November 25, 1987

Education Week, Vol. 07, Issue 12
Education $2.5-Billion Child-Care Proposal Unveiled
Citing an urgent need to provide high-quality care for the growing number of children of working mothers, House and Senate sponsors last week introduced a $2.5-billion proposal to expand and improve day care for low- and moderate-income families.
Deborah L. Gold, November 25, 1987
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4 min read
Education Arkansas Union Drops Suit Over Teacher Tests
One of the first and most acrimonious legal disputes over the issue of competency tests for practicing teachers ended this month when the Arkansas affiliate of the National Education Association withdrew a federal lawsuit seeking to halt the state's testing program.
Blake Rodman, November 25, 1987
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6 min read
Education Automatic Budget Cuts Looming
Washington--Automatic budget reductions that could drop spending for federal education programs below fiscal 1987 levels seemed a virtual certainty late last week, as White House and Congressional negotiators faltered in their efforts to conclude a deficit-reduction agreement by the Nov. 20 deadline.
Reagan Walker, November 25, 1987
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3 min read
Education News in Brief
N.J. Governor Planning To Revive Takeover Bill

November 25, 1987
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4 min read
Education State Journal
Abuzz over school aid in the Beehive State

November 25, 1987
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2 min read
Education People News
Walter Cronkite has agreed to act as honorary chairman of a national fund-raising campaign for the Challenger Foundation, the organization established last year to raise money for a new national science-education center.

The foundation was created by the families of the seven astronauts who were killed Jan. 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded a minute after liftoff. It is the only memorial effort endorsed by all the families.

November 25, 1987
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1 min read
Education Teacher-Preparation Standards Revised
The National Council for the Social Studies has revised its teacher-preparation standards to make them compatible with the broader reforms being proposed for teacher education.
Robert Rothman, November 25, 1987
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1 min read
Education Americans, Soviets Critique Texts
The errors and distortions contained in Soviet and American textbooks help foster the mutual "fear and paranoia" of the two superpowers, a group of scholars from both countries said here last week.
Robert Rothman, November 25, 1987
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4 min read
Education Wisconsin 'Learnfare' Law Delayed To Ease Expected Enrollment Rush
State officials in Wisconsin have agreed to delay the implementation of Gov. Tommy Thompson's controversial new "learnfare" program requiring teen-age members of welfare families to attend school or risk losing state aid.
Debra Viadero, November 25, 1987
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5 min read
Education Educators' Role in Abuse Cases Questioned After Child's Death
The death this month in New York City of 6-year-old Elizabeth Steinberg, known as Lisa, has presented educators there and elsewhere with troubling questions about their role in protecting children from child abuse.
Kirsten Goldberg, November 25, 1987
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1 min read
Education Catholic Bishops Sharply Attack School Clinics
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops last week called for the enactment of federal and state laws that would bar school-based health clinics from dispensing contraceptives and providing abortion counseling.
Kirsten Goldberg, November 25, 1987
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5 min read
Education Districts News Roundup
The Chicago Public Schools, which this month drew criticism from U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett as the "worst system in the nation," came under fire again last week after a local group released a study revealing that nearly two-thirds of the district's 1985 graduates were unemployed or working in "dead end" jobs.

The Hiring Policy Goals Committee, one of two community-alliance groups formed by Mayor Harold Washington to address the city's educational problems, used statistics from the Mayor's Office of Employment and Training to show that 32 percent, or 5,100, of the 1985 graduates were unemployed. Another 31 percent were employed in what the committee called "dead end" jobs.

November 25, 1987
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3 min read
Education National News Roundup
A group of education leaders has organized a national policy board on educational administration to improve professional preparation programs and strengthen certification standards for superintendents, principals, and other school leaders.

The Danforth Foundation, a St. Louis-based philanthropy dedicated to educational improvement, has agreed to provide $179,000 over the next three years to establish the board, and the University of Virginia has agreed to staff and house the project.

November 25, 1987
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3 min read
Education Students and Adult Adviser Killed in Denver Plane Crash
Melba (Idaho) High School students grieved last week at the news that two schoolmates and their adult adviser were among those killed in the Nov. 15 crash of a Continental Airlines flight taking off from Denver bound for Boise.

The students and the adviser were part of a group of six students and two teachers from the school returning from a convention of the Future Farmers of America in Kansas City. All told, 27 died in the crash.

November 25, 1987
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1 min read
Education Court Voids Damages for Schools Near Power Line
The Texas Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court's decision awarding $25 million in punitive damages to a school district that argued that a power company increased students' risk of cancer by placing a 345,000-volt electrical line near three school buildings.

The jury that heard the case properly concluded that the Houston Lighting & Power Company recklessly disregarded the safety of some 3,000 students when it placed the power line in close proximity to their schools in the Klein Independent School District, the appeals court ruled Nov. 5.

November 25, 1987
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2 min read
Education Child Abuse and Neglect: What To Watch for, What To Do
The following questions and answers are based on an interview with Joy R. Byers, coordinator of public awareness for the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse; a booklet prepared by her organization, Educators, Schools, and Child Abuse; and a book published by the National Education Association, Child Abuse and Neglect: A Teacher's Handbook for Detection, Reporting and Classroom Management.

November 25, 1987
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7 min read
Education Research and Reports
High-school students' grades suffer when they work in part-time jobs for more than 20 hours a week, a new study by George Washington University researchers has found.

Based on interviews with 446 college-bound students employed by seven fast-food restaurant chains nationwide, the study6found that students who worked more than 20 hours had an average grade-point average of 6.47 on a 9-point scale--a B. The grade-point average of those who worked fewer than 20 hours a week averaged 6.81, or a B-plus.

November 25, 1987
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1 min read
Education Members Seek Quicker--And Slower--Pace on Indicators
Too fast or too slow?
That was the question faced by the Council of Chief State School Officers last week, when it released its first volume of state data on education.
Lynn Olson, November 25, 1987
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3 min read
Education Social-Studies Panel Seeking 'New and Coherent Vision' for Field
The first large-scale review in more than 50 years of what is taught under the rubric of the social studies got underway this month, as members of the National Commission on Social Studies met here for the first time.
Robert Rothman, November 25, 1987
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6 min read
Education States News Roundup
Humanities instruction in 10 rural districts in South Carolina will be boosted over the next three years by a program funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Rural Education Alliance for Collaborative Humanities will allow junior and senior high-school teachers from each of the selected districts to work with instructors from participating state colleges and universities to develop innovative instructional programs.

November 25, 1987
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1 min read
Education Excerpts From Prelates' Policy Statement
Following are excerpts from the 26-page policy statement adopted last week by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on the subject of school-based clinics that provide family-planning services.

November 25, 1987
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7 min read
Education Plug Pulled on Frog Advocate's TV Ad
To Apple Computer officials, it seemed a natural.
Hire Jenifer Graham, the California high-school student who got national media attention last year when she refused to dissect a frog in her biology class.
Reagan Walker, November 25, 1987
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1 min read
Education Bennett Defends His Stance on AIDS
At a conference on aids held here last week, Secretary of Education William J. Bennett contended that his views supporting widespread testing for the disease and education programs that emphasize the virtue of sexual abstinence are becoming more widely accepted.
November 25, 1987
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3 min read
Education District's Drug-Test Program Overturned By Appeals Court
The District of Columbia school district can require its transportation workers to submit to drug tests as part of routine physical examinations, but under its current policy it can only use a urine test that screens employees for impairment while they are on duty, a federal appeals court here has ruled.
Tom Mirga, November 25, 1987
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6 min read
Education Conferees Act on Trade Bill's School Provisions
House-Senate conferees have taken a big step toward agreement on education provisions of the massive trade bill pending before the Congress.
Julie A. Miller, November 25, 1987
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4 min read
Education Special-Ed. Unit's Problems 'Profound,' Dart Tells Panel
Departing from political protocol, Justin W. Dart Jr., federal commissioner of rehabilitative services, delivered stinging criticism of the agency he serves during a Congressional hearing last week.
Debra Viadero, November 25, 1987
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4 min read
Education Opinion 'What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know?': A Critique
Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn Jr. have written an illusory account of the state of literacy and historical knowledge among the nation's students. With its inflated title, What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know? A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature, and the stingiest of disclaimers ("[the assessment] tests a representative sampling of knowledge but does not claim to test everything worth knowing in these two major fields"), this book is merely the latest bleak offering in this dismal season of school reform.
William Ayers, November 25, 1987
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9 min read
Education Opinion Who Should Assess Teachers?
Tests of professional skills can help establish meaningful standards for a given profession, which, in turn, can lead to improvements in the general level of professional competence. Such tests, however, must be generated by the profession being tested, not by government. With the recent appointment of the president and members of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the teaching profession is on its way to developing such standards.
Lawrence M. Rudner, November 25, 1987
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4 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Letters to the Editor
Patricia Surber Principal Linwood Fundamental Academy Cincinnati, Ohio

In Adam Urbanski's Commentary, "Restructuring the Teaching Profession" (Oct. 28, 1987), it was noteworthy that the Rochester (N.Y.) Teachers Association is designing programs meant to improve teachers' skills and to provide them a voice in planning their careers.

November 25, 1987
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5 min read
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