April 29, 1992
Education Week, Vol. 11, Issue 32
Education
Opinion
Beyond the Verbal Confusion Over 'Tests'
A verbal confusion is muddying the debate about a national system of standards and assessments: The words "tests" and "assessments" are being used as if they were synonymous. Because the word "test" fits better into headlines, the press is particularly prone to this confusion. It has to be cleared up if there is to be any clarity about what we can expect from national standards and assessments.
Education
Minnesota Measure Extends Health-Insurance Coverage
In a move that will make health insurance available to thousands of uninsured children and their families, Minnesota lawmakers have adopted a sweeping health-insurance- reform bill.
Education
Seven Days a Week
For William M. Soult, a member of the St. Vrain Valley Board of Education, Feb. 10 as just another routine day.
Education
Cold War's End Wracks Schools in Base Town
PORTSMOUTH, N.H.--For the Educators, parents, and students of this charming port city, the end of the Cold War has meant not only an epochal shift in world geopolitics, but also a drastic educational upheaval.
Education
Q&A: Author Discusses Upcoming Carnegie Report on Youth Groups
In 1990, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, a project of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, created the Task Force on Youth Development and Community Programs.
Education
'Minimal' Training May Not Fit Boards' Needs
A growing number of states have begun requiring school-board members to undergo formal training in an effort to improve local education governance.
Education
District News Roundup
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the rights of Cincinnati teachers are not being violated by a district policy that takes race into account in deciding teacher transfers.
Education
Poll Finds Educators Endorse Creation of Fiber-Optic System
WASHINGTON--Providing new ammunition for the nation's telephone companies in their quest to revise federal laws to gain access to the lucrative video programming market, a national polling organization reports that educators it surveyed endorse the establishment of a nationwide fiber-optic-based telecommunications system.
Education
New Ga. Law Creates Telecommunications Network
Thanks to some deft maneuvering by Gov. Zell Miller, Georgia has enacted a law earmarking $50 million to establish an advanced telecommunications network to link rural schools with urban colleges and universities and interconnect the state's hospitals.
Education
People News
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has chosen Raymond Arveson as the new state superintendent of education.
Education
Unions Strive to Elect Friendly Board Members
I n 1989, after a bitter teachers' strike, United Teachers of Los Angeles campaigned hard to get four candidates who were sympathetic to the union's views elected to the board of education.
Education
Boards of Contention: Introduction
Last July, Massachusetts abolished the nation's first elected school board.
Education
Shift to High School Difficult for Many, Study Finds
Despite their higher levels of achievement in 10th grade compared with 8th grade, many students may be academically ill-prepared for the transition to high school, data from a massive federal survey suggest.
Education
Justices Hear Arguments In Pa. Abortion-Law Case
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in the closely-watched challenge to a Pennsylvania law placing restrictions on abortion, including the requirement that minors obtain the "informed consent" of one parent or a judge's permission before ending their pregnancy.
Education
New Evidence Confirms Link Between Low-Birthweight Babies and Smoking
WASHINGTON--Extensive new data from federal health officials confirm what other smaller studies have shown: Pregnant women who smoke are much more likely than nonsmokers to deliver low-birthweight babies.
Education
Associations Try To Be 'All Things to All People'
The National School Boards Association and its state affiliates have not exactly made names for themselves as reformers.
Education
In Promoting Change, Board Support Is Essential
While school boards seldom initiate innovations, researchers who have studied school change have found, they are crucial to ensuring that they are carried out.
Education
Justice Ponders Bolstering Ability To Prosecute Juvenile Offenders
As part of the Bush Administration's "war on crime," the Justice Department is contemplating steps to enhance the federal government's ability to prosecute juvenile offenders.
Education
Channel One Impact of Knowledge Gauged
The Channel One classroom television news show did not significantly increase the current-events knowledge of most high-school student viewers, according to the results of a one-year study released last week.
Education
Kentucky Lawmakers Redefine Power of School Boards
In 1989, the struggle by a group of Kentucky school boards to overhaul the state's school-finance system was rewarded with a landmark supreme-court decision that forced the state to throw out its entire public education infrastructure and start over.
Education
Education Data Seen Bypassing Disabled Youths
WASHINGTON--Between 40 percent and 50 percent of all students with disabilities are excluded from the sampling procedures used in some of the most prominent surveys and assessments used to measure the nation's educational well-being, according to a new study.
English-Language Learners
Bilingual Education Column
A growing percentage of U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home, according to data from the 1990 U.S. Census.
Education
B.U. To Open Accelerated High School for Gifted Students
Boston University will open a private high school in the fall of 1993 that will require students to complete their first year of college coursework during their senior year, university officials announced last week.
Education
Disabled Girls Face Poorer Prospects 3 to 5 Years After School
A new national study suggests that young women with disabilities face more dismal prospects for life after high school than do their male counterparts.
Education
Report Documents New Round of State Fiscal Lows
The health of state budgets continued to decline for the third straight year and year-end balances are expected to near rock bottom, according to a report issued last week by the National Governors' Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.
Education
Minneapolis Schools Suspend High-Stakes Kindergarten Testing
Kindergartners will not have to face a familiar rite of passage in Minneapolis this spring: a 20-minute test that could determine whether they enter the 1st grade.
Education
Up for Discussion
Although many policymakers and practitioners agree that school boards need to be fixed, they are far from reaching a consensus on the solution.
Education
Skilled Labor Not Seen in Demand in Rural Areas
The notion that smarter graduates I are needed to meet the demands of rural economic development is not justifiable by economic data, which instead suggest that the trend toward high-skill jobs is far from reaching rural areas, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.