20 YEARS AGO ... July 27, 1983*
- A congressionally mandated study of private schools finds that about 5 percent of the students currently attending public schools would be likely to transfer to private schools if a tuition tax credit of $250 were available.
- President Reagan’s campaign in support of merit pay for teachers has thrown the leadership of the National Education Association off balance and provoked a debate within the organization, interviews with union officials suggest.
- Ronald Edmonds, whose pioneering work in the area of “effective schools” gained wide national recognition, dies on July 15 at age 48.
10 YEARS AGO ... June 23, 1993**
- The Houston school board’s decision to replace the staff at an academically unsuccessful elementary school exemplifies growing policy interest in the wholesale use of personnel changes as a way of giving schools a fresh start.
- As the flow of both legal and illegal immigration into the United States translates into more crowded classrooms, a growing number of state and local officials are arguing that they can no longer shoulder the fiscal burden of educating immigrant children.
- Warning of possible “unintended consequences,” education researchers wave caution flags at proposals by the Clinton administration to create national curricular standards and a related set of assessments.
* The July date reflects differences in Education Week‘s publishing calendar over the years.
**These stories are not available online.
