The survival of three Christian schools in Nebraska could hinge on county court developments this month, according to officials who have been monitoring the situation. (See Education Week, Sept. 7, 1983.)
Officials of two schools that have resisted state accreditation requirements were scheduled to appear in court this week to explain why they are not adhering to judicial orders to close, and another school is being fined $150 daily for failing to meet the standards and ignoring a court order to close, according to Ellen Steidle of the Nebraska County Attorneys Association.
Three leaders of the Calvary Academy Christian School are being fined $50 each for continuing to operate the school. Hall County District Judge Richard DeBacker decided to fine the school officials after they ignored his May order to close for failing to meet state regulations.
Meanwhile, officials from Park West Christian School and Faith Christian School were ordered to appear in the district courts of Lancaster County and Cass County, respectively, to explain why they are ignoring court orders to close.
The San Francisco-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which earlier this month filed a petition with national testing agencies asking them to bar the distribution of test scores to colleges and universities that rely too heavily on them in the admissions process, has moved to oppose a legislative proposal on testing in California.
The group has condemned Gov. George Deukmejian’s veto of a bill, SB735, that would have established procedures to be met by a testing agency before it could withhold scores of students suspected of cheating.
The withholding of scores is often based on “arbitrary testing-agency decisions,” maldef said in a statement. Students who have their scores withheld are stigmatized, because colleges and universities “immediately assume” the student is being accused of cheating, according to John Huerta, maldef’s associate counsel in Los Angeles.
Fourteen students in East Los Angeles’ Garfield High School, which enrolls a high percentage of Hispanic students, recently had to take their advanced-placement test in mathematics over again because the testing agency did not believe that they all could do so well without cheating, according to maldef. Most students repeated the exam and received high scores.
In vetoing the bill, Governor Deukmejian said, “This bill would establish an arbitrational process to resolve disputes between test sponsors and test takers where there is a question regarding the conduct of a student in the test-taking process. I question the need for the extensive and time-consuming formal appeal process proposed by the bill.”
