Stripes study shows class sizes,
test scores vary widely in DODDS-Europe
By David Josar, Stars
and Stripes
 On a Wednesday afternoon last spring,
Vilseck High School track star Robert Gonzalez stayed after class to prep for an upcoming
calculus exam.
Sushil Shenoy, a science buff 1,200 miles away at Lajes High School
off the coast of Portugal, took a break from calculus taught over the Internet to talk
with a guidance counselor about boosting some of his grades.
Both teens plan to attend college, but their high schools do a
starkly different job of educating students.
A Stars and Stripes computer analysis of standardized test scores,
class sizes and educational programs for 115 schools in the Department of Defense
Dependents Schools-Europe found that the quality of education varies widely from school to
school.
At some schools, students score in the top 15 percent of all American
students on certain standardized math tests, while at other schools students scored in the
bottom 30 percent for reading skills.
Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, often the primary factor used by
college admissions counselors, range from a high of 1,102 at Patch High School, Germany,
to a low of 938 at Hanau High School, Germany.
Stars and Stripes compared more than 1,800 pieces of data. Among the
information were standardized test scores in reading, math and science; teacher
experience; class size; and the number of students who scored in the
“distinguished” level of DODEA’s annual writing proficiency exam.
Among the findings:
Universally, educators say small class sizes improve standardized
test scores and boost a teacher’s ability to do his or her job.
“The fewer students a teacher has to work with means there is
more attention for each pupil,” said Dr. Sandra Rice, an education professor at the
University of Michigan and author of several books on elementary education. “If there
is one way to boost test scores, it’s to make classes smaller.”
DODDS officials agree.
Dr. Candace Ransing, the education division chief based in Wiesbaden,
Germany, said smaller communities generally do a better job educating students, and pupils
tend to struggle when they live at a base where parents are more prone to be deployed.
“We try to do the best we can with the test scores, and when we
find something that’s a concern, we address it,” Ransing said.
Ransing, who was the DODDS-Europe superintendent of the year in 2000
(Italy), acknowledged there are factors beyond DODDS’ control that can hurt or help a
child at school.
“Many times you have more support when there are fewer
distractions. And even national research shows that the more involved parents are in the
schools, the higher the level of achievement,” she said.
Scores on the math section of the SAT ranged from an average of 455
for students at Vilseck High School, Germany, to 559 for pupils at Supreme Headquarters
Allied Powers High School in Belgium.
The best performing schools were some of the smallest in some of
the more remote locations, which lacked amenities such as art and music teachers and
special education and gifted programs.
Those were: Lajes High School, Portugal, with 158 students in grades
seven through 12; Ankara Middle School, Turkey, with 205 students; and Amberg Elementary
School, Germany, with 90 students.
“Yes, we have to do without a lot of amenities and teachers that
bigger schools have, but that forces you to do more with less,” said Jerry Ashby,
Lajes High School principal. “We’re the only act in town and that makes a big
difference.”
Access is limited to programs for gifted students and advanced
placement courses. Fewer than half the schools surveyed had access to those courses and
programs. Instead, students relied upon long-distance learning programs via the Internet.
DODDS officials say they use standardized test scores to identify
weaknesses in a school’s curriculum, but some schools chronically score at the bottom
end of the district in certain categories.
For example, third-graders at Giessen Elementary School in Germany
consistently have scored at the bottom of all DODDS-Europe elementary schools in math and
have shown no improvement in the past five years.
Gregory Piatt / Stars and Stripes
Fourth-grade teacher Beth Weber collects a test from one of her students at SHAPE American
Elementary School in Mons, Belgium. SHAPE has 21 students for each teacher. |
Third-graders there scored in the 46th percentile on the
Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills test in 1996. Following that was a 50.7 percentile in
1997, 49th percentile in 1998, 46th percentile in 1999 and 48th percentile in 2000.
DODDS deputy director Diana Ohman said some schools struggle with
their own problems and that, despite efforts by administrators and teachers, scores may
not go up. “That doesn’t mean kids aren’t learning,” she said.
Equity at issue
The apparent lack of equity distresses parents whose children attend
the worst schools and frustrates military officials who realize poor education programs
drive good servicemembers from the U.S. military.
“We know quality education is one of the biggest sticking points
for parents serving overseas,” said Paul Jerome, the U.S European Command’s
chief of the quality of life division. “We want there to be equity. And we press
DODDS to ensure there is equity.”
EUCOM conducts a regular parent survey, and uses those results to
lobby DODDS and the Department of Defense Education Agency — the parent organization
of DODDS — to make changes.
Unlike their counterparts in the States, military parents stationed
overseas have few options if they are unhappy with the DODDS school in their community.
They can’t move to a better school district and there are few private-school options.
“I know I get upset when my child is in a cramped classroom with
25 other students, but if we had been stationed in Italy, my daughter would be in a class
with half as many kids,” said Sharon Klaus, whose husband is stationed at Ramstein
Air Base. “That doesn’t seem right.”
Livorno Elementary-High School in Italy has one teacher for every
eight students.
At Ramstein, there is one teacher for every 24 students. AFNORTH High
School teacher Patricia Quinn Farris is worried that her students in the Netherlands will
be hurt this year when DODDS eliminates the equivalent of about five full-time teachers.
DODDS maintains the cut classes can be taken via long-distance learning over the Internet.
Farris, also a spokeswoman for the teachers union, said she questions
whether DODDS is really putting children first.
Sgt. Ernest Gonzalez, Roberto Gonzalez’s father, said he
considers the military his family but some schools, he believes, are treated like favorite
sons and daughters.
“We all come from the same military family, so you think all the
schools would prepare you equally,” he said.
“But we know some schools are better than others overseas.
It’s not something you like to think about.”
Gonzalez is right: All DODDS schools are not created equal. Overall,
DODDS students do better than their stateside counterparts on the various sections of the
Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, a test used at many U.S. public schools to gauge
student performance. That statistic makes school system officials proud, but it is little
consolation for parents whose children attend the worst-performing schools.
“I know as a parent you think some of the problems we face
wouldn’t happen if we were in the States,” said Ellen Snyder, whose 10-year-old
son is set to attend Robinson Elementary School in Stuttgart, Germany.
Those problems include high teacher turnover and special programs,
like classes for “gifted” children, that aren’t as widely available within
DODDS-Europe, she said.
“In my gut, I just feel there would be more attention in the
States, or at least I’d have more of a choice as to where my kids go to school,”
Snyder said.
Quality education for all
On a tour of schools and meetings with parents and teachers in May,
Ohman repeatedly affirmed that all DODDS schools give children a quality education no
matter where his or her parent is stationed.
“We want all our students to succeed, and we’re doing
that,” Ohman said.
School budgets are established to favor all schools equally based on
student population and location, and DODDS continually monitors performance at all
schools, she added.
The differences between schools mirror differences between children,
she said.
“Even at the best school, some students do better than
others,” Ohman said. “That doesn’t mean one child is getting a better
education than another.”
Educating children overseas is also expensive, she notes. “We do
an excellent job, especially when you consider families moving and other challenges.”
On average, DODDS spends $9,838 per student in Europe compared with
the average of $7,290 spent on a child attending public school in the United States.
The military’s top leaders recognize the problem, and the U.S.
European Command annually surveys parents to look for solutions. A similar study two years
ago led to the implementation of all-day kindergarten and increased after-school tutoring.
The concern about disparity in education at DODDS schools goes beyond
parents. One senator, when told about Stripes’ findings, said Congress must work
harder to ensure that, when military personnel are stationed overseas, the future of their
children isn’t jeopardized.
A child’s future shouldn’t be shortchanged because his or
her parents have chosen a military career, said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who
recently became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“If our military members are worried about the schooling their
son or daughter receives when they’re stationed overseas, then that’s something
we as lawmakers should be concerned about, too,” he said.
Creativity essential
Principals and other administrators say the trick to having students
succeed is knowing how to manage a school’s resources, even if they’re slim.
“We’re too small to offer advanced classes, so we
improvise,” said Dr. Allen Davenport, assistant superintendent last year for the
Turkey-Spain-Islands School District, which has about 3,700 students.
That district — which now falls under Italy — boasts the
top two performing high schools, the fourth-best elementary school and the best school for
middle school education, according to the Stars and Stripes survey.
“We have a lot more parent involvement. There’s tutoring.
We rely upon long-distance learning,” he said. “We are a small school yet we can
offer a college curriculum.”
Unlike smaller districts that are stressed to find the money to hire
teachers for elective classes, Vilseck Elementary in Germany has different challenges.
“I’ll admit it’s easy for a kid to get lost, but we
try our best,” said Robert Allen, the principal at Vilseck Elementary. The large
class size — 24 students to each teacher — is why the school struggles with its
test scores, Allen believes. Individual attention is the best remedy for dipping test
scores, he said.
“You want to give attention and we do give attention, but
it’s hard to find the kids who need the most help,” Allen said.
Recently, Vilseck began merging children from different ages into one
classroom of about 18 students. Allen said programs like that will help improve education.
Vilseck tied for 73rd when compared with the 76 other DODDS-Europe
elementary schools. Students there scored the second lowest in social studies and were
ranked 67th in classroom size.
Amberg Elementary in Germany is just an eighth of the size of Vilseck
with about 800 students. It doesn’t have the computer facilities, gym class or art
teacher that bigger DODDS schools have. But its students consistently have the best scores
among their peers.
“There is always room for improvement, but I think we are a
small community and we use creative teachers,” said Carl McClelland, the Amberg
Elementary principal. “You can’t complain about what you don’t have, you
have to find a way to do more with what you do have.”
Amberg Elementary does that by networking with the 94th Engineering
Company, having family members come in to help and using teachers in creative ways.
“We only have 98 or 100 kids, so you just do things in a
different way,” he said.
For example, a fourth-grade English teacher doubles as a math
teacher, and local military members have formed mentoring relationships with some students
to give them extra attention, McClelland said.
Still, improving the quality of education at the poorer-performing
schools in DODDS-Europe is a difficult challenge.
Ohman and her staff are implementing changes they think will work:
Dropping the average class size in elementary school to 18 students
per teacher.
Trying more long-distance learning classes in small high schools.
Encouraging principals to try innovative ideas.
“There’s no one who can say we aren’t looking at ways to improve,”
Ohman said.
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