October 5, 1983

Education Week, Vol. 03, Issue 05
Ed-Tech Policy Computers Column
The National Commission on Excellence in Education made a "breakthrough" when it listed computer science as one of modern education's "new basics." But the commission was too vague in describing just what computer knowledge students should acquire during their elementary and secondary schooling.

That is the opinion of Arthur Luehrmann, a partner at Computer Literacy Inc., and the co-author of a major textbook for "computer literacy" courses.

October 5, 1983
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4 min read
Education Civil-Rights Cases Affecting Education on Supreme Court's Agenda
Several of the major education-related cases to be heard during the 1983-84 session of the U.S. Supreme Court, which began this week, involve controversies over the scope of federal civil-rights laws.
Thomas Toch, October 5, 1983
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5 min read
Education Former E.D. Official Calls Reorganization, Layoffs 'Devastating'
The reorganization and reduction-in-force now underway in the U.S. Education Department's office of elementary and secondary education has had a "devastating" effect on employee morale and effectiveness, according to the former director of the Women's Educational Equity Act program.
Tom Mirga, October 5, 1983
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3 min read
Education 'Dollar Figure for Excellence' Remains Unknown
One of the major questions remaining about the various reform recommendations contained in recent national studies of education, said participants at last week's Spring Hill conference, is how much they would cost.

Of the major national reports, speakers noted, only that of the National Science Foundation's Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology estimated costs.

October 5, 1983
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2 min read
Education High-School Teachers Named To Receive N.E.H. Study Grants
Ninety eight teachers from around the nation have been selected to receive $3,000 stipends for independent summer study under a new program sponsored by the Council for Basic Education (cbe) and funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The teachers were selected by the council from more than 1,000 applicants who submitted written proposals. cbe has a grant from the humanities endowment to select another group of 100 teachers next year. The deadline for filing is Dec. 19, 1983.

October 5, 1983
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12 min read
Education Grand Rapids May Appeal Court's Rejection of 'Shared-Time' Plan
The board of education in Grand Rapids, Mich., was scheduled to decide this week whether to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a federal-court ban of its "shared-time" program, in which public schools offered instructional programs to private-school students.
Charlie Euchner, October 5, 1983
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4 min read
Education Nutritionists Ask Restoration of School-Lunch Funds
A panel of nutritionists and public officials last week asked a House subcommittee to restore at least 10 percent--$150 million--of the funds cut from the school-lunch program and other federal child-nutrition programs in the fiscal 1982 budget.
Susan Walton, October 5, 1983
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3 min read
Education N.C. Chief Outlines Plan To Improve Schooling
State Superintendent A. Craig Phillips of North Carolina last week unveiled a six-point plan to improve the state's schools over the next four years.

Mr. Phillips' plan for educational reform calls for increasing teachers' pay, funding school construction, decreasing the student-teacher ratio, and establishing day-care programs in the schools.

October 5, 1983
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2 min read
Education Publishing Column
In the small Virginia town where Bible-study classes were recently found unconstitutional, another historic book is under examination.

Teachers in the Bristol, Va., school system are protesting the use of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers on the grounds that they are "racist, sexist, and archaic." Along with 13 other educational concerns, members of the Bristol Virginia Education Association last month presented the school board with the results of a survey of 165 bvea members showing that many teachers disapprove of the books. (See Education Week, Feb. 2, 1983.)

October 5, 1983
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4 min read
Education Sub-Minimum Wage Would Not Aid Young, Study Says
As an anti-poverty measure, the federal minimum-wage law has had a "small beneficial effect" on the nation's workforce as a whole, but it has also reduced the demand for teen-age workers, according to a recent study by the National Chamber Foundation.
Susan G. Foster, October 5, 1983
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2 min read
Education National News Roundu
The scores of college-bound students on the tests of the American College Testing Program were down one-tenth of a point last year, officials report, but they say they are not concerned by the decline.

"We discourage overinterpretation of the small changes in average scores that occur from year to year," said Michael Kane, the act's vice president for research and development.

October 5, 1983
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3 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
A federal district judge last week released $4.3 million in U.S. Education Department funds to keep federally financed programs affected by the Chicago school-desegregation dispute alive for another month.

At the same time, U.S. District Judge Milton I. Shadur indefinitely extended his freeze on the remaining $43.2 million that he impounded in July after determining that the government had reneged on a 1980 agreement to "make every good-faith effort" to help finance the school district's desegregation plan.

October 5, 1983
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14 min read
Education Bell Backs Federal Software Initiative
Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell last week called for a "Manhattan Project" to develop computer software for schools, but he stopped short of saying how much money the federal government should devote to the effort or what form it should take.
Charlie Euchner, October 5, 1983
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3 min read
Education Curriculum Column
An increased emphasis on reasoning and problem-solving in the schools is regarded by many educators as a more pressing need than the teaching of so-called "basic skills."

Now, a test designed to measure children's reasoning proficiencies is available from the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State College in New Jersey. The test, believed to be the first of its kind, was developed by Virginia Shipman, a research psychologist with the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J., for the New Jersey Department of Education; the department is the ''authorized distributor" of the test.

October 5, 1983
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4 min read
Education Support for Mondale Said Set In National Teachers' Groups
The National Education Association and the afl-cio, the parent body of the American Federation of Teachers, were scheduled last week to make preliminary pledges in support of the Presidential campaign of Walter F. Mondale, the former Democratic Vice President.
Tom Mirga & Thomas Toch, October 5, 1983
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2 min read
Education Florida Board Votes To Delay Governor's Teacher-Test Plan
Gov. Robert Graham of Florida, who has strongly advocated the use of testing to raise standards in education, suffered a setback last month over the controversial issue of testing for teacher recertification.
Hope Aldrich, October 5, 1983
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3 min read
Education Finance Experts Debate Role of Equity in Excellence Movement
Some of the leading figures in the school-finance-reform movement met here last week to discuss the place of equity concerns in the current push for improvement of elementary and secondary education.
Peggy Caldwell, October 5, 1983
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8 min read
Education Indiana Panel Issues School-Reform Plan
A report prepared for Gov. Robert Orr of Indiana by a task force studying ways to improve education in the state calls for the introduction of merit-pay programs for teachers, a new state-governance structure for education, and an immediate extension of the school year.

Under the plan prepared by the Governor's Select Advisory Commission on Primary and Secondary Education--a 15-member task force composed of six legislators and nine civic leaders appointed by the Governor--the state would establish a state board of education composed of 11 members selected by the Governor. (One member would come from each Congressional district and one would be at-large.)

October 5, 1983
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2 min read
Education New Connecticut School Offers Science, Math for the Gifted
Avon, Conn--As a National Science Board commission was warning last month that American pupils lag in mathematics and science skills, a new private school specializing in these subjects opened its doors to 48 highly motivated 5th- to 7th-grade pupils in Connecticut.
Karen A. Schneider , October 5, 1983
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8 min read
Education Parents' Anti-Drug Group Discusses Need for Joint Efforts With Schools
Members of the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth, who gathered here for a three-day summit meeting last week, say they do not blame school officials for drug-abuse problems in high schools, but they do expect them to help with solutions.
Cindy Currence, October 5, 1983
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4 min read
Education Nancy Reagan Leads Troops in 'War on Drugs'
Ever since the Reagan administration initiated its "war on drugs" three years ago, Nancy Reagan has been in the thick of the battle.

Last week, she was on hand to congratulate members of the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth, a group she helped launch three years ago, at its annual conference just outside Washington, D.C.

October 5, 1983
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1 min read
Education N.C. Education-School Study Links High Standards, Enrollment Decline
A new study analyzing changes at North Carolina's 44 teacher-education colleges during the enrollment decline of the past decade has found that those colleges committed to maintaining high standards are losing the most students because they have no flexibility in the present market.
Hope Aldrich, October 5, 1983
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3 min read
Education Asbestos Panel To Meet in Wake Of House Vote
A federal task force on asbestos in the schools that last met in 1980 will reconvene at a meeting tentatively scheduled for late October, a U.S. Education Department official said last week.
Susan Walton, October 5, 1983
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6 min read
Education Illinois Governor Changes, Signs Bargaining and Standards Bills
Gov. James R. Thompson has signed, with some modifications, landmark legislation guaranteeing collective bargaining for teachers, including the right to strike.
Don Sevener, October 5, 1983
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2 min read
Education Cath. Leaders Urge Tax Credits for Public-School Families
The leaders of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church have called on the Congress to include families of public-school children in tuition tax-credit legislation now pending in the Senate.
Charlie Euchner, October 5, 1983
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4 min read
Education Courts in Two States Move To Halt Changes in Pension Systems
State courts in California and Pennsylvania have moved to stop state officials temporarily from altering teacher-pension plans, at a time when the states are looking to the programs as a source of funds to help balance their budgets.
Sheppard Ranbom, October 5, 1983
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4 min read
Education Mich. Teachers Oppose Merit Pay, Urge Reform
Michigan's public-school teachers are twice as likely as the general public in the state to send their children to private schools, according to a newspaper survey.
Glen Macnow, October 5, 1983
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9 min read
Education Futrell Urges Tenn. Governor To Work With Union
Mary H. Futrell, president of the National Education Association has told Gov. Lamar Alexander--whose proposal last spring for a statewide "master-teacher" program helped catalyze the national debate on school reform--that by working with the Tennessee Education Association he can develop a "model reform package."
Jim O'Hara, October 5, 1983
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3 min read
Education Teacher Column
The American Federation of Teachers has launched a l0-part television series, "Inside Your Schools," hosted each time by a different teacher.

The half-hour program, which is written in a news-magazine format, is being aired the first Tuesday of each month at 3 P.M. by The Learning Channel, a cable network that reaches about 3.5 million homes. Replays can be seen at 2:30 P.M. on Thursdays and at noon on Sundays.

October 5, 1983
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2 min read
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