This year, the National Association of Laboratory Schools celebrates the silver anniversary of its establishment as an organization. As part of their commemoration, members are putting together a “Silver Anniversary Yearbook” that will look at the history, characteristics, and contributions of lab schools across the country. The manuscript is in production now and will be finished and published by July 1984, according to the editors.
The leadership of the National Catholic Educational Association has begun to strengthen the organization’s capacity to help Catholic schools in fundraising and development activities. Last year, it established both a vice presidency for development and a volunteer group, the National Council for Catholic Education, one of whose purposes is to provide advice and counsel on development matters. The new vice president for development, Robert J. Yeager, is working to identify development officers in schools and to collect data about their programs. Out of that survey will come a directory of development personnel and information that will be the basis for discussions during the ncea’s annual conference.
Seemingly taking a cue from long-standing approaches used in other private schools, Father Yeager plans to distribute “how-to” booklets on establishing a development program, starting an annual fund, raising scholarship funds, and setting up an educational foundation.
The American Personnel and Guidance Association has a new name. Following what a spokesman called “a period of extensive study and debate,” the 31-year-old organization this summer renamed itself the American Association for Counseling and Development. “Proponents feel that the new name places greater emphasis on the counseling function and the concern for human growth and development which characterizes the work of association members around the nation,” the aacd says.
A new angle for lawyers? “The Learning Contract” is a device developed by the National Committee for Citizens in Education to bring parents, teachers, and children into agreement that they will each “do their best throughout the year to make the student’s school experience as positive and productive as it can be.”
Under the terms of the written (and signed by all) contract, parent, teacher, and child all agree to certain responsibilities. The parent, for example, agrees to talk to the child about school and help with homework; the teacher agrees to be in touch with the parent promptly about problems and to be sensitive to the needs and rights of the child; and the child agrees to arrive at school on time, to talk daily with the parent about school, to respect the rights and property of others, and to complete homework.
For a copy, send $1.00 to ncce, Dept. TLC, 410 Wilde Lake Village Green, Columbia, Md. 21044.--mm
