Unfulfilled Requirements

Examine what school policies are mandated but aren’t followed

by EWA's public editor Linda Perlstein

Unforced curriculum regulations and guidelines make for one of my favorite types of stories: revealing, interesting, conducive to both data analysis and in-school reporting … and often overlooked. If a state mandates that eighth graders take an hour a week of gym class, most people assume eighth graders take an hour a week of gym class. In an awful lot of places, their assumption is wrong. And few journalists will ever let them know.

When you see a story about requirements going unfulfilled, physical education is usually the culprit. In January, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher of Newsday wrote about how students on Long Island weren’t getting their required P.E. time, and Bob Hohler of the Boston Globe wrote a similar story this month. But there are plenty more mandates to look into.

In reporting my second book, Tested, I followed new third-grade teachers through a district orientation in which the county requirements regarding social studies and science were drilled into them: 45 minutes of one or the other, every single day. The next day, at their school orientation, the principal told them the reality: Science and social studies would get at most 20 minutes a day, even that was unlikely, and don’t tell anyone outside the building that she said that. (My chapter title, “What gets taught is what gets tested,” is a direct quote from her that day.)

It wasn’t written on paper, anywhere, that the school district’s rules on science and social studies instruction were being broken every day. The principal’s supervisor, and others in central office, might not have known subjects were going untaught. Or perhaps she turned a blind eye when she saw classroom science kits still sealed in their clear plastic bins at the end of the year.

So how would a reporter find out what’s not being taught?

The Globe story followed the release of information from the school system, which followed a survey by the City Council president. The Newsday story reported the results of a teachers union survey and school system audit. Interviews with teachers would be useful, and classroom observations. Everybody writes their classroom schedules on the board these days; note what’s not there, and ask about it. Look online for state and district curriculum guidelines and standards, and consider what to investigate. Ask around.

Think broadly: not just classes, say, but elements within certain subjects that are widely dismissed despite being on the state standards. (For example, grammar and spelling, which often don’t “count” on standardized tests.) Or other non-academic elements. You’re your district have a community service requirement? What kind of activities are students passing off as service?

In the Newsday piece on P.E., educators attributed the lack of gym class to complications regarding classroom space, personnel, money and, naturally, No Child Left Behind. If you report about these omissions, be careful about allowing people you interview to blame No Child Left Behind for the lack of science or P.E. or writing. There’s nothing in the law that says, “Don’t teach science or P.E. or writing.” Those are the choices of administrators and sometimes teachers, so they owe it to the public to justify them.

And when schools report full compliance with curricular requirements, it’s a good idea to look at how many students are pulled regularly from those classes, usually for reading, math and behavioral intervention. In the school I based Tested at, the elaborate writing curriculum, designed for everyone, was reserved only for the top students who didn’t need any sort of intervention. The neediest kids were pulled from specials. Arguably, intensive phonics may be a better use of time than music class for a third-grader who can’t read—but we can’t have the argument if we don’t know whether it’s happening.

Linda Perlstein is available to help you. Contact her at 410-539-2464 or lperlstein@ewa.org.

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