Copyright 1988 The study looked at student achievement in the 16 school systems participating in the three-year-old pilot program, which seeks to improve the teaching force through incentives, performance-based pay, and improved evaluation techniques.
The study found that students in the pilot districts posted bigger gains--and, in some cases, smaller losses--on the California Achievement Test than did students in other systems. More students in the experiment also raised their scores above the national median.
David Holdzkom, personnel-relations director for the department, said the results could bolster efforts next year to expand the career-development initiative.
Proposals for expansion are likely to face strong opposition from the North Carolina Association of Educators, which has been critical of the pilot program.
Kentucky school systems will have to examine the criminal records of their bus drivers, under regulations approved by the board of education this month.
The board’s action came in the wake of charges against two local school-bus drivers for operating their buses while intoxicated.
Under the regulations, expected to take effect this spring, school superintendents would discipline drivers with a history of drunken driving, and fire any found to be intoxicated while on duty.
Districts also would be prohibited from hiring as a bus driver anyone convicted in the past five years of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Nebraska will pay for mobile classrooms used in helping handicapped and disadvantaged private-school students, under regulations signed by Gov. Kay A. Orr.
Before the rule change, districts were responsible for buying the converted vans, which park outside private schools to deliver the special-education and remedial services that students are entitled to receive under federal law.
A 1985 Supreme Court decision barred public-school teachers from entering church-related schools to provide the services. (See Education Week, Oct. 26, 1988.)
The state board of education had approved the rule change by a 6-to-1 vote.
The Idaho Board of Education has refused to divide itself into panels specializing in precollegiate and postsecondary education.
Gov. Cecil D. Andrus in June urged the panel to consider the split, which some educators have been advocating for several years.
The board rejected the plan after leaders of professional educators’ groups said they were content with the current arrangement.
