September 14, 1983
Education Week, Vol. 03, Issue 02
Education
Opinion
Where Is the 'Merit' in New Merit-Pay Plans?
Superior teachers should be paid more than mediocre
teachers. Most Americans agree with this idea, and
so did three high-powered national commissions
whose reports helped propel education reform to the
top of the nation's agenda.
Education
Educating Americans for the 21st Century
The 124-page report of the National Science Board Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology includes 10 separate chapters and five exhibits. Four chapters and part of Exhibit C, which details the costs of the group's recommendations, are included here.
Single asterisks in brackets, [
- ], denote footnotes that have been omitted. Remaining footnotes appear at the end of each chapter; they are not in sequence because sections of the report are not included in the following excerpts. Ellipses indicate that portions of the text have been deleted.
Education
Reagan Proposes Effort To Raise Literacy Level
President Reagan last week unveiled a new initiative designed to help the nation's estimated 23 million illiterate adults learn to read and write.
Education
National News Roundup
More than 75 percent of a national sample of white adults said they would feel comfortable sending their children to schools that are up to 50-percent black, according to researchers at the University of Chicago.
In addition, officials at the university's National Opinion Re-3search Center found in a recent survey that a small but growing number of white adults support cross-district busing for desegregation purposes.
Education
Colleges Column
To help alleviate the nation's shortage of mathematics and science teachers, four Texas colleges and universities--with financial backing from the Carl B. and Florence F. King Foundation--will forgive tuition loans for students who promise to teach math and science in the state's public schools.
The foundation will distribute five $2,000 awards a year to each of the following institutions: Texas A&M University, the University of Dallas, Austin College, and Texas Wesleyan College.
Education
Democrats Criticize President
Fifteen minutes before President Reagan announced a new federal initiative to combat adult literacy, the Democratic National Committee held a press conference on Capitol Hill to excoriate the Administration's education policies.
Education
Iowa Girls' Athletic Union Sued Over 'Six-on-Six' Basketball Rules
When Lisa Becker first considered playing intercollegiate basketball, the thought did not occur to her that she might have a better chance for a scholarship if she played the sport a state other than Iowa.
Education
New Jobs Seen For Librarians In Info. Fields
Recent "revolutionary" changes in the field of information technology are likely to have a marked effect on the employment market for librarians over the next 10 years. While the number of job opportunities for traditional librarians will increase only slightly in the next seven years, then level off and decline through 1990, the demand for information professionals in nontraditional areas will increase significantly.
Education
Merit-Pay Panel To Urge Trials At State Level
A Congressional task force appointed to examine the idea of linking teachers' pay with their classroom performance recommends, in a draft report, that every state sponsor experimentation with the concept.
Education
N.J. Mandates Preschool Special-Ed. Program
Under a new state law that went into effect this month, New Jersey school districts are being required to identify--and to provide special-education services for--preschool children suspected of having developmental problems.
Education
N.J. Gov. Offers Plan To Waive Education Courses for Teachers
Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey last week proposed that people who have no education-school training be allowed to teach in the state's public schools--a plan that, if approved by the state's board of education and legislature, would become the first of its kind in the country.
Education
Despite Grant, N.Y. Can't Fill Spec.-Ed. Jobs
Despite a special waiver by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will allow the city to use a $48-million federal grant to add staff to its special-education program, New York City officials say they will experience a shortage of teachers in the field this fall.
Education
Phila. Board Approves Residency Rule
Philadelphia, the country's sixth largest school district, has now joined the ranks of the small but growing number of districts that impose residency requirements on their newly hired employees.
Education
Juveniles' Right To Treatment Denied
Incarcerated juveniles do not have constitutional rights to rehabilitative treatment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled last month.
In consolidated cases filed on behalf of juveniles incarcerated at two state-run detention centers in Puerto Rico, the appeals court ruled that a state "has no constitutional obligation" to provide treatment for juveniles within its custody.
Education
Science Panel Unveils 12-Year Reform Plan
Warning that American schoolchildren are in danger of becoming "stragglers in a world of technology," a national commission on science, mathematics, and technology education has proposed a 12-year plan that would significantly increase the emphasis on these subjects in schools and would cost the federal government $1.5 billion in new money during the first year of its implementation.
Ed-Tech Policy
Computers Column
A system that enables as many as 30 students to use one microcomputer at a time will be tested this fall at the University of Oregon and two public schools in Eugene, Ore.
The "Teacher Net" system links a single microcomputer with 30 inexpensive keyboard terminals around the classroom. Douglas Carnine, coordinator of the pilot program that will also include three other schools in other states, said the microcomputer will serve as an inexpensive version of a mainframe computer.
Education
Ill. Panel Uses 'State-of-the-Art' Approach in School-Finance Plan
Springfield, Ill--A report from a citizens' panel recommending major changes in the state's method of distributing billions of dollars to local school districts has been submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Education
N.I.E. Panel To Help Develop Agenda for Labs and Centers
The National Institute of Education (nie) has asked 75 people to assist it in establishing new agendas for the 17 federally supported laboratories and centers that conduct education research.
Education
States Silent on Chapter 1, 2 Guidelines
State and local education officials apparently have been slow to respond to the Education Department's long-awaited nonregulatory guidelines for administration of the Chapter 1 program for disadvantaged students and the Chapter 2 education block grants, federal education officials said last week.
Education
Publishing Column
Teen-age romance novels may send young girls into swoons, but that's not all they do, according to Maia Pank Mertz, associate professor of humanities education at Ohio State University. She contends that such books also promote the unrealistic idea that beauty and dependence are of paramount importance in relationships.
Calling them "training bras for Harlequins"--the popular adult romance novels-- Ms. Mertz said she is concerned that the formula-written novels set readers up for a big disappointment when they discover "that being pretty by itself doesn't necessarily bring them romance."
Education
13,500 Teachers Out on Strike In 38 Districts
As schools opened around the country last week, 38 districts reported strikes--three fewer than were reported at the same time last year, according to figures from the National Education Association (nea) and the American Federation of Teachers (aft).
One possible reason for the relative calm, according to Albert Shanker, president of the aft, may be that "there's more money around," and hence less chance that negotiations will reach an impasse over financial issues. Union leaders also said that lower rates of inflation and talk of school reform have helped reduce the number of strikes.
Education
Ed. Dept. Changes Stance in Another Title IX Case
The Education Department has dropped its investigation of alleged sex and race bias at two Illinois colleges following the Justice Department's recent decision to seek a narrow application of the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.
The Justice Department, in a legal brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court last month in the case of Grove City College v. Bell, contended that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 applies only to specific programs or activities within an institution that receive federal funds.
Education
Texas Board To Weigh 6th-Grade 'Tracking' Plan
A controversial curriculum plan that would separate students into three academic tracks as early as the 7th grade was to be presented in preliminary draft form to the Texas Board of Education at its September meeting late last week.
Education
Proprietary Schools' Student Aid Studied
Although the nation's proprietary schools--which prepare young people for a wide variety of skilled jobs--enroll a higher proportion of disadvantaged students than do other sectors of the postsecondary-education system, a lower proportion of the schools' students receive financial aid than do students at private colleges and universities.