December 5, 1984

Education Week, Vol. 04, Issue 14
Education Pupils Spend 5.4 Hours Per Week on Homework
For the first time, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has provided information on the homework habits of American public- and private-school students.
Tom Mirga, December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Education Shared Goals Found Hallmark Of Exemplary Private Schools
The principal characteristic common to the 60 private schools recognized as exemplary by the U.S. Education Department last summer was the sharing of goals among administrators, teachers, and students, the Council for American Private Education reports.

The private schools recognized also had in common a commitment to guide the moral development of each student, to train students to think independently, and to develop their staff members, according to a report issued by the council last month.

December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Computers Column
Technical Education Research Centers of Cambridge, Mass., is looking for teachers who use innovative computer software rather than traditional drill-and-practice to teach learning-disabled or emotionally disturbed elementary, middle, and junior high-school students.

The search is part of a research and training project, funded by the U.S. Education Department, called "Microcomputers in Special Education: Beyond Drill and Practice."

December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Education U.S. Judge Approves a Plan for Merger of 3 Little Rock Districts
A federal district judge in Little Rock, Ark., has given his approval to a school-desegregation plan that would consolidate the predominantly black city school district with two predominantly white suburban districts.
Tom Mirga, December 5, 1984
•
7 min read
Education Report Authors Foresee Dramatic Technological Changes for Schools
Schools will undergo dramatic change because of technology whether or not educators take a leadership role in directing that change, according to the co-authors of a forthcoming book on the subject.
Linda Chion-Kenney, December 5, 1984
•
3 min read
Education Massachusetts Legislature Debates School-Reform Bill
A sweeping education-reform bill, which proponents say would give Massachusetts the strongest school standards in the country, is winding its way through the state's House and Senate, delayed by debate and amendments every step of the way.
Alina Tugend, December 5, 1984
•
7 min read
Education Chicago Teachers Expected To Strike
Chicago public-school officials said late last week that they expected teachers in the 450,000-student school system to strike as scheduled this Monday.

"It doesn't look good," said Kenneth Masson, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Education.

December 5, 1984
•
1 min read
Education Heads of Black Districts Support Literacy Exit Exams
Nearly all of the nation's superintendents who head districts with high concentrations of black students agree that students should take and pass a literacy test as a condition for graduation, according to a survey by a University of Michigan researcher.

The researcher, Charles D. Moody, who is' professor of education and director of the university's Program for Educational Opportunity, polled all of the nation's 120 black superintendents as well as 82 nonblack superintendents who administer districts with a relatively high proportion of black students.

December 5, 1984
•
1 min read
Education Coalition Assails U.S. Stance Against Pay Equity
The chairman of the National Committee on Pay Equity, a coalition of 250 education, women's, labor, and civil-rights groups, last week assailed the Reagan Administration's opposition to comparable worth--the notion that men and women holding similar jobs should be paid comparable wages.
Anne Bridgman & James Hertling, December 5, 1984
•
3 min read
Education People News
Franklin B. Walter, Ohio's state superintendent of public instruction, has been elected president-elect of the Council of Chief State School Officers. Mr. Walters, who has been Ohio's state chief since 1977, will become president of the council next year, succeeding the current president, Gordon M. Ambach, New York State's commissioner of education.

December 5, 1984
•
1 min read
Education District News Roundup
In Boston, where school-community partnerships of all kinds have sprung up in recent years, labor unions have also stepped into the school-improvement business, offering to increase the number of apprenticeships they can provide to new high-school graduates.

School officials say the pact, which commits the schools on their part to produce better-trained graduates and reduce absenteeism, may be the first such agreement in the nation.

December 5, 1984
•
5 min read
Education State News Roundup
The Arkansas Education Association has filed suit in Pulaski County Chancery Court challenging the state's new competency-test requirements for teachers.

Ten public-school teachers from around the state were listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the state board of education and officials from the state education department.

December 5, 1984
•
6 min read
Education Private-School Pupils Chapter 2 Winners, Urban Schools Losers, Study Confirms
Initial results of a major Education Department evaluation of the Chapter 2 block-grants program confirm what many education groups have previously argued--that private-school students have benefited substantially from the program, while school districts that had received federal desegregation aid were big losers.
James Hertling, December 5, 1984
•
6 min read
Education Test Organization, Insurance Firm Settle Bias Suit
The Educational Testing Service and an Illinois insurance firm have reached an out-of-court settlement in an eight-year-old lawsuit over the issue of racial bias in examination questions.
Thomas Toch, December 5, 1984
•
8 min read
Education The School of the Future: Two Scenarios Considered
Scenario I: With the advent of microcomputers and other technological advancements, educators will rethink the teacher's role, the mission of schooling, and the organization of the classroom.
Linda Chion-Kenney, December 5, 1984
•
5 min read
Education Federal File
Representatives of five education associations met last week with a group of conservatives led by Phyllis Schlafly to try to settle questions on new Education Department rules for handling complaints brought under the 1978 law known as the Hatch Amendment; its final regulations took effect last month.
December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Education Sanctions for Academically Poor Schools Urged
Declare Them 'Bankrupt,' Governors Told

Lincoln, Neb--School systems that do not meet high academic standards should be forced to declare "academic bankruptcy," Constantine Curris, president of the University of Northern Iowa, suggested to Midwestern governors meeting here this month.

December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Education News Firm To Buy Test-Coaching Centers
A major news-industry conglomerate, the Washington Post Company, plans to step into the field of education by buying the nation's best-known test-preparation firm. And part of the deal may involve broadening the activities of the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Centers to include tutorial courses in the basic skills for elementary-school students.
Thomas Toch, December 5, 1984
•
3 min read
Education Minnesota Panel Sees Schools at 'Turning Point'
The Minnesota Governor's Commission on Education for Economic Growth has recommended tightened curriculum requirements, increased pay and differentiated career paths for teachers, and improved business-education partnerships among its 28 proposals for improving education throughout the state.

"Unlike various national studies, the commission does not find Minnesota's schools to be 'at risk,"' the report maintains. "It finds, rather, our schools at a turning point where the most thoughtful decisions must be made for the future."

December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Ed-Tech Policy First Assessment of Computer Competency To Focus on Skills
The nation's first comprehensive assessment of students' computer competency--now being readied for the spring of 1986--will measure not what they know about the technology but what they can do with it.
Linda Chion-Kenney, December 5, 1984
•
7 min read
Education College Humanities Training Impoverished,Study Says
Charging that American students today are graduating from colleges and universities "lacking even the most rudimentary knowledge about the history, literature, art, and philosophical foundations of their nation and civilization," William J. Bennett, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, last week issued a report criticizing the condition of humanities education in American higher education.
Pamela Winston, December 5, 1984
•
5 min read
Education Special-Ed. Rules
In an attempt to "fill a gap" in the federal special-education law, the Education Department has proposed rules that will lay out a procedure for states to follow if the department rejects any of the state's annual plans to educate handicapped students.
Alina Tugend, December 5, 1984
•
1 min read
Education Justices Decline To Weigh Cases On Pay Equity and Union Dues
The U.S. Supreme Court declined last week to consider claims by female faculty members of the University of Washington's nursing school that they are illegally paid less than male faculty members in "comparable" departments.
Tom Mirga, December 5, 1984
•
3 min read
Education Books
The Burden of Brown: Thirty Years of School Desegregation, by Raymond Wolters (The University of Tennessee Press, 293 Communications Building, Knoxville, Tenn. 37996; 346 pages, cloth $24.95).

December 5, 1984
•
7 min read
Education Teachers Column
An eight-year decline in the number of high-school students reporting an interest in education as a career has ended, according to a recent analysis of information collected from the college-bound students who took the Scholastic Aptitude Test last year.

Out of 29 curricular areas, 4.6 percent of the students selected education, making it the sixth most popular career option, the College Board's annual report, "College Bound Seniors, 1984," indicates. Students' number-one choice was business (19.1 percent), followed by health and medical professions (15.1 percent), engineering (12 percent), computer science (9.7 percent), and social science (7.3 percent).

December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Education New Study Defends Role of Vocational Courses
Spokesmen for a national study of vocational education released here last week charged that recent school-reform efforts failed to acknowledge what they see as a legitimate role for vocational courses in developing students' skills and knowledge.
Thomas Toch, December 5, 1984
•
2 min read
Education Wisconsin Panel Proposes $900-Million Increase in Aid to Schools
The Wisconsin Governor's School Finance Task Force, in a report that calls for sweeping changes in Wisconsin's school-aid system, has proposed a $900-million hike in state aid to local districts over the next two years.
Anne Bridgman, December 5, 1984
•
5 min read
Education Education Reports Preview the Year of Reform in Washington State
As Washington State lawmakers prepare to reconvene next month, three education-study groups have begun to issue recommendations--some of them very similar--on improving elementary and secondary education in the state. All three efforts represent what the president of one of the groups calls a recognition that the education-reform movement "has finally come to Washington State."
Anne Bridgman, December 5, 1984
•
8 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
The Education Department has published draft regulations to implement the $100-million program to improve mathematics and science instruction and the $75-million allocation to encourage the creation and instructional improvement of mag-net schools as a desegregation tool.

Under proposed regulations for the mathematics-science-improvement bill, published in the Nov. 20 Federal Register, 70 percent of the funds are earmarked for elementary- and secondary-education programs and 30 percent for higher-education programs.

December 5, 1984
•
1 min read
Load More ▼