September 25, 1985

Education Week, Vol. 05, Issue 04
Education District News Roundup
Library officials in Kansas City, Mo., are proposing to close branch libraries in public schools and instead open four branches in various neighborhoods and five branches in shopping malls.

"Malls have become Mainstreet U.S.A.," said Jack Hammond, associate director for business and support services for the Kansas City Public Library. "If that's where the people are, that's where the public library should be."

September 25, 1985
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2 min read
Education In The Press
Stereotypes about their mental capacity have caused blacks to avoid intellectual competition and have created "real problems" in their academic performance, according to a black social psychologist and a black physician writing in the Sept. 9 issue of The New Republic.

Jeff Howard and Ray Hammond argue in "Rumors of Inferiority: The Hidden Obstacles to Black Success" that blacks have "internalized" years of discussion linking their intellectual performance to genetic inferiority.

September 25, 1985
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6 min read
Education Grand Rapids Drops 'Shared-Time'
Public-school officials in Grand Rapids, Mich., have decided against implementing a modified version of the school district's controversial shared-time program of instruction for students in church-affiliated schools.

According to Donald Lennon, who directed the program, the threat of a lawsuit, combined with unresolvable logistical problems, caused the city's school board to vote against the effort this month.

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education Of Time, Reform, And the River
A few minutes before the final bell at Coleman Junior High, a science teacher argues that the best way to understand the gap between the "neat prescriptions" of education reformers and the daily reality of teaching is simply to watch the hallway between classes. "I'd be careful about standing out there, though."
Alex Heard, September 25, 1985
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25 min read
Education Shortages of '85 Vanish as Schools Hire Uncertified Teachers
What some school officials had feared might be a "tip-of-the-iceberg" teacher shortage this fall--the beginning of the severe shortage predicted for the 1990's--appears to have melted away in the waning days of summer.
Cindy Currence, September 25, 1985
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10 min read
Education Reform Bill Eyed
A multibillion-dollar school-reform bill got a boost on Capitol Hill last week, when it was introduced in the Senate and was the subject of a House hearing.
James Hertling, September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education A Mistress of the Universe? Not Likely.
Children who have sunk most of their allowance money into Mattel's "Masters of the Universe" toys now have a chance to get something back from the company: $300,000 in college scholarships.

The toy manufacturer recently announced a Masters of the Universe "Create-A-Character" contest, open to all children 12 and under. The child who designs the best new character for the line of toys will win a $100,000 college scholarship and see his or her figure become a new Master of the Universe. Four other finalists will win $50,000 scholarships.

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education Gridders Benched School Drops Football
There is no joy in Fairfield, Conn., this fall--at least not for would-be varsity football players at Andrew Ward High School. Jack W. Coughlin, the school's head football coach, disbanded the team because not enough students turned out to make up a squad.

"What happened basically was a problem of declining enrollment," Mr. Coughlin said. "The numbers are down for various athletic teams" at the school, "but it really hit football."

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education California Rejects Science Texts as 'Watered-Down'
In an unprecedented action that may have a national impact, the California Board of Education voted unanimously this month to reject 24 7th- and 8th-grade science textbooks submitted by six publishers for state adoption, because of the books' "watered down" treatment of evolution, human reproduction, and "ethical considerations."
Anne Bridgman & Michael Fallon, September 25, 1985
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6 min read
Education North Carolina Cracks Down on Out-of-State Colleges
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors has adopted licensing rules and regulations that might force some out-of-state universities and colleges to stop operating nontraditional degree programs in North Carolina.
Linda Chion-Kenney, September 25, 1985
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4 min read
Education Controversial Game Retains Its Backers
Recent national news reports exploring the possible connection between the role-playing game "Dungeons & Dragons" and youth suicides have elicited increased interest in the game and no negative reactions, according to both the game's manufacturer and the head of an organization for gifted children.
Susan Hooper, September 25, 1985
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3 min read
Education Teachers' Panel Set
Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey, the new chairman of the Education Commission of the States, last week named a 17-member task force to help involve teachers more directly in the education-reform movement and to assess its effects on the teaching profession.

Governor Kean had announced at the ecs annual meeting in July that he would set up the task force of business and political leaders and educators and had said it would plan a series of national forums "to enable state policy leaders to listen to teachers discuss policy actions that could improve the [teaching] profession."

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
Undersecretary of Education Gary L. Bauer has reversed a decision by an Education Department review panel that barred federally supported research laboratories from publishing numerous papers reporting the results of work contracted for by the department.

The Publication and Audiovisual Advisory Council (pavac), a five-member panel of political appointees established by a 1981 executive order aimed at cutting federal costs, must clear virtually all department publications and audiovisual projects.

September 25, 1985
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2 min read
Education Foundations Pondering New Proposals For Improving the Quality of Teaching
Continuing a recently renewed interest in schools, several of the nation's leading philanthropic foundations are weighing new ventures aimed at improving the teaching profession.
J.R. Sirkin, September 25, 1985
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8 min read
Special Education Report Finds D.C. Delinquents Are Denied Special Education
Washington--Despite the fact that almost half of the District of Columbia's juvenile delinquents have been identified as handicapped, most are not receiving special-education services, according to testimony given before a House panel this month.

Gene L. Dodaro, associate director of the general-government division in the General Accounting Office, told the House Subcommittee on Fiscal Affairs and Health for the District of Columbia that according to a gao study, approximately 46 percent, or about 595, of the 1,287 juvenile delinquents studied were identified as handicapped in 1983. Almost all the delinquents identified as handicapped were learning-disabled or emotionally disturbed, he said.

September 25, 1985
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2 min read
Education 'Most of What We Have Supported Is Not Useful or Only Putatively True'
Chester E. Finn Jr., 41, the Education Department's new assistant secretary for educational research and improvement, is overseeing a major reorganization of the department's research units that will eliminate the National Institute of Education--an agency he helped create.

Mr. Finn, whose appointment was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in July, had been' professor of education and public policy at Vanderbilt University. Previously, he worked as an assistant to President Nixon and an aide to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, Democrat of New York, with whom he drafted the proposal for the nie in 1971. Subsequently, he became an outspoken critic of its work.

September 25, 1985
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11 min read
Education Foundation Heads Urged To Support Children's Issues
New York--Warning of ominous demographic and political trends, a former U.S. commissioner of education urged foundation officers gathered here this month to become advocates for children.
J.R. Sirkin, September 25, 1985
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3 min read
Education Home-Schooling Advocate John C. Holt Dies
John C. Holt, the teacher and author whose criticism of schooling helped ignite a national debate in the 1960's on the quality of education, died of cancer Sept. 14 at the age of 62.

Mr. Holt's first book, How Children Fail, offered a personally framed attack on traditional schooling drawn from his own experiences as an elementary-school teacher. Published in 1964, it attracted national attention and launched Mr. Holt onto the lecture circuit.

September 25, 1985
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2 min read
Education 38 Percent Hike for N.Y.C. Teachers
Starting teachers in New York City received a 38 percent pay raise under a new contract announced last week by an arbitration panel.

The three-year contract provides beginning teachers with an $18,500 salary, up $4,000 from the 1983-84 pay rate. In addition, next September the starting salary will increase again to $20,000.

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education Group Launches Curriculum Project
Seven school systems across the nation have been selected to participate in a project sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals to "streamline" the curriculum from grade to grade.

Looking at education from kindergarten through the first year of college, the seven systems will try to eliminate subject-matter duplications between grades and make certain that lessons are covered in an appropriate sequence.

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education State News Roundup
New York students score better on standardized tests in districts where teachers have more time for preparation and more opportunities for in-service training, and in districts with smaller enrollments and higher average property wealth, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the Coalition for School Finance Reform, which favors an increase in state support for education, divides school districts into five groups based on test results. Districts in the top group showed an average expenditure per student of $6,368 and an average enrollment of 1,542 students, compared with $4,914 and 6,921 students, respectively, for the bottom group.

September 25, 1985
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6 min read
Curriculum Reading Skills Up but Leveling Off, Report Finds
Washington--American schoolchildren generally were reading better in 1984 than they were in 1971, but the upward trend among younger students has leveled off in the past four years, and black and Hispanic youngsters still trail whites by a significant margin, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported last week.
Lynn Olson, September 25, 1985
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6 min read
Education A Sweet, Fertile Soil for the Growth of Writers
"My country is the Mississippi Delta, the river country. It lies flat, like a badly drawn half oval, with Memphis at its northern and Vicksburg at its southern tip. Its western boundary is the Mississippi River, which coils and returns on itself in great loops and crescents ... every few years it rises like a monster from its bed and pushes over its banks to vex and sweeten the land it has made. For our soil, very dark brown, creamy and sweet-smelling, without substrata of rock or shale, was built up slowly, century after century, by the sediment gathered by the river in its solemn task of cleansing the continent ..."--from Lanterns on the Levee, by William Alexander Percy, 1941.

September 25, 1985
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7 min read
Education News Update
Last week, for the seventh time in 52 years, Oregon citizens voted down a proposed sales tax. The tax, which would have been Oregon's first such tax, would have provided as much as $700 million per year for elementary and secondary education. (See Education Week, Dec. 12, 1984.)

Based on preliminary estimates, 559,300 Oregonians voted against the proposed 5-percent tax and 158,000 voted for it in the special election.

September 25, 1985
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2 min read
Education Alabama Lawmaker Near to Vote on School-Bond Issue
At the end of last week, on the last day of a special session of the Alabama legislature, lawmakers appeared likely to approve a $310-million education bond issue, at least 60 percent of which will go to elementary and secondary schools.

Also passed was a bill authorizing a 15 percent pay raise for experienced teachers to help implement the state's career ladder.

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education Rhode Island Settlement Said Near
Striking teachers in Pawtucket, R.I., were reportedly close late last week to reaching an agreement with the city's school board to end a 12-day walkout.

The proposed three-year contract, which had yet to be ratified by the union's members, was approved by negotiators after a state judge had jailed 53 union members and levied fines of $10,000 per day against the group and $500 a day against the incarcerated teachers. Strikes by teachers and other public employees are illegal in the state.

September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education Stipend Use, Shifting Client Group in J.T.P.A. Studied
The government's new job-training program is serving a "more advantaged, more motivated" clientele than did the previous federal effort, but the diminished amount of funding available for stipends is not the cause, concludes a draft report by the General Accounting Office.
Alina Tugend, September 25, 1985
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5 min read
Education Panel Clears Legal-Fees Bill for House Vote
The House Education and Labor Committee, defeating a slew of Republican amendments, last week passed legislation that would allow parents to collect legal fees in special-education lawsuits involving schools.
Alina Tugend, September 25, 1985
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1 min read
Education Overhaul of E.D. 'Database' Needed, Says Finn, Pledging To 'Fill the Gaps'
The Education Department's statistical "database" of information about the nation's schools has been allowed to deteriorate and is in need of a major overhaul, according to the department's new research chief.
Tom Mirga & James Hertling, September 25, 1985
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4 min read
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