March 16, 1988

Education Week, Vol. 07, Issue 25
Education Proposed Hike in Postal Rates Would Affect Education Groups
Nonprofit educational organizations, school libraries, and publishers of classroom materials such as the Weekly Reader face increased postage costs under the new rate recommendations made by the Postal Service Commission.

Postage for third-class nonprofit mail would increase by an average of 0.8 percent per piece, according to Stephen Sharfman, assistant general counsel for the independent commission.

Debra Viadero, March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education Board's Bid For Funding Is Opposed
Washington--This month, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, plans to introduce a bill in the Congress that would provide $25 million to help the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards develop new teacher assessments.

But the board's request for federal funding--which it has pledged to match with $25 million from other sources--has also drawn fire from sectors of the education community.

March 16, 1988
2 min read
Education Fight Erupts Over Child-Labor Bill
A political battle pitting Connecticut educators against the state's restaurateurs erupted last week when a House panel overwhelmingly approved legislation that would permit 15-year-olds to work in restaurants.
Robert Rothman, March 16, 1988
4 min read
English Learners California Bilingual Rules Relaxed
A legal opinion stating that California teachers do not need special certification to teach non-English-speaking pupils has raised new questions about the viability of the state's bilingual-education programs in the absence of a governing statute.
Deborah L. Gold, March 16, 1988
6 min read
Education History: 'A Lamp To Light the Present'
New York--Harper & Row Publishers this month will release the last volume in Lawrence A. Cremin's trilogy on the history of American education. With American Education: The Metropolitan Experience, 1876-1980, Mr. Cremin, Frederick A. P. Barnard Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, completes what one reviewer has called "one of the most important projects of our time."

The three-volume history, which took Mr. Cremin 23 years, begins with the Colonial experience and spans the two centuries of American nationhood, concluding with the present day.

March 16, 1988
21 min read
Education State Journal: Brickbats for Blanchard; Tarnished reputations
Efforts to reach a bipartisan consensus on education and school-finance reform have stalled in the Michigan legislature, and Republican lawmakers and education leaders are fixing the blame for the impasse on Democratic Gov. James J. Blanchard.

"Frankly, the chasm between the two legislative chambers is just too wide to be bridged without the element we have been lacking for over two years--real leadership from the administration," John Engler, the majority leader of the Republican-controlled Senate, said in a speech before a coalition of education groups this month.

March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education Some Said Too Young for Abuse Programs
A new study on the effectiveness of child-abuse-prevention programs concludes that preschoolers are too young to benefit from them and funds should be shifted into programs for older children.

In a two-year study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, 118 preschoolers in seven child-abuse programs were interviewed before and after they received the instruction.

March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education In an Era of Weapons, Districts Fighting Metal With Metal
Students at Chester High School south of Philadelphia have been late to their homeroom classes this month because of a logistical problem born of the times.
Lisa Jennings, March 16, 1988
7 min read
Education Congressional Agency Assesses Testing Programs in All States
The Office of Technology Assessment has published what agency officials say is the first guide analyzing student-testing programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Robert Rothman, March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education Sex-Education Measures Advance
Spurred in part by concern over the spread of aids and continuing high rates of teen-age pregnancy, bills mandating statewide sex education have made progress in four legislatures this year.
Ellen Flax, March 16, 1988
2 min read
Education Capital Digest
A House subcommittee is scheduled to act this week on legislation that would force the Education Department to set hiring goals for minorities and women, something it has refused to do since William J. Bennett took charge of the agency.

The bill, HR 3330, which is to be considered by the Employment Opportunities Subcommittee, would give the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the power to initiate legal action against federal agencies that refuse to include goals and timetables in their affirmative-action plans.

March 16, 1988
3 min read
Education State News Roundup
A New Jersey Department of Education investigation has corroborated the state attorney general's charge that state vocational-education officials illegally channelled nearly $1 million in contracts, Education Commissioner Saul Cooperman told the state Board of Education this month.

Mr. Cooperman said he ordered the internal investigation last November after learning of the state legal office's probe of favoritism and other irregularities in the vocational-education division's handling of grant proposals from local school districts and from a vocational clearinghouse associated with Rutgers University.

March 16, 1988
3 min read
Education Schools Must Teach Values, Says A.S.C.D.
Schools have an obligation to impart to students such values as self-discipline, tolerance, and justice, a policy panel of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development says in a forthcoming report.
Robert Rothman, March 16, 1988
3 min read
Education Voc.-Ed. Group Primes for Perkins Act Debate
Washington--Nearly a year before the Congress is due to take up the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act, leaders in the field are plotting a legislative strategy that seeks relatively few changes in the law.
Reagan Walker, March 16, 1988
3 min read
Education News In Brief
West Virginia voters have resoundingly defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have drastically changed the state's property-tax system.

Unofficial results from the March 5 special election indicate that the proposal was rejected by a vote of 125,837 to 99,050, or 56 percent to 44 percent.

March 16, 1988
3 min read
Education Business Group Assesses Effects of School Partnerships
Partnerships between businesses and schools can significantly improve education when they focus on the "instructional core" of schooling, have support from top management, and involve a long-term commitment to reform, a new book concludes.
Lynn Olson, March 16, 1988
6 min read
Education Testing Practicing Teachers:The Battle Nobody Really Won?
The settlement reached this month between the National Education Association and the state of Georgia over its teacher-testing program effectively ended a three-year war the union had waged in the federal courts to block state-mandated testing of practicing teachers.
Blake Rodman, March 16, 1988
7 min read
Education University May Suspend Tuition-Prepayment Plan
The board of directors of Duquesne University is set to decide this week whether to suspend its tuition-prepayment plan, which attracted national attention when it was adopted in 1985.

"A change in the market forces us to re-evaluate the plan," which has allowed parents to pay their children's tuition at birth, said Ann Rago, the Pittsburgh university's director of public relations.

March 16, 1988
2 min read
Education Wyoming Firms Found To Underpay Taxes
Recent revelations that major Wyoming oil and gas producers may have underpaid millions of dollars in property taxes have prompted lawmakers to consider a bill that would expand the state's authority to audit and monitor mineral production.
Ellen Flax, March 16, 1988
2 min read
Education Gorbachev's 'Glasnost' Policy Paves Way For Joint U.S.-Soviet Education Initiatives
High-school students from 44 states gathered in Norfolk, Va., last week to exchange views with their Soviet counterparts in a satellite-transmitted "youth summit."
Robert Rothman, March 16, 1988
6 min read
Education Federal File: Bennett on Bell; No rating; Reviewing regulations
Secretary of Education William J. Bennett has broken his silence on his predecessor's memoir, saying there "should be a limit on how much someone kisses and tells."

When former Secretary Terrel H. Bell published The Thirteenth Man, in which he sharply criticized the Reagan Administration's policies on education and civil rights, Mr. Bennett declined to comment.

March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education District News Roundup
New York City may be prevented from using the National Teacher Examinations to license teachers because of a decision made this month by the company that administers the tests.

The Educational Testing Service said it would no longer supply the city's board of education with scores on the nte because the city is incorrectly setting the cutoff scores needed to pass the examinations.

March 16, 1988
5 min read
Education Battle Lines Drawn In New York Over Rules on Homeless
New York lawmakers, education officials, and public-interest advocates are lining up their arguments for a forthcoming debate over the state education department's proposed regulations governing the schooling of homeless children.
Kirsten Goldberg, March 16, 1988
7 min read
Education Chapter 1 Intervention Is Supported
Washington--Two civil-rights organizations and the National Governors' Association have endorsed controversial "program improvement" language in the omnibus education bill that would give state agencies broad authority to intervene in failing Chapter 1 programs.

The groups joined the Council of Chief State School Officers in supporting the provision, which has emerged as a major issue in debate over the pending reauthorization measure, HR 5.

March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education Junk Food vs. Cafeteria Fare: A Rat's Tale
More news from the nutrition frontlines: The Junction City, Wis., children in Sue Hall's 4th-grade science class are getting a daily lesson in the perils of junk food from two slightly "hyper" rats addicted to French fries and candy.

The rats--Boss Hog and Sweetie--are part of a five-week experiment. While the Boss and Sweetie swill Pepsi with their potato chips, two other rats--Casey and Rascal--are being served a balanced diet of nutritious foods from the Kennedy School cafeteria.

March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education People News
Charles Fuller Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Soldier's Play," from which the motion picture "A Soldier's Story" was adapted, rented billboard space throughout Philadelphia last month in an effort to encourage young blacks in that city to stay in school.

Mr. Fuller undertook the private dropout-prevention project with his son, Charles 3rd, and his brother, Walter. He had reportedly come up with the idea after watching a television broadcast in which young blacks equated academic success with "acting white."

March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education News Update
The Andover, Mass., school committee has decided to postpone a vote of the local citizenry on a proposal to establish and operate a school with the city of Lawrence, its more populous and racially diverse neighbor.

The committee decided to remove the proposal from the agenda of next month's Andover town meeting on the advice of the project's planning board, which had argued that a vote in April would be premature since a number of details regarding the proposed school remain to be worked out.

March 16, 1988
1 min read
Education Justice Officials Seek To End Many U.S. Integration Suits
The Justice Department is planning to ask federal judges to dismiss as as many as 220 school-desegregation cases against districts that have demonstrated compliance with court orders and consent decrees for at least three years, according to top department officials.
William Snider, March 16, 1988
8 min read
English Learners Conferees Likely To Loosen Rules In Bilingual Law
House and Senate conferees have agreed to increase from 4 percent to 25 percent the portion of federal bilingual-education funds that can go to alternative, English-based programs, according to Congressional sources.
Julie A. Miller, March 16, 1988
6 min read