September 4, 1996
Congress Returns: One More Month and Out
Congress returned to work last week with several education-related bills to consider.
Where's the beef?
The federal government has been trying for more than a decade to recognize yogurt as something more than an "uncredited food" in its meals programs.
President Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, enter the home stretch of the 1996 presidential campaign with starkly different visions for the future of America's schools.
Few Oregon students are ready to meet the higher academic standards for high school that the state school board is expected to approve this month, new assessment results show.
The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a Kentucky citizens' group that helped build support for the 1990 overhaul of the state's public schools, is launching a new program to train and motivate parents to become more involved in education.
Each year, in school districts across the country, hundreds or even thousands of students fail to show up on the first day of the new school year.
Charles Olson is not one to sentimentalize parent involvement in education. He knows that many parents only stir themselves to complain. And he thinks Americans have become reactive, expecting their elected officials to solve problems rather than playing a constructive role themselves.
To be effective, school leaders should have a deep knowledge of teaching and learning, according to new draft standards drawn up by a consortium of states and education groups.
In what has become an annual barometer of high school achievement, the release of results from the two major college-admissions tests showed overall improvements in 1996.
Government-issued vouchers that parents can use to pay their children's tuition at religious as well as other nonpublic schools, for years an idea debated in white papers and court cases, have become a reality for hundreds of low-income children in Cleveland.
In a book published as his re-election campaign moves into high gear, President Clinton recounts the education initiatives pushed by his administration, his election-year proposals to help students and families pay for higher education, and his support for such community-based youth-improvement strategies as teen curfews, school uniforms, and truancy laws.
The Toledo, Ohio, schools have hired Merrill A. Grant as the district's new superintendent. Mr. Grant, the principal of the city's Riverside Elementary School, is the former chief of three urban school systems in Wisconsin, California, and Arizona. The 60-year-old administrator beat out five other candidates for the job of running the 38,000-student district, including Public Strategies Group Inc., a private company based in St. Paul, Minn. The company has managed the Minneapolis public schools since it was hired by the district in December 1993. Mr. Grant was given a three-year contract at a salary of $110,000 a year. He replaces Crystal Ellis, who will retire in November. ... Preston C. Kronkosky, the president and chief executive officer of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, has announced that he will retire. Mr. Kronkosky has been with the Austin, Texas-based education-research organization for 28 years, the last 15 as president and CEO. He will step down in November. ... Pat Nickell has begun her term as the 1996-97 president of the National Council for the Social Studies. Ms. Nickell serves as the director of instructional-improvement services for the Fayette County, Ky., schools. The 22,000-member organization is based in Washington.
A new federal survey that says drug use among the nation's teenagers has doubled in the past few years has touched off a bitter election-year debate and left educators wondering what they've done wrong.
A New Jersey school board's decision to retain a black high school teacher over an equally qualified white teacher to preserve racial diversity violated federal law, a federal appeals court has ruled.
California school districts have embarked on a massive teacher-hiring spree sparked by a nearly $1 billion state initiative to reduce class sizes in the primary grades.
Officials of the nation's largest teachers' union came to the Republican National Convention here determined to make inroads into a party that often sees them as an enemy.
Ill. Finance Compromise Signed
Gov. Jim Edgar of Illinois has signed a Republican-backed bill dispensing $52.5 million in grants to school districts and calling for tougher testing, stronger academic standards, and tightened school security.