December 2, 1998
Education Week, Vol. 18, Issue 14
Teaching Profession
Wash. State AG's Office Fined in Union-Fee Affair
Eight months after fining the state's largest teachers' union for campaign-finance violations, the Washington state attorney general's office has been fined for allegedly dragging its feet in releasing information about the affair.
Education
In Anchorage, District Sets Out To Involve Parents in Evaluation
When Alaska legislators asked all 53 school districts in their state to incorporate parent feedback into their teacher evaluations, the largest district took the message to heart.
Education
Early Years
Lights, Camera: Head Start and other early-childhood workers can earn college credits and learn more about child-care programs on a new satellite television program.
Student Well-Being
Abuse by Women Raises Its Own Set of Problems
Because sexual misconduct by educators is a little-studied topic nationally, no one knows what proportion of it is committed by women. Yet an examination of recent cases around the country suggests that women play a significant, if decidedly secondary, role in such abuse.
Education
Study Claims SAT-Prep Programs Inconsequential
Students who spend hundreds of dollars for courses preparing for the SAT don't get much for their money, research underwritten by the group that sponsors the test concludes.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
The sight of two backpage Commentaries on the issue of standards sitting side by side raised, for just a fleeting moment, the possibility that two different positions on the issue might be heard ("Four Reasons Why Most 'Don't Cut the Mustard,'" and ("Don't Be Confused by the Rankings; Focus on Results," Nov. 11, 1998). But no: Both essays reflected the same basic perspective promoted by business groups and conservative academics as well as many politicians and journalists.
The sight of two backpage Commentaries on the issue of standards sitting side by side raised, for just a fleeting moment, the possibility that two different positions on the issue might be heard ("Four Reasons Why Most 'Don't Cut the Mustard,'" and ("Don't Be Confused by the Rankings; Focus on Results," Nov. 11, 1998). But no: Both essays reflected the same basic perspective promoted by business groups and conservative academics as well as many politicians and journalists.
Education
Opinion
Don't Blame the Internet for Plagiarism
Great innovations inevitably produce unexpected consequences, which may be good, bad, mixed, or indifferent. The telephone gave us taping, which allows us to get messages while away from a phone, and tapping, which allows others to hear our private conversations. For all its glorious contributions to civilization, the printing press also enabled the spread of plagiarism, the claiming of another's creation as one's own.
Reading & Literacy
Opinion
No End to the Reading Wars
At a "reading summit" this fall in Washington, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley called for an end to the "reading wars," the battle that pits skills against meaning in beginning reading. This call for peace is based on the conclusion that beginning-reading instruction should be balanced, taking the best from both sides in the conflict and teaching both skills and meaning. As Catherine Snow of Harvard University put it, we "really know enough that we can't fight about it anymore." Remaining stubbornly partisan to either side, say peace advocates, is not supportable by research and can only have divisive effects on children's education.
Education
Opinion
Tribute to a 'Head Master'
Some teachers are lifers. Jack Pidgeon is one. He is and was my headmaster at The Kiski School, a private boys' preparatory boarding school for students in grades 9-12 in the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.