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Tuesday, August 15, 2000; Page A08

•LAX STANDARDS

Few Rules for Substitutes

American students spend 10 percent of every school year with a substitute teacher, studies have shown. For low-income students the figure is 13.5 percent. Yet a new survey shows that most school districts don't require that substitutes have a college degree or any teacher training, and only half of them check substitutes' references.

The report to be published this fall in SubJournal, a publication of the Substitute Teaching Institute at Utah State University in Logan, says affluent suburban districts have the strictest qualifications for substitutes, but in most places the gap between rules for substitutes and regular teachers is very wide.

The survey of 500 randomly selected districts showed that only 10.3 percent required a teaching credential for substitutes and only 19.1 percent a college degree. About 25 percent said a high school diploma was enough, and 4.6 percent said they would hire anybody. The study said 70.2 percent required background checks of substitutes, but only 49.7 percent checked references and only 43.9 percent conducted personal interviews.

The study acknowledged that the widespread substitute shortage makes it hard for schools to be picky, but it said districts should consider the potential effect of their lax rules on "student safety, attitude and achievement."

•PLAYING HOOKY?

Absences Linked to Illness

Acting on the theory that parents are to blame when children miss school, at least 30 states reduce welfare payments to the homes of frequently absent students to get the parents' attention. But a new study commissioned by Delaware Gov. Thomas Carper (D) concludes it may be poor health rather than neglectful parenting that is keeping these children out of school.

The study looked at a national sample of 18,235 third-, seventh- and ninth-graders and found that children in families on welfare were absent much more often than non-welfare children. Twenty-nine percent of the third-graders in welfare families, for instance, had more than 10 annual absences, compared with 17 percent of the non-welfare third-graders.

But both welfare and non-welfare parents reported that four-fifths of their children's absences were due to illness.

"Improving health care access and quality may have a greater effect on this aspect of the educational divide than measures to combat truancy," said David Fein, the lead author of the study, who is with the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm Abt Associates Inc. Fein also noted that studies in Maryland and Wisconsin found financial sanctions ineffective in increasing school attendance.

His study can be found at www.abtassoc.com.

•NEW CHOICES

Variations on High School

For many years, educational researchers have complained that schools vary their expectations of students but are inflexible when it comes to the schedule they must follow.

Now Rochester, N.Y., has become the first large school district in the country to heed such criticism. Beginning in 2001, Rochester students will have the option of spending three, four or five years in high school, depending on how quickly they have mastered the required subjects.

The city's school superintendent, Clifford B. Janey, said more than 6 percent of Rochester students already spend 4 1/2 to six years completing high school. With no five-year program in place, "these students must fail several times in order to receive the instruction they need to graduate," he said.

The new system will allow them to stretch out their most difficult courses "at a pace that promotes success," Janey said.

The quickest learners will be allowed to leave for college a year early or spend their fourth year in enriched courses.

More information on the Rochester experiment can be found at www.rochester.k12.ny.us.