November 1998 Education Reporter

NUMBER 154

THE NEWSPAPER OF EDUCATION RIGHTS

NOVEMBER 1998

Education Briefs

Alfred Kinsey, so-called "father of the sexual revolution," based his "scientific research" for his 1948 book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male on the diaries of a serial child abuser. Kinsey recruited pedophile Rex King because he had extensively documented abusing at least 800 children, both males and females. The content of King's diaries was disclosed for the first time in August on British TV in a documentary called "Secret History."

According to Rep. Bill Goodling (R-PA), chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, class size doesn't count. "If you don't have a quality teacher in the classroom, it doesn't matter if the class size is two or 32," Goodling said.

A New York Times/CBS News Poll of American teenagers taken last spring shows a majority support traditional values. A full 94% believe in God, while most said they shun alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. On sexual issues, 53% of girls and 41% of boys believe premarital sex is "always wrong," while fewer than one in four said they had ever had sex. On the subject of parents, 51% of the teens said they got along with their parents "very well," and 46% said "fairly well." The telephone poll was taken of 1,048 teenagers.

An elementary school principal in Hillsdale, NY, had a baby out of wedlock while she and the father awaited their divorce decrees. An anonymous flier mailed out to homes in the mostly rural area posed the moral question: "Parents of teenage girls, what will you do if your daughter comes home pregnant and says, 'If the principal can get pregnant without getting married, why can't I?'" The flier created a public stir, but a New York Times article summed up the overall reaction to the principal's behavior: "If President Clinton is still in office after admitting to sexual relations in the White House with an intern, why should a principal weathering a protracted divorce lose her job for having a baby with a man she intended to marry?"

Congress Bans Federal Testing

WASHINGTON, DC — The FY 1999 omnibus spending bill approved by Congress on Oct. 20 contains a permanent ban on federal tests unless there is "specific and explicit congressional authority." Rep. Bill Goodling (R-PA), House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman, stated on Oct. 15: "We have again prevailed on national testing. A prohibition on pilot testing, field testing, administration or distribution of any national test will be included in the omnibus bill."

The spending bill also contains the following provisions: (1) Limited development and modification of test items by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) will be allowed in FY 1999 (as in FY 1998); (2) NAGB is required to determine and report to Congress and the White House on the purpose(s) of the proposed tests; (3) NAGB is required to determine and report on the meaning of "voluntary" in the context of national tests, with regard to the student, the school, the school district, or the state; (4) NAGB is required to report on its response to the recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study which stated that the achievement levels (basic, proficient, advanced) that were intended for use in the national tests are fundamentally flawed; (5) NAS is required to conduct a study of feasibility, validity and reliability of imbedding test items from NAEP or other tests in state and district assessments for the purpose of providing a common measure of individual student performance.

Despite Secretary of Education Richard Riley's efforts to achieve a compromise with Rep. Goodling at the 11th hour to keep the door open on federal testing, Goodling remained adamant that the spending bill firmly prohibit the tests.




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