April 3, 1985
Education Week, Vol. 04, Issue 28
Education
Catholic High Schools Found Sound, Yet Vulnerable
The nation's Roman Catholic high schools are "relatively strong educational institutions," but many face pressing financial problems that threaten their well-being, a report released here last week by the National Catholic Educational Association concludes.
Education
Nurse Practitioners in Schools Found To Aid Low-Income Pupils
School health programs that employ nurse practitioners provide valuable medical services that many children living in low-income rural and urban areas alike sorely need, a five-year study has found.
Education
Teacher Uses Historical Memorabilia To Enliven, Enrich History Classes
When 8th graders at Lincoln Junior High School take a field trip, they don't even have to leave their classroom. Right at their fingertips, they can see a $200 special-edition, hand-carved doll of President Reagan; religious statuary taken from a Berlin church during World War II; and confetti dropped on the floor of the Republican National Convention the night Richard M. Nixon was nominated for President in Miami.
English Learners
Bennett Names New Bilingual-Education Chief
Jesse M. Soriano, the embattled director of the Education Department's office of bilingual-education and minority-languages affairs, has resigned.
Education
Reports Find Shift in Schools' Classification of Handicapped
Although the total number of students enrolled in special-education classes held relatively steady last year, the number identified as learning-disabled continued to rise and the number identified as mentally retarded continued to decline, according to two recent national reports.
Education
Catholic High Schools: Key Findings
Statistical highlights of the ncea study include these:
StudentsThe average Catholic high school has 568 students.
Education
Substitutes: The 'Other' Teacher Shortage
On a "bad day" recently in the San Diego school district, 50 classrooms were without teachers.
Education
Tips for Administrators and 'Subs'
In the most recent issue of Tips for Principals, published by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, principals are asked to re-evaluate their substitute-teacher programs and consider such questions as: "How do you treat your substitute teachers? Do you treat them as last-minute babysitters? How do your students treat substitute teachers? Do your substitutes know anything about the school?"
The association makes the following recommendations for improving substitute programs:
Education
State News Roundup
Iowa legislators, who say they are now paying out $95 million a year in state funds for some 39,000 nonexistent students, have vowed to change the state's school-finance formula this year.
But the revised formula under review will increase, rather than decrease, the state's overall share of education costs, legislative leaders say.
Education
News Update
Some Mississippi schools will hold classes on weekends and during the early summer to make up for the time lost during three and a half weeks of wildcat strikes by teachers.
The state's teachers returned to work late last month after the Mississippi legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto and approved a $4,400 pay raise for teachers over the next three years. (See Education Week, March 27, 1985.)
Education
District News Roundup
The U.S. Education Department's office for civil rights has cited the Kanawha (W. Va.) County Board of Education for keeping handicapped students on buses longer than is allowed under state regulations.
Ronald Gilliam, deputy director of the agency's regional bureau in Philadelphia, said the investigation was instigated by a complaint from a parent.
Education
Arkansas Test Boycott Fizzles; Test Copies Allegedly Leaked
While a threatened boycott of the new test required of Arkansas teachers failed to materialize last week, state police were investigating allegations that copies of the controversial examination were leaked in advance.
Education
Court Hears Complex 'Placement' Case
The parents of a learning-disabled child had no right under federal law to unilaterally move their son from a public school to a private school at a local school system's expense, even though the private school was subsequently found to be the appropriate placement for the child, a lawyer for a Massachusetts school committee told the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
Education
Indianapolis Lays Off Some 535 To Counter Federal Funds Loss
The Indianapolis Public Schools, in an effort to avert a $14-million deficit projected for 1986, has sent layoff notices to 395 teachers and 140 support employees, and plans to move 40 administrators out of their jobs and into the classroom.
Education
N.E.A. Launches Mastery in Learning Project in Effort To Improve Schooling
The National Education Association has launched a $600,000 project to help schools upgrade curricula, increase faculty involvement in decisionmaking, and make mastery of subject matter the new standard for student achievement.
Education
High Court Split On Homosexual Teachers' Rights
A divided U.S. Supreme Court last week let stand a lower-court ruling that struck down a controversial Oklahoma law permitting school boards to fire teachers who publicly advocate homosexual activity.
Education
Postal Charges for Nonprofit Mailers Could Double in Plan Before Congress
Educational organizations and other nonprofit groups that rely on the mail to raise funds and disseminate information could see their postal costs more than double on Oct. 1 under a Reagan Administration proposal now moving through the Congress.
Education
Research and Reports
The New York City Board of Education and many of the district's vocational-technical high schools continue to discriminate on the basis of sex despite federal and state anti-discrimination laws, charge the authors of a new report.
In interviews with students, teachers, and administrators, the Full Access and Rights to Education (fare) Coalition found that training opportunities for young women remain "extremely limited" in the district, with most female vocational students enrolled in the five high schools offering training for jobs traditionally held by women.
Education
Bennett Emphasizes Benefits of Choice, Rigor, and Character
Secretary of Education William J. Bennett last week offered a broad and emphatic defense of tuition tax credits and compensatory-education vouchers, saying that increased parental choice would be ''one of the best catalysts" for improving public schools.
Education
Youthful Offenders Face Court of Peers in N.Y. Town
Newburgh, N.Y.--Howard Jones, a bright but underachieving 7th grader at South Junior High School, has had his first brush with the law. Charged with shoplifting, the 12-year-old now faces the prospect of a misdemeanor conviction that could follow him for life.
Education
Federal News Update
The White House indicated last week that President Reagan will nominate Chester E. Finn Jr., a professor of education and public policy at Vanderbilt University, as the new research chief at the Education Department.
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and chairman of the committee that would have to clear Mr. Finn's nomination, received preliminary notification last week from the White House personnel office that Mr. Finn would soon be named to the post of assistant secretary for educational research and improvement, said an aide on the Labor and Human Resources Committee. That post is held by Donald J. Senese, who will step down on May 1.
Education
Opinion
To 'Pete,' Who's Lost in the Mainstream
Dear Pete,
Welcome to the Middle School. I hope you have a good year. I will write you a note every day, and I hope you will answer.
I went sailing a lot this summer. Did you do any fun thing?
Your Friend,
Mrs. O
Education
Opinion
'Teacher Burnout': Occupational Hazard or Insult?
Sometimes we in education talk about an idea so much that, after a while, we begin to think our words refer to something that actually exists. In that regard, we are like children who, after listening to fairy tales, begin to suspect that trolls populate the underside of every bridge and that cloudy mirrors will pronounce judgment on our pulchritude.