March 24, 1993
Education Week, Vol. 12, Issue 26
Education
In Face of Fire, Ohio Officials Seek Backing for Bill
Ohio's Governor and state school chief are engaging in damage control after a far-ranging school-reform bill they rolled out earlier this month drew fire from Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike, the state's largest teachers' union, and Roman Catholic educators.
Education
Dade Officials Under Fire for Slow Pace Of $980 Million Construction Effort
School officials in Dade County, Fla., are under fire for building just half of the schools they promised five years ago when voters approved a $980 million bond issue.
Special Education
Special Education Column
One-half of the extremely premature infants born in the United States may need special-education services when they enter kindergarten, a study by researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo suggests.
Education
NCATE Analysis of Education Schools To Help Forge Partnerships With States
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education has produced a state-by-state analysis of accredited teacher education institutions to help it formulate plans for forging partnerships with states.
Education
Books: New in Print
Adolescent Issues
Bringing Up Parents: The Teenagers Handbook, by Alex J. Packer (Free Spirit Publishing, 400 First Ave., North, Ste. 616, Minneapolis, Minn. 55401; 276 pp., $12.95 paper). Provides teenagers with strategies to resolve conflicts with parents, earn trust and independence, and accept responsibility.
Bringing Up Parents: The Teenagers Handbook, by Alex J. Packer (Free Spirit Publishing, 400 First Ave., North, Ste. 616, Minneapolis, Minn. 55401; 276 pp., $12.95 paper). Provides teenagers with strategies to resolve conflicts with parents, earn trust and independence, and accept responsibility.
Education
Administration Readies Reform, Assessment Bill
WASHINGTON--Clinton Administration officials were preparing to send a major piece of education-reform legislation to Capitol Hill late last week and hoping that House Democrats who are cool to some of its provisions will support it out of party loyalty.
Education
Houston Mulls Turning School Security Over to Police
Striving to make its schools safer for students and employees, the Houston Independent School District is considering turning its school-security operations over to the city police force.
Education
Books: Excerpts
On Choosing a 'High Democratic Culture'
Arthur G. Wirth's Education and Work for the Year 2000: Choices We Face offers one of the most thoughtful syntheses to date of school-reform issues and their relation to changes in the American workplace. In the excerpt below, the professor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis discusses the social dimensions of failure to adequately address the economically linked education needs of the new century--needs that will require imparting the reasoning and computer-science skills used by an "informating,'' rather than an automated, workforce:
Arthur G. Wirth's Education and Work for the Year 2000: Choices We Face offers one of the most thoughtful syntheses to date of school-reform issues and their relation to changes in the American workplace. In the excerpt below, the professor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis discusses the social dimensions of failure to adequately address the economically linked education needs of the new century--needs that will require imparting the reasoning and computer-science skills used by an "informating,'' rather than an automated, workforce:
Education
State News Roundup
A new study offers evidence that children who attended preschool programs implemented under Kentucky's landmark education-reform law fared better in kindergarten than children who did not.
Education
Basic Training
Vermont's ambitious overhaul of schooling for its 90,000 students--known as the Green Mountain Challenge and driven by the aim of nothing less than "very high skills for every student: no exceptions, no excuses''--fueled this intense interest in professional development.
School Choice & Charters
Gains Seen in Philadelphia Schools With 'Charters'
Philadelphia students who are attached to "charters''--small units within the city's large, comprehensive high schools--earn better grades and attend classes more frequently than other students, data from the school district show.
Education
'People Problem' Plagues Providence District, Report Says
The Providence, R.I., school district is plagued by poor communications and "a profound lack of trust'' among its employees that inhibits decisionmaking, asserts a report that recommends 39 changes to the troubled system.
Education
Reich Challenges Business To Match Clinton's Summer Jobs
Secretary of Labor
Robert B. Reich last week challenged
the business community to
match one for one the number of jobs
that would be created under President
Clinton's summer-employment
plan, for a total of 2.6 million jobs for
disadvantaged youths this summer.
Education
Federal File: Getting around; On the line; Panel advisory
The Clinton Administration plans to add explicit mention of arts and foreign-language education to the national education goals, Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley disclosed last week.
Education
'Attitudinal Barriers' Seen Hurting Youth Services in Calif.
"Attitudinal barriers'' such as the fear of losing power or turf are the biggest roadblocks to improving the way that California agencies serve children and families, a group studying the state's youth policy concludes.
Education
School-Spending Patterns Can Influence Student Achievement, New Data Suggest
Initial research suggests that school-spending patterns can influence student achievement, a report released last week by researchers experimenting with a new local cost-analysis model asserts.
Education
Va. District Kills Program Tying Teacher Pay to Merit
Responding to budget pressures and lobbying by teachers' unions, the Fairfax County, Va., school board voted this month to begin phasing out its nationally watched merit-pay system for teachers.
Education
News in Brief
New York City and its school board filed suit against the state last week, claiming that the existing school-aid formula is inequitable and discriminates against minority students.
Education
Amid Uncertainty, Los Angeles Board Approves Reform Plan
The Los Angeles board of education last week unanimously approved a wide-ranging reform plan that has been touted as the last, best hope for revitalizing the troubled district.
Education
N.Y.C. Debate Over 'Rainbow' Curriculum Still Raging in Many Board Races
"Pat Robertson has come to town! Defeat the religious right! Save our school boards! Vote on May 4!'' proclaims a brochure issued by People about Changing Education, one of several groups trying to mobilize voters for the upcoming 32 local school board elections here.
Education
News Updates
A federal appeals court has granted a request by the Louisiana attorney general to delay the implementation of a court-ordered restructuring of the state's higher-education system.
Education
20% of Schools Have High Levels of Radon, E.P.A. Finds
WASHINGTON--Twenty percent of the nation's public schools have at least one classroom contaminated with harmful levels of radon, according to early data from an Environmental Protection Agency survey released at a House subcommittee hearing here last week.
Education
Pa. District's Service Mandate Found Constitutional
A Pennsylvania school district's requirement that high school students perform 60 hours of unpaid community service in order to graduate was found constitutional by a federal appeals court last week.
Education
Alliance Created To Link Efforts Seeking To 'Reinvent Government'
Reformers interested in gaining
access to information and ideas on
how to "reinvent government" can
now turn to a new organization devoted
to making government more
entrepreneurial and decentralized.
Education
People News
A group of educators from across the country who were investigating "expeditionary learning'' while whitewater rafting on the Colorado River this month rescued a man who had been stranded in the wilderness for 20 days.
Education
Conservative-Leaning Think Tanks Putting Imprint on Education Policy
When Gov. Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin presented his 1994 budget last month, two of the most eye-catching education proposals were based in part on the work of a Milwaukee-based think tank that has become an increasingly important player in state-policy debates.
Education
Congress May Abolish 'Chastity Act,' Some Predict
With a Democrat in the White House, a controversial federal program that funds sex-education efforts stressing abstinence and prenatal care for teenage mothers may be abolished or reshaped into a broader sex-education program with a less conservative focus, Congressional sources and some of the program's participants predict.