June 6, 2001

Education Week, Vol. 20, Issue 39
Education University's Partnership Draws Upon Alumni Pool
Billy Green fell asleep in a homeless shelter every night during high school dreaming of making it out of Spanish Harlem. Today, the 24-year-old aspiring doctor, who will be a senior at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., knows he could easily have ended up in jail or dead—like many of the people he saw hanging out on the streets while he kept his head buried in the books.
June 6, 2001
4 min read
School Climate & Safety Side-by-Side States Are Far Apart In Funding for Facilities
School district leaders in this small, eastern Washington town have an enviable dilemma. The state recently promised to give them $4.3 million to cover roughly half the cost of a new elementary school—an allocation that surpassed by more than $1 million the amount the district was expecting to receive.
Jessica L. Sandham, June 6, 2001
12 min read
Student Achievement Report Highlights Progress, Inequity, And First-Generation College Students
With its release an annual rite of spring, the latest "Condition of Education" report by the National Center for Education Statistics presents a thick data tapestry of America's educational system, one into which many patterns can be read.
Andrew Trotter, June 6, 2001
3 min read
Federal Capitol Recap
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
June 6, 2001
8 min read
States State Journal

Ins and Outs

State lottery dollars should come back to school districts in direct proportion to the amount that their residents spend on lottery games, Democrats in the Michigan House of Representatives argue.
June 6, 2001
1 min read
Accountability Ohio Crafts Education Overhaul As Court Deadline Nears
The Ohio legislature approved a two-year, $45 billion state budget and a standards and accountability package last week that together were designed to satisfy a court mandate to overhaul the school finance system.
Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, June 6, 2001
2 min read
Federal Minnesota Poised To Shift More School Spending to State
Under a proposal crafted by the Ventura administration, the state is poised to take over the day-to-day costs of K-12 education, shifting that burden away from the local property-tax base.
Darcia Harris Bowman, June 6, 2001
3 min read
Education Law Update
  • Graduation Season Means Commencement of Prayer Flaps
  • Legal Guide on Religion
June 6, 2001
3 min read
Curriculum Clear, Consistent Messages Help Deter Teen Pregnancy, Study Finds
After years of elusive answers to the problem of teenage pregnancy, a leading group involved in the issue has released a new and more optimistic report that outlines several effective and varied tactics in deterring adolescent sex and pregnancy.
Catherine Gewertz, June 6, 2001
3 min read
Education People in the News

Barbara A. Chow

Barbara A. Chow has been named the executive director of the National Geographic Society's education foundation and geography-education outreach program. Ms. Chow, 45, will help the Washington-based society in its $100 million campaign to improve geography education and form a network of 150,000 educators across the country through teacher-training programs. Previously, she served in two White House posts in the Clinton administration: as the deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council and as the associate director for education, income, maintenance, and labor at the Office of Management and Budget.
June 6, 2001
1 min read
Education Events
June 6, 2001
20 min read
Curriculum Program Builds Young Students' Parenting Skills
Supporters of programs like Educating Children for parents say preparing the next generation of parents should be part of the curriculum for every student—even those who haven't been out of diapers long themselves.
Linda Jacobson, June 6, 2001
9 min read
Assessment States Turn to End-of-Course Tests To Bolster High School Curriculum
About a dozen states are preparing curriculum-based exams as a way to strengthen curriculum and ensure that all students have mastered a core body of knowledge and skills, replacing the basic-skills tests many states began requiring students to pass in the 1970s to graduate from high school.
Lynn Olson, June 6, 2001
11 min read
Teaching Profession Challenger Topples Chicago Teachers Union President
Through 10 stormy teacher strikes and several education overhauls, one of the only constants in Chicago public school leadership was the United Progressive Caucus of the Chicago Teachers Union.
Karla Scoon Reid, June 6, 2001
3 min read
Federal Federal File

Schools and Scouts

The Boy Scouts of America has been taking flak in some school districts around the country, but it doesn't lack for friends on Capitol Hill.
June 6, 2001
1 min read
Federal Bush Team's Progress: Hansen on Job, Campoverde Named
The Department of Education officially has a new deputy secretary, as well as an announced selection for its top congressional-affairs job, as President Bush continues piecing together his education team.
Joetta L. Sack, June 6, 2001
1 min read
Federal Texas Legislature Places Restrictions On Charter Schools
Eager to make adjustments in the Texas charter school system, state legislators wrapped up their session by approving a compromise bill that tightens control over the independent public schools and places new constraints on their growth.
Bess Keller, June 6, 2001
4 min read
Student Well-Being News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
  • Daily Exercise Required in Texas Primary Schools
  • Hiring Bonuses Shot Down in Neb.
  • Judge to Probe N.C. Financing
  • Fla. Schools Get Better Grades
June 6, 2001
5 min read
Teaching Profession N.Y.C. Administrators To Receive Merit Pay for Boosting Scores
In a first for the New York City schools, the district will give bonuses of up to $15,000 to principals and other administrators whose schools posted major gains on test scores.
Mark Stricherz, June 6, 2001
2 min read
College & Workforce Readiness The College Connection
Everyone talks about solidifying partnerships between K-12 and higher education institutions. But an upstate New York college and an inner-city school are doing something about it. Includes the story, "University's Partnership Draws Upon Alumni Pool."
John Gehring, June 6, 2001
17 min read
School Climate & Safety Capitol Expenditures

A growing number of states have been forced—by litigation, school crowding, or the sheer need to meet modern educational demands—to play an expanded role in local school construction and repair. First in a three-part series. Includes:
Jessica L. Sandham, June 6, 2001
20 min read
School & District Management Change Afoot for Chicago's School Team
Even by Windy City standards, the month of May closed with a bluster of activity around the schools. Chicago school board President Gery J. Chico resigned, and school board sources speculated that Paul G. Vallas, the district's chief executive officer, might not be far behind. Includes "Challenger Topples Chicago Teachers Union President."
Robert C. Johnston, June 6, 2001
4 min read
Special Education Ruling on Disabled Golfer Could Be Applied to Schools
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week that golfer Casey Martin has a right under federal law to use a cart will have an impact well beyond professional sports, legal experts say.
Mark Walsh, June 6, 2001
5 min read
Budget & Finance Education Breaks Folded Into Tax Bill's Fine Print
The tax bill recently approved by Congress harbors a cache of education provisions, including one that helped prompt a veto under President Bush's predecessor because it provides a tax break for private school tuition costs.
Erik W. Robelen, June 6, 2001
5 min read
States Arkansas School Finance System Overturned
In a ruling that Arkansas officials intend to challenge, a judge has struck down the state's formula for distributing money to schools, saying it is not adequate or fair to poorer districts.
Lisa Fine, June 6, 2001
4 min read
Education Funding Well-to-Do Vt. Towns Seeking Relief From School Finance Law
Negotiations to revise Vermont's controversial school finance law and offer an olive branch to hard-hit wealthy towns appeared to be dead late last week.
Joetta L. Sack, June 6, 2001
3 min read
Teacher Preparation University of Colo. at Boulder Under Fire for Ed. School Programs
University of Colorado officials are fighting to save many academic majors offered to prospective educators on the Boulder campus after criticism from state regulators.
Julie Blair, June 6, 2001
4 min read
Equity & Diversity School Doors Shuttered for Afghan Girls
Education rates historically have been low and unequal throughout Afghanistan. But the educational restrictions on females appear to be the most restrictive of their kind in the world, observers agree, and can only worsen the country's already meager 15 percent literacy rate for women. Includes a column, "Foreign Exchange."
Robert C. Johnston, June 6, 2001
5 min read
School & District Management Study Points to Academic Benefits For Adolescents Taking Ritalin
The largest study to date testing the effects of Ritalin on teenagers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder suggests that the drug, when used in combination with other interventions, can raise students' daily academic performance.
Debra Viadero, June 6, 2001
2 min read