Provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios in Lincoln Center in new york, alison stewart. Stewart good evening, thanks for joining us. Im alison stewart, in for Hari Sreenivasan. Pope francis is calling on every catholic parish in europe to shelter at least one family of migrants or refugees pouring into the continent. Today, during mass at saint peters square, the pope announced the vatican itself will house two families who, he said, are fleeing death by war and by hunger. translated the gospel calls us to be neighbors to the smallest and most abandoned to give them concrete hope. Stewart francis also criticized hungarys plan to complete a 108mile fence along its southern border with serbia, where many are crossing from macedonia, which neighbors greece, the busiest entry point into europe, by boat. In greece today, the government ferried 1,700 more people held at the island of lesbos, to athens. Greece has transported 13,000 migrants and refugees to the mainland this week. So far this year, an estimated 300,000 people fleeing wartorn syria, libya, iraq, and afghanistan have arrived in europe, including 100,000 in the past month. This weekend, at least 12,000 refugees have crossed by train and bus from hungary into vienna, austria. But hundreds who have registered for asylum in hungary have been placed in refugee camps. Germany is the desired final destination for many asylum seekers, and as itns Sangeeta Kandola reports, so far the country is offering a warm welcome. They were greeted by cheers, banners and sweets across germany. The estimated 6,000 refugees who had made the exhausting journey by foot, bus and train to get here. In a country which says it cant cope with the influx. They were on the receiving end of scenes like this, relief. Great, i feel great. Finally. After days of confrontation with police, hungary opened its borders with austria and bussed and trained thousands of people who had begun walking to the frontier. Those arriving in munich and vienna, mostly syrians fleeing the war there have been sent to Reception Centers to be registered, to seek food and clothing. German chancellor merkel is to hold talks with her Coalition Partners on a crisis that has divided the eu, the European Commission she has been push fog arco at that system for dividing the people reaching europe between member states. But this is going to. In the meantime, thousands more are continuing to make the journey, risking life and limb in search of a better life. Stewart the biggest catalyst for the mass migration to europe is syrias civil war, which is believed to have killed 250,000 people and driven an estimated 11 million syrians from their homes. Secretary of state john kerry warned russias foreign minister this weekend about reports of russia increasing specific types of support for syrian president bashar alassads regime. Kerry says the increased support could escalate the conflict and the refugee crisis. Joining me now from washington to discuss the war in syria is anthony cordesman, who is the arleigh a. Burke chair in strategy at the center for strategic and international studies. Stewart so secretary of state kerrys concerns, at this point in the conflict, what would a russian infusion of support for a ass saddam husseis army and regime mean . People are concerned there is evidence that he may be providing or putin may be providing Something Like a thousand peoples worth of prefabricated housing. That is, has led some analysts to believe that in russia may be deploying air units and modern aircraft or a new kind of advisory team. Any buildup will help assad ride out or survive at least for a while the opposition. Any kind of active air presence represents syrias problems for the United States, for turkey, for the other Coalition Countries flying air sorties because of the risk that there might be some kind of incident between the russians and the air forces operating against the Islamic State. No matter what happens, that kind of operation would present problems for the United States because our arab allies, particularly saudi arabia, kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are supporting some of the forces on the ground that are opposing assad directly. Stewart this conflict began in 2011, it is 2015. At this point, what stands out to you as a major issues keeping us from a diplomatic solution here . I think there are several reasons, but the most important one is no one has emerged as a credible alternative. Syria is now divided really into four parts. There is a kurdish area, the kurds have no great incentive to be a part of syria. They were treated as secondclass citizens before this began, and many didnt even have identification papers. You have the Islamic State, which occupies a significant part of eastern syria, particularly along the river area. It has a, it is not a densely populated area but one the Islamic State can actually control. And then you va mix of some 26 to 35 different opposition groups who are doing most of the fighting against assad. They are more in the central heavily Populated Areas of syria, but they have almost nothing in common with the assad regime, with the Islamic State or with the kurds. There are troops outside of syria that claim to represent the opposition, the fact is that many of them were tied to more moderate, secular military movements whic which have effecy been defeated and virtually disappeared. Stewart there has been quite a bit of criticism about neighboring countries not stepping in to help ease the humanitarian crisis, saudi arabia, qatar, the United Arab Emirates. What is your analysis of why these countries have not stepped in and stepped up . All of them, frankly, are deeply concerned a what these refugees might be and who they might have alignments with. All of them are dealing with their own problems, iran, yemen, Islamic State groups, al qaeda in the arabian pens la, all of them to be, tend to be closed societies which security puts tight limits on any form of immigration. Stewart anthony cordesman, thank you so much for helping us understand it a bit more. Thank you. Stewart as kids across the country head back to school, we are going to examine a firstof itskind program meant to boost reading skills. Florida requires its lowest performing schools to lengthen their school day for one hour to focus on reading. The mandate applies to the states 300 lowestperforming schools, as ranked by their standardized test scores. As youd expect, a lively debate is underway about the wisdom and effectiveness of the plan. Tonights updated signature segment, which we originally broadcast last year, revisits this approach. Jaylon jenkins just started third grade. And every day after school, he does homework with the aunt that is raising him, antonia williams. Remember, we talked about the tenses, from ride to. R, o, d, e. Im not a tyrant. When he first comes home i normally have. Let him have a 20minute break. He gets a snack. You want apple . And then we start his homework. Ill give him a break in between because its a lot to retain and to comprehend, so this is our. This is our daily schedule. Stewart a schedule that already includes an extra hour of reading every day, for jaylon and for every other student at his school Phillis Wheatley elementary in apopka, florida, just northwest of orlando in Orange County. Antonia, what did you think when you first heard that jaylons school was going to require one extra hour of reading . I was like, yes. Stewart yeah . I was, like, yes. I mean, what else would a child be doing that hour after school, you know . Yes, it would be a longer day and i was concerned about him being focused and staying on task for such a long time. But hes in a structured environment. You know, its not like theyre on the playground for an extra hour. Theyre reading. Stewart has he asked you why he stays an extra hour . I dont even think he realizes it. Stewart the extra hour of reading at wheatley elementary is not voluntary. A 2012 law required the 100 lowestperforming Elementary Schools in florida to add an hour of reading instruction. The rankings were determined by the states standardized reading test results. The expansion is estimated to cost more than 4 million annually for wheatley and 19 other Public Schools in Orange County, florida, the tenth Largest School district in the country. What do you think it is . Stewart when we visited Phillis Wheatley last year, sean brown was the schools principal. Once we hit that last hour of the day, its strictly reading. Stewart from fourth graders working on reading comprehension questions. We could eliminate underground. Stewart . To first graders just learning the basics. They get darker and darker. Stewart students, taught by teachers from the school. Hare. Hare. Stewart read, read and read some more. We want to hone in on the reading skills and then just push the students academically as much as possible. Stewart a highpoverty school where all students get free breakfast and lunch, Phillis Wheatley elementary is in a neighborhood with a high crime rate and is the type of School Administrators think could particularly benefit from the extra reading time. Do you think your students need this extra hour . Yes, i do. Stewart why is that . Is it. Is it because theyre so far behind . Is it just not enough time during the day to teach these kids . Theres several reasons. I know that with poverty and adding things of that nature, i know that a lot of our students, theyre so much further behind a student that has two parents or a student that has a high workingclass family. So this is the mechanism that will help close that gap between the students that are living in poverty and students that are not living in poverty. Stewart after instituting the hour of extra reading every day in 2012, wheatley saw the number of Children Reading a grade level go from 26 percent to 41 percent. Such a big improvement that te the followinged from the year. Up to 38 percent the following year. Statewide, in the first year, 76 percent of schools with extra reading time saw an improvement in kids reading at grade level. 69 percent of the low performing schools also saw it increase in the second year. The the results have turned out to be dramatic. Stewart republican state senator David Simmons is the force behind the state law adding the extra hour. The son of two Public School teachers, he says he first heard about adding extra time from a principal at a struggling orlando school. And in talking to him, he said, if i just had more time with these children, i could make a big, big difference with them. And he said, its not that they cant learn. Its they dont have enough time to learn. Stewart last year senator simmons pushed to expand the number of Elementary Schools required to have extra reading time from the 100 lowest performing to the 300 lowest performing, including Phillis Wheatley. By expanding the list, simmons believes schools that improve their test scores one year wont lose the extra reading time the next. This year the same 300 schools will provide that extra hour of reading time. When you first presented the idea of this additional hour of reading to your colleagues, what kind of questions did they have for you . Is it gonna work . Stewart make the case for me. Okay. Certainly. Other nations, industrialized nations, send their children to school, all of their children, significantly longer than we do here on average in the United States. Were talking about trying to cram a huge amount of information into the minds of these children in a limited amount of time. Its like trying to put 25 pounds of sugar in a 10 pound sack. Senator simmons is looking at a piece of fools gold, and he believes its real genuine gold. Stewart rick roach served on the Orange County school board for 16 years. The retired teacher and guidance counselor is not convinced mandated extra reading time is the solution that it seems. I dont think it has true educational value. And i think it could be more helpful if you just take your eyes off of a test score. It doesnt necessarily mean that that child comes out of there a better reader or has developed a love of reading. It simply means theyve jammed up a raw score on a single measure test. Stewart and theres the question who gets to decide the best way to help kids learn . What was the debate like or the discussion like when it first came up should we have kids read for an extra hour after school . Please. I have to laugh at that one. There was no debate on that. There was simply. The command came down from the hill, thou shalt put an extra hour into the school. There was no debate, the board didnt discuss that. Local. There was no local feedback into that. Not to mention the fact that many people who make these laws never taught one day in a classroom. Stewart there are other concerns as well dirict officials find out which schools are required to add the extra reading hour just weeks before school starts. Bus schedules have to change and Teaching Staff secured. Some parents voiced concern over the exhaustion level of kids whose days are pushed an hour later, and the reduction of family time. And while kids who scored the highest level on the reading section of the states standardized test can opt out, for the most part, everyone is required to stay the extra hour. Roach says the data that supporters cite only tells part of the story, and that similar students without the extra hour of reading have shown improvement in proficiency in the past few years. If Something Like this happens and it helps anybody, isnt it worth continuing and trying . You know, i think few people would disagree with the fact that were going to give kids who may be low readers extra time to read. But theres a consequence to that. You may in fact drive up a reading score, but you also lose otherother features as well. If theyd gave us some options. You couldve extended the year by 20 days and kept the same number of hours if you let local control come into play for the same money. Stewart the criticism ive heard from a couple of different folks who are involved in education that they work on the local level, theyre in the schools, and the idea that they have to take this money, come up with it and put it just on reading, everybody supports reading but perhaps thats not what their school needs. If the vast majority of your students have on our tests, you know, standardized tests, shown that they cannot read at grade level, then they need reading instruction. Thats a simple fact of life. Thumbs up if you remember and you understand. Stewart and theres still the issue of funding who pays for it now and in the future. What would it take for this program to be guaranteed funding . Right now its year to year to year if the district can come up with the money. I can tell you that it is my commitment, now that we are seeing the performance, that we will in fact dedicate the funding for this in order to get this accomplished. Stewart but this year state legislators did not earmark new money for extra School Reading time. Senator simmons had also proposed expanding the mandate to include Summer Reading instruction and notifying schools no later than july if they must add the extra hour of reading in the fall. But the amendment was not successful. Amidst the debate, Phillis Wheatley elementary is committed to keeping the extra hour, and has sought a federal grant to make sure wheatley can pay for the longer school day whether it is mandated to or not. And it isnt lost on anyone that the school is named after Phillis Wheatley, a former slave who became a writer, the first africanamerican woman poet to be published. Stewart watch our report about a West VirginiaSchool District that has students in class yearround. Visit pbs. Org newshour. Stewart from measuring the reading skills of elementary School Students, we turn to testing high School Students eyeing college. This years scores for the s. A. T. , the standardized test taken by a majority of Prospective College freshmen, were released this week, and they are the lowest since the test was revamped a decade ago. This year, the average total score was 1490 out of a possible 2400, down from 1497 last year and 1498 the year before. The average math score was 511 out of a possible 800, the lowest since 1999. The average reading score was 495, the lowest since 1972. What do these numbers mean . Joining me now to discuss that is Bloomberg News reporter janet lorin. Anything significant change about the test in the past year or two that would point to this decline . We know more people are taking the test. This year we had Record Number of test takers and part of the reason was because the College Board was able to get more states to pay to take for every student to take the test. Stewart okay. So we have more people taking it, the socioeconomic diversity is going to be different and that could be certainly one reason for it. Next year we are going to see pretty significant changes with the s