February 8, 1984

Education Week, Vol. 03, Issue 20
English Learners Research and the Quest for 'Effective' Bilingual Methods
This spring, an elementary school in Dade County, Fla., will become the site of an experiment in bilingual education. After years of relying on an approach known as "transitional bilingual education," the district will test, in that school, a method known as "immersion."
Susan Walton, February 8, 1984
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26 min read
Education Federal File: Did the President Wave?
Frederick County, Md., school officials recently fired off a strongly worded letter to the National Park Service after one of its cars--which was leading President Reagan's motorcade--sailed past a school bus discharging students.

According to press reports, the incident occurred early last month while Mr. Reagan was passing through Thurmont, Md., on his way to his Camp David retreat. School officials said the President's limousine and the other cars in the motorcade passed the bus only after its driver shut the vehicle's doors, thus de-activating its red flashing lights.

February 8, 1984
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2 min read
Education Court Finds I.Q. Tests Racially Biased for Black Pupils' Placement
In what some are terming a landmark decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit late last month upheld a lower-court ruling that prohibits California school districts from using iq tests to evaluate black students for placement in special-education classes on the grounds that the tests are culturally biased.
Susan G. Foster, February 8, 1984
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5 min read
Education Linking of Scores, Funding Said 'Shoddy Reasoning'
The Reagan Administration's practice of linking increased federal spending for education during the 1960's and 1970's with a decline in student performance on college-entrance tests during the same period represents "shoddy reasoning at best, and might even qualify as voodoo reasoning," a high-ranking official of the College Board told a House education subcommittee last week.
Tom Mirga, February 8, 1984
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3 min read
Education Models Column
While most students are relieved to have a break from school on Saturday, 90 K-12 gifted pupils in Arlington Heights, Ill., choose to spend the day learning about such subjects as drama, Japanese culture, personal development, Spanish language, and science.

In a program sponsored by the Northwest Educational Cooperative, students come to Rolling Meadows High School to participate in one of the 15 nongraded classes designed to offer them a deeper look into some of the subjects they study in their regular classes, according to Larry Chase, executive director of the cooperative, which serves 10 public-school districts near Chicago.

February 8, 1984
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4 min read
Education Vocational Education
The Center for Occupational Research and Development and the Agency for Instructional Television, in cooperation with a consortium of state departments of education, are developing a series of teaching aids on high technology for use in vocational-education classes at the high-school level.

The instructional materials will include videotapes, manuals for students and teachers, and 156 "hands-on" laboratory exercises organized into 13 modules. Each module will contain about 300 hours of instruction on technical concepts and principles as they apply to mechanical, thermal, electrical, and fluid systems.

February 8, 1984
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2 min read
Education What Lawmakers and the Courts Have Said About the Education of Language Minorities
Civil Rights Act, Title VI

"No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

February 8, 1984
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6 min read
Education E.P.A. Cited for Failure To Stress Asbestos Hazard
The Environmental Protection Agency, by failing to place a high priority on the problem of asbestos in schools, is to blame for the low level of public awareness of the hazards of the substance and the consequent failure of many local school officials to act promptly upon identifying problems, an agency management team has concluded.
Susan Walton, February 8, 1984
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6 min read
Education Illinois Officials Sue E.D. Over Operations of Audit Appeal Board
In a case with multimillion-dollar implications, and perhaps some political ramifications, Illinois school authorities are suing the U.S. Education Department over an obscure audit appeal board they claim is stacked against them.
Don Sevener, February 8, 1984
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2 min read
Education Ky. Governor Pushes for Reform, New Taxes
Gov. Martha Layne Collins, a former schoolteacher who pledged during her campaign not to raise taxes, has asked Kentucky's General Assembly to approve a sweeping education-reform package and to pay for it with more than $200 million in new taxes.
Richard Wilson, February 8, 1984
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6 min read
Education Excerpts From Reagan's Speech to Broadcasters' Group
Following is an excerpt from a speech last week by President Reagan before the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Washington.

People want a constitutional amendment making it unequivocally clear our children can hold voluntary prayer in every school across this land. And if we could get God and discipline back in our schools, maybe we could get drugs and violence out.

February 8, 1984
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2 min read
Education Pregant Students and Title IX: Protections Are Specific
The National Association of Secondary School Principals, which administers the National Honor Society, advises its membership that under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, "pregnancy cannot be the basis for automatic rejection," said Ivan Gluckman, counsel to the principals' group. But pregnancy can be "considered as one determinant of character if evidence of paternity is similarly regarded as indicative of character," he added.

In regulations issued in 1975, the specific requirements of Title IX as it relates to pregnancy are spelled out. As summarized by Margaret C. Dunkle, chairman of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education and former special assistant for education legislation at the U.S. Department of Health, Educa-tion, and Welfare, the regulations provide that:

February 8, 1984
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1 min read
Education Union Endorses Ammended Tenn. Master-Teacher Plan
After a compromise agreement with the state teachers' union, Tennessee's master-teacher incentive pay plan and career-ladder legislation are headed for floor action this week in the state's General Assembly, having cleared its finance committees last week.
Jim O'Hara, February 8, 1984
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2 min read
Education Schools Said Failing To Observe Educational Rights of Pregnant Pupils
Schools are failing to meet the special needs of pregnant students and are systematically violating their federally guaranteed educational rights, said representatives of education and social-service agencies attending a conference here last week.
Cindy Currence, February 8, 1984
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6 min read
Education College Freshmen Call High School 'Too Easy'
Indicating agreement with the national movement to raise educational standards, increasing numbers of college freshmen say that "grading in the high schools has become too easy."
Susan Walton, February 8, 1984
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3 min read
Education Methods Follow Varied Paths to Reach Fluency
The instructional methods that may help children become proficient in English can be grouped in a variety of ways. One useful distinction is between approaches that are monolingual--using only English--and those that are bilingual.
February 8, 1984
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3 min read
Education Businesses Urged To Focus School Involvement on Special Projects
Private businesses should encourage educators to start "cutting-edge" projects that school districts normally do not attempt because of bureaucratic inertia, but they should never attempt to play a major role in the financing or operation of schools, said speakers at a recent meeting convened here by the Conference Board, an international organization of business leaders.
Charlie Euchner, February 8, 1984
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3 min read
Education E.D. Says Limits On Chapter 2 Funds Will Be Flexible
School officials who elect to use funds from their Chapter 2 education block grants to finance reforms such as merit-pay or master-teacher plans need not worry about future audit exceptions, Education Department officials said last week during a briefing on the agency's proposed fiscal 1985 budget.
Tom Mirga, February 8, 1984
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8 min read
Education Mo. Home Schooling Rule Rapped
Advocates of home education in Missouri told legislators last month that new guidelines adopted by the state's Division of Family Services discriminate against them.

The guidelines say that when complaints of "educational neglect" are brought to the attention of social-service workers, the family-services agency must relay the matter to a juvenile court "so that a determination can be made as to whether such education is substantially equivalent to that provided locally."

February 8, 1984
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1 min read
English Learners Bilingual Education in the 1980's:Basic Questions Remain Unresolved
A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lau v. Nichols, those who study or make policy for the field of bilingual education concur that many of what they term "the basic issues" remain unresolved. Disagreements persist, they suggest, over what constitutes "bilingual education," whether it works, who needs it and whether those who need it are receiving it, and where the primary responsibility for it should be within the educational system. (See accompanying story on page 18.)
Eileen White, February 8, 1984
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8 min read
Education Wisconsin Task Force Asks Reforms for Teaching
Teacher-education programs should require more and better preparation for those planning to enter the field, but it is equally important that the status of teaching be upgraded by improving salaries, benefits, and opportunities for advancement for those in the classroom, a Wisconsin task force has concluded.
Mary Diamond, February 8, 1984
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3 min read
Education New Jersey Study Group Proposes Curriculum, Testing Reforms
A task force in New Jersey has recommended a return to traditional mathematics and English curricula, rigorous testing, and other measures in an effort to "focus attention on excellence" in the state's public schools.
Thomas Toch, February 8, 1984
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3 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Letters To The Editor
David Tavel Professor and Director Division of Educational Foundations College of Education and Allied Professions The University of Toledo Toledo, Ohio

I am glad Bruce S. Cooper admits that "prayer or meaningful religious practices are central" to the activities of parochial schools ("Government Should Help Families Pursue Religious Education," Education Week, Dec. 7, 1983). I hope that his comments will be read by the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and others who fatuously contend that while the state cannot aid the religious segment of private-school programs, it can aid the secular phase. There really is no secular phase, for religion is supposed to permeate every aspect of the schools' instructional operation. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the local religious leader turning to his parishioners and saying, "Support our church school--it really does the same thing as the public school, but then we throw in a few religious activities."

February 8, 1984
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5 min read
Education Opinion A Future Neither Bright Nor Brainy
We have become a nation consumed with our educational inadequacies and firm in our resolve to raise our educational standards to a level we assume will be required by the intellectual demands of a technological age. We are committed to the vision of a future nation of "knowledge workers" who are prepared to compete in an age when all work will be mind work and all workers will be problem-solvers.
Douglas D. Noble, February 8, 1984
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10 min read