SIKESTON-BASED GROUP ADDRESSES SCHOOL CHANGES

SIKESTON -- As debate raged a year ago over Senate Bill 380, Kathy McClellan listened with interest to talk of unconstitutional funding mechanisms and changes in the way Missouri schools would receive state money.

She didn't hear much discussion about the reforms built into Senate Bill 380. Months later, when McClellan read the law, she was disturbed by what she found. Other Sikeston parents also expressed concern, and have formed "The Committee on Community Awareness." The group meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. at the First Assembly of God Church in Sikeston.

"It has all been quite eye-opening," said McClellan, who has a son entering first grade.

"With the formula funding change also came a complete overhaul of education, called for not by citizens but by the bureaucrats," McClellan said. "It's a big experiment."

McClellan doesn't want her son or her school district to be a part of that experiment.

As a result of Senate Bill 380, Missouri educators have written a set of academic performance standards now in draft form. Statewide curriculum guidelines are in the works and educators are working on a new system to test children.

McClellan believes the changes strip local control from school districts and point the state toward outcomes-based education.

State officials explain that local districts may choose the delivery methods for new academic performance standards, but McClellan said that choice does not equal local control.

"My thought is if someone puts a plate of liver and onions and creamed corn before me, and then tells me I can pick which utensil I want to use, that's not local control," McClellan said.

McClellan said change mandated by bureaucrats won't work. "It needs to be called for by the people in education, students and their parents, and needs to be a statistically proven model," she said.

Thresia Brinkley, a Sikeston mother who has home-schooled her two children, helped form the group.

"We're just an information group," Brinkley said. "We want to inform the people about all the laws coming up concerning education and let them know what can be done. Too many people don't know what's going on."

Brinkley fears that the changes mandated in Senate Bill 380 will change the way public schools operate for the worse.

"Kids are learning something completely foreign from what we thought schools should be about," Brinkley said. Specifically, she is concerned about things like performance-based assessment and portfolio building. "I don't think it's possible to test on this," she said. "Let's get back to arithmetic."

The Sikeston group has set three goals: inform the public concerning outcomes-based education, decide what sort of action to take to repeal Goals 2000, and put public schools back in the hands of the public.

They have rounded up speakers on outcomes-based education, national reform movements and state changes now in progress.

"We are trying to inform the community," McClellan said. "We write letters and listen to other organizations who are concerned about the same types of things."

They have been collecting information from other states where education reform is under way.

"We are looking at Kentucky's curriculum and it's really frightening," McClellan said. "The schools are teaching affective domain, teaching values and not basics as we know them."

The group has joined forces with similar groups from across the state to form a committee called "Missourians for Restoring Excellence and Academics in Learning." The statewide group met three weeks ago and set as its No. 1 goal placing control of public education at the local level.

"We want to vote on the issues," Brinkley said. "When we vote in school board members, we want to know the state will not kick them out. Senate Bill 380 says they can."

The weekly meetings in Sikeston have drawn an average attendance of 62 people each week, including parents, teachers, and school board members from across Southeast Missouri. The meetings are open to the public.