‘Channel One’ Gets Mixed Report Card as Teaching Tool

“Channel One,” a commercial news program beamed into about 10,000 American secondary schools--and the object of a court battle between educators in California--was given a mixed assessment in a study released Wednesday.

Researchers found a majority of students and teachers using “Channel One” rated it favorably. But its effect on the current events knowledge of the average viewer was minimal. And the study sidestepped one of the key issues that has led state schools chief Bill Honig to forbid its use by public schools in California--the two minutes of commercials that accompany the 10 minutes of public affairs programming.

Conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research and Interwest Applied Research of Beaverton, Ore., and paid for by Whittle Communications, the Knoxville-based firm that produces the program, the study was discussed Wednesday by Michigan researcher Jerome Johnston at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Assn. in San Francisco.

The study, the first phase of a three-year project to assess the news program, was conducted between September, 1990, and May, 1991, at 24 schools and involved 900 teachers and 4,400 students. About half of those surveyed were “Channel One” users. The study found:

* Teachers gave the program grades ranging from A- to B+ on understandability, student interest and coverage of national and international events. But it received a C on its usefulness for the subjects they teach, and many educators said they did not do much follow-up discussion with their students after the broadcasts.

* Sixty percent of the teachers said they would strongly recommend the program to others, while 27% said they would recommend it with reservations, 7% were undecided and 6% said they would not recommend it.

* Almost half the students said they learned something important “always” or “most of the time,” but the students expressed greatest interest in the “soft news” or feature segments of the program, including those on teen living, music, films and summer jobs.

* Most students did not show an increased interest in following the news outside school. Those who viewed “Channel One” showed only a very small advantage over non-viewers in their knowledge of current events, and it was the higher-achieving students, not the average or the underachieving ones, who seemed to get the most from the programming.

Researchers said they excluded from the project an assessment of the commercials--for snack foods, clothes and grooming products--because Whittle “was willing to pay only for a study of the editorial effectiveness” of the program. But the show’s commercial aspects have drawn harsh criticism from Honig, the California Parent-Teacher Assn. and others who are trying to keep “Channel One” out of the state’s classrooms.

A spokesman for Honig said Wednesday that the survey results revealed nothing surprising and confirmed the Department of Education’s position that the prepackaged programming, which precludes teachers’ tailoring it to their curriculum and students’ needs, provides little or no benefit while exposing students to many commercials.

Whittle provides “Channel One” free--along with all the needed equipment, including a satellite dish to receive the show--to schools that agree to broadcast at least 90% of its segments. In California, 145 schools use the program, including 68 public schools. Most of the rest are parochial schools, according to a Whittle spokeswoman.

Honig told public schools not to use the program and, late last year, he and the PTA sued officials at Overfelt High School in San Jose, one of the first schools in California to buck his opposition to “Channel One.” Their request for a temporary injunction will be considered May 21 in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

But Overfelt’s principal and other “Channel One” supporters have said the program’s benefits far outweigh their aversion to the commercials, and they contend that Honig is trying to usurp authority to make a decision that rightfully belongs to individual schools.

Another study last year by the federal Southeastern Educational Improvement Laboratory examined two classroom news programs, including “Channel One,” and showed they had little impact on students’ grasp of current affairs unless teachers conducted some follow-up lessons.