Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

QEM Project Releases Minority Education Plan

           58 Goals: QEM Project Releases Minority Education Plan


(WASHINGTON, DC)  It is a message of hope based on more than two years of 
examining educational programs across America that work. Education That Works: 
An Action Plan for the Education of Minorities, the report of the Quality 
Education for Minorities (QEM) Project, lays out a clear set of 
recommendations for restructuring US education to better serve all American 
students, minorities and non-minorities alike.

"The present system of education-learning in a mass education for mass 
production model-is inadequate to meet the demands the 21st century will place 
on this nation," says the report which was released here today. "Education 
That Works" emphasizes the fact that school reforms to date have failed to 
address the needs of minorities, and that failure is painfully evident in the 
glaring gap between minority and non-minority educational achievement.

"But there are exciting educational models which are succeeding all over 
America," said Shirley McBay, dean for student affairs at MIT and director the 
QEM Project. "It is essential that such effective models be incorporated as we 
restructure this nation's educational system. A greater sense of urgency and 
sustained national leadership will be required to translate these local 
success stories into lasting, nationwide improvements in student achievement."

"Improving education is the most important challenge facing America if we are 
to maintain our ability to compete in the world and sustain our standard of 
living," said University of Texas Professor Ray Marshall, former Secretary of 
Labor, the chair of the QEM Project's Action Council.

"With minorities comprising 70 percent of the enrollment in the top 25 US 
school districts and 40 percent of the new entrants into the workforce over 
the next decade, it is clear that success in the education of minorities is 
synonymous with continued economic success for America," Professor Marshall 
said.

"Yet," McBay pointed out, "no major, national education reform effort to date-
including the President's Educational Summit last September-has focused on the 
educational needs of minorities."

Dr. McBay said the QEM Project is guided by the fundamental principles that 
schools must be restructured to be more responsive to the needs of minority 
children, and that minorities must assume a greater leadership role in 
improving their children's education.

The report is a product of the two-and-a-half-year-old QEM Project, which has 
been based at MIT and funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. Dr. 
McBay said the next steps will be to discuss the report more widely through a 
series of regional meetings during early 1990, and to develop more detailed 
plans for the proposed successor organization to the QEM Project-the QEM 
Network. The Network, which will have national offices in Washington, DC, will 
continue the QEM process by helping to implement the report's key 
recommendations.

The report is based upon input from hundreds of participants in meetings in 
nine communities around the country with large minority populations. Based on 
the concept that all children can excel, it includes 58 recommendations, 
ranging from adoption of broad new strategic principles to specific programs. 
Among them:

   o   Establish core competencies at the elementary level;

   o   Eliminate tracking;

   o   Require community service for high school graduation;

   o   Establish summer science residential academies for high school juniors 
at every college and university;

   o   Improve the image, pay and benefits of the teaching profession;

   o   Establish longer school days and years-including year-round schooling 
at least once every three years to prevent summer learning losses-and 
pay teachers for the additional time;

   o   Provide incentives for the best teachers to be available to the 
students who need them most;

   o   Make student achievement the main criterion against which teachers and 
administrators are judged;

   o   Respect and value the culture of each child in the curriculum;

   o   Revitalize the traditional faith among minority students and parents 
that education can improve their lives, and support home-school 
partnerships in which families take specific steps to encourage their 
children to study.

Education That Works is unique both in its comprehensiveness and the fact that 
it reflects the experience and ideas of five minority groups which 
historically have been underserved by the nation's educational system-Alaska 
Natives, American Indians, Black Americans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto 
Ricans.

"Certainly each of these groups faces distinct educational challenges, and 
there are still other minority groups with special needs," said Laura Rendon, 
Associate Professor at North Carolina State University, and QEM Resource Group 
member.

"But the recommendations contained in the report will lead to a new 
educational system better able to serve all students-minority and non-minority 
alike," Rendon said.

Paul E. Gray, President of MIT, said the challenge now is to incorporate the 
QEM recommendations into America's educational system nationwide.

"A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the past two-and-a-half years," 
Dr. Gray said, "but we know the real benefits of the QEM process will be 
realized only when the recommendations become reality for the students of 
America."

The report was released at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library here in a 
meeting featuring presentations by students, parents, and community leaders as 
well as education professionals and policymakers.