November 30, 1988

Education Week, Vol. 08, Issue 13
Education News In Brief
Two Kentucky teachers have filed suit in state court alleging that the state's decision to adopt a self-insurance health plan represents a breach of contract.

In addition, a class action raising similar claims has been filed in federal district court on behalf of some 15,000 state workers, who are also covered under the plan.

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education Contested Racial-Balance Plan in San Jose Is Found Acceptable by 9th Circuit Court
The San Jose (Calif.) Unified School District may continue to operate its current desegregation plan without any midyear modifications, a federal appeals panel has ruled.
William Snider, November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education Suit by Chelsea Teachers Seeks To Thwart District Agreement With Boston University
In a last-ditch effort to block a proposed agreement that would allow Boston University to assume management of the Chelsea (Mass.) Public Schools, the Chelsea Teachers Union and the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers have jointly filed suit to kill the plan.
Robert Rothman, November 30, 1988
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3 min read
Education Washington State Educators At Odds Over Plans for Conduct Code
Despite intense public pressure to toughen policies regarding teachers who have been charged with molesting children, Washington State education officials have reached an impasse in the development of an unusually explicit "code of professional conduct."
Lisa Jennings, November 30, 1988
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6 min read
Education Winners in Competition for $24 Million in Federal Dropout-Prevention Grants This Fall
A total of $23.9 million in grants under the new school-dropout demonstration assistance program was authorized by the Education Department this fall under the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Amendments of 1988.
November 30, 1988
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4 min read
Education California Researchers 'Accelerate' Activities To Replace Remediation
With many participants wearing red and white lapel buttons reading "Don't Remediate, accelerate," the theme of the Stanford University conference here on educating "at risk" children was inescapable.
Richard Colvin, November 30, 1988
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9 min read
Education National News Roundup
The federal government should preserve "the complex system of public and private funding that sustains the arts and humanities in the United States," a Presidential panel has recommended.

"The main vehicle for support of the arts and humanities remains private monies," the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities states in a report issued this month. "We firmly believe government support is necessary, however, for it seems clear that the culture of this country cannot be sustained solely by private funding."

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education Pilgrim Nuclear Plant Unaffected by Reagan Order
President Reagan's Nov. 11 executive order allowing nuclear power plants to receive operating licenses without local approval of their emergency-evacuation plans will not affect the operations of the controversial Pilgrim plant in Plymouth, Mass.
Ellen Flax, November 30, 1988
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1 min read
Education National Officials Say It Is Time To End Test-Score 'Ratings Game'
Seeking an end to the college "ratings game," the presidents of the American Council on Education and the College Board have asked that school officials and the media stop using admissions-test scores to rank colleges and universities.

In an open letter to educators across the country, Robert H. Atwell of the ace and Donald Stewart of the College Board say that test results are just one indicator of the quality of incoming students and do not "necessarily say anything useful about the quality of what goes on in a college or university."

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education 60 U.S., Soviet Schools To Be in Exchange
Students from 30 U.S. high schools and a like number of Soviet schools will travel to each other's country early next year as the first participants in a new exchange program, officials announced last week.
November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education State News Roundup
Less than one-third of the students who graduated from Mississippi high schools in 1986 took enough academic courses to qualify for admission to the state's university system, according to estimates contained in a new report by the naacp Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc.

Approximately 38 percent of white students and only 20 percent of black graduates met the academic-curriculum requirements adopted in 1985 by the state's Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning, the report says.

November 30, 1988
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1 min read
Education Texas Panel Ducks Aid Issue, But Suggests New Reforms
After 10 months of study, a panel appointed to develop a new school-finance system for Texas has instead recommended three similar options, none of which would satisfy the court ruling that found the current finance system unconstitutional.
Nancy Mathis, November 30, 1988
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6 min read
Education District News Roundup
The Philadelphia Board of Education has approved a new salary package for principals and other administrators that includes a 19 percent salary increase over a four-year period, plus a first-ever provision for merit bonuses.

Beginning in 1990, principals who perform well will receive a bonus of at least 1 percent. Because the appraisal system will not be developed before Jan. 1, all 770 principals and assistant principals will share equally in the $359,170 merit-pay fund next year.

November 30, 1988
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7 min read
Education Media Column
Some of the more memorable television documentaries in recent years have appeared on the Home Box Office cable network, including the Emmy Award-winning "Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam," and "aids: Everything You and Your Family Need To Know ... But Were Afraid To Ask."

These and other hbo programs are now being sold for classroom use through the cable network's "Project Knowledge." The project will offer hbo documentaries to schools, libraries, and other institutions, along with study guides containing a bibliography, writing exercises, and other materials.

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education Librarians Plug Into the 'Information Age'
Beginning this week, the Quince Orchard High School's library will expand into students' homes.
Robert Rothman, November 30, 1988
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9 min read
Education Blanchard Unexpectedly Reshuffles School-Finance Deck
Gov. James J. Blanchard of Michigan has unveiled a controversial plan to revamp the state's school-finance system, a wholly unexpected move that enraged education groups and key figures in the House and Senate.
Tom Mirga, November 30, 1988
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5 min read
Education Science-Course Mandates Blamed For Low Participation in Physics
Low minimum graduation requirements and the traditional science-course sequence are largely responsible for the fact that only one in five high-school graduates takes a course in physics, a survey by the American Institute of Physics concludes.

Although 17 percent of high schools offered no physics courses at all in 1987, the survey found, most of those are relatively small. About 96 percent of high-school students attend schools where physics is offered.

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education Research and Reports
Middle schools do a better job of addressing the needs of adolescents than do other schools, according to a study by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

The a.s.c.d. found that middle schools, which serve the 6th through 8th grades, were the most likely of all organizational structures to use approaches "that attempt to respond to the particularly stressful physical, intellectual, and social needs" of 10- to 14-year-olds.

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education 30 Colleges Will Redesign Teacher Training
Thirty institutions have been chosen to participate in a three-year effort to redesign the way colleges and universities prepare teachers.

Known as Project 30, the initiative will bring together faculty members from the arts and sciences with those from teacher education to redesign their curricula based on answers to five broad questions:

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education News Update
A federal judge in Texas has agreed to hold a new trial in the case of a Waco, Tex., teacher who claimed she was pressured to give a passing grade to a high-school football player.

U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. set a new trial date of Feb. 6 and set aside the $77,000 a jury had awarded the teacher, Sue Collins, in October. The judge re6ported that time constraints had forced him to limit the number of witnesses each side could call during the original trial and did not allow for a full hearing by either side.

November 30, 1988
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1 min read
Education Texas Football Playoffs in Turmoil Over Charges of Grade Tampering
Allegations of grade tampering to aid a star running back have thrown the 5A state football championship--the holy grail of Texas high-school athletics--into disarray and forced the Dallas Independent School District to defend the integrity of its grading policy.
Nancy Mathis, November 30, 1988
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5 min read
Education Federal File
A Dallas-based executive- recruitment company that will employ Linus Wright when he leaves the Education Department is attempting to harness the attention-getting value of the undersecretary's title while he still has it.

G.S. Schwartz & Co., a public-relations firm, has been contacting journalists to offer interviews with Mr. Wright. Its representative, Roberta Chopp, acknowledged that her client is a recruitment firm that has hired the former Dallas school superintendent to launch its efforts in the education field.

November 30, 1988
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2 min read
Education Vermont Chief Eyes A Teacher-Majority Licensure Board
Vermont's commissioner of education has proposed creating one of the nation's first teacher-dominated state licensing boards as part of a sweeping overhaul in how the state sets standards for teachers and administrators.
Lynn Olson, November 30, 1988
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5 min read
Education Test Makers' 'Fairness' Standards
Following are the standards for test developers and users included in the new "Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education." The code, released this month, was developed by a joint committee representing major testing and professional organizations. Its signers thus far include: the American College Testing Program, American Guidance Services, the College Board, ctb/McGraw-Hill, dlm Teaching Resources, the Educational Testing Service, ncs Information Services, the Psychological Corporation, the Riverside Publishing Company, the Scholastic Testing Service, and Science Research Associates.

November 30, 1988
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5 min read
Education Early-Childhood Debates Highlighted at E.D. Forum
Washington--An Education Department symposium designed to help propel early-childhood professionals and policymakers toward a unified strategy may have done more to illuminate the obstacles to that goal.
Deborah L. Gold, November 30, 1988
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4 min read
Education Georgia 'Losers' Trade Self-Help Ideas on Dropouts
Atlanta--Like hundreds of other school districts nationwide, 29 of the 30 Georgia districts that applied for federal dropout-prevention grants found out this fall that they were "losers."
William Snider, November 30, 1988
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7 min read
Education 'Transition' Paper Cites Flaws in E.D. Program Guidance
The Education Department's failure to provide uniform guidance to states and localities participating in federal education programs has resulted in confusion and inequities, the General Accounting Office says in a new report.
Julie A. Miller, November 30, 1988
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5 min read
Education 'Explosion' in School Lawsuits Has Ended, 2 Unpublished Studies Find
The nation's appellate and supreme courts are accepting fewer lawsuits against school officials than they did during the 1960's and 1970's, and administrators seem to be winning a much higher percentage of them, two new studies by leading school-law experts have found.
Tom Mirga, November 30, 1988
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5 min read
Education Broader Data on Private Schools Planned by E.D.
The Education Department is sharply escalating its efforts to gather data on private schools and is promising to make a greater attempt to disseminate the information.
Kirsten Goldberg, November 30, 1988
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6 min read
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