Six secondary school principals have been named finalists in the first National Principal of the Year competition.
The finalists are: Janie Ruth Hatton, Milwaukee Trade and Technical High School; David A. Kergaard, Kent County High School, Worton, Md.; Billie Jean Knight, Manhattan Beach (Calif.) Intermediate School; Dennis Littky, Thayer Junior/Senior High School, Winchester, N.H.; William C. Martin, Bleyl Junior High School, Houston; and Yvonne S. Minor, Walter H. Dyett Middle School, Chicago.
The competition is sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The winner, to be announced Jan. 27, will receive a $7,500 grant for his or her school; other finalists will receive $2,500 grants.
Michael Milken, the former junk-bond magnate and education benefactor who was convicted of six felony financial crimes, was released to a halfway house in Los Angeles last week after 22 months in prison.
Under terms of his release, Mr. Milken must now perform 1,800 hours of community service.
The former financier said in a statement that during his imprisonment he had worked to “create educational opportunities and tutoring’’ with his fellow inmates. His spokeswoman said Mr. Milken will devote more attention to the educational philanthropy he and his family established several years ago and hopes to be otherwise active in education.
The Milken Family Foundations, founded by Mr. Milken and his brother Lowell, give “no strings’’ grants of $25,000 to exemplary teachers and principals. The philanthropy also funds a variety of drug- and civics-education programs, libraries, and minority scholarships. (See Education Week, Nov. 14, 1990.)
Gregory R. Anrig, who has served as the president of the Educational Testing Service since 1981, has announced that he is retiring at the end of this year.
During his tenure, Mr. Anrig said, the E.T.S., the nation’s largest testing firm, has contributed to what he called the three major changes in educational assessment: the shift to performance-based assessment, computerized assessment, and assessment that serves instruction.
He added that he would continue to speak on issues of educational excellence and equity. “Unlike General MacArthur, I don’t plan to fade away,’' Mr. Anrig said.
The E.T.S.'s board of trustees has formed a committee, led by former U.S. Commissioner of Education Harold Howe 2nd, to search for a successor.