E. Don Brown, the principal of L.D. Bell High School in Hurst, Tex., was elected president of the National Association of Secondary School Principals at its annual convention last week in San Antonio. Mr. Brown, who was the 1985 Texas Principal of the Year, joined the N.A.S.S.P. in 1969 and has served on its board since 1990. He succeeds Esther J. Cox, the principal of the Martin Luther King Jr. Career Center in Anchorage. Also last week, the association named H. Michael Brown, the principal of Hope (Ark.) High School, its president-elect.
Gordon Cawelti has stepped down as the executive director of the Alliance for Curriculum Reform. Mr. Cawelti was the first person to head the group upon its formation three years ago. The alliance’s chief goal is to serve as the voice for curricular issues in education reform. Before taking over the post, Mr. Cawelti served as the executive director of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He is also a former superintendent of the Tulsa, Okla., schools. He will continue to direct a research project for the reform alliance....Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania has appointed Jane Carroll the acting state secretary of education. She replaces her husband, Donald M. Carroll Jr., who retired. Ms. Carroll was the director of the bureau of fiscal administration in the state education department prior to her appointment....Jason Webster of Winnisquam (N.H.) Regional High School has become the country’s only student to solve the Four Fours Fun Forum mathematics challenge, said David Poisson, the school’s assistant principal. The contest was created by a Nebraska teacher, who placed it on the Internet global computer network, Mr. Poisson said. Contestants were asked to create equations for numbers between 50 and 120, with each equation having four fours in it.
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education has named Barbara Burch its president-elect. Ms. Burch, the dean of the college of education at California State University at Fresno, will become president of the association in 1996.
Also this week, Dolores Escobar, the dean of the school of education at San Jose State University, will become the association’s new president at its annual meeting in Washington.
--Adrienne D. Coles