All six publishers of the 7th- and 8th-grade science textbooks rejected last month by the California State Board of Education have submitted changes to meet the state’s standards, according to Superintendent of Public Instruction Bill Honig.
The board voted unanimously not to adopt any of the textbooks under review unless recommended changes were made in the treatment of evolution, human reproduction, and ethical issues. (See Education Week, Sept. 25, 1985.)
Publishers were given until Oct. 15 to inform the education department whether they intended to revise their books, and to submit first drafts of their revisions.
The board will hear public testimony on the revised textbooks at its Dec. 12 meeting. Final revisions to the books must be completed by Feb. 21 so that school districts can begin placing orders for the adopted materials on March 1.
In a 6-to-5 vote, the Chicago Board of Education has upheld the right of the DuSable High School health clinic to dispense contraceptives to students. (See Education Week, Oct. 2, 1985.)
In its 7-to-1 vote in January allowing the high school to set up the comprehensive medical clinic, the board had approved of the clinic’s plans to dispense contraceptives, said Bob Saigh, a school-district spokesman.
The board decided to “take a second look” at the contraceptive issue following public criticism of the clinic’s birth-control services program. Students must have a signed consent form from their parents before receiving any of the clinic’s medical services, Mr. Saigh said.
Voters in seven of the eight Oregon school districts facing the possibility they might have to close for lack of operating funds approved more than $79 million in levies in emergency elections this month.
But in Port Orford-Langlois, vot-ers failed to approve a $993,562 levy. That action will force the 450-student elementary and secondary school to close from Oct. 24 until Nov. 5, when the district will hold another election to raise the funds, according to Larry Austin, a spokesman for the state education department.
Twenty-nine other districts are also scheduled to hold levy elections on that date. (See Education Week, Oct. 16, 1985.)
The New Jersey Lottery, one of more than a half-dozen state lotteries whose revenues are earmarked at least in part for education, produced a record $390.5 million in fiscal 1985 for education and other state institutions.
But the increased proceeds do not guarantee that education will benefit by a like amount, according to state budget officials, because the state budget director has the discretion to allocate lottery proceeds among the competing institutions--education, corrections, and human services--as he chooses. (See Education Week, Sept. 18, 1985.)
Although lottery proceeds increased in fiscal 1985 by more than $30 million, the totals reflect a slowing in the rate of growth. With many games and chances to win, the New Jersey lottery has been among the nation’s most successful.
The Mercer County Board of Education should hire more minority workers, prohibit racial epithets, and establish a biracial council to help defuse tensions caused by an outbreak of racial violence last month, the West Virginia Human Rights Commission has recommended.
Two-thirds of the 932 students at Princeton Junior High School were kept home by their parents during the disturbances, which included several fights at the school, threatening phone calls to parents of black students, and a cross-burning at a nearby church. (See Education Week, Oct. 16, 1985.)
The commission cited “a failure of responsible school officials to evaluate the racial climate among students, the failure to foresee the potential for violent confrontation, and the failure to take appropriate preventive measures.”
