December 7, 1983
Education Week, Vol. 03, Issue 13
Education
Bell Calls on Legislators To Use Funding Power To 'Move' Schools
Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell said last week that state legislatures should require schools to adopt certain reforms as a prerequisite for state funds--and he indicated he would make that recommendation in his keynote address at the national forum on education in Indianapolis this week.
Education
Conn. Plan Unveiled To Improve Schools
Commissioner of Education Gerald N. Tirozzi of Connecticut has proposed a sweeping school-improvement plan that would mandate a longer school year, more academic courses, revisions of the compulsory-attendance law, and expanded kindergarten services.
Education
Florida Council Approves Three Merit-Pay Procedures for Teachers
A legislatively mandated panel in Florida last week produced three different procedures for determining which of the state's 90,000 public-school teachers deserve merit pay.
Education
High Court Asked To Enforce Title IX 'Surgically'
A Justice Department lawyer told the U.S. Supreme Court last week that the federal law barring sex discrimination in education should be applied "surgically" to the component parts of a school or college, not to institutions generally.
Education
States' Reform Efforts Increase as Focus of Issues Shifts
An Education Week national survey of education reform suggests that the movement to improve schooling that began several years ago has taken root in all 50 states, becoming so well established that in many the issue is not whether to make changes, but when and how those changes should be made.
Education
E.C.S. Group To Spend $725,000 To SPur Action on Its Proposals
Wilmington, Del--A task force of political and business leaders at the state and national levels agreed here last week on a plan for pressing state governments to enact major education reforms before the national Presidential conventions next summer.
Education
Tenn. Panel Approves Career-Ladder Plan
Gov. Lamar Alexander's teaching-reform plan, blocked by lawmakers earlier this year after intense lobbying by the Tennessee Education Association, has cleared a major legislative hurdle.
Education
News Update
In Connecticut, 169 school districts and more than 100 other public and private organizations that serve children have begun to receive directories of missing children. New Jersey education groups sent out directories to schools earlier this fall (see Education Week, Oct. 26, 1983).
Published by Child Find, an organization in New Paltz, N.Y., that helps locate missing children, the directory is being distributed by the Connecticut Department of Education, according to Jean Campbell of the department's division of secondary and elementary education.
Education
E.T.S. President Asks Limited Use Of Teacher Test
The Educational Testing Service (ets) will stop distributing its teacher-competency examinations to states or school systems that make their teachers pass the tests to keep their jobs, the testing organization's president has announced.
Education
Rights Commission's Life Extended After 18-Hour Lapse in Authorization
For about 18 hours last week, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights ceased to exist.
Education
IN FEDERAL AGENCIES
Education of the handicapped. The Education Department proposed, in the Nov. 25 Federal Register, funding priorities for research funded by the National Institute of Handicapped Research. Comments are welcome within 30 days of publication of the priorities. Contact: Betty Jo Berland, National Institute of Handicapped Research, ed, 400 Maryland Ave., S.W., Room 3511, Washington, D.C. 20202; (202) 472-6551 or tty for the Deaf (202) 472-4217.
Education statistics. The Education Department announced, in the Nov. 18 Federal Register, a meeting of the Advisory Council on Education Statistics on Dec. 15 and 16 in Washington. Contact: Robena S. Gore, Executive Director, 1200 19th St., N.W., (Brown Building) Room 723-B, Washington, D.C. 20208; (202) 254-8227.
Education
State Chiefs Seek End to Ed.-School Requirement for Teachers
Little Rock, Ark--The Council of Chief State School Officers, citing a need to draw more talented people into the teaching profession, has urged states to write new certification laws and regulations that do not require prospective teachers to take undergraduate education courses.
Education
Southern States Plan To Monitor Effects of Education Reforms
The Southern Regional Education Board has created a Commission on Educational Quality to prepare, by next summer, methods of measuring the effectiveness of the recent wave of education reforms in the South.
Education
People News
An Ohio school's marching band could be the first U.S. high-school band to tour the People's Republic of China. The Mount Healthy High School band, which has scheduled a tour in June 1984, has only to figure out a way to raise the $200,000 required to take the trip.
Organized under the auspices of the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation, a New Jersey group that coordinates exchange programs, the trip will send 88 band members to China to give free concerts in city squares, schools, and churches, according to Russell Hinkle, who has been Mount Healthy's band director for 24 years.
Education
Supreme Court Agrees To Rule On Limit to Student Searches
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to decide whether evidence seized unconstitutionally by school officials can be used to prosecute students for drug violations.
Education
Opinion
Government Should Help Families Pursue Religious Education
The government should have a role in the promotion of religious values in the nation's schools, but not in the way that is normally discussed--by passing laws that allow prayer or a "moment of silent meditation" in the public schools. Instead, the government should concentrate on policies that provide financial aid for schools with legitimate religious-education missions.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
Edd Doerr Executive Director Americans for Religious Liberty Silver Spring, Md.
You are to be commended for your excellent report on the intrusion of fundamentalist missionaries into public schools ("'To Introduce Adolescents to the Person of Jesus,"' Education Week, Oct. 26, 1983). It is astonishing that this widespread practice has not been challenged in the courts.