Declared Fraudulent, Banned
A federal judge issued a permanent injunction last week against sales and promotion of the Quadro Tracker, a device marketed to schools as a means of detecting drugs and other contraband.
Quadro Corp., based in Harleyville, S.C., has sold an estimated 1,000 of the hand-held devices to schools and law-enforcement agencies. The company maintained that the device, costing $995 or more, reacted to molecular emissions from drugs or weapons.
But federal prosecutors in Beaumont, Texas, charged that it was a fraud, consisting of little more than a plastic box with an antenna and coated paper inside. (See Education Week, Feb. 14, 1996.)
U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield on April 22 permanently barred Quadro and its top officers from selling or promoting the device. Lawyers for Quadro Corp. could not be reached for comment.
Educational Acquisition
Kaplan Educational Centers, which operates 100 nationwide centers for standardized-test preparation, has acquired Score! Learning Corp., an educational-services company with 14 locations in California.
Some 3,500 Score! students learn a technology-based curriculum under the guidance of academic coaches.
Kaplan, a New York-based subsidiary of the Washington Post Co., said it will open enrichment centers under the name Score@Kaplan. The centers will offer tutoring, enrichment courses, and an assessment of students’ abilities.
NCAA Proposes Rule Changes
The NCAA’s policymaking council has proposed that student athletes with learning disabilities be allowed to take required core academic courses during the summer after they graduate from high school.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association council also recommended last month abolishing a requirement that high school athletes receive NCAA certification before making official paid visits to college campuses during the fall early-signing season. The rule would be eliminated for all students, not just those with learning disorders.
The proposals, which face approval by NCAA members in January, are in response to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into a complaint that some of the association’s rules violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
