on children who are otherwise at risk of academic 
failure. The second, "Effective Research-Based Programs for Use in the Baltimore City 
Public Schools," sets out a possible quality education program for use in the Baltimore 
schools. We also have a copy of Slavin’s book, Effective Programs for Students At 
Risk: A Practical Synthesis of the Latest R rch on What Works to Enhance th 
Achievement of At-Risk Elementary Students (1989). 

Finally, Slavin and Dolan are willing to cost out a potential quality education 
remedy for Hartford and the surrounding suburbs. For them to do so, we must 

provide them with the following information: 

1) Cost of Personnel -- State figure representing cost of personnel in 
salary and benefits for master teachers, teachers, and aides (use Hartford scale rather 
than suburban); 

  

2) Training -- State figure representing cost of training teachers including 
local per diem for training; 

3) School Characteristics -- Size of system; Chapter 1 program; number 
of schools impacted by the judgment; and 

4) Student Demographics -- Percent free lunch; percent limited English 
proficiency (currently and if desegregation remedy put into effect). 

We believe that the team should retain Slavin and Dolan as experts, but we do 
not yet have a cost estimate. They have asked us to send them a letter describing the 
project and they will use that to develop a budget. With the possibility of a spring trial, 
it is important that we get them started as soon as possible if we want to use them. 
We will also need to retain a Connecticut expert to work with them (this could be the 
education consultant that PRRAC has agreed to fund). We suggest that the team 
convene by conference call the week of December 2 to discuss how to best to 
proceed. Thank you.