Prime Time; 123; Newberry and Caldecott Award Books

[ Music - Guess what.] Hello I'm Ed Sardella, host for prime time, a weekly series of programs that highlight activities in the Denver Public Schools and emphasize how a partnership between the school, home, and community can improve the educational climate. This week we'll report on the children's literature books that received the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and on the Colorado Youth Citizenship Awards. Denver School Board members Franklin

Mullen and Marion Hammond and Royce Forsyth of the Department of Intergovernmental Relations will discuss the role of the Accountability Committee, and Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Joseph Brzezinski, interviews Dr. Cal Frazier, Colorado Commissioner of Education on current educational legislation. The most prestigious awards in children's literature are the John Newbery Medal and the Randolph Caldecott Medal, given annually by the Children's Librarian section of the American Library Association. The Newbery Medal honors the author of the year's most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The 1982 award went to Nancy Willard, author of A Visit to William Blake's Inn. This is the first time a book of poetry has won the award. The Caldecott Medal recognizes the artist who has created the year's most outstanding picture book for children. This year's recipient was Chris Van Allsburg, illustrator and author of Jumanji. Marilyn Kaye reviews the Newbery and Caldecott medalists and honor books of

1982. [Kaye] Well, the Caldecott Medal for 1981 went to Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg and published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, and this is a very exciting fantasy in which two children playing a board game suddenly realize that the board game is coming alive, which results in some very intriguing adventures. We also have Caldecott Honor books. And these are On Market Street with pictures by Anita Lobel and the words by Arnold Lobel, and this is an ABC book and it's extremely colorful with unique depictions of various articles that represent the words being used to represent each letter of the alphabet. Another Caldecott Honor book is

Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak, and this is also a fantasy about a young girl whose baby sister is stolen by goblins and she has to go and rescue her. And another Caldecott Honor book this year is Where the Buffaloes Begin by Olaf Baker with drawings by Stephen Gammell. This is based on a Native American tale about Blackfeet Indians. The story itself was originally written in 1915, but the pictures, the illustrations, are new. Those are Caldecott books this year but another Caldecott Honor book is A Visit to William Blake's Inn, Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, and what's so unusual this year, this is a Caldecott Honor book, as I mentioned, but this is also our Newbery Medal winner for 1981. This is a

story - it's actually poems based on themes from William Blake's poems, the concept being that there is an inn run by William Blake himself,a very unusual inn, staffed by dragons and angels and rabbits. We have two Newbery Honor books this year, Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary who's been a favorite author for many, many years and these are the rollicking adventures of an eight year-old girl who goes through the usual trials and tribulations of a typical eight year-old. And a very different Honor book this year, Upon the Head of a Go - of the Goat, excuse me - by Aranka Siegel, subtitled A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944. And this is the story of a family who is subjected to the persecutions during the Nazi regime, and it is autobiographical.

These particular books are very unique and one thing I can say is I've never seen two Caldecotts that could be described in the same way. Although we have general criteria by which we choose these kinds of books these are very unique. Jumanji - and by the way I should mention that the Caldecott Medal is given to the illustrator - however the text is very important because if the text doesn't complement the illustrations, the book's not going to be successful. These illustrations as you can see are in shades of black and white. What's particularly unique about them is they have an almost photographic effect. They're very realistic. Also they have very unusual perspectives. As you can see it's almost as if there was a camera taking a picture at a, at an unusual angle. This brings these pictures to life. And they're very

expressive. You'll notice in the, in the expressions on the children's faces. The Newbery this year is also unusual because it is poems and there is no reason why it can't be. Traditionally the Newbery Medal tends to go more toward novels, stories. This is a story but it is in poetry. This one is particularly exceptional because of its inventive concept, the idea of taking a real figure from history, from literary history, William Blake, and just extrapolating, so to speak, saying what if William Blake ran an inn, if he was an innkeeper, what would that inn be like? The poems themselves are fascinating. They are whimsical.

It's very difficult, I would imagine, to write really fine poetry for children because on the one hand you want to be able to keep it within their grasp in terms of what kinds of expressions or metaphors or this type of literary device is used, but at the same time you want something completely original, and these are very, very original poems. The first thing of course is to remember that children are individuals and what's right for one child may not be right for the other child. It's very difficult to say 'This is a good book for children' because could you say 'This is a good book for adults'? For some children it's a good book, for others not. So knowing the child that you're find - you're looking, that knowing the child that you're choosing the book for is very, very important. There are so many available resources to parents to

help them select books. One of the best things they can do first is to become familiar with what is available. Going into the bookstore and looking through the children's department, going to the library and going through the stacks, and getting the children's librarian to help you. Children's librarians are delighted to be asked to advise. This is their subject. This is what they love, that's why they're children's librarians, and people should be taking advantage of that resource and saying 'I have a child and this is the kind of thing my child likes. Help me to pick some books for my child.' [Moderator 1 - Ed Sardella] Schools are primarily for children so that they may attain educational and social competence. But what should be the goals of education? What should be included in the curriculum? How should it be taught and how can the taxpayers be assured that there is quality education? To answer these questions school district Accountability or Evaluation committees have been appointed to monitor the educational process. [Moderator 2 - Lin Mrachek] The Colorado Educational Accountability Act passed by the state legislature in

1971 mandates that each school district have an accountability program that measures objectively the adequacy and efficiency of the educational programs in the public schools. The Denver School Board in November strengthened its accountability process by establishing a new structure. With me in the studio to discuss accountability, are School Board member Franklin Mullen, who initiated the board action, the Reverend Marion Hammond, member of the Board, and Dr. Royce Forsyth Denver Public Schools Administrator and Director of the Department of Intergovernmental Relations Services. I want to welcome you all to prime time. First of all, what is accountability and specifically what are you trying to measure? [Forsyth] Accountability has some standard of quality, that parents can depend on. So what you're talking about are a whole, conglomeration of things. First of all, of course, is academic excellence and we can measure that through tests and achievement scores. We can measure that by the feeling of

parents, 'How do you think your child is doing in school?' That's a legitimate objective. So accountability is a process by which the parents and the teachers and professional staff, can decide what things they want to happen in their school, decide on what kind of activities are appropriate and what kind of behavioral outcomes that they can measure, would say that they've done the job. [Hammond] Yeah, Lin, I think another thing, too, when we're talking about definition of accountability would be to talk about words like this. It's as though the schools have never had accountability before. We've always had accountability and we particularly worked in this area very strongly since 1971, but also all that's happened now is we're coming into a new idea to hopefully improve our accountability - and by the way this accountability will be under whatever plan the judge accepts, whether it's the total access or whether it's the ad hoc plan or what have you. Your schools will be, have always been accountable and they will continue to be. I mean that's what I think we're saying.

[Moderator Mrachek] Now you've established, however though, an accountability structure. How is it organized specifically so that people can better understand how the process will work? [Unknown speaker] Franklin. [Mullen] I think Father Hammond's point and, and Royce's point is fundamental. The accountability process will work and should work in any event and it shouldn't - it should work increasingly, but what we've done is establish an accountability network that provides for the appointment of an Accountability Officer, which is Royce Forsyth, at the Central District level - now that's, that's a first - who will administer that program. There will be an Accountability Council at every school made up of students, parents, staff, and non-parents, people from among senior citizens, the professions, business, labor, who will meet at least once a month at their school and deal with all of the problems related to that school and they will incorporate a lot of the functions of previously independent committees such as Budget Advisory, Human Service Advisory, etc. So

they will be like a stockholders meeting, so to speak. We hope the public will get involved more and think of them as their schools instead of our schools. It will not only give them a chance for good constructive suggestions for improving the schools on a constant basis but it also provides a beautiful forum for training potential new Board members that will be very knowledgeable about the school's operation. [Moderator Mrachek] You've described the structure. I'm curious to know, though, what criteria are going to use to determine the success and failure of a given program? [ Hammond] Well, I think one of the things is, is always in the past that you mentioned, testing, which we've always done. We continue to do testing. I think also what the structure that Franklin's talking about, we're hoping it'll let people know where to go if there's a difficulty, a complaint, a problem or what have you, and it gives some way with Royce's job to skirt around some of the local problems - you run into a brick wall there, you've got some other way to go.

By the way you're talking about Board members, Franklin. I'm fascinated. The Board has always been by the elective process. supposedly that's one place you can go and skip everybody in the process. My phone rings a lot. I don't know about yours. [Unknown speaker] Yeah, right! ]Moderator Mrachek] Once you get the information, though, about the success or failure of a specific program, what are going to do you do with that information? How will the results be dealt with? [Mullen] Well, we're not in any way trying to take - there's. Nothing will take away from the responsibility of the Superintendent to run the district, and the board to set policy, so anything that, that, suggests a tension or a policy change should be brought to the Superintendent's attention and the Board for action and they are accountable, of course, to the public. When we talk about accountability we're talking about it in a circular way. We're saying everyone in the future should be accountable to everybody else. The public should be accountable to support the schools. The parents should be accountable. The teachers should certainly be accountable. The administrators should be accountable and the students should be accountable. We have to have discipline. We have to have a consistency in our policies, but we're talking about a new... I

think the crowded modern, urban mix indicates that we're going to have to have a reinvestment on the part of the public, in public schools. They're going to have to decide that they are really important and put a little bit of themselves into running public schools, show an interest. [Moderator Mrachek] In some school districts an accountability committee serves as like a complaint department. How will parents' concerns and needs be met? [Hammond] It'll be in part that. I mean I don't think there's any way around the fact that you have to have the ability of people - I don't like the term 'complaint' - to give their input to, to respond to the way they see what's going on and I, I don't think it's a matter of complaint so much as the school district is saying 'Once again, as we've always said, is we want to hear what those people have to say.' They're the investors, it's their kids that are involved. [Franklin Mullen] Well, I think that's a good emphasis. We don't want to put the emphasis on complaints. We want there to be a parallel collection system of information If there is an inequity or somebody

has a legitimate complaint and they have not been able to get satisfaction through normal channels, this does create another vehicle for them to get that out in the open and to the attention of the policymakers. But we think, we hope, that most of the energy will go into just constructive thought and suggestions on an ongoing basis as to how we can keep improving the schools, but I think that the question that Lin's asking specifically, if somebody approaches an Accountability Council with a suggestion that will then be forwarded to the Accountability Officer, Mr Forsyth, and there will also be a central Accountability Council at the District level. If that suggests a policy change, they will put forward that to the Superintendent and the Board for action, and then the action would come down through normal channels. [ Hammond] It's just our attempt to be responsible again and I think and it's kind of a good program. [Moderator Mrachek] I'm sorry, our time is up. I want to thank you all very much for being with us on prime time. [Unknown speakers] Thank you. Thank you.

[Moderator 1 - Ed Sardella] The Colorado Youth Citizenship Awards are presented annually to two students in each of the 17 Denver junior high schools. Students who have demonstrated outstanding citizenship, personal and social standards, reliability, acceptance of responsibility, and loyalty to home, school, and community. The Colorado Youth Citizenship Awards, now in their seventh year, were established in 1975 by Charles Lerch, a retired engineer and businessman, and by a group of lay persons who wanted to strengthen good citizenship and civic responsibility in young people. This next report, produced by Cal Raines of KRMA, explains the activities connected with the awards. [Unidentified speaker 1] Surprise. I was really surprised because I didn't think I would win at all. [Unidentified speaker 2] When get called on the office by the principal, you know, you always get nervous when the principal calls you. So he told me and I kind, just kind of was stunned. [Laughs] [Unidentified speaker 3] And I thought, well, you know, you're not that high up in the school or nothing so I didn't think I'd get it. [Unidentified speaker 4] Might help me in the future with scholarships or something.

But I'll just be proud of it. [Unidentified speaker 5] I think it'd help me out, know that I can do things for myself, give me support for myself. [Cal Raynes - speaking over pictures of students and others speaking for the duration of the piece] Maybe you are in junior high school. If you aren't, imagine that you are just, for a while. That way you can realize better what it's like to be one of the CYCA winners... [Unidentified speaker 7...Teachers nominated me and when I think, I think when a teacher...] And as long as we're imagining, [Narrator] ...and as long as we're imagining, let's imagine we're winners of the CYCA. We're a pretty exclusive group, you know. First of all you've got to be a junior high student in the Denver public schools and only two of us can win from each school. So if you add up all the winners from all the schools, it still doesn't even come to a busload. By the way, that's the way we get taken on all our tours, by bus. That's what you're seeing now,

shots of us out on tour. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I imagine you're wondering what CYCA means. Well, it stands for Colorado Youth Citizenship Awards and it's only given out once a year. It was started by a man named Charles Lerch. He's an engineer and a businessman and he's kind of retired. He thinks citizenship is important. But he wouldn't want me to talk about him. He'd much rather have me talk about CYCA and citizenship. You can't become a CYCA winner unless you're nominated by two adults who know you well enough to know what you're really like. By the way, they're not looking for straight-A students either. What do you get if you're one of the winners? A lot. First of all, you get some books that tell about freedom and the American heritage. They really make you proud you live in a democracy. Then, there's the tours.

Wow! We spent three different days on tours. Sure, we missed school but I learned a lot anyway. I couldn't help it. After all one of the reasons for the tours is to give us a chance to meet people that make things happen in business and in government. Of course, I knew it all the time, but it's nice to find out for yourself that they're people just like you and me, and, boy, did we ever meet a lot of people. We toured the Jefferson County Airport, the Air Traffic Control Center at Longmont. At the Air Force Academy we spent the whole day and got what they called the VIP treatment. Then, in Denver, Mr. Corson - that's him with the white hair - took us to the Denver City and County building and we saw a court room and talked to a judge. The Mayor was out of town but we got to sit at his desk anyway. Also we toured the big Mountain Bell building downtown. Did you know they have a telephone Museum there? It's got all kinds of old phones and equipment. We went to the,

to the Colorado National Bank and saw how a bank operates. I never knew they did so much at a bank, and then we talked with Mr Lerch in the boardroom. So for a while we pretended we were bankers, deciding how money could work for all of us. Where you go on tour can change from year to year. But one thing doesn't change - the friends you make among the other winners. It's now listed as one of the awards, that it is very rewarding. There is one thing about the tours. I'm not complaining, but we did get an awful lot of exercise walking. Sometimes it was really nice just to get back on the bus and relax. But there was one walk that felt like we were walking on air and that was the walk we all took at the banquet up to the podium to receive our awards. Part of winning is a big banquet given by the Colorado Youth Citizenship Award for the winners and their families. That's really the climax for everything and after a really good

dinner you hear a couple of speakers talking about citizenship. Then comes the big moment when you hear your name called to come up and receive your plaque and certificate awards. To get up and walk past all your friends and family is one of the biggest thrills you can have. This is what the award says you've won for: for contributing to our nation's greatness by your efforts as a student, worker, family member, an American; for your personal examples of the living principles of democracy; for accepting responsibility to ensure a continuing link in the building of a responsible society; for your desire to further your understanding of the foundation and growth of a great democracy embodied in the Constitution of the United States of America and exemplified in the lives of many Americans past and present; for your value as a participating citizen now and as a potential leader of the future. Well, that's about it.

Now you have at least some idea of what it's like to win a CYCA especially if you did a good job imagining you were a winner. Oh, one last thing I learned that good citizenship rewards you and keeps on rewarding you for the rest of your life. [Moderator 1 - Ed Sardella] To be eligible for a Colorado Youth Citizenship Award, the student must be enrolled in one of the Denver junior highs, must have passing grades and be nominated by two or more adults. A panel of community leaders evaluates the nominees and determines the recipients. The deadline for the 1982 awards is March 12th. Nomination forms are available in the principal's office at each of the junior highs. [Moderator 3 - Dr. Joseph Brzezinski] Each year a number of bills are introduced in the Colorado state legislature. These bills have a direct impact upon the operation of the schools in the state of Colorado. One of the bills making its way through the legislative process is going to determine the extent of state

funding that the schools will receive. Another's concerned with the property assessment law that was passed last year and the proposed revisions will alleviate the property taxation schedule for 1983. In the studio with me is Dr. Calvin Frazier, Colorado Commissioner of Education, to discuss these and other legislative issues. Dr. Frazier, last year the state appropriations were based on a one day attendance count. I understand it's been changed. Can you give us a little bit of background on that? [Frazier] The change isn't complete but my guess would be that we will go back to the counting process that was used for the last few years, that being a four-week period in October. The one day count was a great idea; eliminated paperwork, simplified it, but in the end with advertisements of Bronco movies, free tacos at lunch, anything to bring kids to school, we got a bad reputation out of that and my guess is it's going back to the four weeks.

[Moderator Brzezinsky] Well it's one of those ideas that didn't work. [Frazier] I guess so. [Moderator Brzezinsky] One of the bills that is before the legislature concerns loitering around schools. Why is this important? [Frazier] It's important because school principals have not had a way to control people that were felt to be on the school campus for reasons of disrupting school programs, possibly endangering the lives of children themselves. In a period when we're worried about abusing children and assaults on children we have to have some way of giving the principal or his designee or a peace officer a way to get that person off the school grounds. The law actually has gone through rapidly. It was signed last week by the governor so it's now a law and should be of great help to your Denver schools. [Moderator Brzezinsky] Last summer the committees of the legislature held some hearings concerning revisions in the Exceptional Children's Act and some other bills as well. What's the status based on those hearings?

based on those hearings? [Frazier] Most of those bills by agreement with the leadership were taken off of this year's agenda and rather sent to the State Board of Education so that we could adopt them as rules. There was such general agreement that changes had to be made that we felt it was better to do, take that approach so this week the State Board will be reviewing much of that legislation as rules and achieving the same effect. Two major bills I think will - are - moving through and will help some of the funding problems for local school districts and Special Ed. [Moderator Brzezinsky] In recent days there's been a great deal of controversy over the request of the Chairman of the House Education Committee for school districts to supply educational materials or lists of materials for examination. What is the legality of this request? [Frazier] Well, serious questions been raised about that because the Constitution is very clear that local Boards of Education control the selection of textbooks. They also control the curriculum and the program in that school.

The reason the question from the legislature has evoked such concern is there is a concern that it's a step toward state control and when historically you have had 100 years of local decisions in this area, there's... there's a real anxiety out there as to where this would lead us in terms of censorship of books and other materials. I would hope that this issue will be resolved in the next week. [Moderator Brzezinsky] Well, we hope that it will be too because it is one of the very important issues facing schools, that of censorship. Thank you very much for being with us. We know how busy you are. [Frazier] Thank you. [Moderator Sardella] For the next three weeks prime time will be preempted by the Channel 6 fund-raising campaign, the festival and auction. We urge your support of KRMA so that programs of local interest and those of PBS can continue to be broadcast. Prime Time returns on April 8th. Join us for information on how the home, school and community are meeting the educational needs of Denver school children.

I'm Ed Sardella.