December 4, 1996
Education Week, Vol. 16, Issue 14
Education
Answering Neglect Charges, Weld Focuses on Schools
Back in the Massachusetts capital full time after losing a hard-fought bid for the U.S. Senate, Gov. William F. Weld said that education needs to be his top priority.
School & District Management
Rogelio "Roger" Cuevas
Rogelio "Roger" Cuevas
Born: Sept. 26, 1943, in Caibarien, Cuba.
Born: Sept. 26, 1943, in Caibarien, Cuba.
Education
Making a Policy Point: Does Anybody Listen?
New York
In a posh hotel not far from Central Park, a small group of lobbyists, administrators, and legislators gathered to consider an interesting question: Does anybody in the public schools ever hear the policy debates that rage back and forth at the state level?
Education
The Players
Julius W. Becton Jr.
Position: Chief executive officer, District of Columbia public schools.
Position: Chief executive officer, District of Columbia public schools.
Education
News in Brief: A National Roundup
Razor-Thin Bond Losses for 2 California Districts
The Los Angeles Unified School Districts $2.4 billion repair and construction bond has failed by a little more than one percentage point.
Federal
House Education Panel Is Getting a New Look
Education's prominent role in the recent congressional elections did not translate into interest in working on the House committee that deals with federal school policy.
College & Workforce Readiness
Ore. District Bounty Hunters Out To Bag Truants
School officials in a rural district 20 miles north of Eugene, Ore., have found a new way to lure truants back into the classroom: They put a price on their heads.
Law & Courts
Court To Weigh Race's Role in Voting Districts
When the Bossier Parish school board began considering new boundaries for its voting districts in 1992, George Price and others in the local NAACP saw a chance to carve out two majority-black districts.
Education
Education's 'Dark Continent'
When education researchers gathered this year for their annual convention, they found before them a dazzling array of seminars, discussions, and presentations on the most important issues in their field.
Student Well-Being
District Not Liable for Harassment of Student By Peers, Court Rules
A federal jury in New York state has ruled against the family of a former student in the South Kortright district who said she was sexually harassed by boys in her 6th grade class.
Education
Clarification
A news brief in the Nov. 20 issue of Education Week may have implied that Texas officials adopted one social studies textbook series. The state approved five text sets.
Education
Critics Blame Administrator Raises For Defeat of Bond in Sacramento
A mostly lame-duck school board in Sacramento, Calif., has come under fire for approving big pay raises for administrators.
Education
Research Notes
It's one of the toughest questions in elementary education: Should low-achieving students be singled out for special programs designed to help them catch up? Or do such programs relegate children to the educational slow lane for years to come?
Tracking Patterns Persist
It's one of the toughest questions in elementary education: Should low-achieving students be singled out for special programs designed to help them catch up? Or do such programs relegate children to the educational slow lane for years to come?
Education
Federal File
Rep. William L. Clay of Missouri, the leading Democrat on the House Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, was happy to see the African-American delegation in the House lose one of its members after Election Day.
'Dishonorable' discharge
Rep. William L. Clay of Missouri, the leading Democrat on the House Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, was happy to see the African-American delegation in the House lose one of its members after Election Day.
Education
Law Group Plays Name Game To Signal New Course
Hundreds of lawyers, academics, and administrators arrived here as members of the National Organization on Legal Problems in Education and left as members of the Education Law Association.
Education
News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
Judge Says Arizona Finance Fix Falls Short; Mo. Supreme Court Upholds 1993 Finance Law; Texas Gov. Calls Draft of Standards Too Vague; After Vote, Officials Rethink Taxes in Idaho
Education
SAT-Prep Programs Seek To Give Disadvantaged Students a Leg Up
Among the throngs of students across the country who have prepared extensively to take the SAT this coming Saturday are 26 African-American students from inner city Atlanta.
School & District Management
D.C. Schools Chief Takes Reins as Balance of Power Shifts
Julius W. Becton Jr., the retired general tapped to lead the District of Columbia schools, will need all the tactical know-how he can muster to reverse the sagging fortunes of the deeply troubled school system.
Education
Pact Ties Administrator Pay to Performance
Administrators in the Rochester, N.Y., school district have approved a three-year contract that includes an unusual system for holding principals and other employees accountable for their job performance.
Equity & Diversity
Seattle To Shelve Race-Based Busing In Shift Toward Neighborhood Schools
Responding to public discontent over its methods of assigning students, the Seattle school district has decided to phase out race-based busing to allow more students to attend neighborhood schools.
Education
The Essential Ted Sizer
After a decade, America's most famous education reformer is battle weary but as idealistic and hopeful as ever.
Curriculum
Teachers' Unions: Additional Reading
- United Mind Workers: Organizing Teaching in the Knowledge Society, by Charles Taylor Kerchner, Julia E. Koppich, and Joseph G. Weeres, Jossey-Bass, 1997. Scholars of teachers' unions propose a new model of labor relations in a decentralized school system.
- The Teacher Unions, by Myron Lieberman, Free Press, 1997. A critic of the two national teachers' unions offers a detailed examination of their political influence.
- Restoring Prosperity: How Workers and Managers Are Forging a New Culture of Cooperation, by Wellford W. Wilms, Times Books, Random House, 1996. A professor of education offers lessons from union-management relations in manufacturing plants.
- "How Teachers' Unions Affect Education Production," by Caroline Minter Hoxby, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1996. A Harvard University economics professor finds that teachers' unions increase school budgets, but reduce productivity enough to have a negative overall effect on student performance.
- "Are Teachers' Unions Hurting American Education? A State-by-State Analysis of the Impact of Collective Bargaining Among Teachers on Student Performance," by F. Howard Nelson, Michael Rosen, and Brian Powell, Institute for Wisconsin's Future, October 1996.
Assessment
Analysis Finds Little Change in NAEP Performance
Although students in the Southeastern region of the United States appear to have made some of the greatest academic strides over the long term, the overall picture of student performance in the nation is one of some early gains followed by a recent stabilization, a new U.S. Department of Education study reports.
School Choice & Charters
In '96 Sessions, Charter Laws Keep Spreading
The charter school movement picked up six states and the District of Columbia during legislative sessions this year, and the momentum is likely to continue when lawmakers return to state capitals next month.
School & District Management
Dade Board Looks Inside To Tap New Superintendent
Less than a day after it was sworn in, the new Dade County, Fla., school board, in a unanimous vote, picked a top district administrator as the new superintendent.