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EduQuery Old News From 2000 Old News 1998 | Old News 1999 | Edu News | Home [Note: many of the links to the following stories may be out of date since online newspapers typically archive material after a certain amount of time has passed. WorldNetDaily, Newsweek, Time, and some other links tend to be more static. Even though some links are out of date, the Old News pages can be useful to educational researchers who need to know the date certain noteworthy events occurred. These pages can be used as a reference in papers that touch upon the events.] Stories from 2000: Putting
children ahead of unions In Washington, there are public relations victories and then there are real, substantive victories. Congressional Republicans have an opportunity to score victories in both areas if they will divide the House Committee On Education And The Workforce into two committees. One would deal with labor issues and the other would focus only on education. During the campaign, George W. Bush and the congressional leadership did their best to convince the American public that they would take a second-seat to no one in terms of being "pro-education." Here's a chance to make good on that promise.
Homosexual
curriculum in California Children attending California government schools will soon be taught explicitly to avoid "discriminatory attitudes and practices" toward homosexuals in accordance with two new state laws that fund revised curriculum and unspecified "tolerance" programs.
Competition
for schools? The Wall Street Journal argues for school choice in the changing political environment in Washington.
No
shots, no school Increasingly, schools are mandating vaccinations for their students, and turning in parents who don't comply.
The Ritalin Black Market Pssst! Hey, kid, wanna buy some Ritalin? New, unprescribed uses for the infamous drug include taking it before exams. The pills go for around $20 a pop.
ADHD
continues to cause problems in medical, school arenas Underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed, overtreated and undertreated, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has become a national medical nightmare. It is reaching epidemic proportions among children in the United States and shows no signs of slowing down. More than 2 million kids now take Ritalin or a similar drug.
Vouching
for education reform? Lew Rockwell, longtime critic of poor public education, examines the failed ballot initiatives for vouchers in Michigan and California. He examines the issue from an economics standpoint (vouchers as we know them were first proposed by Milton Friedman in 1962), hearkens back to Matthew Millier's famous article in Atlantic Monthly, and points out four reasons why vouchers remain unpopular with the voting public. Finally, he offers his solutions to cure public school's ills.
Half of all teachers will be gone in 10 years Devoting yet another cover to educational topics, Newsweek examines the teacher shortage crisis. By 2010, half of all veteran teachers will have retired. The problems surrounding the recruitment, training, and retention of their replacements may prove to be a vexing one.
Calm thy child
... or else Much to their chagrin, parents are discovering that public schools are not only recommending the medication of their ADHD-diagnosed children, the schools are demanding it. Litigation is sure to follow as the schools and parents duke it out over what is best for the kids. This hot topic is sure to continue over the coming months and years.
Render
unto Cesar? California Assemblyman Steve Baldwin argues that the state should not set aside a holiday for Cesar Chavez, revered in schools everywhere as a political hero for Hispanics. Rather, due to Chavez and his union's allegations of politically incorrect violence, the state should instead dedicate a holiday revering all Hispanics who helped to make California great.
Cal. voucher plan to be
voted on In an election year with education polling as a higher
priority than any other political issue, California is putting a school voucher program
directly to the voters. In California, the governor and legislature have already given
college students the flexibility to shop for public and private schools with taxpayer
dollars.
The low-down on
ADD Under fire for "aggressively diagnosing" ADD in school children, the makers of Ritalin and the American Psychiatry Association find themselves in a class action lawsuit led by the same lawyers who have attacked the tobacco industry. Conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh notes the ironies involved.
Ritalin
maker sued Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. finds itself slapped with a class-action lawsuit over the alleged misuse of Ritalin. The company is alleged to have created a greater market for the drug by helping to expand the definition of ADD.
Decatur teens arrested The big media ignored this story, but three of the teenagers involved in a nasty football riot and expulsion case last fall which resulted in mass protests led by Rev. Jesse Jackson have been arrested on robbery charges.
US News' 2001 rankings The newest rankings of the nation's universities are in. Princeton tops the list. In education, at the graduate level, Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia top the list. The University of Texas drops this year to 12th place while Texas A&M rises to 42nd.
The
government monopoly on education WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah writes in his influential column about government control of our nation's schools. The DNC and the NEA come under scathing attack.
Homeschooling
becomes a campaign issue The DNC attacks homeschooling; Bush and Gore weigh in on the issue.
Silly college courses The conservative Washington Times takes a look at stupid and inane college courses being offered this fall.
Politics
and education Promises, promises. The presidential campaign is in full swing and both sides are attacking the other's educational policies.
It's
the education, stupid! Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly makes his online columnist debut with WorldNetDaily, giving us his opinion on the state of education today.
Coed dorms are the norm Parents are shocked ... shocked ... that coed is now the national norm in dorms around the country.
Autism makes the cover Slowly scientists are unraveling the
mysteries of autism. Also: new research on the MMR immunization seems to indicate it is
not to blame. The
young shall inherit the earth For years, the adults in the family
knew how things worked. Dad showed Junior how to fix the family car, for instance.
Likewise, old fogies ran the nation's media conglomerates. Today, the young are the
knowledgeable, wise and benevolent power brokers. You will be teaching these youngsters.
Best read this article. Dallas assembles
a search committee After firing their superintendent, Dallas ISD goes on the hunt for another one. The seven member panel is a diverse one, and faces a monumental task.
Harry Potter makes the cover The biggest publishing story in a
hundred years hit the heartland this weekend as J. K. Rowling's latest edition to the
Harry Potter saga hit store shelves. Newsweek picked up the story for their cover. The
fourth coming of Potter Breaking all the records, and setting new ones
for online e-commerce, J.K. Rowling's fourth installment in the Harry Potter series hits
stores and homes in force this weekend. Amazon comes under fire for early shipping of the
book to get it to homes by Saturday, the first day the book is allowed to be sold in the
US and Britain. Scholastic, Inc., enjoys another smashing success. Will school choice
finally become a reality? Amid the avalanche of opinions handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court last week, a case known as Mitchell v. Helms turned out to be the most important religious liberty case of the term. Because it was released on the same day as two abortion cases and the Boy Scouts case, it got a lot less attention than it deserves. But over the long haul, it will matter a great deal. The case involved a challenge to a federal educational aid program that lent computers and other materials to public, private and parochial schools. The Court upheld the program, ruling that it did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. But in the process, the justices sent a clear signal that they're ready to approve school choice programs that include religious schools.
Rojas to quit Dallas Superintendent Bill Rojas offered to resign amid a continuing dispute with Dallas school trustees and said he has no doubt that the board will gladly accept his departure. Although significant improvements have been made in the school district during the last year, Dr. Rojas said, he now realizes that what he calls the school board's incessant bickering with him will hamper future progress. Also: A familiar tune. "Dallas schools can't take much more."
TEA's Student Assessment
site has new info The Texas Education Agency Student Assessment web site has new information on SB 103 including Grade 11 draft objectives as well as preliminary Grade 10 exit level and Fall 1999 end-of-course results.
Who wants this job? Colorado University is on the hunt again for a president. However, the school is taking pains to ease the process for would-be candidates who can find their current jobs in jeopardy if they make the short list.
Supreme Court says
OK to parochial schools getting tax money Chapter 2 of the Education Consolidation and
Improvement Act of 1981 channels federal funds via state educational agencies (SEA’s)
to local educational agencies (LEA’s), which in turn lend educational materials and
equipment, such as library and media materials and computer software and hardware, to
public and private elementary and secondary schools to implement “secular, neutral,
and nonideological” programs. The enrollment of each participating school determines
the amount of Chapter 2 aid that it receives. In an average year, about 30% of Chapter 2
funds spent in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, are allocated for private schools, most of
which are Catholic or otherwise religiously affiliated. Respondents filed suit alleging,
among other things, that Chapter 2, as applied in the parish, violated the First
Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Agreeing, the Chief Judge of the District Court
held, under Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 612—613, that Chapter 2 had the primary
effect of advancing religion because the materials and equipment loaned to the Catholic
schools were direct aid and the schools were pervasively sectarian. He relied primarily on
Meek v. Pittenger, 421 U.S. 349, and Wolman v. Walter, 433 U.S. 229, in which programs
providing many of the same sorts of materials and equipment as does Chapter 2 were struck
down, even though programs providing for the loan of public school textbooks to religious
schools were upheld. After the judge issued an order permanently excluding pervasively
sectarian schools in the parish from receiving any Chapter 2 materials or equipment, he
retired. Another judge then reversed that order, upholding Chapter 2 under, inter alia,
Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School Dist., 509 U.S. 1, in which a public school district
was allowed to provide a sign-language interpreter to a deaf student at a Catholic high
school as part of a federal program for the disabled. While respondents’ appeal was
pending, this Court decided Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, approving a program under
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that provided public
employees to teach remedial classes at religious and other private schools. Concluding
that Agostini had neither directly overruled Meek and Wolman nor rejected their
distinction between textbooks and other in-kind aid, the Fifth Circuit relied on those two
cases to invalidate Chapter 2.
Saxon Math
support on the rise You'd be hard pressed to find anyone neutral about Saxon math. For many recent graduates of teacher education programs, it's the incarnation of "drill and kill" —devoutly to be avoided. But don't tell that to parents storming school boards and state legislatures to get Saxon texts into schools. They're still wondering why their eighth-graders can't figure 10 percent of 100 without the aid of a calculator and are convinced Saxon will get classrooms back to basics — or sanity.
Censorship flourishes on
campuses Last October -- as reported by the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va. -- students at California State University at Sacramento stole 3,000 copies of the student newspaper. They were enraged because the paper, The State Hornet, had published the picture of a Hispanic man being arrested and charged with resisting arrest at a football game. There had been violent incidents at the game, including the death of a spectator. The self-righteous censors then demanded that the paper pledge never to publish anything that showed minorities in an unfavorable light.
TIE Grant
Recipients, 2000 The Texas Education Agency today awarded $33 million in federal funds to 25 school districts and educational consortiums for technology-based projects designed to improve student learning.
Board
member to sue student? A San Diego-area high school student is locked in a brewing legal conflict with a school board member over what the youth says is the trustee's improper role in replacing him as student representative, allegedly because of his conservative, Christian worldview.
A reply to teachers Over the years, the shallowest and silliest letters that have arrived in the mail have usually come from school teachers. In order to lessen a needless burden on the post office, let me answer those letters -- past, present and future -- once and for all, so that both the senders and the recipient can save themselves a lot of time.
Supreme Court
decision in Santa Fe prayer case Prior to 1995, a student elected as Santa Fe High School’s student council chaplain delivered a prayer over the public address system before each home varsity football game. Respondents, Mormon and Catholic students or alumni and their mothers, filed a suit challenging this practice and others under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. While the suit was pending, petitioner school district (District) adopted a different policy, which authorizes two student elections, the first to determine whether “invocations” should be delivered at games, and the second to select the spokesperson to deliver them. After the students held elections authorizing such prayers and selecting a spokesperson, the District Court entered an order modifying the policy to permit only nonsectarian, nonproselytizing prayer. The Fifth Circuit held that, even as modified by the District Court, the football prayer policy was invalid.
Affirmative action in CA When Prop. 209 was passed in California -- ending racial preference in state college admissions -- the media, very much including The New York Times, declared that the entire higher education system in that state would become practically all-white. The same prediction of doom was sent around the country when the Hopwood federal court decision eliminated racial preference in Texas public colleges. Now, in a May 20 editorial, The New York Times concedes that in California, "minority enrollment has rebounded at the second-tier colleges." But not yet at the elite Berkeley and UCLA campuses. However, those second-tier colleges have high academic standards.
Gore
tries to make qualified teachers an issue Similar to the notion of "a chicken in every pot," Al Gore wants to guarantee a qualified teacher in every classroom.
Denver gets an
interim supt. The Denver school board Thursday elevated Bernadette Seick from acting to interim superintendent for the next year. After Superintendent Chip Zullinger was fired almost a month ago, Seick, a 30-year veteran of the district, agreed to fill in as chief until the end of the fiscal year, June 30.
School Days in America Travels through Academe this spring made it clear to me that the poor profs are living in slums. Alcohol arrests are up. Even drug arrests are up. While taking an elevator to the seventh floor of a high-rise dormitory at a Midwestern university, I was informed by a co-ed (old-fashioned word that, but precise) standing next to me that the pungent odor of the elevator was that of urine. The college boys, she told me, their kidneys engorged with beer, cannot control themselves in the wee hours; and, well, they wee, right there in the elevator. Nothing can be done about it.
Zero
tolerance hurts good kids Families across the U.S. are becoming increasingly frustrated with "zero-tolerance" policies in the nation's public schools. Case in point: Parents in Sayreville, N.J., are venting their anger by suing school officials over the suspension of their son for playing "cops and robbers" on the playground during recess.
Homeschoolers
have an unfair advantage The past few weeks have been mighty sweet for home schoolers. Home-schooled kids hogged the headlines as finalists and winners at both the National Spelling Bee and National Geographic Bee. And more acclaim may be ahead: One of the home-schooled spelling bee finalists is off to a national math competition in which she was a finalist last year. The past few months also brought a New York Times puff piece on unschooling -- a child-led approach to home schooling -- and the Wall Street Journal published a paean to the home-schooled wunderkinders who are scooping up academic distinction and elite college spots galore.
Profanity
results in yearbooks being confiscated A student protests when the word "slut" appears under her name in the Rancho Verde High's yearbook, resulting in all the books being taken up by school administrators.
High
school pranks are sophomoric Even in an era of heightened school safety awareness and political correctness, high school seniors still attempt to leave their mark through pranks that sometimes cross the threshold from amusement into the realm of breaking the law.
When teachers cheat In a series of embarrassing incidents, it has become obvious that the pressure to increase test scores has resulted in a rash of teacher and administrator sponsored cheating across the land.
Maryland school accused of cheating The principal of the elementary school that ranked third on Maryland achievement tests last year abruptly resigned yesterday after allegations that students were pointed to the correct answers and helped in rewriting answers to essay questions.
Ritalin:
The new drug College kids who are tired or bored are getting high by snorting and shooting up prescription drugs normally prescribed for hyperactive elementary school students, authorities say.
The
bilingual dumb-down Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That's what comes to mind in a review of Education Secretary Richard Riley's new five-year plan to create more bilingual schools. There is no empirical evidence that bilingual education, as practiced in government schools today, produces students who speak and write effectively in two languages. In fact, the more likely result is a student who neither speaks nor writes effectively in either language.
School to school? One of the many idiotic ideas that reappear in our public schools in new verbal guises is the idea that the school should be preparing young people for the world of work. Since every old idea has to have a new name, this is now called the "school-to-work" program, sponsored by the federal government and spending billions of tax dollars.
Musical
chairs is 'violent' A game that has bred violence into generations of children was identified yesterday. It is musical chairs.
The
privileged teacher class With a completely straight face, California Gov. Gray Davis has made one of the looniest proposals ever advanced by an otherwise serious politician. He wants to permanently exempt all accredited public school teachers in California from paying state income taxes. He hopes this bold innovation will "send a clarion call across America."
Guns
make a comeback in nurseries A ban on toy guns in nurseries is being relaxed as new research suggests that they reduce aggression.
Parents
graded in Chicago Chicago Public Schools are trying something new: grading parents on their "performance" with their children. The pilot program, which consists of report cards sent home to the parents each term grading them on various issues, has drawn considerable criticism.
Examining
an 1895 8th grade final exam Think state required exit exams are hard? Think again says Joseph Farah, editor of the most popular online news site. Mr. Farah offers questions from an 1895 final exam for American 8th graders as evidence that our public education system has been seriously diluted.
ACLU
sues California over schools Everybody likes to complain about the state of schools today. The ACLU has decided to sue a state. Charging California of failing to provide basic FAPE in certain school districts, the ACLU hopes to kickstart a greater flow of money from revenue sources to public education. Also: Check out the LA Times' take on the story.
Higher standards for
Ed. schools New performance-based standards are forthcoming from the organization that accredits most of the colleges of education in this country. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education is announcing broad changes.
Lawsuit over
Ritalin In a sign of things to come, Novartis, the company that produces Ritalin, is facing a Texas suit alleging unsafe effects of the drug on kids.
Scrap public
ed! From pre-school to college, education is a mess. John L. Perry, senior editor for NewsMax.com says, let's throw it all out and start from scratch.
Gov. Davis: No taxes for
teachers In a bold move, the Governor of California suggests exempting teachers from paying state income tax. Since California is a bellwether state, if the idea takes hold there it will certainly spread to other states. One hitch: lower state income taxes generally result in a higher federal income tax. Is it time for Washington to pass similar legislation on the federal level?
Too much education? Thomas Sowell takes the Chronicle of Higher Education to task over the economics of college tuition.
Tufts evangelicals
punished for acting on their beliefs "Tufts University in Medford, Mass., is punishing a campus evangelical group for refusing to allow practicing homosexuals into its leadership positions."
Make love, not
money A new wave of young anti-capitalism protesters are making big marks on campuses, and gaining a lot of ground using sixties-style demonstration techniques.
The myth of
value-free schools "The debate over moral education in schools has been a hot topic for years, yet our crime rate is soaring and we have the dubious distinction of having the largest prison population in the world. The standard liberal claim that most crime is a result of poverty is hard to support in a nation which is by far the wealthiest the world has ever witnessed with the lowest unemployment in many years."
To destroy public
education, part two "To review: the current educational system must die a violent death."
Philly
requires uniforms "On a unanimous vote, the Philadelphia Board of Education last night approved a policy that would require all students to wear some type of uniform to school, starting in September."
Clinton vs. homeschoolers "It’s getting harder for homeschoolers to fly under the radar screen of US political elites. More and more students are being educated at home; at 1.25 million, they outnumber public school enrollments in each of 41 states. No one really knows for sure how many parents have helped their kids defect from approved schools. But this much we do know: they are part of a newly emerging educational cream of the crop, outperforming the rest of the student population in every area."
Parents
can tap phones in Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes signed into law a measure allowing parental access to phone conversations and e-mail of their children.
Digital scholarship
still playing catch-up Web-based scholarship remains less likely to result in tenure promotion than following traditional print-based attempts. Thus, established professors are more likely to pursue the newer medium in publication attempts.
Can black children
be brilliant? ... Of course! Children from all races hold the potential for brilliance, despite opinions to the contrary. Read a great article on talents in various ethnic groups.
The Massachusetts
exam boycott The protests over high-stakes testing has spread around the nation, and is most evident recently in Massachusetts.
Columbine, one
year later A year after the Columbine shooting, families of the victims have helped assuage their grief by joining anti-school violence groups.
Charter
schools in Arizona George Will takes a look at a hot potato issue in John McCain's home state.
ZapMe!'s online
profiling gets low marks ZapMe! gives free computers to schools complete with fast Internet connections and tailored advertisements. But they are also tracking individual student use and creating a vast databank of student profiles complete with detailed info.
Teacher's bust leads
to Supreme Court Sherry Hearn, a constitutional law teacher in Savannah, Georgia, was overheard telling her students that the police searches and drug hunts they were routinely subjected to were unconstitutional. The next search, her car was discovered to have marijuana in it. The evidence then disappeared. She passed a urine test the following day, but because it was after the district's two hour policy, she was dismissed. She has appealed her way to the Supreme Court.
Teens and their hard
work US News & World Report devotes a cover to the trend of doing good work and deeds among teenagers.
Instant
messaging comes to schools How would you like to be able to send quick notes to other teachers in your building over the computer? Or how about the office sending notes out to all classrooms without interrupting over the PA system? We tell you how to do it with this little known program incorporated in Windows.
Students compete in
robotic contest at Disney World Delphi Automotive Systems has sponsored 300 high school students in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition held at Disney World in Orlando.
Just say no to
tests High-stakes testing has become the norm in American schools. But a broad coalition of parents, students, and educators are balking at the mindset that testing is beneficial for American children.
Yes,
I teach An ivy-league graduate discusses the stigma associated with teaching.
Orwell would love today's
colleges "At Wake Forest University last fall, one
of the few events designated as 'mandatory' for freshman orientation was attendance at
Blue Eyed, a filmed racism awareness workshop in which whites are abused, ridiculed, made
to fail, and taught helpless passivity so that they can identify with 'a person of color
for a day.'" Anti-violence
program rewards student spying The WAVE Program developed by Pinkerton Services Group began in North Carolina last month and is spreading across the nation. A potentially controversial aspect of the program involves prizes and rewards to students who turn in tips about potential crimes and suspects.
Two collegiate
underachievers vie for the presidency "We have known for several months that Bush largely partied his way through Yale–in four years, he never got an A–but that is not the bad news. The bad news, as Jay Leno joked, is that Bush may be the smart one." The moral to this story is, if you're worried about your college GPA becoming public knowledge, don't run for president.
Teens + passengers =
death New research indicates that when teen drivers have passengers, their already high chance of traffic fatality increases even more.
Brain-based educators
note: there's another brain in the gut In 1917, a researcher discovered a nervous system in the gut that can act on its own. The knowledge submerged for half a century. Today, researchers are taking a closer look at "the second brain."
Four school models for
the future Schools are often moribund and locked into old paradigms. Take a look at four model schools that tackle educational innovation in differing ways: Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning in Denver, Colorado; Greenfield Center School of Greenfield, Massachusetts; University Public Schools, San Joaquin Campus, of Stockton, California; and North Jackson Elementary School of Jackson, Mississippi.
Marathon Creative's CEO
spotlighted Ed Harris was Operations Manager for Cognitive Concepts, an educational software company. Dissatisfied, he formed Marathon Creative, a company seeking to make a difference in the lives of students.
Online
university donor suffers severe loss Software billionaire Michael Sayer, CEO of Microstrategy, has suffered a one day paper loss of $6 billion shortly after announcing plans to donate $100 million for starting up an online university.
Liars, darn liars, and students To their chagrin, teachers are discovering that students are using an effective weapon against them: the false accusation.
Schools surf Net to save bucks Schools are catching on to the trend to save dollars through online purchasing. Estimated savings by 2003 go up to $2 trillion.
Whither Liberal
Arts? In the battle for curricular supremacy on university campuses, Liberal Arts has been losing out to science and industry-specific course loads. Trade-school courses are on the rise. Language and philosophy courses are on the wane.
College
students changing music industry paradigms with Napster They clog up university bandwidth, sometimes to the tune of 50 percent. They are engaging in "illegal" activities, much to the chagrin of the RIAA. According to Steven Levy, what smoking pot was to their parents, so is downloading music with Napster to the Net generation.
Newsweek:
Vouchers gain steam Lower income households like the idea of obtaining financial assistance to send their children to private schools. Newsweek examines a hot topic this election season.
Whole math gets slammed A math curriculum requiring students to draw pictures and explain feelings is decried as shying away from traditional ciphering skills. The Education Department comes under fire for endorsing "New-New Math."
Charter school evals released in
Texas The third year evaluations of charter schools has been released by the SBOE. In 1998-99, 89 charter schools served 17,000 students. Forty-three schools served "at-risk" students.
Harry
Potter gets sued Author Nancy Stouffer says her literary creation, Larry Potter, was the basis for author J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and has filed a federal lawsuit alleging plagiarism and copyright infringement. The word "muggle," a term describing non-magical people, is also in dispute.
TAAS tales get
political The upcoming election will have education as a prominent issue, and Gov. Bush has already touted improvements in Texas student scores. However, high stakes testing has several flaws, and this editorial takes a critical look at the TAAS.
Graduate students of
the world unite! For years, graduate students have endured low pay in exchange for experience. Now, in the University of California system, graduate students are trying to unionize for better pay and higher esteem. If they don't get what they want, they're threatening to strike.
Newest Beowulf is a
hit It's a new translation of an old classic, and it's climbing the best sellers charts. Read about how a modern translation of Beowulf is turning the publishing industry's head.
Indiana
approves posting Ten Commandments In the post-Columbine world, Indiana has fired the latest salvo in the ongoing struggle over pubic postings of the Ten Commandments. The ancient Jewish laws are now allowed to be posted in public buildings in Indiana, including schools, and Gov. Frank O'Bannon will have a monument bearing the 10 Commandments along with the Preamble to the Bill of Rights put on the lawn of the Statehouse, replacing one that came down in 1991. Nine other states are considering similar measures.
Billionaire
donates millions for online university Saying online access to quality higher education could reshape America, Michael Sayer, the CEO of Microstrategy, is donating $100 million. Specific details of the forthcoming university are still being worked out.
Judge
tosses Florida voucher law Ruling the Florida voucher laws unconstitutional, Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith Jr. tossed out state lawmaker's voucher plans. Students enrolled under the current system can finish the school year. Both sides expect an appeal.
Larry Ellison
wants to give your school a computer Taking a page from Apple's idea book, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison wants to give away computers to schools. His new Internet computer company (called the New Internet Computer Company) is behind the plan.
Chinese students are spies A joint CIA and FBI report has concluded that China recruits native grad students for espionage on American academics and industry.
Electronic books
a viable reality Instead of carrying around 50 pounds of books in a backpack, college and high school students of tomorrow may well carry all their books electronically in a single small device.
Kids on
drugs Lawrence Miller, a behavioral pediatrician, exams the sociological phenomenon of prescribing drugs to ever younger children in order to influence their classroom behavior.
Evolution
controversy escalates in Kansas The battle rages between those who hold the notion a higher power created the world and those who say everything is an accident
Master teacher
certificate gains credibility More and more teachers are seeking master teacher credentials. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is happy to oblige.
Accountability
stinks Peter Sacks discusses his new book, "Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It."
Vouchers and choice in Campaign 2000 Michael W. Lynch examines the political hot potatoes of school choice and vouchers as the candidates stake out their positions for the upcoming Presidential election.
DOE offers
guidelines on Title I funds The Dept. of Education has issued guidelines for state use of $134 million in new funding flowing through Title I. Remedies hoped to be met with the funding include choice in public school selection and increased use of innovative practices.
State slugfest on
evolution Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky ... the battle over evolution hasn't been this heated since the Monkey Trial.
Laptops for all
Maine students? Governor Angus King of Maine has announced an initiative to provide every seventh grade student in Maine a laptop. Providing 17,000 students with their own computers would cost $50 million.
Evolutionary
psychologists: Rape is natural A couple of (male) evolutionary psychologists have asserted that rape is a natural means of spreading genetics, infuriating women everywhere. Their book, A Natural History of Rape, was published recently by MIT Press.
Stanford experiments
with human behavior The Persuasive Technology Laboratory at Stanford is experimenting with technologies that attempt to adjust human behaviors. Read a most interesting article which delves into the lab's efforts at influencing teens to avoid pregnancy; their examination of marital jealousy, and their examination of other previously developed technologies affecting behavior.
Homosexual
acts and excrement in San Francisco art school The San Francisco Art Institute has seen its share of progressive "art," but when a student's live art piece involved oral sex and the exchange of excrement with a bound and gagged student, school officials pulled the plug.
MMR
shot linked to autism risk A doctor has raised hackles by asserting the MMR immunization shot widely given to babies causes increased risk of autism. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention disagrees. However, studies indicate a high presence of MMR antibody in the blood of many autistic children.
Evolution
battles in the Northwest Two high school teachers in Washington and Oregon have come under intense fire for pitching evolution as a flawed theory to their students, resulting in intense litigation.
The best
high schools in America Tired of hearing how bad our schools are? Newsweek examines the best schools in the country. Strong academics and standards of excellence combine to prepare students for high success in college. Also: see Newsweek's list of top US high schools.
Big theologian on
campus Cult? Sect? Denomination? Who knows? With a plethora in diversity of religious groups, many university officials are growing increasingly concerned with the myriad forms of proselytizing taking place within their walls.
Perils of pills
for preschoolers US News & World Report devotes a cover story to the issue of the rising phenomenon of prescribing psychotropic drugs to ever younger children.
Blacks don't like the
Internet In issues of the so-called "digital divide," researchers are discovering that in some instances blacks are just not interested in becoming computer literate. Read a fascinating article on race and the Internet.
Study:
Smart kids wait Bright kids wait before kissing and engaging in sexual activities. So says a study led by Dr Carolyn Halpern of the University of North Carolina which appeared in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Recitation of
Declaration slammed as racist A bill that would require memorization
and recitation of portions of the Declaration of Independence has been struck down in New
Jersey following assertions of racist and sexist elements in the document. The
controversial portion of the Declaration of Independence that would have required
memorization for NJ students under the bill are the following two sentences:
Harvard study: Education and
hostility levels linked A new Harvard study from the Department of Health and Social Behavior in the Harvard School of Public Health indicates education levels, hostility, and socioeconomic status are linked to health.
Title
IX requires Miami to eliminate Olympic-class swim team Title IX continues to wreak federal legislative havoc among men's sports in the college world, this time taking down the Hurricane's swim team, which has won 20 NCAA champs and 15 Olympians.
Security firms offer
latest software to universities for free With the latest spate of attacks on e-commerce that often used unwitting university computers to carry out assaults, some security firms are offering their latest software to universities gratis.
Texas Savings
& Clone: We'll duplicate your dog Spawned from research at Texas A&M University, College Station-based Genetic Savings & Clone seeks to tap into a heartfelt need among Americans to provide the equivalent of immortality to man's best friend.
Out with the old... World Magazine examines the changing of the guard in American education. A typical teacher on the way out is female, steeped in traditionalist educational practices, and Christian. The educational establishment and American education as a whole will suffer with the departure of these teachers.
'One size fits all' is bad for black
children Emory Curtis opines that elementary education needs to be fundamentally restructured to benefit more African-American children. Read an intriguing opinion piece on some of the more pressing issues facing minority education today.
Student
paper censored over flatulence The Hatboro-Horsham High School newspaper, Hat Chat, has been censored by school administrators following a column on flatulence. The teacher serving as advisor to the students who work on the paper was also removed from her position.
Forget college Llewellan Rockwell rips higher ed. and questions the necessity of overpriced, left-leaning institutions of higher learning.
Edison
scores big in Michigan After a recent string of closures, the Edison school management firm scores a major coup when Inkster, Michigan hires it to run all the district's schools.
Inside the
brain of a teenager They think different because their brains actually are different. Newsweek takes a broad look at recent adolescent brain research from UCLA and elsewhere.
Election
mischief at colleges Stolen campaign materials. Vandalized cars. E-mail rumors. Impeachment hearings. No, it's not the Republican or Democrat Primaries, it's election time on college campuses, and things are getting nasty.
Big bucks for
ivory towers Universities are seeking to share the profits derived from research within their walls. This allows more funds to be funneled to professors without tapping into dwindling resources reserved for other campus needs.
Bring your
parents to work day Time was, parents brought their kids to work. In today's Net world, though, the kids (twenty- and thirty-somethings) are taking their parents to work in an effort to help the older generation understand what their children do for a living.
Repeat a grade,
drop out Thirty years of research indicates that retention does more harm than good. So says The Nation in their Mar. 6 feature story. Thus, social promotion is a good thing, and current efforts to eliminate it are misguided.
Historical illiteracy at
historic levels A new study indicates startling deficiencies in college students' understanding of basic American history. Also, the study discovered students can go through elite universities and receive degrees without taking any courses in American history. The study was conducted by the Roper Organization at the University of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis.
Parents check grades by the Web Johnny can't lie about his grades anymore, nor can he conveniently "lose" his report card. In a growing trend, schools and teachers are posting student grades on the Web, allowing parents easy access to their children's grades.
A day
in the life of a high school Follow the daily routine of students, teachers, and janitors in a large South Texas high school.
Study:
95% of schools are wired Almost all schools in the country are connected to the Net, according to a new NCES study.
NCES
faces backlash over excess testing The National Center for Educational Statistics is facing a backlash among states participating in the National Assessment of Educational Progress this year. Seven states have dropped out of participating in the exam, and others are considering following suit due to test overload.
Study: Kids play
on the Net at school A web filtering outfit has completed a study using tracking software that indicates students spend more time playing on the Internet while at school rather than using it for educational purposes.
Advanced
placement exams hit the Internet at Apex A new company hopes to strike it big by putting advanced placement exams and course online. Read all about Apex Learning, Inc., their ties to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and their partnership with Edison Schools and Kaplan Educational Centers.
Trailer classrooms: love 'em or hate 'em To outsiders, the portable classrooms so common on school campuses are potential fire hazards, deathtraps, and eyesores. To the teachers and students who use them, however, they are friendly and safe educational environments.
The best
way to teach? The Monitor talks with Stanford's Tyack and others about the two dominate competing theories of education.
Hold 'em
back, pay the price California faces the first big test of a national trend toward ending social promotion. How the state prevents massive (and expensive) retention of students will be closely watched by other states.
Adults have learning disabilities too US News & World Report examines the often overlooked world of adults with learning disabilities. Ongoing research into how the brain is wired makes for intriguing reading.
Big Murderer On
Campus Universities struggle with the issues of open campuses and the occasional rogues who take advantage of them to commit the ultimate crime. The recent murder/suicide at Columbia highlights the issue. Campuses are trying everything from high-tech surveillance to old fashioned police beats.
Lego's
supplement SAT for some colleges Incredible as it appears to casual observers, the new admissions test requiring candidates to build a robot out of Lego's actually does a good job of predicting student performance in college when combined with other elements of a complicated testing procedure.
Family upset
over universal drug testing Lockney ISD requires all students to be tested for drug use. Larry Tannahill has refused to give permission to school authorities to test his sixth grade son, citing constitutional issues. The district says the boy will be treated as an offender until the family allows him to be tested.
Soda Wars:
Philadelphia says 'No thanks' Philadelphia's school board has nixed a contract with Coca-Cola over nutritional and funding concerns.
BusinessWeek
covers for-profit schools BusinessWeek devotes a cover story to for-profit school management firms. Take a fascinating look at the finances involved in Edison, Beacon, and other private companies working to earn money and provide services in public education. Also:
Study indicates
smaller schools better Lower socio-economic students seem to fare better in smaller schools, according to a study by education researchers at Ohio University and Marshall University.
Evolution
debate rages in Oklahoma The Oklahoma Attorney General has struck down a measure instituted by the SBOE that would have required biology textbooks to print a disclaimer in the front that asserted evolution is a controversial theory.
Grapevine-Colleyville
ISD: No more D's Cody Spencer was a great high school football player. Unfortunately, the D's he earned prevented him from receiving a Division I football scholarship thanks to NCAA rules. The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD near Dallas where Cody received his diploma decided to amend the rules a bit on his behalf. Under the old standard, scores of 70-74 were considered D's while scores between 75-79 were considered C's. The district changed that to cause all scores from 70-79 to become C's. Thus, Cody now has C's instead of D's on his report card, and is now eligible for a Division I football scholarship.
Rojas discusses
stormy six month term He's the highest paid superintendent in the country, considered by many to be the best in the business. In a recent speech, Bill Rojas discussed the varied aspects of his stormy first six months at Dallas ISD.
Stanford
student posts Napster workaround University students finding themselves blocked from using the popular Internet music sharing program Napster can try working around their school's blocking software using a proxy scheme devised by Stanford senior David Weekly. Click here to go directly to his page of instructions.
NJ
seizes control of three districts; grapples with budget shortfalls The State of New Jersey took over three troubled districts: Newark, Jersey City, and Paterson. Since then, the state has grappled with issues of finances and local control.
Edison depositions
sought in Dallas One of the cost-saving reforms Supt. Bill Rojas brought to Dallas ISD was the use of Chris Whittle's private management firm, Edison Schools Inc. The purportedly $50 million contract with Edison has brought much criticism from its detractors and strong defense from its supporters. Bringing in Edison to run some of the city's schools has been one of the major controversies of Dr. Rojas's six month-old term.
High stakes
testing affects Voc. Ed. Graduation exams may help cause vocation-tracked students to drop out. Education Week exams the issue in New York, Massachusetts, and Texas.
ACT will open
centers nationwide ACT, Inc. will open centers across the nation to allow computerized administration of its Work Keys assessment and other certification exams.
Lazy
students still get A's UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute has found an increasing number of high school seniors are slacking off in school, yet still pulling in the A's. This appears to offer strong evidence of grade inflation.
Education a
plank in both party platforms Candidates from both parties are making much political hay over education. The Monitor notes, however, their stances are not what many would suspect. For instance, George W. would give the Dept. of Ed. more responsibilities rather than dismantling it.
Dallas
records chief, others call it quits Four senior administrators in DISD left the district Monday. The press notes that the records chief felt Supt. Rojas and the district were dragging their feet over Freedom of Information Act document requests, something the district denies.
E-books continue
to struggle for acceptance E-books face an uphill struggle as well as technological challenges that continue to thwart their general acceptance. Meanwhile, two e-book companies have been swallowed by a third company intent on taking the lead in the field: Gemstar International Group.
Britain
tries online homework help Britain's Channel 4 is offering "Homework High," an online service that seeks to assist students with homework four nights a week. Students will have access to a database filled with 10,000 common questions. A team of 100 teachers will be available to assist children with their homework, although officials insist they will not be simply giving out answers.
Edison bids adieu to
Sherman, TX Citing financial concerns, the for-profit school management firm has not renewed its contract with Sherman ISD, one of its first clients. In its initial round of contract negotiations, Edison did renew the contracts of four other districts. Also, read the Dallas Morning News article on the Sherman closing.
State assessments
follow predictable patterns First, state test scores are low. Then they improve dramatically. Then they level off. Then they decline slowly over the next several years. The pattern has repeated itself time and again wherever states adopt assessments.
Bye-bye to Belmont The most expensive high school ever is being abandoned in LA before completion due to extensive environmental hazards.
Help
wanted: Superintendents for big cities New York City, LA, San Francisco, and a host of other big cities are searching high and low for that most elusive job candidate: superintendent. Recent New York and LA heads are mentioned in the article as well as Dallas superintendent Bill Rojas, which the article points out is the highest paid in the country. Former generals and US attorneys have also been picked for the top spots, and in some cases the mayor has simply taken over the schools.
The
effects of social promotion College teacher Charles Wilson relates a fascinating tale of his experiences with a remedial English course aimed at sub-par students. He draws insightful analysis on the national issue of social promotion.
Net music software
troubles universities The name of the program is Napster, and its purpose is to assist in the collecting of music in the MP3 format. Universities are discovering that Napster is consuming as much as five percent of their bandwidth resources, with occasional spikes of high activity. This is leading some schools to ban Napster from their networks.
High-tech field proving
attractive to teachers The high-tech field pays qualified teachers twice what they can make in public schools. Education Week takes a look at the phenomenon and finds teachers packing their bags and saying goodbye to education.
Reformers look
at Texas Texas has been at the forefront of the educational reform movement. Now, other states are looking to the Lone Star for accountability measures.
Great books making
a comeback In a column that has garnered much attention lately, Prof. Bruce Gans' literature class at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago is examined. Prof. Gans is teaching the core Western Civ. literature that seems to be making a comeback of sorts in academia.
Cleveland:
A model for DC Cleveland had a messy inner-city school system much like Washington D.C. has now. Then the mayor stepped in and took control. This happened in 1997 and it marks a trend toward a shift in power in urban schools from fractious school boards to municipal control.
Special Ed. probs in
California The LA Times takes an in-depth look at California's Special Ed. programs and finds myriad problems. Students who were not taught how to read are unfairly labeled as learning disabled. Links to several stories are offered in this special section.
OCR addresses high
stakes testing The Office of Civil Rights takes a closer look at high stakes testing in the wake of a recent federal court ruling. Their report, "Nondiscrimination in High-Stakes Testing: A Resource Guide," remains in draft stages.
Judge
says Decatur expulsions OK Shocking Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, a US District Judge rules that the Decatur, IL school district was within its bounds when expelling several black high school students for fisticuffs at a football game. Jackson has vowed to appeal the ruling and begin protests anew.
TAAS opinion online! The legendary opinion ruling that TAAS is constitutional is now available for download! It is 33 pages in PDF format. (Allow time for download if you have a slow connection. You must have Adobe Acrobat installed to read PDF documents.)
Corpus
Christi impasse The Corpus Christ Caller-Times, in this editorial, laments the political gridlock within the local school board over superintendent Saavedra's potential suspension. Ultimately, the May elections will resolve many of the problems within this troubled district.
Faking disabilities to
get an edge on the SAT The College Board has discovered an increase in the number of affluent white males who are claiming disabilities when taking the SAT to earn more time while taking the test.
Charter school company: No more
closures in Texas Charter School Administrative Services of Michigan is a for-profit outfit that operates several charter schools in Texas. The first of December, the company abruptly closed the doors of its Austin campus without warning. Now, state officials are wondering if other campuses the company operates will follow suit. The company says this will not happen, but the Texas Education Agency is taking a close look at all the company's campuses in Texas anyway.
Newest
juvenile prison opens in Texas The get tough attitude toward kids that has swept the nation is most apparent in Texas' newest juvenile offenders facility outside of Waco.
SMU
profs fuss at Kansas Outraged that Kansas would allow public schools to opt out of the teaching of macro-evolution, SMU science professors protest to the SBOE.
School
choice in D.C. The high minority population in D.C. is beginning to demand federal assistance to send their children to private schools. A shift in the winds is in the air among blacks and liberal groups in regards to vouchers.
D.C.
mayor seeks control of schools The mayor of D.C. seeks to take over the district's schools through a small school board that only he would control. Read the latest about our troubled school system in Washington.
Rewiring the
brain Brain-based educators take note: directed neuroplasticity has become a big research area of neuroscience. The potential for improved learning is staggering. Also, Fast ForWord, a program from the Scientific Learning Corp. that utilizes brain-based research has been purchased by 500 districts nationwide to help improve reading skills for students. It has (apparently) a 90 percent success rate in raising reading levels by up to two years with six to eight weeks of use.
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This page updated 04/02/01 |
