ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ --

Adelaide Sanford, Vice Chancellor of the New York State Regents, is being awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). The award is annually given to a state board of education member in recognition of outstanding service to public education.

"The New York State Regents are nationally recognized for the high academic standards demanded of students and of the rigorous accountability required of schools. Adelaide Sanford has been an instrumental leader in establishing these state policies and for bringing public attention to the plight of underserved students. Indeed, she is perhaps best known as one of the nation's foremost advocates for providing educational equality to poor and minority students. Adelaide Sanford is certainly one of the most eloquent speakers and persuasive policymakers in New York and in the country on behalf of that student constituency that all too frequently has no voice," said Brenda Welburn, NASBE Executive Director.

Adelaide Sanford became a New York State Regent in April 1986. During her eighteen years as a board member, she has served as a member of every Standing Committee and as Chair of Higher Education and Professional Practice Committees and as Chair of the Regents Committee on Low Performing Schools. In 2001 she was elected Vice Chancellor by her colleagues. She has been a classroom teacher, teacher of guidance, vice-principal and principal in New York City's public schools. She has also taught at Baruch College and Fordham University and was a visiting practitioner and teaching fellow at the Principals' Center at Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Her continuous personal commitment to education has been recognized through numerous prestigious awards, including the Humanitarian Award from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation; the Distinguished Alumni Award from Brooklyn College; and the Wellesley College African American Studies
Department's first Distinguished Black Alumna Award in recognition of her lifetime accomplishments.

"The Distinguished Service Award recognizes the contributions of those who serve on state boards of education across the nation. In highlighting the achievements of these very special board members, we honor the dedication of those men and women who give tirelessly of their time and energy to make the
critical policy decisions affecting the education of the more than fifty-three million students in America's public schools. We also reaffirm the ideal that one dedicated person can make a positive difference in the lives of thousands of young people," said Welburn.

The award is being presented at NASBE's annual conference in Orlando,
Florida on October 23.

NASBE, http://www.nasbe.org, represents America's state and territorial boards of education. Our principal objectives are to strengthen state leadership in education policymaking; advocate equality of access to educational opportunity; promote excellence in the education of all students; and assure responsible lay governance of education.

SOURCE National Association of State Boards of Education


But the Vice-Chancellor has some very interesting friends "in the education business" who may benefit from giving her an award. The strings tied to this award are so many in number, we stopped counting.
We should just look at the web and wonder if Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Houghton-Mifflin and all the other businesses who help fund Ms. Sanford's acclaim are happy.The Vice Chancellor of course approves of all those extra expensive textbooks that our New York State students use to study for the "Regents" tests.

Corporate Scriptwriters Call State School Boards' Tunes
Publication Date: 2002-11-02

By Susan Ohanian

Studying conferences programs reveals a lot of info about Standardisto bedfellows

We often hear the political exhortation "Follow the money!" Here's our chance to do it: From golf games to breakout sessions, to every morsel of food and drink, money talks at the annual get-together of the National Association of State Boards of Education. Money talks, and it talks dirty. How dirty? Just read this program very carefully. Then keep this ed biz coziness in mind the next time you read blather from your state board of education about a teacher's responsibilities for standards and measures.

National Association of State Boards of Education
2002 Annual Conference
October 10-12, 2002
Westin Horton Plaza Hotel
San Diego, California

Thursday, Oct 10, 2002
Pre-Conference Activities
7:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
NASBE Foundation Golf Tournament
Torrey Pines Golf Course, La Jolla, CA

8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Healthy Schools Network

8:45 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.
High School Institute
Restructuring High Schools: From Policy to Practice
Sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation

2:00 – 3:45 p.m.
Boardsmanship Institute
"State Board Website Technologies"
Amivtav Thamba (1)

Friday, Oct. 11
8:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Opening Session Breakfast
Keynote speaker: Roy Romer
Sponsored by The McGraw Hill Companies (2)

9:45 – 11:00 a.m.
Breakout sessions

Teacher recruitment and retention
Panel: Michael Poliakoff (3)
Margaret Fortune (4)
Sponsored by National Evaluation Systems (5)

Physical Education for Life
Panel: Jean Blaydes (6), Phil Lawler
Sponsored by Coca-Cola USA (7)

11:15 – 12:15 p.m.
General Session Speaker
Dr. Charles Hayne (8)

12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Policy Leader of the Year luncheon
Sponsored by ETS K-12 Works (9)

2:15 – 3:30p.m.
Breakout Session

Implementation of ESEA
James Horne (10), Florida Secretary of Education
Sponsored by Data Recognition Corporation

Saturday, Oct. 12
8:15 – 9:00 a.m.
Topical Breakfast

Sponsored by Educational Testing Service **

9:30 – 10:30 a.m.

General Session Speaker
U. S. Assistant Secretary of Education
Susan Neuman (11)
Sponsored by Harcourt Educational Measurement *

12:15 – 1:30p.m.
General Session Luncheon
Adelaide Sanford (12)
Sponsored by Holy[sic], Rinehart & Winston and Harcourt School Publishers *

6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
President's Reception
Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin *

7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
President's Banquet


Notes

(1) Amivtav Thamba
Thamba is with Crowe Chizek and Company, in partnership with IBM. In his report to the Indiana Education Roundtable, advocating comprehensive data collection on every student, Thamba said, "doing this costs less than not doing it."

(2) Keynoter and McGraw Hill
Standards in practice: Los Angeles adopts Open Court. McGraw Hill sponsors LA Superintendent of Schools Roy Romer.

(3) Michael Poliakoff
President of the teacher-bashing National Council on Teacher Quality, formerly the Teacher Quality Initiative, created by an alliance between the Education Leaders Council and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

(4)Margaret Fortune
Executive Director, Project Pipeline, Northern California Teacher Recruitment Center [Alternative Certification].

(5) National Evaluation Systems
National Evaluation Systems, Inc.™ is an education services company that develops and administers customized teacher certification testing.

(6) Jean Blaydes
Texas P. E. Teacher of the Year

(7) Coca-Cola USA
8/1/02: North Carolina News & Observer reports that Wake County students and teachers chugged enough soda for school system to collect $2 million from its exclusive beverage contract. But some folk (not at Assocation of State Boards of Education) are beginning to worry about health risks to children.

(8) Dr. Charles Haynes
Here's the one speaker without a corporate sponsor. Could it be because he is from the First Amendment Center?

(9) ETS K-12 Works
Princeton, N.J. (May 28, 2002) ETS today announced that its new (for-profit) unit will be called K-12 Assessments.

(10) James Horne
"The 'No Child Left Behind Act' includes many important provisions, but I believe one that is particularly key and relevant to this morning's hearing is the focus on 'scientifically based research.' This term is used throughout the new law in a way which will require everything from technical assistance for failing schools to reading programs to be based upon sound scientific evidence that shows such strategies are effective toward improving student academic achievement."- testimony to Committee on Education & the Workforce, 107th Congress

(11)Susan Neuman
"We're no longer debating whether scientifically based research and scientifically based evidence is important, we know it now is important and we know it is critical. As many of you know, we have counted one hundred and eleven times that the phrase "scientifically based research" is in our new law." - February 6, 2002

Susan Neuman said the new federal No Child Left Behind Act, if implemented the right way, will put an end to creative and experimental teaching methods in the nations' classrooms.
"It will stifle, and hopefully it will kill (them)," said Neuman, U.S. assistant secretary of education. "Our children are not laboratory rats." October 25, 2002

(12) Adelaide Sanford
New York State Regents Vice Chancellor, she produced the report "Perform or Perish."

* McGraw-Hill, Harcourt, and Houghton Mifflin
When Congress increased this year's budget for the Department of Education by $11 billion, it set aside $400 million to help states develop and administer the tests mandated by the "No Child Left Behind Act" for children in grades 3 through 8. Among the likely benefactors of the extra funds are: CTB McGraw-Hill, Harcourt Educational Measurement, and Riverside Publishing (a Houghton Mifflin company). According to an October 2001 report in Educational Marketer, CTB McGraw-Hill, Harcourt, and Riverside write 96 percent of the exams administered at the state level.

The news has been filled with testing mishaps, but the drum roll for testing continues. An ad for NCS Pearson notes that they are the "nation's largest commercial processor of student assessments serving over 40 statewide K-12 testing programs."

It does not mention the terrible mistakes, such as those in Minnesota which prevented seniors who'd passed the state from graduating but NCS had flubbed the scoring.

** ETS
In a rather incredible statement on the Educational Testing Service website, ETS President and CEO Kurt M. Landgraf explains how, through testing, ETS is fighting terrorism.

NOTE: This article will appear in the November 2002 Substance.
Get your subscription today.
$16 to: Substance, 5132 W. Berteau, Chicago, IL 60641