May 29, 1985

Approximately 90 percent of the city's middle-school students apply to one of the city's magnet high schools out of a desire to avoid attending neighborhood schools, which are perceived to be of lower quality, the report by the Educational Priorities Panel found. The average student applied to four such schools.

"Vocational students will still have to take the two additional required humanities credits and those who wish to take all four humanities credits can do so," according to Helen Williams, public-information officer for the Idaho Department of Education.

The ctw, creator of "Sesame Street," "The Electric Company," and "3-2-1 Contact," plans to develop a 65-part series for 8- to 12-year-olds designed to supplement classroom instruction. The series, to run on public broadcasting stations weekdays in the late afternoon, will premiere in the fall of 1986 or early 1987.

Allowing students to attend schools near their parents' place of employment is particularly important when the selected school offers before- and after-school programs, concluded the 15-member California Commission on School Governance and Management, which was authorized under the state's 1983 education-reform law. "This could help to strengthen parent/child/teacher relationships."

But Mr. Bennett's performance since then has caused Mr. Shanker, the president of the 610,000-member union and an increasingly high-profile figure in the reform movement, to reconsider his expressed regard for the Secretary.

Students, the most ingenious of whom are often labeled "cheeky and disruptive," are typically "docile, compliant, and without initiative." Teachers, meanwhile, are typically prevented from deciding what the basic outlines of their curriculum will be or how much time they will have to teach. "Teachers are often treated like hired hands," writes Mr. Sizer. "Not surprisingly, they often act like hired hands."

The city's teachers were to fill out a survey that appeared in the April issue of United Action, the union's monthly newsletter. The survey instructs teachers to rate their principals in a number of areas, such as instructional leadership, support to faculty, and use of financial resources to improve instruction.

In a May 16 announcement, Pepperdine University, which administers the federally funded center in Sacramento, announced that Ronald D. Stephens, an associate professor of education at Pepperdine and the official who has overseen the grant, had been appointed executive director responsible for "overall administration and personnel operations."

"So far we've heard from more than 300 schools," says Theodore R. Sizer, who is also heading the coalition project that will test the ideas put forth in the book. "Usually, it starts with a letter or a call from someone saying, 'Gee, we're interested.' Then what follows is a lot of crisscrossing. The selection process is far more informal, gradual, and reciprocal than most people would think."

"Some of the standards are entirely new, and many were revised to be more specific than current standards about what should be included in a teacher-education program," Margaret A. Smith, the state's education secretary, said in a prepared statement.

Mr. Newton is also being investigated for allegedly using $50,000 worth of bonds he controlled for a charity to secure his bail on an illegal-weapons charge.

But officials of the ftp, an affiliate of the National Education Association, immediately announced that they would appeal Judge Charles Miner's decision.

ALASKA