News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup

The Kentucky Department of Education has announced plans to form a 40-member task force to study the problem of lagging academic achievement among minority students.

African-Americans, by far the state's largest student minority group, have trailed their white counterparts on state tests in every subject in Kentucky, a problem found in many other states. ( "Lags in Minority Achievement Defy Traditional Explanations," March 15, 2000.) Black students in the state also are overrepresented in special education classes and under-represented in classes for the gifted and Advanced Placement courses.

"It's just unacceptable to us,'' said Lisa Y. Gross, the spokeswoman for the...