March 3, 1982
Education Week, Vol. 01, Issue 23
Education
Number of Blacks Entering Teaching Declines Dramatically
Houston--At a time when black students constitute a growing percentage of the U.S. school-age population, the number of blacks being prepared to teach in the nation's elementary and secondary schools is declining dramatically, according to black educators attending the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education here recently.
Education
Rates of Teenage Drug Use Shifting Downward
Although America's teenagers have moderated their use of illicit drugs in the past few years, they continue to display the highest level of drug abuse among young people anywhere in the industrialized world, federal officials told a Senate subcommittee on alcoholism and drug abuse last week.
Education
Reagan Record on Civil Rights Called a 'Travesty' in Report
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a national coalition of 157 labor, civil-rights, and religious groups, last week attacked the Reagan Administration's record on enforcing civil-rights laws as a "travesty."
Education
Tennessee To Study Teachers' Salaries
Concerned that low salaries are driving good teachers out of the teaching profession, the Tennessee state board of education has decided to establish an ad hoc study committee to determine, "as objectively as possible," how much public-school teachers in the state should be paid.
The committee members will be "taxpayers not directly associated with education," according to the de-partment of education. They will study differences in the salaries paid for teaching and for a broad range of other occupations, taking into account the amount of training required and the average number of hours worked.
Education
Teacher-Educators At Odds Over National Accreditation
The proportions of an on-going debate within the teacher-education community over the effectiveness of its current system of national accreditation became apparent here last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (aacte).
Education
Land-Management Bills Would Aid Washington Schools
Four measures have been introduced in the Washington State House of Representatives that could add $120 million over 10 years to the income that public schools receive from state-owned trust lands.
Education
Commission Hears of Science Gap
Problems in U.S science and mathematics education were the subject of another high-level policy meeting last week, as the National Commission on Excellence in Education heard how students in other nations are prepared for a high-technology future.
Appointed by President Reagan last summer, the 18-member panel is charged with recommending improvements for the U.S. educational system. The group is holding a series of hearings across the country to gather expert and anecdotal testimony on aspects of American education. (A schedule of the commission's hearings appears on page 17.)
Education
Blacks Question Boston Chief On Stand on Racial Issues
The "factual record" of Boston's school superintendent, Robert R. Spillane, apparently was not enough to satisfy the two black members of the city's five-member school committee, who have raised questions about Mr. Spillane's racial "sensitivity" and his suitability for continuing in the job.
Education
Cities News Roundup
The superintendent of schools and the school board in Union City, N.J., have ordered schools to quit using a program in which local newspapers are distributed in city schools, even if they are given free of charge.
The elementary-school principal who initiated the program in the district, Thomas Highton of Jefferson School, said last week he will not challenge the decision.
Education
Colo. Chief To Boost Students' Test-Taking Skills
In an effort to close the gap between what Colorado high-school graduates know and what employers and higher-education officials expect them to know, the state commissioner of education is trying to assess the various tests given by business, the military, and universities in the state.
Education
National News Roundup
Fourteen states and three federal officials have been singled out by a Washington advocacy group for their "spectacularly sluggish" efforts to achieve equal education for boys and girls.
The Project on Equal Education Rights (peer) last week gave its "Silver Snail Awards" to states with the lowest proportions of girls participating in interscholastic sports and traditionally male vocational-education programs, and states with the smallest percentages of women principals and assistant principals.
Education
Governors, Congressmen Criticize New Cuts
The federal role in education was once again a topic of discussion on Capitol Hill last week, as Democratic members of the House Budget Committee assailed the President's proposals for the 1983 budget and an education foundation, while the nation's governors expressed their enthusiasm for assuming responsibility for some federal education programs.
Education
Christian School Defies Court Rule, Is Still Operating
Though its pastor is in jail and it faces the threat of further legal proceedings, the Faith Christian Baptist School in Louisville, Neb., apparently remains open.
Education
Irate Congressmen Question Proposed Head Start Changes
The Reagan Administration's promise to keep the Head Start program in its "social safety net" was nothing more than a "charade," according to one Democratic congressman, who joined other members of the House Subcommittee on Human Resources in sharply attacking proposed policy changes for the program during a routine "oversight" hearing last week.
Education
Science Column
Environmental education, a relatively new addition to the curriculum in most schools, may not survive federal budget cuts. But with help from the Center for Environmental Education, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, some children in nine Eastern and Gulf Coast states will continue to get a lively lesson on one environment--the ocean.
Called "Fur, Flukes, and Flippers," the lesson in sea lore has won widespread praise from educators. It is presented by Ozzie Tollefson, a teacher and actor who left the classroom five years ago after 15 years in teaching, and took his talents and some special "teaching aids'' to the stages of elementary schools.
Education
Federal Civil-Rights Chief Responds To Critics of His
The federal government's chief civil-rights official last week defended his performance, and that of the Reagan Administration as a whole, against mounting criticism of the Administration's efforts in protecting the rights of women and minorities.
Education
Federal News Roundup
In spite of statements last month to the contrary, the Office of Management and Budget still has not released more than $19 million in funds that Congress earmarked for public libraries under the 1982 continuing resolution.
The state of New York, which had cancelled a lawsuit it was planning to file in order to recover its share of the funds, now will go ahead with its plans to sue, a spokesman said last week.
Education
Title 1 Coalition To Step Up Lobbying
Members of the Coalition to Save Title I will intensify their lobbying efforts this month with a "national day of action" to inform members of Congress of the amount of Title I money their districts would lose under the Reagan Administration's 1983 budget proposal.
Education
Pentagon Finds Recruits 'A Cut Above Average'
A Pentagon-sponsored study comparing military recruits with a representative sample of other young Americans has found that the military volunteers--black, white, and Hispanic alike--score better than their civilian counterparts on a standard vocational aptitude test.
Education
Governors Join Concerned Chorus on Science Skills
Primary and secondary education--especially in the critical fields of mathematics and science--must be improved if the U.S. is to avoid being left behind in the race to develop new technologies, according to a panel of 22 experts convened by the National Governors' Association's task force on technological innovation.
Education
Marijuana Is Still a 'Serious National Concern,' Academy Says
Scientists do not yet have all the answers about the health effects of marijuana, but those they know of--plus those they suspect--are cause for "serious national concern," according to a National Academy of Sciences (nas) report released here last week.
Education
TV, Parents Students Linked in Novel Anti-Smoking Effort
Calling it "the most serious indictment of cigarette smoking the Public Health Service has yet made," C. Everett Koop last week released the latest Surgeon General's Report on the health consequences of smoking.
Education
Washington Legislature Attempts To Curb Pension Abuses
A Washington State Senator's discovery that Seattle-area school administrators were receiving monetary "percs" from their school boards designed to inflate their pension levels has resulted in passage of a bill by the state House to curb such abuses and a pledge from a subcommittee of the state Senate to conduct a statewide investigation into the problem.
Education
Contaminated Beans Shipped to Schools
Students in several schools in Maine were inadvertantly served green beans that were infested with small worms, and a second shipment of contaminated green beans has been discovered in Massachusetts.
Christine Youngclaus, a food-program specialist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (usda) regional food and nutrition service, said the Massachusetts shipment had not left the school district's warehouse when the infestation was discovered.
Education
Mandatory Busing More Effective Than Voluntary
Contrary to the contentions of some members of Congress who seek to limit the use of compulsory busing for school desegregation, mandatory desegregation plans are more effective in reducing racial isolation than are voluntary plans and do not appear to cause more "white flight'' in the long run than voluntary techniques, according to a Vanderbilt University study.
Education
States News Roundup
The Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill that would force new teachers to successfully complete a two-year probationary period before they are granted permanent certification.
By a 79-14 vote, the delegates overruled a recent decision by Virginia's state board of education to continue its practice of issuing a permanent teaching license to any education-school graduate who wants to teach.
Special Education
Impartial Arbitrator Required in Special Education
The U.S. Supreme Court last week let stand an appellate-court decision that an impartial hearing officer--not state education officials--must be the final arbiter in disputes over the identification and placement of handicapped students.
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