UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 37, Page 5
July 22, 1993
Former U.S. teacher of year opens principals' academy

     Terry Dozier, U.S. teacher of the year in l985-86 and now a special
assistant to Secretary of Education Richard Riley, delivered the opening
address to participants of the University of Delaware's second National
Principals' Leadership Academy July 12.
     Some 29 principals from 20 states were selected to attend the
prestigious academy at the University's campus in Newark, Del., July 11-23.
The model program aims to develop effective principals as leaders of change
in education.
     Dozier, an upbeat optimist who believes that everyone can succeed,
challenged the principals to be active in school reform and to make the
American dream available to every child in the country.
     She spoke in support of the Goals 2000 Educate America Act that would
establish national performance standards for both academic and vocational
education, and she was critical of school policies that group students by
ability.
     "We need to destroy the notion that it is ability rather than hard
work and effort that determine success," Dozier said. "Intelligence is
something we can build. Through hard work and effort, everyone can become
smart.
     "To push children to achieve their full potential, we must demand it
of them and not settle for anything less. Students live up to our
expectations, but we only get as much as we expect. In this country we have
fallen into the uncommon trap of categorizing people by assumed innate
abilities."
     In other countries, where children are not grouped according to
ability, Dozier said, slower students keep up with faster ones.
     Speaking from her experience as a teacher in the Singapore/American
School, she addressed the notion that Asian students are smarter than
American ones.
     "The Asian (students) were not smarter or more talented and did not
have higher IQs. The difference was they worked harder," she said. "If
American students think a course is too hard, they ask to be dropped to the
next level. The Asian students just say, 'I must try harder.'
     "This country's emphasis on innate ability is very dangerous," Dozier
said. "It causes young people to give up or to overestimate their
abilities. Remedial students are never exposed to challenges. It also harms
the advanced students, the ones who knew they were smart and just coasted
through school."
     Dozier praised school principals calling their role "overloaded,
complex and often unclear." She encouraged those attending the academy to
remember that they are making a difference.
                                        -Beth Thomas