February 9, 2000
Education Week, Vol. 19, Issue 22
Mathematics
Lawmakers Hear Both Sides In 'Math Wars'
The "math wars" came to Capitol Hill last week during a House hearing on 10 mathematics programs that received the Department of Education's seal of approval last fall.
Education
Federal File
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and the National School Boards Association usually find little common ground when it comes to education policy. But the Mississippi Republican and NSBA members tried to forge a conversation last week when the group invited the senator to be a keynote speaker at its annual federal-relations conference in Washington.
Lott of disagreement
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and the National School Boards Association usually find little common ground when it comes to education policy. But the Mississippi Republican and NSBA members tried to forge a conversation last week when the group invited the senator to be a keynote speaker at its annual federal-relations conference in Washington.
IT Infrastructure & Management
Commission Begins Study Of Online Educational Materials
With razzle-dazzle and some lofty goals, a panel created by Congress to explore the Internet's potential uses for education kicked off its public deliberations last week.
Reading & Literacy
'Book Stamps' Proposed For Poor Families With Children
A leading Senate Democrat is proposing to help nourish young minds with a plan that would provide "book stamps"—inspired by the federal food stamp program—for low-income families with small children.
Special Education
Study Shows Early Intervention Can Avert Spec. Ed. Needs
Using intervention strategies in early childhood is critical to preventing behavior problems and the need for special education services later, results released last week from a 25-year study on disruptive toddlers show.
School & District Management
Blue-Ribbon Panel To Set Standards For Reform Models
Nonprofit and for-profit organizations today are peddling dozens of "whole school" designs intended to improve student achievement. Now, a blue-ribbon panel has taken on the task of helping schools separate the wheat from the chaff.
Standards
Achieve Provides Indiana With 'Honest, Tough' Review
Indiana's academic standards are clear, concise, jargon-free, and generally well-aligned with the state's assessments, an independent review has found. But the guidelines for what students should learn in each grade have a low level of rigor compared with those of some other states, content is repeated across and within grades, and the tests are not as challenging as they should be, the analysis concludes.
Standards
Key Findings
Standards: While Indiana's English/language arts and mathematics standards are clear, concise, and strong in some areas, they do not always reflect a clear progression of content knowledge and skills from grade to grade. Some content is repetitive, and other necessary material is missing or incomplete.
Assessment
Ariz. Ranks Schools By 'Value Added' to Scores
Arizona has joined a handful of states and some school districts that use an accountability tool called value-added assessment.
College & Workforce Readiness
Colleges
Merit-Award Analysis: Increasingly popular state merit-based scholarship programs widen the gap between rich and poor by wasting precious funds on students from middle- and upper-income families who could pay for college with their own money, a report by a leading higher education group says.
School & District Management
Mich. Superintendent Still on the Job At 92 and Counting
If Burdette W. Andrews were a river, his waters would flow straight and sure through the village of Vandercook Lake, beside its two schoolhouses.
Student Well-Being
NCAA To Accept More Nontraditional Core High School Courses
Acknowledging that some of its requirements for gauging the academic eligibility of prospective college athletes do not reflect curriculum and instructional trends in U.S. high schools, the ncaa has agreed to expand its view of which courses meet the standards for participation in college sports.
School Climate & Safety
Rural Education
Building Communities: A coalition of groups concerned about rural education is pointing local leaders to school construction money they might not otherwise know existed. The federal funds—mostly in the form of loans that can be had at better-than-market terms—are intended to simultaneously fix up schools and build stronger communities.
College & Workforce Readiness
Fewer Dropouts From Career Academies, Study Says
Career academies don't necessarily raise students' test scores, but they do help at-risk youths stay in school, according to the latest findings from a long-term study conducted by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp.
School Climate & Safety
Fire Down Below
Relics of the Industrial Age, coal-fired boilers provide the primary source of heat in about 130 New York City Schools. A look down-under.
Relics of the Industrial Age, coal-fired boilers provide the primary source of heat in about 130 New York City Schools. A look down-under.
Education
News in Brief: A Washington Roundup
- Bill Would Forbid All States
To Allow Bets on School Sports - Budget Plan To Address 'Digital Divide'
- NSBA Recommends Changes to Title I
Education
News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
- Florida Ed. Dept. Looking Into Bible-History Classes
- Texas Cracks Down on Class Size
- 'Chain Gang Charlie' in Fla. Race
- Va. 'Minute of Silence' Advances
Assessment
Chicago Testing Flap Ends In Compromise With State
Chicago schools chief Paul G. Vallas said he "gave a little, and got a lot" from a compromise he made with state education officials after threatening not to administer state tests that the district's 430,000 students ended up taking last week.
Education
Education Week Series Wins Benjamin Fine Award
A series of articles in Education Week that examined the sexual abuse of students by school employees and the frequent lack of safeguards against such abuse has won the grand prize in the Benjamin Fine Awards for education journalism.
School & District Management
Compromise Plan For D.C. Governance Stalls
After weeks of wrangling over how to structure the District of Columbia's school governance, a series of 11th-hour disapprovals and dashed agreements left frustrated city officials little closer last week to rebuilding their school board than they were when the effort began.
Education
People in the News
The Buffalo, N.Y., board of education has unanimously elected 31-year veteran teacher and former New York State Teacher of the Year Marion Canedo to serve as the interim superintendent of the 47,000-student Buffalo public schools.
|
Early Childhood
Problems in Child Care Found To Persist
Two new reports argue that the nation has yet to meet the challenge of providing high-quality child care to a broad spectrum of children. Includes: "The View From the White House,""A Look at Welfare Reform," and "Updating the Big Picture."
School & District Management
Private Firms Tapped To Fix Md. Schools
In a groundbreaking twist on states' efforts to turn around failing schools, Maryland education officials decided last week to seize control of three Baltimore elementary schools and turn them over to for-profit management later this year.
Early Childhood
Updating the Big Picture
"Opening a New Window on Child Care," the report from the National Council of Jewish Women, sets forth the following statement of principles:
Early Childhood
The View From The White House
President Clinton's child-care and early-childhood-education proposals for fiscal 2001 include the following requests:
Education
Ala. Gov. Wants To Hike Teacher Pay, Overhaul Tenure
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Illinois
- North Dakota
- Tennessee
- Wisconsin
Equity & Diversity
Barriers to the Education Of Homeless Cited
The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty called on federal lawmakers last week to do more to eliminate barriers that prevent homeless children from attending school, and recommended cutting off federal funding for schools that educate such children exclusively.