September 21, 1981

Education Week, Vol. 01, Issue 03
Education School Desegregation Can Improve Learning And Race Relations, Seven-Year Study Finds
Contrary to the assertions of many elected officials, including President Reagan, school desegregation can improve both learning and race relations provided certain practices are adopted.
Peggy Caldwell, September 21, 1981
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9 min read
Education Cities News Roundup
Apparently taking a cue from President Reagan's crackdown on air-traffic controllers, school administrators in two districts have broken strikes by threatening to fire teachers.

In North Providence, R.I., 240 teachers refused to show up for work on Sept. 8 because they did not accept the school committee's offer for a new contract. On Sept. 13, they again rejected the school board's offer for a 7.5-percent pay raise and binding arbitration on other issues. Following the deadlock, Frank Iafrate, chairman of the school committee, repeated an earlier vow to dismiss any teacher who failed to report for work on Sept. 14.

September 21, 1981
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4 min read
Education People News
The Reagan Administration "has abandoned any pretext of helping the public schools and turns instead to private schools," says Terry Herndon, executive director of the National Education Association.

Mr. Herndon, in a Sept. 10 speech before the Washington Press Club, said supporters of private schools have "coalesced into a sophisticated political force that has nearly overwhelmed a too-comfortable community of school supporters who assumed a perpetual political commitment to public education.

September 21, 1981
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1 min read
Education Book Censorship Is Law's Threat, Group Charges
Attorneys representing a coalition of media groups, retailers, and civil-libertarians told a federal judge in Atlanta this month that enactment of a new censorship law in Georgia would oblige public libraries to remove "hundreds" of books from their shelves.
Tom Mirga, September 21, 1981
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1 min read
Education New Curriculum Seeks Scientific Literacy
In a major departure from the traditional "science-by-discipline" approach, a group of chemistry teachers and researchers will this fall begin developing an interdisciplinary high-school chemistry curriculum designed around social issues.

Called "Chemistry in the Community: A Problem-Focused Course for High Schools," the project is sponsored by the American Chemical Society (acs) and funded by a $193,201, three-and-a-half-year grant from the National Science Foundation (nsf).

Susan Walton, September 21, 1981
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1 min read
Education New Title I Rules Due By January
Those concerned about the education of disadvantaged children are anxiously monitoring the changes being made this year in Title I of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Susan G. Foster, September 21, 1981
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4 min read
Education 'Creation Science' Pending In Louisiana and Arkansas
Education officials in Arkansas and Louisiana, where the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging state laws requiring "balanced treatment" of creation theory in the schools, are beginning to think about how they will implement those laws if the legal challenge fails.
Alex Heard, September 21, 1981
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3 min read
Education Rural Hispanics Trail Other Groups in Literacy
Rural Hispanics trail urban Hispanics in rates of high-school graduation and functional literacy. But both Hispanic groups trail whites, and their relative positions worsened during the 1970's.
Alex Heard, September 21, 1981
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2 min read
Education In Jacksonville's Integrated Schools, The Quest For Excellence Paid Off
Four years ago the Duval County public-school system in northern Florida displayed practically every imaginable symptom of an urban school district in distress.
Tom Mirga, September 21, 1981
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5 min read
Education Television Programs Rarely Depict Smoking But Drinking Scenes Increase, Study Shows
Since the U.S. Surgeon General's warning about the dangers of cigarettes, depictions of smoking have virtually disappeared from television programming, and the association of style and grace with the habit is found principally in reruns of old movies.
Alex Heard, September 21, 1981
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4 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
Three months to the day after it began, the Republican-led filibuster to a Senate anti-busing amendment was cut off last Wednesday with the measure one step closer to becoming law.

But the bill to which the controversial amendment is attached--a measure to authorize 1982 expenditures for the Justice Department--immediately was put aside indefinitely by the Senate leadership.

September 21, 1981
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2 min read
Education Research and Reports
Even when calculators make obvious errors, some people continue to trust them.

In a study on estimating, sponsored by the National Institute of Education, University of Missouri mathematics Professor Robert E. Reys interviewed a group of subjects who had demonstrated a flair for estimating the answers to arithmetic problems. Using a series of seven exercises, Professor Reys asked the 55 secondary-school students and adults to verify their answers on a calculator.

September 21, 1981
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4 min read
Education Jesse Jackson Agrees To Audit, May Get Funds
The Education Department, which recently rescinded an $825,000 grant to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's push-excel program, may reverse itself and award the money after all, according to a department official.
Eileen White, September 21, 1981
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3 min read
Education Grant Aids Magnet Schools for Arts
The curtain will rise on Mississippi's first "magnet" schools for the arts late this fall or early next year in Jackson.
Susan Walton, September 21, 1981
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1 min read
Education Defining Terms Solves Michigan Sex Education Dispute
A "minor amendment," passed over the summer by the Michigan legislature, has relieved state education officials of a troubling task handed to them last May by the state Attorney General: eliminating sex education from all required courses in Michigan's public schools.
Susan Walton, September 21, 1981
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2 min read
Education For Education Schools: A Search for Purpose and Identity
The country's teacher-training programs are in a state of disarray: enrollments have plummeted, budgets are drying up, morale is low.
Thomas Toch, September 21, 1981
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10 min read
Education Paperwork for Public-School Teachers Shredded by New California Law
California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., recently signed a law designed to cut paperwork for public-school teachers and administrators by as much as 50 percent.
Alex Heard, September 21, 1981
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1 min read
Curriculum TV Reading Series To Help Children Retain Skills
Development of a pilot program for a television series designed to help small children retain their reading skills over the "transitional summers" between the first few grades of school will begin this fall with support from the Kellogg Company and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
September 21, 1981
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2 min read
Education Nebraska Christian Schools Abound
Of 18 new Nebraska private schools recently granted approval from the state to open this fall, 12 are Christian, affiliated with either a major denomination or a fundamentalist group, according to the state's department of education.
Alex Heard, September 21, 1981
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1 min read
Education 14 States Hope Administration Will Cancel Title I Debts
Fourteen states that the U.S. Education Department (ED) says owe the government millions of dollars in Title I funds are counting on the Reagan Administration to relieve them of the obligation to pay the money back.
Eileen White, September 21, 1981
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6 min read
Education States News Roundup
In an unusual move reflecting the controversy over bilingual education, the California State Senate last week postponed confirmation of two appointees to the state Board of Education.

Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., had nominated Uvaldo Palomares, a San Diego education consultant, and Robert Arroyo, associate dean at Fresno City College, proponents of programs to maintain Hispanic students' native language and culture.

September 21, 1981
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3 min read
Education California Orders Tests for Professionals
Educators seeking jobs in California's public schools will face tougher standards after March 1, 1982.
George W. Neill , September 21, 1981
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4 min read
Education GAO Flunks School Lunches On Nutritional-Standard Test
While controversy continues over the Reagan Administration's proposed nutritional cuts in school-lunch programs, a new report from the Government Accounting Office (GAO) suggests that some schools are already failing to meet existing nutritional requirements.
Susan Walton, September 21, 1981
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3 min read
Education Opinion The Habit of Going It Alone Has Got To Go
In unconventional times, conventional wisdom can be a dangerous thing. On the broad political canvas, of course, the 1980's and beyond can be interpreted as a return to the conventional: nationalism abroad, a reduced and perhaps balanced federal budget, and an increased reliance on the free market at home. Yet, for education, the times are decidedly unconventional.
Robert C. Wood, September 21, 1981
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5 min read
Education Opinion The Chemistry Fear: Formulas for Reducing Student's Science Anxiety
Our citizenry is scientifically illiterate. Ill-equipped to make the most important sorts of political decisions-those with a technical or scientific component-we debate such issues as nuclear reactors, pollution, and pesticides in an atmosphere of frenzied ignorance. It is an ignorance we cannot afford if we are to survive.
Jeffry V. Mallow, September 21, 1981
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6 min read