EDUCATION & EQUITY NEWS    

NATIONAL

Principals Try New Styles As Instructional Leaders
Education Week, November 11, 2000

An area of principal leadership that has received little attention is how they manage leadership for instruction, given that they do not necessarily have expertise in all of the content areas being taught in schools.

Writing by the Rules No Easy Task
The Washington Post, October 24, 2000

Supporters of rubrics -- a set of rules or grading guidelines -- say that they are particularly helpful in improving the writing skills and assessment results of remedial and learning disabled students. Critics argue that rubrics limit students’ creativity and reduce teachers to scorekeepers.


Candidates Spar Over Test Gains in Texas
Education Week, November 1, 2000

A recent study by the RAND Corporation, a non-partisan research group, noted that Texas students’ dramatic gains on the states’ standardized assessments were not mirrored by similar gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This finding casts doubts on Texas school systems’ widely publicized claims of having significantly narrowed the achievement gap between white and minority students.

Special Education Teachers Overloaded with Demands
Education Daily, October 23, 2000

According to a survey conducted by the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), 68 percent of special education teachers spend less than two hours per week on one-on-one instruction because they have too many students, too much paperwork and not enough teacher collaboration and school support. These working conditions contribute to the high rate of attrition and recruitment problems among special ed teachers. The CEC offers an action agenda that includes more money, administrative support and better recruitment for special ed teachers.

MARYLAND

Reactions Mixed on Minority Student Report
The Washington Post, November 2, 2000

The Anne Arundel County School Board has released a report titled Minority Student Achievement Report: A Study & Recommendations. Critics say the report falls short of its mandate: to create a plan of action to close the achievement gap between African American and Hispanic students and their white and Asian peers. Some have suggested that the report's lack of substance is an effect of trying to avoid conflict in the highly racially polarized county. The school system did not integrate until 1966, more than a decade after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Just last year, the superintendent received death threats when school administrators proposed moving students from a predominantly white elementary school to an empty wing of a predominantly black school while a new school was under construction.

Approval Likely for New School Boundaries.
The Washington Post, November 2, 2000

The Prince George's Board of Education appears ready to approve a boundary change plan involving 13 schools and thousands of students. The plan, if approved by the board at its November 16 meeting, would go into effect next August to end 27 years of busing at the county's high schools. In 1972, when the desegregation order came in Prince George's, the school system was about 85 percent white and 12 percent black. This year, the system is about 77 percent black and 13 percent white. The majority of children bused outside their neighborhoods are black, many to schools that also have black majorities. Some parents have expressed concern that without proper oversight the school system could become segregated along economic lines, whereby affluent communities that lobby effectively could win more resources than poorer communities.

VIRGINIA

Schools Aim to Continue SOL Progress
The Washington Post, November 2, 2000

Virginia state education officials announced last week that 22% of the state’s public schools met the top performance benchmark on last spring’s Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. Thirty eight percent reached the benchmark for annual progress, while 27 percent were rated as close, but in need of improvement. The remaining 13 percent were deemed significantly behind in at least one subject area and were given a warning. By 2007, all public schools in Virginia will need to reach the state benchmarks to keep their accreditation.

Judge Upholds Va. Schools’ Moment of Silence
The Washington Post, October 31, 2000

A federal judge ruled yesterday that Virginia’s law requiring public school students to observe a daily minute of silence does not violate the First Amendment separation of church and state. The American Civil Liberties Union has argued that the law is a veiled attempt to impose prayer on students and plans to appeal the ruling, which could take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

RESOURCES

RESEARCH STUDIES

America's After-School Choice: The Prime Time for Juvenile Crime or Youth Enrichment and Achievement

A above report by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group indicates that well designed after-school programs have been shown to reduce youth crime and victimization during these peak hours for youth crime and car accidents. Fight Crime: Invest In Kids is a national anti-crime organization led by more than 900 police chiefs, sheriffs, police association presidents, prosecutors, and survivors of violent crime.

WORKSHOPS

"The Psychology and Education of
African American Children and Youth."

The Mid-Atlantic Equity Center is hosting a breakfast roundtable and workshop in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday November 29, 2000 from 8:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m., entitled, "The Psychology and Education of African American Children and Youth."

This interactive workshop, headed by Dr. Thomas A. Parham, an African-centered psychologist and educator from the University of California, Irvine, will explore issues concerning the healthy psychological development of African American children and its relation to learning and achievement. It is designed for policymakers, superintendents, school board members, principals, teachers, school counselors, mental health workers, school-age child care providers and parents.

The cost of the breakfast and workshop is $40.00. For additional information and/or registration materials, please call MAEC at (301) 657-7741. The registration deadline is Friday November 17, 2000.

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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.

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 The Mid-Atlantic Equity Center is one of ten Equity Assistance Centers funded by the U.S. Department of  Education under  Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It provides technical assistance and training services free of  charge to school districts  in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.