December 12, 2001

Education Week, Vol. 21, Issue 15
College & Workforce Readiness Threatened Texas College Preserves Its Right to Prepare Teachers
Tiny Rio Grande College in Uvalde, Texas, has retained its right to recommend prospective teachers for certification, after the state threatened to strip the institution of the privilege.
Julie Blair, December 12, 2001
•
3 min read
School & District Management Panel Defines 'Science' of Education Research
When it comes to guiding principles, research in education is not all that different from research in the natural or social sciences, a panel of prominent researchers concludes in a new report.
Debra Viadero, December 12, 2001
•
4 min read
Education Colleges

Visa Scrutiny

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, federal lawmakers have put the system of granting visas to foreign students under intense scrutiny.
December 12, 2001
•
2 min read
Reading & Literacy U.S. Students Rank Among World's Best and Worst Readers
The United States scored in the middle on a new 32-nation study of educational achievement, experts say, because many of the best readers in the world live here—and many more of the worst.
David J. Hoff, December 12, 2001
•
7 min read
Teaching Boston Schools Stress Community- Service, Career-Related Themes
While many schools around the country try to make learning more concrete for their students, or require them to serve the community, service learning has become embedded in the academic culture of the 63,000-student Boston school district.
John Gehring, December 12, 2001
•
4 min read
Education Retrospective
The Reagan administration says that education begins in the home; bilingual educators are alarmed and puzzled by government reports saying bilingual education is ineffective; the RAND Corp. says school systems operating more than one federal education program may experience conflicts; researchers worry that the Soviets are ahead in science education; and there are no schools in Christmas. ...
December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
Education Funding Budget Problems Force Big Layoffs In Buffalo Schools
While the Buffalo teachers slated to be affected by budget cuts work to make peace with their pink slips—preparing their students for good-byes, or talking with recruiters from other districts—school officials and Buffalo citizens aren't swallowing the staff layoffs and cuts in programs without a fight.
Jessica L. Sandham, December 12, 2001
•
5 min read
School Choice & Charters Friedman Disappointed That Voucher Plans Aren't Bolder
It has been 46 years since the economist Milton Friedman proposed giving parents taxpayer-financed tuition vouchers to send their children to private schools.
Mark Walsh, December 12, 2001
•
2 min read
Education Scoring Around the World
December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
School Climate & Safety Banking on Recovery
Displaced from their home in New York's financial district, teachers and students at the High School of Economics and Finance remain focused on their mission.
Jessica L. Sandham, December 12, 2001
•
14 min read
School Climate & Safety Pen Pal Effort With Muslim Children Overseas Takes Off
The pupils at Mott Hall Elementary School in Harlem wonder whether their overseas peers might hate them just because they are American. Others want to know how the daily lives of students in the Islamic world differ from their own. Now, to find out the answers, all they have to do is ask their electronic pen pals in Egypt.
Lisa Fine, December 12, 2001
•
3 min read
Special Education Court Ponders 'Reasonable Accommodations' Under ADA
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 continues to funnel a steady flow of appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week, the justices heard oral arguments in a case that will help define what constitutes a "reasonable accommodation" for workers with disabilities.
Mark Walsh, December 12, 2001
•
3 min read
Education Funding Swift Work Helps Get Massachusetts a Budget
Five months into the fiscal year, exhausted Massachusetts lawmakers have completed all but a small piece of the state's fiscal 2002 budget. The document, which was approved in an emergency legislative session Nov. 21, largely protects K-12 education spending, despite a slumping state economy.
John Gehring, December 12, 2001
•
4 min read
Education State Journal

'I'm Stupid?'

Students have boycotted them. Others lose sleep and bite their nails before going to battle armed only with their No. 2 pencils. But some high school students in Massachusetts have turned their anxiety and anger about the state's high-stakes exams into protest art.
December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
Education Parents Transfer Custody Of Children for School Reasons
Officials of the New Hanover County school district in North Carolina are taking steps to discourage parents from giving up their parental rights in order to send their children to a preferred school.
Linda Jacobson, December 12, 2001
•
3 min read
School & District Management Finances at Issue in Delay Of Phila. Schools Takeover
Pennsylvania's governor and Philadelphia's mayor have delayed until Dec. 21 the impending state takeover of the city's schools in an attempt to make more cordial and cooperative a shift of power that many Philadelphians already view as an unfriendly intrusion.
Catherine Gewertz, December 12, 2001
•
3 min read
Curriculum Children Write Operas, Design Instruments on Music Web Site
The popular children's television show "Sesame Street" recently unveiled a Web-based music education program in which the Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, and other characters help teach young children such concepts as rhythm and melody.
Rhea R. Borja, December 12, 2001
•
2 min read
Education Party Lines
Once again, lawmakers in Texas seem ready to challenge the state school board's role as the manager of investments for a $19 billion public education trust fund that provides aid to school districts statewide.
Bess Keller, December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
Teaching Profession Denver Pay Plan Offers Lessons, Review Says
Some said it would devastate working relationships between teachers. It hasn't. Others hoped it would dramatically raise student performance. Not so far.
Jeff Archer, December 12, 2001
•
5 min read
Education News in Brief: A National Roundup
  • Catholic School Unions in N.Y.C.
    Stage Job Actions
  • Faced With Deficit, D.C. Board
    Votes to Cut the School Year
  • Mass. Budget Cuts Force State to Drop
    Educators' Internet Service
  • Michigan Students Unharmed After
    Exposure to Mercury
  • Annenberg Foundation Awards
    $10 Million to Boston Schools
  • Ariz. Orders Scottsdale District
    To Charge Charter School Rent
  • Md. District Receives Waiver
    To Continue Reading Schedule
  • Chicago Board Cracks Down
    On Student Absenteeism
  • Mass. Student Fatally Stabs Counselor
December 12, 2001
•
8 min read
Education Take Note

Secret Weapon

Dale Rooks sees a car coming toward him, too fast. So the volunteer crossing guard pulls out his trusty hair dryer and points it at the car. Sure enough, the driver frantically pumps the brake and slows down near A.K. Suter Elementary School.
December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
Special Education ESEA Passage Awaits a Deal On Spending
Nearly a year after President Bush announced his plan to revamp the federal role in K-12 education, Congress appears on the cusp of delivering a final bill to the Oval Office. Includes the table, "ESEA Highlights."
Erik W. Robelen, December 12, 2001
•
8 min read
Education Writing to the Test
As part of the writing test that California administered last spring, 4th graders were asked to read a brief passage about frogs and toads and were then given 30 minutes to write about the differences between the two amphibians. The following shows a response that earned a 3 on a 4- point scale, and the reasoning for the score.
December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
Education WORTH NOTING
One of the most difficult tasks teachers have is to convey to students the difference between pluralism (and respecting people who hold different views) on the one hand and relativism (the idea that no moralities or moral principles are more true, or objectively justifiable, than others) on the other. It is important to remember—and to remind students—that moral disagreements are almost always disagreements about what the truth is, what justice actually requires. ... If students come to believe that choosing a moral (or religious or political or scientific) position is like choosing what to eat from a buffet line, they will have misunderstood the nature of morality rather badly.
Warren A. Nord, December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
Education New in Print

Child Care

  • The Four-Thirds Solution
    by Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D., with Jacqueline Salmon (Perseus Publishing, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142; 260 pp., $26 hardcover).
December 12, 2001
•
3 min read
Education Deadlines
Dec. 20—Career education: Applications are due for the annual awards of the American Association for Career Education. Awards are available in 16 categories for innovation in practices, programs or publications for career education. Contact: Pat Nellor Wickwire, President, AACE, 2900 Amby Place, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254- 2216; (310) 376-7378; fax: (310) 376-2926.
December 12, 2001
•
6 min read
Education Events
** marks events that have not appeared in a previous issue of Education Week.
December 12, 2001
•
12 min read
Education Federal File

Hearings Impaired

In June, the White House made the long-awaited announcement of President Bush's choice for the nation's top civil rights official for education.
December 12, 2001
•
1 min read
Assessment Panel Details Shortcomings Of N.C.'s Testing Program
North Carolina has devoted insufficient time, money, and staff to its testing program over the past few years—shortcomings that, if not properly addressed, could continue to jeopardize its overall reliability and credibility, a panel of testing experts told the state school board last week.
Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, December 12, 2001
•
4 min read
Load More ▼