February 16, 2000
Education Week, Vol. 19, Issue 23
Federal
Budget Proposal Includes Boost for Education
The final budget proposal of President Clinton's administration would dramatically step up federal spending on education, with generous boosts for some of his favorite programs and money to support a variety of new ones.
IT Infrastructure & Management
Online Tutors Say They've Got the Answers
Thousands of other Internet-savvy students are taking advantage of a growing number of online tutoring services and homework-help sites. But while many of the students—and their parents—seem generally pleased with the services, little is known about their effect on academic performance.
Teaching Profession
Unions Turn Critical Eye on Themselves
Bashing teachers' unions never goes out of style in education. But when the complaints started flying thick and fast at a recent meeting in Los Angeles, the malcontents weren't business leaders or politicians. Rather, they were union leaders themselves.
Assessment
Test-Weary Schools Balk at NAEP
Faced with a backlash from educators who say students spend too much time taking tests, seven states have failed to live up to their promises to take part in the federal assessment program this year, and six others may also have to drop out.
College & Workforce Readiness
New Company Hopes To Score Big With Online Advanced Placement Courses
Started in 1998 with a major investment from Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft Corp., Apex has quickly become the most-talked-about player in the expanding niche of online Advanced Placement instruction.
School & District Management
Bradley Promises Results in Address On Education
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley called last week for the federal government to spend $80 billion over 10 years to overhaul its efforts to improve failing schools in impoverished areas.
Law & Courts
Commandments Debate Moves To Statehouses
Legislators in at least 10 states are considering bills that promote the display of the Ten Commandments in schools, and a few of the measures have recently advanced.
Education
Moderate Democrats Aim To Restructure K-12 Programs
Two moderate Democratic senators plan to unveil a major education bill that they hope will add momentum to the process of reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and lead to a restructuring of federal K-12 programs.
Two moderate Democratic senators plan to unveil a major education bill that they hope will add momentum to the process of reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and lead to a restructuring of federal K-12 programs.
Teaching Profession
Executive Director of NEA To Retire After Nearly 20 Years Behind Scenes
Don Cameron, the executive director of the National Education Association, has announced plans to retire early next year, after guiding the country's largest teachers' union through nearly two decades of change and increasing influence.
Teaching Profession
More Incentives Would Drive Schools To Improve, Business Alliance Argues
More incentives for schools, educators, and students are needed to pick up the pace of improving public education, the National Alliance of Business advises in a new report.
School Choice & Charters
Charter School Movement Growing Rapidly, Study Shows
The twin desires to pursue alternative visions of schooling and better serve students with special needs are driving an increase in charter schools across the country, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Department of Education.
Education
Corrections
Because of an editing error, the Commentary by Alan Stoskopf, "Clio's Lament," in the Feb. 2, 2000, print edition of Education Week incorrectly stated the gender of the historian Gerder Lerner, a woman.
Standards
Reality Check 2000
This annual report, a joint project of Public Agenda and Education Week, focuses on the progress of the academic-standards movement and the impact of reform efforts on schools and the work world as seen from the perspectives of education's key stakeholders.
Equity & Diversity
Gay Club Sparks Protest
The Gay-Straight Alliance at El Modena High School in Orange, Calif., met for the first time last week, following a ruling by a federal judge ordering the local school board to recognize the group.
Education
Publishing
The strength of the children's book market can be seen not only in the Harry Potter phenomenon but in sales for this year's winners of the two top literary prizes in the field.
Education Funding
McCain's Views on Schools Becoming Clearer
Education is not an issue most people usually associate with Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Education is not an issue most people usually associate with Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
States
Federal File
The war's over
Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley is making his voice heard on a raging issue in his home state: He wants the Confederate battle flag removed from the dome of the South Carolina state Capitol.
Equity & Diversity
News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
- Michigan Pulls Test Question on the Mideast
That Jewish and Arab Groups Find Offensive - Ruling Upholding Texas Exit Exam Won't Be Appealed
Standards
Conflict Over How To Teach Math Flares in Bay State
Massachusetts education officials are calling it simply an effort at clarification. But some educators say the changes being proposed for the state's 5-year-old mathematics framework represent nothing short of a philosophical shift that propels the state into the middle of a national battle over how the subject should be taught.
Teaching Profession
State Journal
Timing is everything
Just as the Kentucky Education Association was poised to begin a radio and television campaign aimed at winning collective-bargaining rights for public employees in the state, the teachers' union faced a five-day strike by its own staff.
Student Well-Being
Judge's Approval of Club for Gay Students Leads to Protest
While opponents of the club demonstrated outside the high school, a club for gay students and their supporters met for the first time last week at El Modena High School in Orange, Calif., just days after a federal judge ordered the local school board to recognize the controversial student group.
School Choice & Charters
Rowland Proposing Tuition Tax Credits For Connecticut
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Mississippi
- New Hampshire
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
School & District Management
Reporter's Notebook
- Revitalized Leadership, Instruction Central to Principals' Agenda
Education
New Admissions Exam Takes Unconventional Approach
A new test, based on criteria for predicting college success devised by the Posse Foundation, a New York City-based group that has helped poor and minority students graduate from top institutions over the past decade, judges high school students on their ability to build a robot out of legos.