September 28, 1983
Education Week, Vol. 03, Issue 04
Education
Opinion
Connections: New Challenges, New Beginings
"Our beginning was indeed bold, but it was also brilliantly mistimed from an economic standpoint," writes Ronald A. Wolk.
Education
Schools Have Too Many Tasks To Perform, Illinois Educators Say
Chicago--Illinois' superintendents of schools, having heard much discussion of mediocrity in public education at their own conference here recently, subsequently told a state commission that they were not the ones to blame.
Education
News Update
The West Virginia Supreme Court has finished hearing arguments--again--on the Fritz the Cat case, which involves a Marion County teacher who was fired in 1979 after distributing the X-rated materials to an 8th-grade art class.
The West Virginia Supreme Court has finished hearing arguments--again--on the Fritz the Cat case, which involves a Marion County teacher who was fired in 1979 after distributing the X-rated materials to an 8th-grade art class.
Education
Commission Is Queried on Reform Costs
Members of the National Commission on Excellence in Education who met with education leaders and government officials from five states here last week were bombarded by questions about who would be responsible for implementing and paying for the reforms proposed by the commission.
Education
House Panel Told Aid Formula Slows School Integration
Educators and researchers joined the chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in asserting before a House panel last week that efforts to desegregate public schools have slowed considerably since the implementation of the education block-grants program a year ago.
Education
Conn. Task Force Calls For Higher Teacher Pay
A citizens' task force has recommended, in a report commissioned by the Connecticut Board of Education, that the state increase salaries and create career ladders to recognize competence as part of an overall effort to attract and keep qualified teachers in the state.
Education
U.S.D.A. Barring Use by Schools Of Suspect Beef
Responding to a U.S. Agriculture Department ban on ground beef supplied by two plants to the federal school-lunch program, school officials last week took steps to make sure that the suspect product did not reach schoolchildren.
Education
Suit Over 14,000 Employees Had Roots in Job Evaluation
The Washington State suit that may lead to a U.S. Supreme Court test of the concept of comparable worth had its beginnings 10 years ago in the request of a national union that the state conduct a job evaluation, according to a spokesman for the union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (afscme) Council 28 of afl-cio
The study, and more extensive studies conducted every two years thereafter, showed that female-dominated jobs in the state paid an average of 20 percent--or approximately $175 per month--less than comparable male-dominated jobs.
Education
'Comparable Worth' Tested in Major Pay-Equity Suit
In what experts are calling the most significant court test to date of the concept of "comparable worth," a federal district judge ruled this month that the state of Washington was guilty of wage discrimination in paying women employees less than men performing similar kinds of work.
Education
College, N.Y. School District Cooperate on New Alternative School
A New York City community school district, in collaboration with a local college, has opened an alternative school in East Harlem for junior-high-school students that combines community-service work with regular classroom instruction.
Education
Anti-Homosexual Law in Oklahoma Is Challenged in U.S. Appeals Court
The constitutionality of an Oklahoma law that allows schools to dismiss employees for engaging in or advocating certain homosexual activities is being tested in a suit brought last year by a national gay-rights group. The law is the only one of its kind in the country.
Education
Anti-Delinquency Program Found Effective by Researchers
As a coalition of youth agencies called on the Congress this month to continue the federal programs that deal with juvenile delinquency, a group of academic researchers released a report that appeared to buttress the argument that many federally funded programs designed to combat juvenile delinquency have been successful.
Education
House Agrees To Tack $200 Million to Education Spending Measure for 1984
The House last week approved, in a 310-to-101 vote, a fiscal 1984 spending bill for the Education Department that added $200 million to the education-budget figures recommended by the chamber's Appropriations Committee a week earlier.
Education
Panel Calls For Improvements in Voc.-Ed. Programs
Vocational-education programs in the nation's secondary schools are in need of "some important and fundamental changes" in how their teachers are trained and their skills-training programs are funded if they are to improve employment opportunities for their graduates.
Education
Snoopy's Anti-School Poster Puts Hallmark in Doghouse
Snoopy apparently is having second thoughts about the value of a formal education.
Hallmark Cards touched off a small but lively debate about Snoopy's attitude earlier this month when it introduced, through its chain stores, a poster in which the "Peanuts" character intimated that he would rather drink root beer and eat pizza than spend time on school-work. According to William Johnson, a Hallmark spokesman in Kansas City, Mo., 13 school-board members, principals, and teachers in several states complained when they saw the poster that features Snoopy, Woodstock, and several yellow birds having a root beer and pizza party.
Education
Group Seeks To Bar Freshmen From Varsities
An independent committee established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association last week proposed making all freshmen ineligible to play varsity football and basketball, but experts said the measure would face a difficult fight for ratification.
Education
Bell: Summit Meeting Cannot Wait
Last week, as a House subcommittee was hearing testimony on a proposal to convene a "summit" conference on education, Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell said here that the matter cannot wait for Congressional action.
Ed-Tech Policy
Students' Access to Computers Said a Function of School's Wealth
Students from poor districts are less likely to receive instruction on a computer than students from wealthy districts, but there is no significant inequality based on race or gender, a federally funded study has found.
It goes on to say, however, that "to the extent that computer literacy and computer expertise are necessary for success in getting and keeping jobs, computer inequity is a serious problem." The report does not attempt to assess whether computers in fact will be crucial to students' future job prospects.
Education
Athletics
More than half of the high-school football players in Minnesota are injured at some time during a season, and 31 percent are injured seriously enough to keep them on the sidelines for a week or more.
Those are some of the findings of a new study by the Institute for Athletic Medicine in Minneapolis; the researchers say they are probably typical for the nation. The study, published this month in the The Physician and Sportsmedicine, is based on a survey of 101 coaches and 3,061 players conducted after the 1977 season.
Education
Ark. Governor Proposes Tax Hike for Schools
Little Rock--Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas last week proposed raising taxes by more than $150 million to pay for major improvements in the state's public schools and colleges, and called a special session of the legislature to consider his plan.
Education
Studies Evaluate State, Local Experience With Block Grants
Since last year, the first in which school systems received federal aid under Chapter 2 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 (ecia), a number of groups have conducted studies looking at the first year's experience with the block-grants program. Among them are:
No Strings Attached: An Interim Report on the New Education Block Grant, by Anne T. Henderson of the National Committee for Citizens in Education.
Education
Books; New In Print
This volume summarizes the findings of one of the most comprehensive looks yet taken at how public schools function. Based on his "Study of Schooling"--an investigation of 1,016 classrooms, 1,350 teachers, 8,624 parents, and 17,163 students conducted over a number of years--Mr. Goodlad describes and reflects upon the significance of the similarities and differences uncovered in the schools his research team analyzed, including their curriculum, school-community relations, use of class time, and teachers' attitudes, characteristics, and methods of instruction. While he finds some virtues in schools as they are now, Mr. Goodlad also contends that they are "in trouble" and in need of fundamental restructuring as a result of broad social changes and requirements over which they have had little control. The proposed elements of that restructuring are enumerated in the final two chapters of this volume. Mr. Goodlad is professor of education and former dean of the University of California at Los Angeles's graduate school of education.
This volume summarizes the findings of one of the most comprehensive looks yet taken at how public schools function. Based on his "Study of Schooling"--an investigation of 1,016 classrooms, 1,350 teachers, 8,624 parents, and 17,163 students conducted over a number of years--Mr. Goodlad describes and reflects upon the significance of the similarities and differences uncovered in the schools his research team analyzed, including their curriculum, school-community relations, use of class time, and teachers' attitudes, characteristics, and methods of instruction. While he finds some virtues in schools as they are now, Mr. Goodlad also contends that they are "in trouble" and in need of fundamental restructuring as a result of broad social changes and requirements over which they have had little control. The proposed elements of that restructuring are enumerated in the final two chapters of this volume. Mr. Goodlad is professor of education and former dean of the University of California at Los Angeles's graduate school of education.
Education
Few Seniors Met Standards Set by Excellence Panel, N.C.E.S. Says
Fewer than 3 percent of the nation's 1982 high-school seniors met the graduation requirements recommended this spring by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, according to a new report.
Education
Panel Hears Children Tell of Nuclear War Fears
"A lot of kids are scared they might not have a future because of nuclear war," said Jessica Fiedler, an 11-year-old from Muscantine, Iowa, to members of a House committee last week. "I want a future, too."
Education
In the Press
Given profiles of hypothetical candidates for a "gifted and talented" program, teachers in an Arlington County, Va., experiment chose only three of the six possibilities. Basing their choices on I.Q. scores, teacher recommendations, family background, class performance, and other factors, the teachers rejected Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The exercise, described by Randy Sue Coburn in an article on the education of gifted children in the September issue of Science 83, typifies one of the central dilemmas of establishing such programs: the methods used may miss children whose potential is not readily measured on tests.
Education
Federal Judge Hears Challenge To 'Moment-of-Silence' Law
The New Jersey Legislature, in enacting a "moment-of-silence" law for public-school students last year, said the law called for just that--a minute of quiet contemplation and introspection to begin the school day.