EDUCATION & EQUITY NEWS    

NATIONAL

Report on Hispanics and Education

The President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans recently released Creating the Will: Hispanics Achieving Educational Excellence (requires Adobe's free Acrobat Reader). The report focuses on strategies for closing the achievement gap between Hispanic students and their non-Hispanic peers, whom they lag behind on most traditional indicators of educational achievement. Improving academic achievement among Hispanic students is crucial, the Commission says, because of the sheer size of the population group: one-third of the nation's Hispanics are under 18, and in 25 years, Hispanic children are expected to make up a quarter of the school- age population.

"Minority-Serving Colleges Call For Teacher-Training Help" Education Week. October 4, 2000

While almost 40 percent of U.S. elementary and secondary school students are members of racial or ethnic minorities, nine out of 10 teachers are white. A report released by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that promotes access and quality in postsecondary education notes that minority-serving institutions, such as historically black, Hispanic-serving and tribal colleges and universities produce nearly half of all minority holders of teaching degrees and can play a crucial role in producing more minority teachers, but that role has been largely overlooked and undermined by what the report describes as chronic underfunding. The report recommends that the Department of Education support model teacher-preparation programs at colleges and universities that serve large proportions of minority students, to increase the level of minority teachers in schools and better serve the growing diversity in the student population. The Alliance for Equity in Higher Education, a coalition of institutions representing 320 historically black, Hispanic- serving, and tribal colleges and universities, sponsored the report.

"Middle Grades: Feeling the Squeeze" Education Week, 10/4/2000
This special report discusses the movement to reform middle school education, issues in teacher training and curriculum at the middle school level and case studies of four successful middle schools.

DELAWARE

"Autistic School Squeezed; State Looking to Expand Program with $5.2 Million Plan" The News Journal, October 9, 2000

A major expansion of the Delaware's autistic school in New Castle County is being considered to accommodate the fast-paced growth of the program, which served 120 students in 1995 and has enrolled more than 200 students this year. Crowded classes are a particularly serious problem for the program, where individualized attention is crucial. The $5.2 million capital improvement plan for the school, mainly for additional classrooms, therapy rooms, a kitchen area and administrative office space, is being evaluated by the state Department of Education. The school's teachers welcome the proposed improvements, but point out that until teacher vacancies are filled, the overcrowding will continue.

PENNSYLVANIA

"Linking Teacher Pay to Performance is Catching On" Philadelphia Daily News. October 2, 2000

Philadelphia has joined the small contingent of districts that are linking teacher pay to performance, including Denver, Cincinnati and the Colonial School District in Montgomery County. The School District's "enhanced compensation system" will award raises to teachers based on their demonstrated levels of skill and knowledge in subject content and classroom practice. Student test scores will not be a factor.

WASHINGTON, DC

"DC Public Schools Still Neglect Some in Special Education" The Washington Post, October 2, 20000

According to parents, students, advocates and school officials, the DC Public School system still fails to provide appropriate services for children with disabilities, as required by federal law, despite ongoing reform efforts. Special education students account for 1 out of every six students in the system- approximately 11,000 such students, many of whom must attend schools outside of the DC system at additional cost, because DC schools do not provide programs and services to meet their needs. Two years ago the U.S. Department of Education entered into an agreement with the DCPS that called for the system to be in compliance with federal law within three years. Although the system has reduced the number of students on the waiting list for special needs evaluations, many still wait for longer than the law stipulates and many families complain that schools fail to meet students' needs even once they have been evaluated.

RESOURCES

Teaching Tolerance Project

In response to an alarming increase in hate crime among youth, the Southern Poverty Law Center began the Teaching Tolerance project in 1991 as an extension of the Center's legal and educational efforts. Through the generous support of Center donors, Teaching Tolerance offers free or low-cost resources to educators at all levels.

Teaching Tolerance magazine is distributed free twice a year to more than a half-million educators throughout the U.S. and in 70 other countries. Its editors welcome contributions of writing and artwork that address classroom themes of tolerance, respect and community building. Curriculum resources include the free video-and-text teaching kits America's Civil Rights Movement and The Shadow of Hate, which chronicle the history of hatred and intolerance in America and the struggle to overcome prejudice. A third teaching kit, Starting Small, is a teacher-training package for early childhood educators. Other Teaching Tolerance resources include a free set of eight full-color One World posters with teacher's guide and the 64-page Responding to Hate at School: A Guide for Teachers, Counselors and Administrators.

The project offers grants of up to $2.000 for K-12 teachers and a one-year research fellowship for educators with strong writing skills and an interest in equity issues.

SUPREME COURT RULINGS

The Supreme Court began its 2000-01 term October 2, 2000 and thus far has decided to let the lower court rulings stand in the pending cases identified below.

For further details on the cases, use the Supreme Court case number given in parentheses following each case name to look up the case on the official Supreme Court Website at: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/

Hunter vs. University of California Regents and Theodore Mitchell (00-135)
The Supreme Court has allowed a California court ruling that permits the race-based admissions policy of a UCLA research lab school used to study learning among racial groups and recommend new teaching methods. The state court described the school as a valuable resource in it's ruling in favor of UCLA, when the family of a rejected applicant filed suit against the university, claiming that the school's consideration of race violated applicants' equal protection as guaranteed by the Constitution. A federal judge said that the school's use of race in admissions served a "compelling interest"- improving the quality of education in urban public schools.

Michael C. and Stephen C. v. Radnor Township School District (99-1801)
The ruling stands that school districts are not under obligation to immediately place students who have transferred from special education programs in another state to similar programs in the district to which they have transferred.

Linda W. et al v. Indiana Department of Education et al. (99-1877)
A court of appeals decision stands, upholding a ruling denying the parents of a learning-disabled child private school cost reimbursements from a school district found to have denied the child a "free and appropriate public education," under the Individuals with Disabilities Act. The appeals decision ruled that special public school classes and summer school would satisfy the state's education obligation.

West v. Derby Unified School District (99-2039)
The ruling stands that the suspension of a student for drawing a picture of a Confederate flag in violation of the school district's racial harassment or intimidation policy is not an infringement of the student's constitutionally protected rights.

K.B. et al. V. Anchorage School District Board of Education et. al. (00-98)
The rulings stand that minor children must be represented by a lawyer, not just their parents, in a case alleging an IDEA violation, and that parents cannot appeal administrative rulings in such cases in federal court unless they are represented by a lawyer. Oak Park Board of Education v. Illinois Board of Education (99-2027) The ruling stands that a school district, not the state, has to pay the cost of sending a disabled student to a private residential school.

To review newsletters from previous weeks, link to the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium's News Archives page.

For a list of key publications on equity and school issues published over the past two years, please visit the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium's Conferences and Reports page.

To subscribe to listservs on education and equity issues, please visit our Equity Listservs and Forums link.