May 18, 1983

Education Week, Vol. 02, Issue 34
Education Seymour Papert's 'Microworld': An Educational Utopia
At a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences here this spring, Seymour Papert managed to take issue with just about every teaching method that schools use in education--particularly the way most of them are now using computers.
Charlie Euchner, May 18, 1983
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9 min read
Education N.J. District Hires Detective To Track Nonresident Students
A New Jersey school system has hired a detective agency to investigate students who are suspected of illegally attending its schools because they do not live in the district.

Officials in the Pennsauken School District say they hired the Chad Detective Agency last year after receiving numerous complaints from citizens about students who live in other districts attending Pennsauken schools.

May 18, 1983
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2 min read
Education School Volunteers Broadening Reach
Volunteerism has received a big boost since President Reagan took office, but many volunteer efforts in education are still fragmented, speakers said at the 11th annual conference of the National School Volunteer Program (nsvp) earlier this month.
Jean Knox , May 18, 1983
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2 min read
Education Ill. Governor, Citing 'Scandalous' School Needs, Presses Tax Boost
Gov. James Thompson, testifying before a rarely convened committee of the whole state Senate recently, urged support of his $1.6-billion income-tax increase to bolster education and other programs beset by unrelenting budget cuts.
Don Sevener, May 18, 1983
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2 min read
Education State Proposals To Bolster Math and Science Teaching
Following is a summary of the variety of measures states have taken, or are considering, to improve mathematics and science education.
May 18, 1983
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28 min read
Education News Updates
Barry L. Steim, the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, superintendent who in recent weeks was criticized for using school-system funds to attend law school, has resigned.

Mr. Steim, who had headed the 6,800-student district for six years, said he had been working 80-hour weeks to keep law-school and college-teaching commitments in addition to fulfilling the responsibilities of his superintendency.

May 18, 1983
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1 min read
Education State News Roundup
The Republican-controlled Idaho legislature refused to increase education funding last week during a special session called by Gov. John V. Evans.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the same education budget that they had passed during the regular session, which adjourned in April.

May 18, 1983
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3 min read
Education City News Roundup
The Queen's Gambit, a recent work of fiction by Walter Tevis that is climbing up the bestseller lists, is the story of an eight-year-old girl who learns to play chess in the basement of an orphanage and eventually becomes an international grandmaster.

In a case of life imitating art, students from Elementary School 27, located in a low-income section of Indianapolis, came away from Memphis earlier this month with the National Elementary School Chess Championship.

May 18, 1983
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3 min read
Education Detailed Goals for High School Urged By College Board
The College Board last week recommended that all college-bound students demonstrate "basic learning" in six fields of study before they advance to college.
Charlie Euchner, May 18, 1983
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6 min read
Education Mass. Student Bank Runs Afoul of State Regulators
The students at Easton (Mass.) Middle School are back to borrowing their lunch money from sympathetic teachers now that the Massachusetts Banking Commission has shut down their student-operated bank.

Begun three months ago as a learning experience for 6th graders in the school's "high-ability learners" program, the bank was forced by the state's bank examiners to close its doors because it lacked a charter (which costs $200,000), charged too much interest on loans, and used the word "bank" without state permission, according to Ann Hoyle, who directs the program.

May 18, 1983
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14 min read
Education Merit Pay Denounced by N.E.A., But Shanker Willing To 'Consider' It
When the National Commission on Excellence in Education recently recommended merit pay and other changes in the teaching profession, its members failed to consider the obstacles to reform caused by poor management in the schools, spokesmen for the two national teachers' unions charged last week.
Eileen White, May 18, 1983
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4 min read
Education Revised History Textbooks Creating 'New Myths' About Minorities
Including ethnic groups in American-history textbooks may correct one bias, but a new study suggests that, as ethnicity is commonly covered, it creates the danger of perpetuating others.
Susan Walton, May 18, 1983
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4 min read
Education Media Column
Two new video-instruction series from the Agency for Instructional Television are finished and ready to begin next September in the agency's Skills Essential to Learning Project (sel). Supported by a consortium of state and Canadian provincial education agencies, the project was begun in the mid-1970's with the aim of producing an extended series of programs that could be widely used by the participants' local school districts.

The new series, each involving 12 15-minute programs, focus on science and language-arts skills for 7th and 8th graders. "WhatAbout," the science series, uses segments involving young people and professional scientists to demonstrate the processes of hypothesizing, observing, inferring, and experimenting, according to the ait "In Other Words," the language-arts series, uses similar juxtapositions of youths and adult professionals to show student viewers how to think about what makes a written or spoken message effective.

May 18, 1983
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4 min read
Teaching Profession Legislation To Expand Teacher-Bargaining Rights Advances in N.J.
The New Jersey Assembly has passed a bill that would markedly expand the bargaining rights of teachers and other public employees in the state.
Thomas Toch, May 18, 1983
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3 min read
Education New N.Y.C. Chancellor Reverses Promotion Policy
Anthony J. Alvarado, New York City's new schools chancellor, has moved quickly to reverse promotion policies established by his predecessor that had repeatedly held back failing students in the nation's largest school system and would have created a special high-school track for such students.
Hope Aldrich, May 18, 1983
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3 min read
Education Shortages Spur State Progress in Math, Science
Seventeen states have passed or are considering bills that would offer tuition subsidies or loans--generally with a "forgiveness" provision--to college students to encourage them to become mathematics and science teachers.
Alex Heard, May 18, 1983
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2 min read
Education Publishing Column
Chinese children who flirt with the idea that life is better in the United States will have their illusions dashed if the Young Pioneers has its way, according to a report by the Knight-Ridder News Service.

The Chinese child-training organization has recommended that students read Tales From the West, a 142-page paperback book published by Shanghai Children's Publishing House that is filled with grim stories from Chinese newspapers and magazines. The group, says the news report, hopes the book will counteract the enticing picture many youths have of Western society.

May 18, 1983
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5 min read
Education Senate May Boost E.D. Budget
In a move that could result in a spending increase for federal education programs, the Senate last week rejected a budget that had been worked out by the Republican leadership and the Reagan Administration.
Eileen White, May 18, 1983
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1 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
The Senate Subcommittee on the Handicapped last week approved measures to extend for three years the federal laws governing education of the handicapped and vocational-rehabilitation programs.

The measures, which were scheduled for action in the Labor and Human Resources Committee last Friday, would include a new federal program to help handicapped high-school students more easily make the transition from school to college or employment.

May 18, 1983
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2 min read
Education District News Roundup
The Whitman Middle School in Yonkers, N.Y., was closed this month after a health official judged the building an immediate hazard to the 653 7th and 8th graders who attended school in it. The building was closed despite the school district's contention that it could keep the building hazard-free until the school year ended on June 27.

The dispute began in April when the district, complying with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirement, inspected all its buildings for the presence of friable, or crumbling, asbestos. The inspection showed that at the Whitman school, extensive work would be required to remove the asbestos. Since the material could not be removed by the June 28 deadline, the district would have been required to inform the community and school personnel.

May 18, 1983
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3 min read
Education Task Force Adds New Issues to Conflict Over Desegregation in Boston Schools
A task force of school and community representatives has developed a position paper recommending that the Boston school system sharply curtail court-ordered busing of students, create new school attendance zones, and eliminate a number of the city's magnet schools.
Susan G. Foster, May 18, 1983
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5 min read
Education Civil-Rights Advocates, Federal Official Square Off at House Committee Session
Representatives of the nation's largest civil-rights advocacy groups have asked a House Judiciary subcommittee for a special investigation to determine whether officials of the Reagan Administration have failed to carry out their responsibilities under the Constitution.
Tom Mirga, May 18, 1983
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3 min read
Education Chicago's 3-Year Funding Scheme Vetoed by Oversight Panel

And Jerome Van Gorkom, chairman of the authority, expressed doubt that the school system will open next fall without additional state revenue generated by proposed income-tax increases. (See related story on this page.)

The Chicago board was told to submit a revised long-range financial blueprint in mid-July, taking into account action by the General Assembly to increase state or local revenues. The legislature's scheduled adjournment is June 30.

May 18, 1983
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2 min read
Education Excerpts From: Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need To Know and Be Able To Do
The following are excerpts from the College Board's report on academic competencies and subjects suggested for high-school study.

THE BASIC ACADEMIC COMPETENCIES

May 18, 1983
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17 min read
Education Fla. Anti-Communism Course Is Divisive Cold War Legacy
Spero McConnell was teaching social studies in Miami when Florida's unique "Americanism versus Communism" curriculum requirement first went into effect.
Barry Klein, May 18, 1983
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5 min read
Education U.S. Court Rules Against Layoffs Based on Race
A federal appeals court, in a ruling that could have national implications, has overturned a lower court's order requiring the Kalamazoo, Mich., school board to lay off senior white teachers in order to protect the jobs of black teachers.
Tom Mirga, May 18, 1983
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6 min read
Education Legislative Report
as of 5 p.m. on May 11

Senate House

May 18, 1983
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4 min read
Education Nonteachers Trained To Teach in Maine
The University of Southern Maine, in conjunction with the Portland Public School District, is scheduled to begin offering an experimental teacher-preparation program this month that will address an impending teacher shortage in the state by attracting teacher candidates from other professions.
Susan G. Foster, May 18, 1983
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2 min read
Education Federal Math-Science Education Bill Set at $425 Million by Senate Panel
A $425-million measure to improve mathematics and science education was quickly approved by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee last week.
Eileen White, May 18, 1983
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3 min read
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