June 1, 1994
Education Week, Vol. 13, Issue 36
Education
Legislative Update
The following are summaries of final action by legislatures on education-related matters.
Education
District News Roundup
Houston Targets Principals In School-Improvement Policy: Principals in Houston will face dismissal if they fail to turn troubled schools around within three years, according to a new district policy.
Education
Delay of E.S.E.A. Debate Fuels Concern About Timing
A Senate panel has suspended work for two weeks on a bill to rewrite the majority of federal programs for elementary and secondary schools, fueling concern that the bill will be shunted aside this summer while Congress debates health-care-reform legislation and appropriations bills.
Education
Demise of Pew Project Offers Lessons to Funders
Although the demise of the Pew Charitable Trusts' multimillion-dollar Children's Initiative shows that promoting large-scale changes in the way states provide services to children is far from easy, experts both in and outside the foundation are urging that it not keep people from trying.
School Choice & Charters
Colorado Appeals Highlight Key Step In Charter Process
When the Colorado legislature last year passed a law authorizing charter schools, two veteran middle school teachers from Denver, Cordia Booth and Noblet Danks, began dreaming about founding a school.
Education
Universal School Access To Data Networks Urged
Unless schools gain low-cost access to developing telecommunications networks, the "information highway'' will be a dividing line separating rich information "haves'' from poor "have-nots,'' Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley told a Senate panel last week.
Education
Requiem For A Reform
On the surface, the only thing that distinguishes Littleton, Colo., from thousands of other American suburbs is the spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains that rise to the west of town, above the shopping malls and streets of well-kept, middle-class homes.
Education
Different Language, Different Rules
The following are some of the linguistic differences between Mainstream American English and African-American language. The patterns in the latter, some linguists argue, are derived from the rules governing many West African languages and persist in the language that many African-American students speak, using English vocabulary.
Education
Talking the Talk
"What's a homie?'' Anthony Jackson asks his 5th-grade class at the 99th Street Accelerated School in Los Angeles, a series of low-rise beige stucco buildings and cement playgrounds enveloped by a tall metal fence, perched on the outskirts of the tough Watts neighborhood.
Education
Youth Fellows: Not Just Another After-School Job
It is a bright and balmy afternoon in Boston, a welcome change of
pace after the seemingly endless winter the city has endured.
Education
Teams Finishing Work on NAEP Arts Assessment
Teams of teachers in 15 states are expected to finish work this month on developing exercises for a national assessment in the arts.
Education
News In Brief
The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear the appeal of an Illinois father and son who sought to bar a school district from allowing the Boy Scouts of America to meet in a public school because of the Scouts' requirement that participants believe in God.
Education
Teachers Column
Some Rochester, N.Y., teachers have taken their expertise to the airwaves and are receiving rave reviews locally and across the state.
Education
State, Local Opinion Mixed on Goals 2000 Law
Washington
As local and state officials gear up to implement the Goals 2000 education-reform strategy, many have concluded that it will blend in well with reforms already under way, while some also view it as a potential catalyst for further reform efforts.
As local and state officials gear up to implement the Goals 2000 education-reform strategy, many have concluded that it will blend in well with reforms already under way, while some also view it as a potential catalyst for further reform efforts.
Education
In The Press
"Separate Is Better,'' claims Susan Estrich in the May 22, 1994, issue of The New York Times Magazine. The campaign manager for Michael S. Dukakis during his 1988 Presidential bid and a professor of law and political science at the University of Southern California, Ms. Estrich, herself a graduate of a women's college, argues the case for single-sex education in an article by that name.
Education
In Cleveland, State Reaches $1 Million Accord To Keep Ohio Test
While federal civil-rights investigators continue their review of Ohio's graduation test, state officials have reached a settlement with a Cleveland group that had challenged the exam.
School Climate & Safety
Toy Guns Target of Stricter Disciplinary Policies
As schools try to curb the increasing threat of weapons on campus, more educators are deciding that "zero tolerance'' starts early: with elementary school students who bring toy or mock guns to school.
Education
12-Candidate Field Clouds Calif. Superintendent's Race
A crowded field of candidates in the race for superintendent of public instruction and an uninterested electorate have left many observers wary of what could happen in California's nonpartisan primary next week.
Education
Worth Noting
"The history of American education shows clearly that in the very early period, private schools, nearly all church-related, were at the forefront of education, and constituted the framework for what emerged as the public school system. The basic ideas of what a school could and should be were developed in these early private schools, and copied by the free schools, or public schools, which succeeded them.
Education
Schools Joining D-Day Celebration
Next week, the eyes of the world will turn to the beaches of Normandy and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion of German-occupied France that set in motion the defeat of Adolf Hitler's army in World War II.
Education
Senate Panel Backs $2.35 Billion Plan for School Clinics
Washington
As Congress nears what one lawmaker called "high noon'' for health-care reform, a key Senate committee last week unanimously approved the first federal program designed specifically to support school-based health clinics.
As Congress nears what one lawmaker called "high noon'' for health-care reform, a key Senate committee last week unanimously approved the first federal program designed specifically to support school-based health clinics.
Education
Capital Update
Capital Update tracks the movement of legislation, the introduction of notable bills, and routine regulatory announcements.
Education
Va. Governor's Agenda Gets Mixed Reception
Although he has just begun to sketch the outlines of his education agenda, the new Governor of Virginia is already unsettling some local educators who are wary of his views on school choice, sex education, and prayer in schools.
Education
People News
Nebraska Board Appoints New Education Commissioner: Douglas D. Christensen, now the deputy commissioner of education in Nebraska, has been appointed to the top post in the state education department.
Education
18 Held in Probe of Fraud in N.Y.C. Facilities Division
Federal prosecutors have charged four former New York City board of education employees and 14 others with felonies following a probe of bribery, fraud, and racketeering in the school system's leasing and maintenance of buildings.
Education
Bill To Authorize Grants For Lead Tests in Schools
Washington
The Senate last week approved legislation that would authorize federal funding of tests for lead contamination in older elementary schools and day-care centers, but some education groups warned that the measure would only fuel public fears about lead in schools.
The Senate last week approved legislation that would authorize federal funding of tests for lead contamination in older elementary schools and day-care centers, but some education groups warned that the measure would only fuel public fears about lead in schools.
Education
Report Finds Little Fraud in Income Program for Disabled
Washington
In the face of allegations that parents are "coaching'' their children to behave in certain ways in school and at home to make them eligible for federal funds intended for disabled poor children, a recent report by the Social Security Administration has concluded that there is little evidence that such manipulation is widespread.
In the face of allegations that parents are "coaching'' their children to behave in certain ways in school and at home to make them eligible for federal funds intended for disabled poor children, a recent report by the Social Security Administration has concluded that there is little evidence that such manipulation is widespread.