January 15, 1986
And in this and other developments, according to school-finance experts, research findings on effective schools are reopening an old debate over the extent to which money and resources affect student achievement.
The Matsushita Foundation, founded in late 1984 with a $10-million endowment by the Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, plans to support programs that:
The report, issued recently by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, notes that HB 72, the omnibus school-reform law, has had immediate positive effects. It cites increases in teacher salaries, a shift in school funding from local property taxes to state taxes, and a reduction in the disparities between poor and wealthy districts as financing changes that were successful "even in the first year."
All but 200 of the district's 2,800 teachers were striking, a union official reported. But schools continued to operate on half-day schedules, with substitute teachers covering classes. Student attendance was low, the official reported.
Dr. Bowen, 67, who most recently held the position of Lester D. Bibler professor of family medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, replaces Margaret M. Heckler.
The agreement to meet reflects a new "sense of urgency" about the need to clean up cancer-causing asbestos in the nation's schools and to ensure that the job is done safely, said William K. Borwegen, health and safety director of the Service Employees International Union.
But the hotel's managers thought they knew where the statues might find a warm welcome.
The state's college presidents' association has drawn up a list of more than three dozen ideas to raise the number of students attending college, including 24 suggested "action items,"according to Father Thomas Acker, president of Wheeling College and the head of the group.
And though few in the research community question the validity of this approach to school improvement, many are beginning to identify weaknesses in the original studies and point out questions that the literature has yet to answer.
School-reform legislation approved by the legislature last June calls for voluntary unification of districts, subject to approval by voters in each local district in April 1987. The law, which recommends minimum district enrollments of 1,500 students, also authorizes studies in each of the state's 59 education regions to devise plans for merging districts.
One of the first changes the school made, he says, was to be stricter with respect to homework. Students who did not do their work stayed in during recess or lunch periods to finish it. Teachers also began sending home reports to parents telling them when their children had failed to complete the assignments.
In return, the Governor has reiterated his support for a lay state board of education and has said he would oppose legislative efforts to abolish it.
The urban schools filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Pulido v. Bennett, a broader suit against the department's response to Felton that was filed in September by Americans United for Separation of Church and State in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Missouri.
Superintendent David A. Bennett, as part of a three-year "Strategies for Excellence and Equity" plan, also asked for legal authority to assess fines against the parents of children who have unsatisfactory attendance records.