February 23, 1983

Education Week, Vol. 02, Issue 22
Education New Criteria Agreed To For Ala. Teacher Training
The Alabama board of education voted last week to use teacher-certification-test results as a basis for identifying teacher-training programs in the state's colleges that could be disapproved upon the recommendation of a special review team.
Cynthia Smith, February 23, 1983
2 min read
Education Baton Rouge Discards Federal 'Voluntary' Busing Plan
School officials in East Baton Rouge Parish, La., have rejected the Justice Department's plan to end court-ordered busing in that district.

Last December, the department asked U.S. District Judge John V. Parker to scrap a mandatory student-desegregation plan that he had ordered two years ago and to replace it with a voluntary student-transfer plan.

February 23, 1983
1 min read
Education News In Print

How can the new information technology (computers and telecommunications systems, for example) be used in education? Based on a study of recent technological developments in the United States, Japan, and other countries, the author attempts to answer this question and to show how technology can be used to improve instruction. His book is for teachers, administrators, and other educators. Part I surveys the new information technology, its functions, manufacturers, users, and systems. Part II provides examples of its functions in homes, schools, colleges, adult-education classes, and teacher-training programs. Part III examines the educational, social, political, and economic problems the technology introduces. And Part IV discusses the future of information technology in education. Mr. Hawkridge is professor of applied educational sciences and director of the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England.
February 23, 1983
3 min read
Education Students Self-Taught in Me. Christian Schools
When Jason Butler, 10, comes to school in the morning in this small town, population 1,500, he enters a world very different from that of most U.S. schoolchildren.
Hope Aldrich, February 23, 1983
14 min read
Education College Column
Students at some public colleges and universities are receiving an unusual and unexpected communication from their bursar's office: a bill for a midyear tuition increase.

Public institutions in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Virginia have been forced to impose the added fees in most cases because of new cuts in their state appropriations for the current year.

February 23, 1983
4 min read
Education Federal File: Jobs for Youth; Job Change; A New Job
Schools in need of renovation and minority youths in need of jobs may be winners in the continuing "discussion" between the Congress and President Reagan over the best way to target the federal dollars to reduce the nation's high unemployment rate.

Earlier this month, the President unveiled the $4.3-billion jobs program that looked a lot like a measure the Democrats attempted to authorize during the waning days of the 97th Congress.

February 23, 1983
2 min read
Education Inter-District Suit For Desegregation Nears Settlement
An inter-district desegregation lawsuit in St. Louis appeared near resolution last week as a federal district judge agreed to postpone for seven days a hearing to determine the liability of eight suburban school districts for segregation in the city's schools.
Tom Mirga, February 23, 1983
7 min read
Education Districts News Roundup
A six-week strike against Ohio's Lake Local School District ended last week with a three-year contract providing retroactive raises for the district's teachers.

Under the terms of the new contract, a beginning teacher's salary will be raised from $12,000 to $12,850 this year, retroactive to Aug. 1, with raises to $13,600 next year and to $14,300 in 1984-1985.

February 23, 1983
5 min read
Education News Update
The Texas State Board of Education has voted unanimously to open the state's textbook-selection process to people who want to speak in favor of a particular textbook. (See Education Week, Feb. 16, 1983.)

Previously, only those who objected to the textbooks were allowed to testify at the annual meetings. People for the American Way, a national civil-liberties advocacy group founded by the television producer Norman Lear, began working to have the procedures changed last year after it was denied the opportunity to testify in favor of textbooks criticized by Mel and Norma Gabler of Education Research Analysts, a nonprofit organization that reviews textbooks.

February 23, 1983
1 min read
Education Associations Column
The New Hampshire Association of School Principals--with the support of some superintendents, the state education department, and faculty members from the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth College--has begun preparations to establish a "Principals' Academy."

Although ideas are still in the preliminary stage, the planners say, the academy might start out as an intensive week-long summer program on a college campus with follow-up sessions for participants during the next academic year. Faculty for the academy would include scholars, senior-level school administrators, and guest lecturers from the private sector.

February 23, 1983
4 min read
Education Backers of Public-School Bible Classes Prepare for Court Battle in Bristol, Va.
About 100 supporters of the "shared time" Bible-study classes in the Bristol, Va., school district gathered in a local ywca last week to launch a fund-raising campaign for expenses incurred in a federal-court challenge to the classes.
Alex Heard, February 23, 1983
3 min read
Education Child-Advocacy Group Rebuts Reagan's Claims About Budget
Changes in federal education programs enacted under the Reagan Administration have adversely affected disadvantaged and handicapped children, and changes proposed "threaten" the future of those children, the Children's Defense Fund charged last week.
Eileen White, February 23, 1983
2 min read
Education National News Roundup
President Reagan, citing rising costs that are now putting private schools beyond the reach of many families, officially asked the Congress last week to provide tax credits of up to $300 per year for the parents of children who attend private schools.

It is of "great importance to the continued vitality of our society that parents have a meaningful choice between public education and the many forms of private education that are available," he said in a letter to the legislators.

February 23, 1983
15 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Computers Column
The Control Data Corporation this month announced a large-scale plan to use computers to expand pre-engineering education at 110 colleges and universities--and, eventually, to bring such programs to the high schools.

The company, which officials said will spend $6 million on the program, will donate more than 400 microcomputers and plato software programs to the colleges, which will be selected this spring.

February 23, 1983
4 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Computer Instruction Rapped
Computers should not be used as a means of instruction "under any condition," a member of the policy-making board of the National Institute of Education (nie) said last week.
Charlie Euchner, February 23, 1983
2 min read
Education Michigan District Stages Tax Rebellion
A tiny Michigan school district has declared war on the Governor's budget-balancing plan, refusing to pay state withholding taxes until it receives overdue state aid.
Glen Macnow, February 23, 1983
1 min read
Education Capitol Pages: Limited Schooling, Unlimited Opportunities
About 98 percent of Principal John C. Hoffman's students go on to college, even though they only go to classes from 6:15 A.M. to 10 A.M. each day, hold down full-time jobs that often keep them up (and away from studies) until midnight, take no laboratory courses, and attend a school judged by a number of its former students to be "inferior" in many respects.
Tom Mirga, February 23, 1983
11 min read
Education Federal Court Rejects 'Moment of Silence' in New Mexico District
A federal district court ruled this month that a New Mexico law allowing a minute of silence in schools, and one district's implementation of that law, violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of government-established religion.
Charlie Euchner, February 23, 1983
3 min read
Education For The Record
President Reagan, speaking at the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters in Washington on Jan. 31:

February 23, 1983
1 min read
Education Vermont Legislature Considers Preschool for 3- and 4-Year-Olds
The Vermont legislature is expected to consider a new initiative--promoted by Gov. Richard A. Snelling last year during his bid for re-election--that would expand early-childhood-education programs in the state to include children aged 3 to 8.
Susan G. Foster, February 23, 1983
2 min read
Education Kentucky and South Carolina Increase Graduation Standards
Kentucky and South Carolina recently joined the growing number of states adopting more stringent graduation standards for high-school students, and Maryland is beginning a three-year assessment of its high-school programs.
Sheppard Ranbom, February 23, 1983
4 min read
Education Science Panel Weighs $400-Mil. Education Project
A bill before the House of Representatives to improve science and mathematics education moved a step closer to enactment last week as the Science and Technology Committee--after hearing testimony from educators, scientists, and other legislators--prepared to vote on sending the measure to the House floor.
Eileen White, February 23, 1983
2 min read
Education No-Testing Test Comes to an End in Ohio District

School officials in the Huron, Ohio, public schools have ended a semester-long experiment in which high-school students with passing grades were exempted from end-of-term exams for those classes in which they had perfect attendance records.
February 23, 1983
1 min read
Education Sold: 4-Bedroom House, Built by Students
In about six months, Mel and Jessie Holguin hope to be settled in a new colonial-style house, which is now under construction not more than three miles from their current home in McLean, Va.
Susan G. Foster, February 23, 1983
5 min read
Education People News
The Alaska Board of Education last week named Harold Raynolds Jr., Commissioner of Education and Cultural Services in Maine, as its top choice to head the state's education system.

If confirmed by Gov. William Sheffield, Mr. Raynolds, 57, will replace Marshall Lind, 46, who has served as Alaska's Commissioner of Education since 1971.

February 23, 1983
2 min read
Education States News Roundup
A study conducted by the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group has found that school districts throughout the state routinely purchase art supplies for student use that contain potentially harmful chemicals.

In its study of 21 school districts, the group found dangerous chemicals that have been linked to cancer--including asbestos--in art supplies such as clay, glass, paint sprays, rubber cements, thinners, shellacs, and markers.

February 23, 1983
1 min read
Education Consolidation Plans Appear, and Disappear, in Some States
Chet M. Blaylock, a member of the Montana State Senate's education committee, introduced a school-district consolidation bill this year and learned firsthand just how volatile an issue consolidation can be. "It's not a pleasant thing. I was called everything but a decent human being."
Alex Heard, February 23, 1983
6 min read
School Climate & Safety Schools Use Dogs, Metal Detectors In Security Checks
In the New Orleans public schools, where a number of "weapons incidents" occurred during the 1981-82 school year, the school board gave preliminary approval this month to a plan that would allow some school personnel to use metal detectors to catch students carrying concealed weapons onto school grounds.
Susan Walton, February 23, 1983
12 min read
English Learners Bilingual Educators Urge Link With Foreign-Language Teachers
Like their counterparts in mathematics and science teaching, teachers and advocates of bilingual education--meeting here for their annual convention--are seeking to build support for their discipline by emphasizing its potential for strengthening America's place in the world.
Eileen White, February 23, 1983
2 min read