April 10, 1985

Education Week, Vol. 04, Issue 29
Education Reagan Names Curran to Humanities Post
President Reagan last week nominated Edward A. Curran to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a post previously held by Secretary of Education William J. Bennett.
Sheppard Ranbom, April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education Districts With Strong Art-Education Curricula
For its study of visual-arts programs, the Getty Center asked more than 100 art-education experts around the country to identify school districts with strong art curricula. From these, it selected seven districts whose programs seemed closest to the center's theoretical ideal.

"The districts we have identified as having discipline-based art-education programs are all evolving programs," said Leilani Lattin Duke, the center's director. Each of those selected for further study has its shortcomings, she said, and no one model will work in every school district.

April 10, 1985
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2 min read
Education Kentucky To Focus on Attendance
Kentucky leaders, in an attempt to improve school attendance in the state and focus attention on the importance of being in school, have declared the week of April 22 "high attendance week."

Gov. Martha Layne Collins and Superintendent of Public Instruction Alice McDonald, in conjunction with the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, announced the program late last month as part of the state's education-improvement plan.

April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education President Accepts a Higher Aid Cap
The White House and Senate Republican leaders have agreed to a fiscal 1986 budget compromise that raises the family-income ceiling for eligibility for federal student aid to $60,000.
James Hertling, April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education States Offering Teacher-Incentive Plans, Survey Shows
Nearly all of the states now provide or are considering some type of incentive program for teachers, from scholarships and loans for prospective teachers to career ladders for those already in the profession, according to a survey conducted recently by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

The survey also found that 22 states allow alternative certification, often aimed at increasing the supply of mathematics and science teachers, for people who want to be teachers but have not completed teacher-training programs. Another 10 states are considering proposals to allow certification of prospective teachers who do not have a teaching degree but have a baccalaureate.

April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education Book Restriction in Colorado Sparks A.C.L.U. Action
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has taken the unusual step of using newspaper advertising to recruit parents to challenge a local school board's decision to restrict two children's books.

The civil-liberties group placed an advertisement in a Douglas County newspaper to locate interested parents after the local school board decided in February that two books by the British author Frank Dickens--Albert Herbert Hawkins--The Naughtiest Boy in the World and Albert Herbert Hawkins and the Space Rocket--should be placed in a reserved section of elementary-school libraries.

April 10, 1985
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2 min read
Education Studies in Arts Sharpen Analytical Skills, Nurture Creativity, Getty Panel Argues
Students are missing out on significant learning opportunities because schools have relegated the visual arts to a subordinate place in the curriculum and tend to focus only on the development of artistic skills, according to a report released here last week.
Lynn Olson, April 10, 1985
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6 min read
Education Elementary Principals To Focus on Preschool Education
The National Association of Elementary School Principals, convinced that early-childhood learning is linked to later academic and employment success, has decided to give high priority to preschool education.

The association's decision reflects members' concern about the significant achievement gap between those who have participated in preschool programs and those who have not, according to Samuel G. Sava, executive director of the national association.

April 10, 1985
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2 min read
Education Bill on Legal Fees in Special-Ed. Cases Clears a Panel; Riders Cloud Passage
The outlook for a bill that would allow parents to collect legal fees in special-education lawsuits has been clouded by provisions added by a Democrat-controlled House panel but opposed by the Administration and House Republicans.
Alina Tugend, April 10, 1985
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7 min read
Education Teachers To Fight Longer School Day in Court
Louisiana's largest teachers' organization has challenged a mandate to lengthen the school day in elementary schools by 30 minutes, claiming that it violates the state's tenure law.

The lawsuit, filed in the 19th Judicial District Court for the Parish of East Baton Rouge by the Louisiana Association of Educators, also claims that the state board of elementary and secondary education exceeded its authority in requiring the lengthened school day, which is scheduled to go into effect next school year.

April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education Study To Focus on Handicapped Pupils' Transition to Adulthood
Education Department officials are working on plans for a major longitudinal study of handicapped students that will provide the first nationwide information on their "transition" into adulthood after high school.
Alina Tugend, April 10, 1985
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2 min read
Education Program To Place German Teachers in Private Schools
Fifteen "highly qualified" mathematics and science teachers from West Germany may land jobs next fall teaching in American independent schools as the result of a pilot project designed to recruit German teachers to ease shortages in this country.
Blake Rodman, April 10, 1985
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4 min read
Education Maine Commission Recommends Teacher-Pay Hikes
A special commission established last year to devise a long-term plan to raise the salaries of Maine's teachers has recommended a statewide minimum salary of $16,000 by 1987.
J.R. Sirkin, April 10, 1985
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4 min read
Education $12-Million Math-Curriculum Project Seeks Top-to-Bottom Change
Responding to reports that have documented serious deficiencies in the teaching of precollegiate mathematics, the University of Chicago has launched a project designed to improve math instruction and to demonstrate to students the subject's relevance.
Blake Rodman, April 10, 1985
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4 min read
Education Oregon Chief Reverses Decision To Withhold Funds From Sect
Oregon's superintendent of public instruction has reversed his decision to withhold state funds from a school district dominated by members of an Eastern-style religious sect.

The superintendent, Verne A. Duncan, decided on the policy change after a state inspection late last month confirmed that a secondary-level vocational program he said had religious overtones had been removed from the curriculum. Mr. Duncan had charged after an earlier personal visit to the school district that the program was "permeated with religious symbolism."

April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education Maryland State Board Approves Stricter Graduation Standards
The Maryland State Board of Education has approved tougher high-school graduation standards, including requirements that students take a third year of mathematics and one year each of fine arts and practical arts.
Becky Todd York, April 10, 1985
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2 min read
Education Schools and Parents: Activists Are Now Forging a Policy Role
Educators design school policies, legislators bargain with them, and governors sign them. But the people who have to live with them are parents, many of whom are no longer content to sit by the sidelines while politicians and professionals make decisions about their children.
Lynn Olson, April 10, 1985
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13 min read
Education Poll Shows Support for Higher Taxes, Promotion Tests
A large majority of the adults who responded to a national poll sponsored by the Education Department said they would pay higher taxes to improve schools and would support tests for promotion and graduation, even if their own children failed.
James Hertling, April 10, 1985
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2 min read
Education High Court Declines Rights Cases Of Homosexual, Blind Students
The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to hear Texas A&M University's appeal of an appellate-court decision affirming the right of a homosexual-student group to organize on campus.
James Hertling, April 10, 1985
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3 min read
Education People News
A fugitive Nazi colonel's daughter, born in Vietnam, adopted by a U.S. Army adviser in 1954, and brought to the United States, has been named the 1985 National Teacher of the Year.

The winner, Therese Knecht Dozier, 32, has taught world history to 10th graders for the past seven years at Irmo High School in Columbia, S.C. She previously taught in Gainesville and Miami after earning her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Florida.

April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
A bill to repeal the Equal Access Act, which guarantees student religious and political groups the right to meet on school grounds, was introduced in the Senate last week.

The equal-access law has generated controversy since it was passed by the Congress last summer, and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case that raises similar issues. Arguments in that case, Bender v. Williamsport, will not be heard until the Court's next term.

April 10, 1985
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4 min read
Education National News Roundup
The National Association of State Boards of Education, at the request of nasbe officials, last week became a member of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, an organization that accredits the schools of education that produce most of the nation's teachers.

It is the first time in the history of ncate that the association has participated in the activities of the ac-crediting council, according to ncate officials.

April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education District News Roundup
A monthlong teacher strike in Michigan City, Ind., ended late last month after union leaders and administrators reached an agreement on a three-year contract that provides teachers with a 6-percent salary increase next year and 5-percent raises in each of the following years.

It had been the longest teacher strike in the state in 12 years.

April 10, 1985
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7 min read
Education News Update
One month after the South Dakota Legislature approved Gov. William J. Janklow's education-reform package, a group of law and citizens is working on a petition drive to put the bill up to public vote in next November's election. (See Education Week, March 27, 1985.)

According to one of the organizers of the referendum initiative, Representative Kent Frerichs, Democrat of Wilmot, its backers are most worried about the reform bill's "family-option" plan.

April 10, 1985
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3 min read
Education New Study Panel Gets Cautious Nod From Researchers
Education researchers meeting here last week said they were both encouraged and concerned by Secretary of Education William J. Bennett's decision to postpone the competition for grants to operate the National Institute of Education's 11 research and development centers.
Tom Mirga, April 10, 1985
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7 min read
Education Justice Seeks Modified Hiring Plans
The Justice Department has told 51 state and local jurisdictions--including four school districts--to modify their affirmative-action hiring plans to bring them into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year in Firefighters Local Union No. 1784 v. Stotts.
James Hertling, April 10, 1985
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1 min read
Education Curriculum Column
A group of high-school students from the Philadelphia area will spend this summer as sleuths--unearthing what life was like for teen-agers who lived in the city from 1850 to 1920.

The project, sponsored by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will explore a little-charted period of local history, said Cynthia J. Little, the society's director of education.

April 10, 1985
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2 min read
Education Students' Scores On State Tests Up in California
California's high-school seniors improved their scores this year in all areas of the state's basic-skills test, owing in large part, state and local testing officials say, to the availability of $14.4 million in incentive bonuses for schools.
Michael Fallon, April 10, 1985
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3 min read
Education Federal File: Thanks But No Thanks; Father Domenici; A Foreign Affair

The new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, as part of an effort to change the public's perception of the party as a captive of special interests, implored the nation's labor unions last month not to endorse a Presidential candidate before the party's nominating convention in 1988.
April 10, 1985
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2 min read
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