December 15, 1999
Education Week, Vol. 19, Issue 16
Federal
Hoekstra Accuses Ed. Dept. of Mismanaging Funds
The Department of Education's most recent audit shows serious problems with the agency's financial management, Rep. Peter Hoekstra charged at a subcommittee hearing last week.
Education
Faces of a Century
The 100 entries in this last installment of Lessons of a Century show how forces and thinkers far removed from the classroom often shape what happens when the teacher closes the door and the pupils open their books.
College & Workforce Readiness
Reporter's Notebook
- Educators Say More Effort Needed To Prevent Dropouts
Education Funding
School Philanthropist Remembers His Roots
Chris Gardner, stockbroker and philanthropist, is paying tribute to all the educators who helped him build his multimillion-dollar brokerage business investing teacher-retirement funds. Over the past decade, Mr. Gardner has given 10 percent of his company's profits to educational efforts in some 25 communities.
Professional Development
Group Seeks Concerted Strategy For On-the-Job Training
The nation needs to formulate a plan for improving teachers' on-the-job learning, a paper released last week argues, or face continued frustration in trying to bring all students to higher levels of academic achievement.
Teaching Profession
Monthlong Strike Ends For Pa. District—Along With Breaks
While a 22-day teachers' strike ended for the suburban Philadelphia system late last week, the duration of the walkout means this year's winter break will be just two days long, instead of the planned six.
Education
Group Created To Promote Asian Curriculum in Schools
A national commission will work to expand the teaching of Asia- related issues to American schoolchildren in an effort to address what two new polls suggest is U.S. students' and adults' lack of essential knowledge about the most populous continent.
Education
News in Brief: A National Roundup
- Army Corps of Engineers To Oversee L.A. Construction
- Tax-Credit Suit Dismissed
- Schools To Get Defibrillators
- Okla. Paper Wary on Shootings
- New Admissions Policy Tried
- Md. Scores Dip Slightly
- Marijuana Grown at School
- Starter Guns OK as Props
- Science Winners Named
- Death
Student Achievement
L.A. To Ease Requirements For Promotion
With more than half the district's 710,000 students at risk of being held back a grade for failing to meet the state's promotion standards, Los Angeles' new leadership team has proposed scaling back a plan to end social promotion by 2001.
College & Workforce Readiness
Companies Taking On Role of Guidance Counselors
At the Kaplan Educational Center inside the upscale White Flint Mall here in suburban Washington, the latest variation on for-profit educational services is taking shape.
School & District Management
1970s-1980s
Influential figures from this decade in American education.
Education
Before Their Time
In 1959, the National Education Association asked the nation's governors to prophesy about education at the dawn of the new millennium. Below are excerpts from some of those leaders.
Education
Group Seeks Help For Minority Achievement
The pending reauthorization of the nation's pre-eminent K-12 education law has stirred recent debate over its accountability and teacher-training provisions. But at least one advocacy group here has spent four years preparing to address those issues.
Law & Courts
High Court Allows Funding Suit in Pa. To Proceed to Trial
The U.S. Supreme Court last week let stand a lower-court ruling that allows a novel school funding lawsuit filed by the Philadelphia school district against the Pennsylvania governor and other state officials to proceed to trial in federal court.
Education
News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
- Fla. Teachers Taking Action Against Bush's Bonus Plan
- Bill Proposes Teacher Stipends
- Race Disparities Found at Academy
- Mich. Bans Unionization for Some
Curriculum
Surveys Examine Sex Education Programs
Most school districts have comprehensive sexual education policies and curricula in place, according to two national surveys to be released this week, but sexuality education, and particularly the promotion of abstinence-only education, remain magnets for controversy.
Student Well-Being & Movement
Health Update
- Teenagers More Astute About Effects of Drug Use
- Teenage Pregnancy
- Adolescent Obesity
Early Childhood
Early Years
Child Care: The number of hours that a child under the age of 36 months spends in child care could be detrimental to the mother-child bond, according to a recent study published in the American Psychological Association's journal, Developmental Psychology.
School Choice & Charters
Administrators
Scholarship Incentive: Training hundreds of school administrators each year will be the goal of the new Principal Leadership Institutes, opening next summer in California.
Assessment
Mismatched Curricula Leave Freshmen Ill-Prepared, Study Finds
Despite the recent standards and accountability movement, most K-12 schools and colleges don't take time to discuss what students should know and be able to do as incoming freshman, says an Education Trust report, "Ticket to Nowhere: The Gap Between Leaving High School and Entering College and High-Performance Jobs," released last week.
Ed-Tech Policy
Technology Officials Counting the Days Until Year 2000
A few hours after toasting the new year, hundreds of school technology officials across the country will report to work Jan. 1—reasonably confident that no "Y2K bug" disasters will await them.
School & District Management
City Leaders Mull Plans To Overhaul D.C. School Board
Two new plans before Washington's City Council would overhaul the elected District of Columbia school board, only months before the panel is scheduled to regain broad powers that the federal government stripped from it in 1996.
Teaching Profession
Before Their Time
In 1959, the National Education Association asked the nation's governors to prophesy about education at the dawn of the new millennium. Below are excerpts from some of those leaders.
School & District Management
1920s-1940s
Influential figures from this decade in American education.