October 11, 1995
Education Week, Vol. 15, Issue 06
Education
Urban Group Assails AFT Policy Campaign
The American Federation of Teachers' ambitious new campaign for safe, orderly schools and high academic standards has run into fierce opposition from the nation's big-city school districts.
Education
A Military Man Takes Charge of Seattle Schools
Though he has been this city's schools superintendent for only a few weeks, John H. Stanford is already leaving his mark.
Education
Direct-Lending Fight Sparks War of Words, Battle of Numbers
Washington
With congressional leaders eager to pare back the Clinton administration's direct-lending program for college students, defenders and opponents of the initiative are waging a battle of numbers.
With congressional leaders eager to pare back the Clinton administration's direct-lending program for college students, defenders and opponents of the initiative are waging a battle of numbers.
Education
'Million Man March' in D.C. Prompts Districts To Develop Day-Off Policies
Several large school systems will allow staff members and students
to take a day off to participate in the Oct. 16 event billed as the
"Million Man March."
Education
Postscript
Last fall, Tacoma, Wash., public school students fared so poorly on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills that The Tacoma News-Tribune labeled their performance the "academic nadir" for Superintendent Rudy Crew.
Education
Va. Chief Advised To Ditch Parent 'Contracts'
The Virginia attorney general's office says the state's new parental-responsibility "contract" is not enforceable and has instructed the state superintendent to stop requiring parents to sign it.
Education
Miss America's Platform Ruffles Partisan Feathers
Miss America, who is scheduled to visit Capitol Hill this week, has already been given a taste of partisan politics.
Education
Soul Searching
A lethal dose of Lemon Pledge overwhelms the tight interior of author Jonathan Kozol's converted farmhouse. In the kitchen, Spic and Span, Windex, Comet, and lesser-known cleansers cover the breakfast table--a suitable buffet for the house's first proper cleaning in two years. Scores of books lay in order on a sofa near the fireplace. In the dark brick office off the living room, neat stacks of papers and legal pads rise at uneven heights, their bulk and shadows resembling modern art. Kozol comes in the back door with an empty blue mop bucket and apologizes that it has taken so long to fetch it. The young housekeeper, who arrived this morning with only a hint of the mammoth job before her, assures him that it will be a while before she dives into mopping. She wipes her forehead, smiles, and raises her eyebrows, punctuating her understatement. Walking back outside his 250-year-old cedar-shingled house on the edge of this picture-book village, Kozol pauses to savor the significance of cleaning day. He surveys his spacious back yard and breathes deeply, satisfied by the cooling breeze, the dense line of tall trees, the crisp blue sky. The former teacher who has spent his adult life documenting the effects of segregation and poverty on children has finally emerged from an intense year of writing and rewriting his latest project, iAmazing Gracej, due in bookstores this week. For a year before that, he immersed himself in the book's subject, a New York City neighborhood that is among the poorest and most dangerous in the country.
Education
More Children Becoming Overweight, Study Finds
Just like their parents, children have been getting heavier.
Education
In Papal Visit, Catholic Schools Find a Rare 'Teachable Moment'
Tens of thousands of young people were expected to join the throngs celebrating mass with Pope John Paul II in New York City's Central Park late last week near the end of his Oct. 4-8 visit to the Eastern seaboard.
Education
Supreme Court Declines Case Disputing Allocation of Impact Aid
Washington
The U.S. Supreme Court refused last week to hear the appeal of a school district in New York state that argued it was cheated out of $2 million in federal impact aid over five years because Congress did not follow its own rules for financing the program.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused last week to hear the appeal of a school district in New York state that argued it was cheated out of $2 million in federal impact aid over five years because Congress did not follow its own rules for financing the program.
Education
Collaborative Efforts Face an Uncertain Future
In measures ranging from the education budget to welfare reform, Congress is aiming to cut spending, shift more responsibility for social programs to states, and remove guarantees of aid under many federal programs for children and families at risk.
Federal
Opinion
Countering William J. Bennett
In testimony before Congress, former National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman William J. Bennett insulted the intelligence of teachers in the schools.
Education
Opinion
Standards for Educational Leaders
The growing debate over standards of all kinds for students,
teachers, and schools ignores what are possibly the most important
standards of all: those for the leaders who offer solutions to the
problems of American education. The public is becoming increasingly
impatient with long lists of promised solutions and meager results, as
illustrated by these recent newspaper headlines from California, once a
beacon in the school-reform movement: "Can't Read" (Modesto
Bee); "The New New Math Is a Good Idea That Will Add Up to Less
Than Zero" (San Jose Mercury-News); "You [Educational Leaders]
Are the Problem" (San Francisco Chronicle).
Education
Opinion
The Teacher as Therapist
The growing recognition of students with special needs is a double-edged sword for schools. It has permitted us to identify and assist these students, but at the same time it has created a group of education specialists who often leave the regular classroom teacher feeling ill-prepared for that task.