February 20, 1985

Education Week, Vol. 04, Issue 22
Education Associations Column
While citizens polled by the Gallup organization continued in 1984 to rank discipline, drugs, and standards as their top worries about schools, school-board members across the country have worries that reflect their managerial responsibilities for school systems, a survey by the journal of the National School Boards Association has found.

A majority of those polled--62.6 percent--ranked "lack of financial support" as one of their top three concerns; 39.8 percent cited declining enrollment, and 32.9 percent cited parents' lack of interest.

February 20, 1985
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2 min read
Education Bennett Maintains Higher Standards Benefit the Poor
Secretary of Education William J. Bennett said last week that raising academic standards may increase the nation's dropout rate, but he maintained that the excellence movement is "properly directed" since its main beneficiaries are intended to be the economically and educationally disadvantaged.
James Hertling & Alina Tugend, February 20, 1985
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3 min read
Education Proposed Certification Standards
Under the certification requirements proposed by the National Science Teachers Association, an elementary-school teacher would have to show a minimum of 12 semester-hours of laboratory or field-oriented science, including courses in each of these areas: biology, physical science (physics and chemistry), and earth science.

A middle- or junior-high-school teacher would have to take a minimum of 36 semester-hours of science classes in the major scientific disciplines, including at least 9 hours each of biology, physical science, and earth/space science. The remaining 9 hours could be chosen from among the major science disciplines.

February 20, 1985
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2 min read
Education Administration May Alter Student Loan-Proposal
A key Education Department official conceded last week that Congressional opposition may force the department to back away from a budget proposal that would limit Guaranteed Student Loan funds to students whose family income is below $32,500.
James Hertling, February 20, 1985
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2 min read
Education E.P.A. Ranks School-Asbestos Hazards By Severity
Environmental Protection Agency officials last week called together representatives of national education associations to explain the agency's new system of ranking asbestos hazards in schools.
Lynn Olson, February 20, 1985
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5 min read
Education Schlafly Letter
The following letter is reprinted from The Phyllis Schlafly Report, January 1985.

February 20, 1985
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3 min read
Education 2,800 Arrested Near Schools in N.Y.C. Drug Plan
New York City's aggressive program to combat drug abuse among the young has netted more than 2,800 arrests in the vicinity of schools so far this academic year and is expanding its educational services.
Linda Chion-Kenney, February 20, 1985
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3 min read
Education From War-Torn Nations to 'Newcomer' School
El Salvador. Ethiopia. Cambodia. Nicaragua. Vietnam. War-battered countries where children who can't read know how to assemble machine guns in seconds.
Alina Tugend, February 20, 1985
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7 min read
Education Science Teachers' Group Readies Plan To Offer Own Certification
To stem what it terms the "blatant" use of unqualified science teachers, the country's largest organization of science educators is planning to issue its own certification credential.
Lynn Olson, February 20, 1985
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7 min read
Education People News
The executive leadership of the American Association of School Administrators is changing hands for the first time since 1971. The group has selected its deputy executive director, Richard D. Miller, to replace Paul B. Salmon, who announced last May that he would retire this year.

Mr. Miller, 56, has been a teacher, principal, superintendent of schools, member of the Indiana State Board of Education, and past president of the aasa He joined the staff as deputy director in 1983. aasa offi-cials declined last week to discuss the new executive director's salary; a promotional brochure announcing the position had noted that $100,000 would be the midpoint of the salary range.

February 20, 1985
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1 min read
Education District News Roundup
To counter the large and still-growing number of high-school dropouts in Los Angeles, a school-board task force has recommended assigning counselors and psychologists to as many as 12 area schools at a cost of $1 million.

The proposed dropout-prevention program would serve 50 to 100 students at each of the schools, which experience the highest dropout rates in the district. The program would also encourage dropouts to return to school.

February 20, 1985
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3 min read
Education State News Roundup
Twenty-four Arkansas legislators have sponsored a bill that would establish a comprehensive teacher-evaluation program and repeal a controversial teacher-testing law that was approved in November 1983.

The law, which still has the full support of its initial sponsor, Gov. Bill Clinton, has been under attack by the Arkansas Education Association since it was first proposed.

February 20, 1985
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9 min read
Education 'Enter,' not 'Invade': The Ministry and Text Selection
According to a Ministry of Education publication, the "authorization of textbooks for school use in all elementary and secondary schools in Japan is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education."
Sheppard Ranbom, February 20, 1985
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4 min read
Education School Plus
Toshihiko Takahashi is a busy man. He directs an international exchange program that brings about 130 recent American college graduates to Japan each year to work for the Ministry of Education as consultants to the English-language supervisors in Japan's 47 provinces.
Sheppard Ranbom, February 20, 1985
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10 min read
Education The 'Total System'
At the main gates of many Japanese elementary schools, a visitor finds a statue of Kinjiro Ninomiya, a child carrying a load of firewood on his back and a book in his hand. Legend has it that Kinjiro suffered great hardship in his life yet retained an indomitable will to learn. His statue reminds today's schoolchildren that learning and hard work are inseparable.
Sheppard Ranbom, February 20, 1985
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20 min read
Education Tomomi's Frustration
Tomomi, a 17-year-old high-school junior in Kudamatsu, is a talented singer who has represented her prefecture at numerous national voice competitions.

But Tomomi is frustrated. She attends the most rigorous academic high school in town, earns A's and B's, is a particularly good student in mathematics, and studies up to five hours a day so that she will be able to pass the entrance examination to attend a national university.

February 20, 1985
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1 min read
Education Harbingers of Fall
As summer ends and the new school year approaches, I recall my own school days. How I would get pumped up for the first day of school. There were always new back-to-school clothes, and the anticipation of seeing that girl I'd been daydreaming about all summer, and catching up all the news.

I did not see that excitement in Japan. For Tomomi and Yoshihiro Nishimura and their classmates, for instance, summer vacation is a short five weeks. Their faces are long as the first day of school approaches. And no wonder.

February 20, 1985
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1 min read
Education Report to the Prime Minister
Following are excerpts from the recommendations of a seven-member panel, the Conference on Culture and Education, appointed by Prime Minister Nakasone in June 1983 to examine problems in schooling. The panel, chaired by Masaru Ibuka, founder of Sony Corporation, released its findings last March. Panel members included: Isao Amagi, director general, National Center for New Media in Education; Tadao Ishikawa, president of Keio University; Kenji Suzuki, chief announcer, Japan Broadcasting Corporation; Ayako Sono, author; Michitaro Tanaka, professor emeritus of Kyoto University; and Shichiehei Yamamoto, critic and president of Yamamoto Shoten Publishers.
February 20, 1985
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7 min read
Education APPOINTMENTS
In the Schools

February 20, 1985
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4 min read
Education Academic Health of Colleges, Schools Said Interdependent
Acknowledging that the lowered standards of universities have been "contagious," college educators meeting here last week called for a renewed recognition that the academic health of the nation's colleges and that of its secondary schools are interdependent.
Sheppard Ranbom, February 20, 1985
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4 min read
Education A Conversation With the New Secretary of Education
Following are excerpts from an interview with Secretary of Education William J. Bennett. He spoke last week with Staff Writers James Hertling and Alina Tugend.

February 20, 1985
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7 min read
Education Federal File: Conservative Manifesto
The Heritage Foundation, the influential policy-research organization here, has published an 83-page booklet outlining a conservative education agenda, the first in a series of Heritage publications called Critical Issues.

The foundation last week gave a copy of the monograph, "A New Agenda for Education," to the new secretary of education, William J. Bennett, said the book's editor, Eileen M. Gardner. Ms. Gardner is the group's education-policy analyst.

February 20, 1985
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2 min read
Education New School-Lunch Rules Proposed
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed the first major reorganization in a decade of the regulations for its $3.6-billion National School Lunch Program.

The proposed changes, announced in the Feb. 12 Federal Register, are intended primarily to clarify and streamline current rules and resolve inconsistencies in the more than 60 amendments that have been made to the regulations in the past 10 years, said Gene Vincent, a spokesman for the department.

February 20, 1985
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1 min read
Education Ypsilanti Researchers Will Coordinate Early-Education Study in 31 Nations
The High/Scope Foundation of Ypsilanti, Mich., sponsor of a widely cited study of the effects of early-childhood education on economically disadvantaged children, has been asked to coordinate a 31-country study of the education of 4-year-olds.
Anne Bridgman, February 20, 1985
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1 min read
Education Union Turns to Courts to Block Florida's 'Unfair~' Merit-Pay Program
Both of Florida's teachers' unions have now turned to the courts to block implementation of the state's new merit-pay program. In separate suits, they are arguing that the program is unfair and violates collective-bargaining laws.
Blake Rodman, February 20, 1985
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3 min read
Education Groups Press Parent-Control Campaign, Get High-Level Support
William J. Bennett, in his first news conference as Secretary of Education, last week said he supported Education Department regulations that give parents more control over controversial topics taught in the public schools.
Anne Bridgman, February 20, 1985
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8 min read
Education Family Appeals Ohio Residence Rule
Two southern Michigan parents who live apart five days a week so their children can participate in school athletics in Toledo, Ohio, plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Ohio athletic-association bylaw that they say necessitates their separation.

John and Judy Zeiler's home is in Bedford Township, Mich., a mile north of the Ohio border and about six miles from Central Catholic High School in Toledo, where the couple's children are enrolled, according to David Kohler, the couple's lawyer. The closest coeducational Catholic high school in Michigan is in Ann Arbor, some 45 miles from the family's home.

February 20, 1985
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1 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
The Senate Labor and Resources Committee, with a busy schedule and a limited number of employees, is unlikely to investigate charges of mismanagement and corruption at the National Institute of Education, the research arm of the Education Department, committee aides said last week.

A department investigation of nie last year exonerated its director, Manuel J. Justiz, of major allegations. But Mr. Justiz was reprimanded by former Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell for breaking federal travel and telephone regulations. (See Education Week, Dec. 12, 1984.)

February 20, 1985
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2 min read
Education National News Roundup
Most of the national reports on elementary and secondary education in America have neglected to address the "human and social factors" that affect children, according to the National Association of Social Workers Inc., whose 100,000 members serve school-age youths.

Summarizing the findings of a national survey of 500 social workers from 30 states, the group argues that "the interpersonal factors which contribute to excellence, and those human and social forces which may interfere with the attainment of excellence for all students have been largely overlooked. We submit that this view, as set forth, guarantees the failure of attempted reforms."

February 20, 1985
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2 min read
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