November 23, 1981

Education Week, Vol. 01, Issue 12
Education Commission to Focus on Quality, Not on Access
The special commission named by the Reagan Administration to "renew and improve" American education will devote particular attention to grades 7 through 12, and will focus on raising "standards, rigor, and excellence" rather than on expanding "horizontal" access to education programs, according to its chairman, David P. Gardner.
Austin Wehrwein, November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Few States Provide Safety Guidelines For School Laws
Interviews with the organizers of and participants in the Minnesota disposal operation, as well as with many academic and government hazardous-waste experts around the country, reveal that science teachers and schools are confronted with an array of obstacles that frustrate their efforts to dispose of unwanted and outdated toxic chemicals legally.

These obstacles include complex federal and especially state disposal regulations, the high cost of commercial disposal, and uncooperative landfill operators.

November 23, 1981
3 min read
Education School Science Labs Are Exempt From E. P. A. Rules
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa) last week issued an amendment exempting laboratories, including those in junior and senior high schools, from a new regulation that will prohibit the disposal of hazardous liquids in landfills.

Citing a "greatly limited" availablity of treatment or disposal options for laboratory wastes and the inability of laboratories to comply with alternative waste-disposal methods, including incineration, the federal agency gave laboratories tentative authority to continue to dispose of liquid hazardous waste in landfills, providing they meet certain packaging requirements.

November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Most Legal Issues In Lab Accidents Are Unresolved
If the unthinkable happens in a school science laboratory, who is responsible?

In most states, it is the local board of education.

November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Commonly Used Chemicals Can Be Dangerous
"I have smelled cyanide gas in more than one classroom," noted Richard C. Clark, science specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education, organizer of Chemical Safety Day.

"When I taught high-school science in Detroit, our offices were in chemical storerooms," commented John A. Novak, now a professor of science education at Ohio State University.

November 23, 1981
4 min read
Education Few Lab-Safety Studies Focus On Schools
Laboratory safety has been the subject of numerous research studies. Most of the studies, however, have focused more on university and industry practices.

One project that examines some aspects of safety in secondary-school science laboratories was initiated last year by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (csps). According to Abby I. Gerber, a researcher with the commission, researchers worked through the agency's field offices, concentrating their efforts on four areas:

November 23, 1981
1 min read
Education State Chiefs Want the Administration To Clarify Education Policies, Goals
State school chiefs, viewed as major beneficiaries of Reagan Administration actions to date, are increasingly troubled by the President's failure to define his position on public schooling.
John Chaffee Jr., November 23, 1981
4 min read
Education Sociologists Debate Whether Athletics Deter Delinquency
Fort Worth--Does participation in interscholastic athletics tend to deter juvenile delinquency?
Debra Shore, November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Schools Face Serious Obstacles In Disposal of Toxic Chemicals

Last week, Education Week reported, with the cooperation of state authorities, that the Minnesota State Department of Education, in an unprecedented move, conducted a one-day statewide purge of hazardous chemicals from the science laboratories and storerooms of its junior and senior high schools.
November 23, 1981
1 min read
Education State Chiefs Urge Improved Vocational Training
A more systematic and integrated process to help youths make the transition from school to work was proposed here last week by the Council of Chief State School Officers (ccsso).
John Chaffee Jr., November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Teacher-Evaluation Methods Called Inadequate
Houston--As the public clamors for "accountability" in education, the evaluation of teachers is taking higher priority than ever in hundreds of school districts.
Peggy Caldwell, November 23, 1981
4 min read
Education National News Roundup
More than three out of four Americans believe that both the scientific theory of evolution and the biblical theory of creation should be taught in the public schools, according to an Associated Press-NBC News Poll.

In response to the question, "Do you think public schools should teach only the scientific theory of evolution, only the biblical theory of creation, or should schools offer both theories?" 76 percent of respondents said the public schools should teach both.

November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education N.E.A. Political Committee Targets House 'Boll Weevils'
The nation's largest teachers' union tentatively targeted seven Republicans and six Democrats and put several others "on probation."
Wray C. Herbert, November 23, 1981
6 min read
Education Research and Reports
An active partnership between families and schools plays an essential role in encouraging children to read, according to the educators, librarians, and parents who gathered last week for a national symposium entitled "Reading and Successful Living: The Family-School Partnership."

The symposium, sponsored by the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress and several education groups, brought the group together to discuss why and how the partnership between home and school should be strengthened.

November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education New Bills
Following is a summary of bills of interest to those in elementary and secondary education introduced in Congress. Copies of bills may be obtained from Senators (Washington 20510) or Representatives (Washington 20515).

SENATE

November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Legislative Report
as of 5 p.m. on Nov. 18

SenateHouse

November 23, 1981
4 min read
Education State News Roundup

Bynum in his decision to remove a dictionary from the state's list of approved textbooks because it contains obscene and scatological words.

The Texas State Board of Education has supported Commissioner of Education Raymon L. The words are the same ones that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to ban radio broadcast of a monologue by the comedian George Carlin.

November 23, 1981
6 min read
Education Teachers Say Vague Rules, Poor Training
High-school science teachers say that they have unfairly borne the brunt of public criticism surrounding the problem of inadequate safety measures in school laboratories.

More likely sources of the problem, they claim, are regulatory agencies, which issue warnings about certain chemicals but fail to consider how their actions affect schools, and schools of education, which fail to train teachers adequately in lab safety techniques.

November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Cincinnati Schools Pioneered In Chemical-Safety Program
Nearly four years ago, Cincinnati school officials decided to adopt safety procedures for handling and disposing of toxic and hazardous chemicals in the high schools and to bring some order to chemical storerooms in the schools.

The actions were agreed upon after officials stumbled onto an assortment of old and potentially-hazardous chemicals in a number of high schools that were being closed because of declining enrollment.

November 23, 1981
3 min read
Education Administration's Desegregation Record Attacked
Even as President Reagan moved in an unprecedented way to replace two of its six members, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last week issued a report sharply critical of the Administration's recent actions in school desegregation and other issues involving minority students.
Peggy Caldwell, November 23, 1981
4 min read
Education Schools Urged Not to 'Narrow Focus' When Teaching Moral, Ethical Values
Blacksburg, Va--Called together to comment upon what one speaker called "the current fervor to enhance the moral influence of the public school," experts in the study of values suggested here this month that schools should resist external pressures to "narrow their focus" to the teaching of specific religious or moral doctrines.
Susan G. Foster, November 23, 1981
3 min read
Education Lack of Comprehension Skills Traced to Oversimplified Texts
Children who master basic reading skills, but then fall behind in the middle grades, may do so because they receive little instruction in essential techniques of comprehension.
Susan Walton, November 23, 1981
4 min read
Education Appointments
In the Schools

Richard S. Jones Jr., interim headmaster of St. Michael's School, Stuart, Fla., to headmaster.

November 23, 1981
1 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week moved a step closer to issuing new school-lunch regulations to replace those issued, then withdrawn, earlier this fall.

In his testimony before the House Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education, G. William Hoagland, administrator of usda's Food and Nutrition Service, said that the agency had provided President Reagan with several options for changing the school-lunch regulations to meet the program's reduced budget. (See Databank on page 10.)

November 23, 1981
3 min read
Education Spillane Names Panel for Further Look Into Boston's Bus-Contract Scandal
A three-member panel has been named by Boston's superintendent of schools, Robert R. Spillane, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the award of the city's $40-million school bus contract to ara Services Incorporated, a Philadelphia-based company, in June 1980.
E. Patrick McQuaid, November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Plan To Meld 42 Civil-Rights Offices, 38 Laws Into One Unit Under U. S. Attorney General
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, along with 41 other federal civil-rights offices, would be consolidated into one agency under a proposal currently being circulated by a group of Republican members of the House of Representatives.
Eileen White, November 23, 1981
2 min read
Education Experts Urge Teachers To Adapt to Students' Learning Styles
Some children learn better alone. Others progress best in a group. But in any given group, there will be children who remember every word they hear and forget most of what they read. And there will be children who remember what they read, while lectures seem to go in one ear and out the other.
Susan Walton, November 23, 1981
7 min read
Education Minnesota Lab Cleanup Called Success
Driving vans, trucks, and cars, representatives from about 60 Minnesota school districts converged on a site in suburban St. Paul 10 days ago with nearly 1,000 gallons of unwanted and extremely hazardous chemicals.
Thomas Toch, November 23, 1981
5 min read
Education 'Social Issues' Move Forward In Congress
As bills to outlaw abortion and to end school busing moved toward legislative action last week, the Senate approved a measure endorsing voluntary prayer in public schools.
Eileen White, November 23, 1981
6 min read