November 16, 1981

Education Week, Vol. 01, Issue 11
Education Court To Rule on Age-Limit Law for Video-Game Parlors
The U.S. Supreme Court last week heard arguments in a test case that could drastically affect the booming video games industry.
Alex Heard, November 16, 1981
•
4 min read
Education Cities News Roundup
A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has ordered the state's department of education to pay the financially troubled Philadelphia School District about $50 million in disputed reimbursements for special-education.

A spokesman for Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh, however, said the state education department will appeal the ruling. The school district hopes to recover at least some of the disputed funds this year in order to avert closing schools early due to a lack of money.

November 16, 1981
•
3 min read
Education HEARINGS
The following Congressional hearings of interest to those in elementary and secondary education have been scheduled for November. Because times, places, and witnesses frequently change with little advance notice, it is advisable to check with the committees by telephone on or near the appointed dates.

SENATE

November 16, 1981
•
1 min read
Education Federal News Update
Congress has moved a step closer to passing a final budget for school-meal programs--with a plan that would reduce 1982 federal funding for the lunch program by approximately 17 percent.

In a Nov. 4 conference-committee meeting, members of the House and the Senate agreed on an appropriation of $2.486 billion for the school-lunch program, including commodities, and $335 million for the breakfast program. The appropriations will not be final until they have been approved by the full Congress and signed by President Reagan.

November 16, 1981
•
2 min read
Education In Federal Agencies
November 16, 1981
•
1 min read
Education People News
Matthew W. Prophet Jr., now superintendent of the Lansing, Mich., school system, has been named by the Portland, Ore., school board as the district's next superintendent.

Mr. Prophet, 51, will replace James J. Fenwick, who has served as the district's interim superintendent since June 1980. The new superintendent is expected to begin overseeing the 52,000-student system on April 1.

November 16, 1981
•
2 min read
Education Minnesota Purges Toxic Chemicals From School Labs
In addition to Thomas Toch, six staff writers contributed to the following article; it was written by Mr. Toch.
Thomas Toch, November 16, 1981
•
14 min read
Education States News Roundup
Pennsylvania voters in this month's election decisively rejected a proposal that would have increased pension benefits for spouses of deceased teachers and other school workers belonging to the state's Public School Employee Retirement System.

The measure would have allowed the legislature to grant cost-of-living increases and other benefits to the survivors of school employees covered by the system. The state's two major teachers' organizations had campaigned vigorously for its passage.

November 16, 1981
•
4 min read
Education Sitting Astride the Past and the Future
The Meeker Massacre, in which a small band of Ute Indians killed 30 white men and kept Josephine Meeker and several others captive for 23 days, occured about 20 miles northeast of where the Rock School now stands.
Alex Heard, November 16, 1981
•
13 min read
Education Sales Tax Proposed in Vermont To Shift School Financing From Property Tax
The Vermont legislature will vote on a plan in early January that would nearly double the state's share of public-school financing by shifting the burden away from local property taxpayers.
E. Patrick McQuaid, November 16, 1981
•
2 min read
Education N.E.A. Still Urges Districts To Negotiate Jointly
The failure of the first experiment nationally in which separate school districts negotiated jointly with their teachers has not weakened the National Education Association's support for the concept, according to nea officials.
Jeffrey Mervis, November 16, 1981
•
5 min read
Education Calif. Voucher Effort Stopped By Its Backers
A campaign to place an education-voucher initiative on the 1982 California ballot has been disbanded for lack of support, one of the authors of the measure said last week.
Eileen White, November 16, 1981
•
2 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Commission Ponders Education's Computer Assisted Future
Planning for the future, and particularly for the use of computers, was the principal topic of discussion at the second official meeting of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, held this month in New Orleans.
Garry Boulard , November 16, 1981
•
3 min read
Education Research and Reports
Students learn the mechanics of reading in elementary school, but when they reach the middle and upper grades, they receive inadequate instruction in thinking about what they read, according to a group of educators scheduled to meet today in Washington.

This conclusion, reached after more than five years of research at various institutions, may explain why older students' scores on reading tests are still low, although those of elementary school students have been rising.

November 16, 1981
•
4 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Federal Funds Buy Computers for Dade Students
Beginning next week, students in Dade County, Fla., public schools will start "logging on" microcomputers to solve geometry problems or to work on reading skills as part of a pilot program designed to acquaint students with computer technology and to supplement classroom instruction.
Constance G. Kurz, November 16, 1981
•
3 min read
Education
Copyright YYYY, Editorial
November 16, 1981
•
1 min read
Education N.H. Court Will Hear School-Finance Challenge
A suit is to be filed within the next few weeks challenging the constitutionality of New Hampshire public schools' heavy reliance--the heaviest in the nation--on local property taxes.
Peggy Caldwell, November 16, 1981
•
4 min read
Education District Works With Community Foundation To Raise Funds
Public-school students in Acton and Boxborough, Mass., will not have to pay a fee for their participation in extracurricular activities if an unusual and innovative fund-raising arrangement with the Permanent Charities Fund of Boston proves successful.

Robert E. Kessler, superintendent of the Acton elementary and Boxborough regional school district, said plans to establish the Acton and Boxborough Student Activities Foundation as a component of the Permanent Charities Fund have been approved by the school committee.

November 16, 1981
•
2 min read
Education Reagan Advisers Say Yes To Bell On Foundation
Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell has won over more conservative members of the Reagan Administration in his attempt to gain approval of a plan to turn the Education Department into a foundation that would retain many of the largest functions of the department, according to a memorandum sent to the President and several Cabinet members last week.
Eileen White, November 16, 1981
•
3 min read
Education Study Is Critical of Handicapped Law
Since the 1975 enactment of the federal law on the education of the handicapped, its implementation has been hampered by a variety of continuing difficulties, says a new study.
Susan G. Foster, November 16, 1981
•
5 min read
Education Child Exploitation Growing Problem, Senate Panel Told
David ran away from home for the first time when he was 12 years old. He left because his mother discovered that he smoked cigarettes and he was afraid his father would "come down pretty hard" on him for smoking. He traveled 20 miles and returned the next day.
Susan Walton, November 16, 1981
•
4 min read
Education National Assessement Finds Students Are Deficient in Analytical Skills
Faced with a multiple-choice test, today's students generally have no problem choosing correct answers. But when they are asked to explain a story or poem in written prose, most offer superficial responses, demonstrating a lack of the analytic skills necessary to elaborate, interpret, and defend their views.
Susan Walton, November 16, 1981
•
4 min read
Education N.M. State Board Votes To Test New Teachers
Despite the objections of education schools and some officials of teacher's unions, the New Mexico State Board of Education has approved sweeping new rules mandating competency testing for all new and prospective teachers in the state.
Susan Landon, November 16, 1981
•
3 min read
Education The Middle School: Philosophical Concept as Practical Solution
School officials in Columbus, Ohio, last year abolished the city's 26 junior high schools and replaced them with middle schools.
Ullik Rouk, November 16, 1981
•
11 min read
Federal The Decision Memorandum to the President From the Task Force on the Education Department
The following is the text of a memorandum prepared by a task force of Reagan Administration officials charged with developing a proposal to abolish the Education Department.
November 16, 1981
•
12 min read
Education Opinion Victims of Freedom and the Failure of Adult Will
If the past is any pointer, current calls for educational excellence face formidable obstacles. Not only has the progressive century repeatedly rejected the goals of basic schooling; its strain of sentimental individualism has helped gradually to inflate the child's status to demented parity with the adult's.
G.T. Sewall, November 16, 1981
•
5 min read
Federal Opinion The Optimal Structural-Functional Recipe for Education Pie
Washington education circles are spinning with talk about The Big Issue, namely what will become of the Department of Education.
Christopher T. Cross & Chester E. Finn Jr., November 16, 1981
•
8 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Letters to the Editor
Autry Crawford President Lampasas Texas State Teachers Association Lampasas, Tex.

I am writing in regard to an article which appeared in the Oct. 12 issue of Education Week. It is not the article that we object to; it is the headline, "Texas Teachers' Union Criticizes Amendments." We feel that this title is grossly misleading. It gives the impression that all Texas teachers belong to and share the views of the Texas Federation of Teachers.

November 16, 1981
•
6 min read