EDUCATION & EQUITY NEWS    

NATIONAL

Bush Names Affirmative Action
Critic to Civil Rights Post
The New York Times, March 30, 2002

President Bush has named Gerald A. Reynolds, a young black lawyer who is a vocal critic of preferences for minorities, to be head of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education.

Bush, in Pennsylvania, Touts
Early-Childhood Education
The Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2002

President Bush traveled to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to promote early-childhood education and to help raise $1 million for the Republican gubernatorial candidate. (See also: Bush Outlines Education Sequel, The Washington Post, April 3, 2002; Bush's Education Plan Faces Criticism, USA Today, April 4, 2002.)

Bush Promises Better Training
of Head Start Reading Teachers
The Baltimore Sun, April 3, 2002

In a speech at a Penn State University campus, Bush said he would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to begin training almost 50,000 Head Start teachers in the best techniques to teach the rudiments of reading to preschoolers.

Who Says Poor Kids Can't Read?
Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 2, 2002

Students in an experimental reading project in a handful of schools in Cleveland, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. are shattering the myth that poor children can't learn to read at the same rate as their more affluent peers.

Schools Fail Latinos, Study Says
The Arizona Republic, April 2, 2002

According to a new report by the Hispanic Border Leadership Institute, Latino students continue to lag behind in everything from high school graduation rates to college enrollment, despite their tremendous growth in numbers.

Initiative Touts Schooling to Abstain
The Washington Times, April 3, 2002

House Republicans will highlight the success of abstinence education as they begin their drive to approve President Bush's proposed welfare reform, Majority Whip Tom DeLay said yesterday.

Educator Says Vouchers Build Communities
The Washington Times, March 31, 2002

Private-school voucher programs are likely to make low-income neighborhoods more racially integrated and boost property values, says an economics professor who is studying the effects of education policy changes on communities and school quality.

Racial Gap in Test Scores Found Across New York
The New York Times, March 28, 2002

New York State has broken down elementary and middle school standardized test scores by race and ethnicity for the first time and found that white and Asian students do much better than black and Hispanic students in English and mathematics.

MARYLAND

School Goals Given Praise
The Baltimore Sun, April 3, 2002

Members of the Howard County Council are happy about an ambitious school board plan to attack the achievement gap among students in the county's schools.

New Blow For School Board in Pr. George's
The Washington Post, April 3, 2002

The Maryland Senate last night gave preliminary approval to a measure that would abolish the elected Board of Education in Prince George's County and could force the ouster of Superintendent Iris T. Metts.

A P.G. Education
The Washington Post, April 3, 2002

A profile of Superintendent Iris Metts and her battle with the Prince George's County School Board. (See also: Metts Would Consider Taking Buyout, The Washington Post, April 4, 2002.)

Charter School a Fit for Frederick
The Washington Post, April 4, 2002

Frederick County recently became the only school district in Maryland to have voted in favor of allowing a charter school.

Md. Says ESOL Students Should Take State Tests
The Washington Post, April 4, 2002

Maryland officials are trying to get more students who speak little English to take high-stakes state tests, a two-year process designed to push their teachers to increase their focus on academics.

Senate Passes Bill to Expand
Teacher Bargaining Power
The Baltimore Sun, March 26, 2002

The Maryland Senate has passed a measure designed to give teachers unions more say in such areas as classroom assignments and curriculum.

Substitute Test Advised for 8th-Grade MSPAP
The Washington Post, March 28, 2002

Unable to detect a shred of support for the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program among parents, teachers and administrators, Anne Arundel County interim superintendent Ken Lawson urged the school board to give a different standardized test to eighth-graders in May.

PENNSYLVANIA

Schools Chairman Agrees to Savings
The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 2002

To ease the concerns of City Council, the chairman of the School Reform Commission yesterday agreed to dramatically cut the cost of a $300 million bond issue that would plug a hole in the school district budget. (See also: School Bond Plan Revised, Philadelphia Daily News, April 3, 2002.)

Judge Tosses Out Class-Action Suit
to Fight State Takeover of Schools
Philadelphia Daily News, March 28, 2002

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by City Council, public school students and their parents and community groups, seeking to overturn the December state takeover of the Philadelphia School District.

Private Consultants Are Hired
to Assist Philadelphia Schools
The Washington Times, March 28, 2002

Pennsylvania's school-reform commission has voted to award contracts to New York-based Edison Schools Inc. and 11 other similar for-profit companies to help Philadelphia revamp its schools .

VIRGINIA

SOL Exams To Expand To Grades 4, 6 and 7
The Washington Post, March 28, 2002

Virginia officials say they will expand the state's "Standards of Learning" exams in the next few years to test children annually in grades 3 through 8 to comply with the new federal education law.

WASHINGTON, DC

Charter Schools Overstate Counts
The Washington Times, April 1, 2002

Several D.C. charter schools over-reported student enrollment for the current academic year, according to figures in a city-sponsored audit, indicating hundreds of thousands of dollars less were allotted for public schools.

Program Puts Free Internet in D.C. Schools
The Washington Post, March 28, 2002

Comcast Communications Inc. has undertaken an initiative to provide free high-speed Internet service to more than 160 D.C. public schools and libraries over the next two years.

District's Teachers Vote on 19% Raise
The Washington Post, March 27, 2002

The District school board has approved a contract with teachers that calls for pay increases totaling 19 percent over three years, a change that would make teacher salaries in the city more competitive with those in area suburbs.

SPECIAL ARTICLES & REPORTS

Stealth Vouchers
The Nation, March 22, 2002

The Mystery of Good Teaching
Education Next, Spring 2002

School Choice -- Then and Now
CATO Institute, March 18, 2002

How to Pass the Tuition Test: Changes in the tax laws make saving for education attractive, but complicated
TIME.com, April 3, 2002

Can Working Families Ever Win? - Helping
Parents Succeed at Working and Caregiving
Boston Review, February/March 2002

Class Action: The Liberal Roots of Vouchers
The New Republic, March 18, 2002

Teach for America
Education Next, Spring 2002

Technology: The Digital Divide,
Implications and Consequences
Hispanic Border Leadership Institute, June 8, 2001

State and District Support to Low-Performing
Schools: Selected Presentations from a Working
Conference of the High Poverty Schools Initiative (pdf)
Council of Chief State School Officers, 2002

WEBSITES & LINKS

Testing Our Schools: President Bush Promises to Leave No Child Behind. But Where Will His Faith in Tests Leave Education?

PBS' companion site for its television special on the questions surrounding the testing provisions in the "No Child Left Behind" act. Includes resources and features on the contents and ramifications of the law and the uses and misuses of testing, as well as interviews with administrators and policy experts.

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