February 15, 1984

Education Week, Vol. 03, Issue 21
Education News In Print
Books

Legal Problems of Religious and Private Schools, by Ralph D. Mawdsley and Steven P. Permuth (The National Organization on Legal Problems in Education, 5401 S.W. Seventh St., Topeka, Kan. 66606; 120 pages, paper $11.45).

February 15, 1984
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4 min read
Ed-Tech Policy I.B.M. Will Donate 2,000 Computers to Schools
The International Business Machines Corporation has announced that it will donate approximately 2,000 personal computers to 130 public elementary and secondary schools as part of a $12-million program to train teachers and students to use computers.
Anne Bridgman, February 15, 1984
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2 min read
Education Governors Propose School-Improvement Plans
The Governors of Connecticut, Illinois, and Pennsylvania proposed last week that their legislatures approve initiatives designed to produce substantial improvement in the performance of schools.
Sheppard Ranbom, February 15, 1984
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5 min read
Education Court Upholds Michigan's Right To Regulate Nonpublic Schools
Citing the state's "legitimate interest" in ensuring an adequate education for all students, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that the state department of education has the authority to regulate nonpublic schools in the areas of curriculum, teacher certification, and enrollment reporting.

The decision, which reverses a December 1982 opinion by an Ingham County circuit judge, "means that nonpublic-school teachers must meet the same certification standards as those in public schools; that nonpublic-school students receive instruction that is comparable to that taught to their public-school neighbors; and that nonpublic schools meet minimal reporting requirements by the state board of education," state Attorney General Frank J. Kelley said in a prepared statement following the appellate panel's decision in Sheridan Road Baptist Church v. State of Michigan.

February 15, 1984
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1 min read
Education Md. Panel To Monitor Funds
The Maryland General Assembly will consider legislation that would create a task force to oversee schools' spending of an estimated $60 million in additional state aid proposed by the governor for school-improvement efforts.

The seven-member panel, which would be called the "accountability advisory task force," would be required to review the plans from each of the state's 24 school systems on how they intend to use funds from any increase in state aid over the next five years.

February 15, 1984
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1 min read
Education Indiana Civic, Business Leaders Urge School Reform
The Indiana Congress on Education, a coalition of 500 business, community, and education leaders, has decided that "education should be a high priority for the citizens of Indiana." The group voted last month to study how to increase the professional image and status of teaching and how to develop a salary system to attract and retain effective teachers.

The congress, founded two years ago by the Indiana Council on Educational Administrative Associations, voted on these and 30 other measures in an attempt to lay the groundwork for a statewide consensus on educational improvement. Following an initial meeting last June, the group met last month to approve the recommendations. The recommendations grew out of a se3ries of interviews and hearings conducted by regional delegates over the last six months.

February 15, 1984
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1 min read
Education Miss. Judges Agree To Hire Attendance Officers
Apparently responding to public pressure, two Mississippi chancery judges have agreed to hire the school-attendance officers required by the state's new compulsory-attendance law.
Andy Kanengiser, February 15, 1984
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1 min read
Education In The Press
The New Yorker of Jan. 16 contains a long and detailed account of two renowned court cases that resulted from the wave of schoolbook banning that began in the 1970's. The article is by Frances FitzGerald, author of Fire In The Lake, a history of the Vietnam War, and America Revised, a study of American-history textbooks.

Ms. FitzGerald focuses on the 1981 Baileyville, Me., case over the banning of 365 Days, an account by an Army doctor of American soldiers' experiences in Vietnam, and on the banning of nine books from a school district on Long Island, N.Y. The Supreme Court heard the second case, Pico v. Island Trees School District, in 1982.

February 15, 1984
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8 min read
Education Options Are Needed To Spark Reform, Says Author of Free To Teach
When Joe Nathan was a 13-year-old in Wichita, he read Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin.
Nancy Paulu, February 15, 1984
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8 min read
Education One-Cent Tax Hike Would Close South's Spending Gap
Residents of the 12 Southeastern states need to spend about one more cent for each dollar of personal income if the region is to reach a level of support for public education equal to national averages, according to a recently completed study by the Southestearn Regional Council for Educational Improvement.

The council, created in 1977 by the chief state school officers of the Southeastern states to study policy issues faced by public education, said that people across the country now spend 4.5 cents of each dollar of personal income--down from about 5 cents per dollar 15 years ago--to support public education. But because per-capita income is lower in the Southeast than in other regions, support for schools is lower.

February 15, 1984
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2 min read
Education Court Rules State Must Finance St. Louis Desegregation Plan
A federal appeals court ruled last week that most parts of a landmark voluntary desegregation plan for St. Louis and 23 suburban school districts should be financed by the state of Missouri.
Tom Mirga, February 15, 1984
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3 min read
Education Tenn. Senate Passes 'Career-Ladder' Bill
The Tennessee Senate last week passed legislation creating a statewide ranking system among teachers, a plan that has received continued national attention since its introduction a year ago.
Jim O'Hara, February 15, 1984
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1 min read
Education Districts' Drug-Test Policies Are Questioned
In an effort to "get drugs out of the schools," school administrators in Hope, Ark., last month began enforcing a school-board policy that can require students suspected of using drugs and alcohol to submit to urine and breath tests.
Cindy Currence, February 15, 1984
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3 min read
Education Corporations Sponsoring Competitive Grants to California School Systems
Four California corporations, partners in what they believe is the nation's only privately funded statewide program of competitive grants for school districts, are actively recruiting more corporate sponsors.
Michael Fallon, February 15, 1984
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4 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Computers Column
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory next month will publish multiple-choice examinations in computer literacy and computer science for four grade levels.

The nonprofit organization originally developed the tests for the U.S. Department of Defense schools. Piloted in 12 cities over the last three years, they are being used by the Defense Department schools for the first time this year.

February 15, 1984
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2 min read
Education Decline in Marijuana Use Reported Among Seniors
High-school seniors' use of marijuana and several other illicit drugs continued to decline in 1983, but the use of cocaine continues at "peak" levels, according to the results of a federally sponsored survey of more than 16,000 seniors in 130 public and private high schools.
Cindy Currence, February 15, 1984
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3 min read
Education Smith Praises Signs of Change In High Court Religion Stance
The Reagan Administration is encouraged by signs that the U.S. Supreme Court will adopt a policy of "benevolent neutrality" toward religion, particularly in cases involving schools, Attorney General William French Smith said in a recent address.
Tom Mirga, February 15, 1984
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2 min read
Education Survey Shows 30 States Have Adopted Teacher-Competency Tests
Led by the South, more than half of the states have enacted competency-testing programs for teachers, a new survey has found. All but three of the testing programs were enacted after 1977.
Charlie Euchner, February 15, 1984
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3 min read
Education Teacher Educators Discuss Shift To Graduate-Level Preparation
In what appeared to be a major development in the debate over the quality of the teaching force, officials of the largest association of teacher educators expressed support this month for the idea of shifting teacher training from the undergraduate to the graduate level.
Charlie Euchner, February 15, 1984
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7 min read
Education Study Finds High-School's Effect on Passage to Adulthood Overstated
The influence of high school on students' transition to adulthood has been overemphasized in past studies, a new report has found. The study concludes that how a student fits into a variety of community groups--including family, school, and social institutions--is far more developmentally significant than is the impact of any single institution.
Cindy Currence, February 15, 1984
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4 min read
Education Boston Bank Sets $1.5-Million Endowment for City's Schools
Boston--"A new educational alliance between the public and private sectors" was announced in Boston on Feb. 7 by William L. Brown, chairman of the Bank of Boston.
Geraldine McCarty, February 15, 1984
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2 min read
Education Chapter 2 Directors Question Plans For Block Grant
State officials who oversee programs funded by Chapter 2 education block grants appear to disagree over whether master-teacher plans and other pay-incentive schemes are allowable expenses under that statute.
Tom Mirga, February 15, 1984
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6 min read
Education N.M. May Join Federal Program for Handicapped
The House of Representatives of New Mexico, the only state in the country that does not participate in the federal program for handicapped students, has approved legislation that would force state education officials to reach out for the federal funding that is available.
Susan G. Foster, February 15, 1984
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4 min read
Education Reagan Says Education Tops Americans' Agenda
Repeating themes that he outlined in his State of the Union address, President Reagan told the National Association of Secondary School Principals that his administration had "put education at the top of the American agenda" and was responsible for a wave of reform initiatives in state education systems.

The President told the principals attending their annual meeting in Las Vegas last week that they bore an "enormous responsibility" for improving the country's schools and that they did not need great infusions of new money to do the job.

February 15, 1984
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2 min read
Education Teacher Training Suffers From 'Washout' Effect
While members of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education were defending education-methodology courses and debating their proper place in teacher training, researchers from Brigham Young University released a report that suggests that teachers use their professional training less than half of the time they are in the classroom.
Charlie Euchner, February 15, 1984
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2 min read
Education Thirty-One American Scholars Named Winners of 1983-84 Fulbright Awards

Thirty-one American scholars have been selected to receive 1983-84 Fulbright awards to lecture or conduct advanced research in education.
February 15, 1984
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4 min read
Education Administration Revises Voc.-Ed. Proposal
With expressed eagerness in both branches to settle on terms for reauthorizing federal programs in vocational education this year, the Reagan Administration and the Congress last week each moved to set the process in motion.
Susan G. Foster, February 15, 1984
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7 min read
Education West Virginia Policy on Extracurriculars Immediately Challenged in State Courts
A new policy in West Virginia schools requiring students involved in extracurricular activities to maintain a C average was challenged in court less than a week after it went into effect.
Mark Ward, February 15, 1984
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3 min read
Education E.D. Reverses Policy on State Special-Education Hearing Officers
In a change in policy, the Education Department has advised state officials that employees of state education agencies, under certain conditions, now may serve as reviewing officers in local disputes over the education of handicapped children.
Susan G. Foster, February 15, 1984
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3 min read
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