June 12, 1996
Education Week, Vol. 15, Issue 38
Education
Buying Into Home Schooling
Welcome to the Homeschoolers of Maine Christian Homeschool Convention. Some 800 people have gathered at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in mid-April for two days of seminars, networking, and shopping. And there's plenty to buy.
Education
Gov. Chiles on School Prayer
On May 31, Gov. Lawton Chiles of Florida rejected a wide-ranging education bill because of objections to its school-prayer provisions. The following are excerpts from his veto message:
Education
Under State Control
A number of school districts across the country are state-controlled. The following sampling provides a snapshot of how those districts are now governed.
States
Ill Will Comes With Territory In Takeovers
In a distressed school district on the outskirts of Dallas, federal agents blew through one day this spring like a Texas tornado.
School & District Management
School Board Voting-Rights Case Accepted
Washington
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to examine the way school board redistricting influences minority voting rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to examine the way school board redistricting influences minority voting rights.
Education
What's Working
Making the Grade: A Guide to School Drug Prevention Programs rates 47 programs for their effectiveness in preventing alcohol, tobacco, and drug use among children. The following six programs got an A:
Education
By the Numbers: Cold Comfort
Most new schools these days have air conditioning, but when it comes to carpeting, elementary schools have the edge, according to the annual survey of trends in school construction by American School & University magazine.
Teacher Preparation
Researchers Seek New Road Map for Teaching
Efforts to set higher academic standards and to test students on them call upon schools to produce pupils who can reason, think critically, and write well.
Education Funding
Hornbeck, Judge Reach Truce in Spending Battle
A Pennsylvania judge backed off her threat to jail Philadelphia's schools chief last week after the two reached a truce in their high-profile battle over the school district's spending priorities.
School & District Management
Elected District Chiefs in Ga. The Latest To Become Extinct
As a boy growing up in north Georgia in the 1940s, Trigg Dalrymple literally lived at school. His father was an elementary school principal, and their home doubled as a classroom for the 1st and 2nd grades.
School & District Management
Environmental Studies
Baltimore
The ribbons of colorful crepe paper hanging across the long, cavernous corridors of Baltimore's Patterson High School are barely noticeable. But teachers here cannot keep from pointing them out.
The ribbons of colorful crepe paper hanging across the long, cavernous corridors of Baltimore's Patterson High School are barely noticeable. But teachers here cannot keep from pointing them out.
Standards & Accountability
Student Standards for Speaking, Listening Issued
At the ripe age of 8, Sean Long is an impressive public speaker.
School Choice & Charters
Staying Home From School
A growing number of home-schooling parents point to a host of secular and practical reasons for taking education into their own hands.
Education Funding
Negotiators Agree on How Much Money For Education, Training
House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement late last week on a fiscal 1997 spending plan that recommends funding levels for the Department of Education and other federal agencies.
Standards & Accountability
Opinion
Pre-Crafted Reform?
It is not universally appreciated that teachers must be centrally
involved in implementing school reform. I am reminded of this by a
recent column by Albert Shanker, the president of the American
Federation of Teachers, in The New York Times (May 12, 1996).
Titled "Lots of Bull But No Beef," it calls for expert knowledge
generated outside the classroom. Mr. Shanker used his widely read
column to quote University of Arizona professor Stanley Pogrow that
teachers need "technology" to break "the cycle of reforms that fail"
("Reforming the Wannabe Reformers," Phi Delta Kappan, June
1996). According to Mr. Pogrow, "technology is not just equipment," but
"highly specific, systematic, and structural methodologies with
supporting materials of tremendously high quality."
Law & Courts
Opinion
Where the Boys Are
For the past two years, British newspapers and academic journals
have been reporting that boys are on the weak side of the gender gap.
The Times of London announced that on national-curriculum tests
14-year-old British boys are "on average, more than three years behind
girls in English," and warned of the prospect of "an underclass of
permanently unemployed, unskilled men." According to the journal New
Scientist, "Girls are racing ahead in Britain's schools ... boys
are being left behind." A growing body of evidence suggests that
American boys may be in similar straits.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
In Denmark, Remembering The 'Forgotten Half'
Like many American young people, Hans, age 20, wants to follow in
his father's and brother's footsteps. They are fitters, skilled workers
who attach pieces of machinery to one another. Like Americans pursuing
a similar goal, Hans is working in a shop while he attends school. But
unlike Americans, Hans is also learning highly technical skills and
advanced knowledge in mathematics, science, and languages that will
enable him to pursue other careers and to go to a university should his
plans change in the future.