http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-495819.mp3
Albany, NY – SHOW OPEN - Dr. Karen Hitchcock and Glenn Busby (1:30)
CONNECTICUT'S NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAWSUIT, PT. 2 OF 3
SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENTS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE
LEARNERS -
Just last month, the U.S. Dept. Of Education released a proposed
change in its regulation for testing students with disabilities. The new
rule would give states and schools greater flexibility in meeting
requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Secretary of
Education, Margaret Spellings, said the move is part of a more
sophisticated approach to meeting the needs of such students.
This flexibility is intended to impact 2% of all students nationwide, or
about 20% of students with disabilities. That policy is now published
in the Federal Register and is open for public comment. Is this change
a result of a series of legal challenges to the 4-year old No Child Left
Behind law? One of the latest lawsuits against NCLB was brought by
the state of Connecticut. TBOOK spoke with Betty Sternberg, Connecticut Education Commissioner. And to help us understand the administration's
side of the legal case, TBOOK also spoke with President Bush's former
Chief Education Advisor, attorney, Sandy Kress.
Jim Horne reports. (7:54)
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INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT CELEBRATES
30TH ANNIVERSARY, PT. 1 OF 2 -
In related news, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act became
law in the U.S. 30-years ago. It's now known as IDEA, the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act. The lives of tens of millions of school
children have been improved by IDEA over the past three decades.
So TBOOK turned to John Hager, Assistant Secretary for the Office of
Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in Washington to learn more.
Glenn Busby reports. (6:21)
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EDUCATION HEADLINES AND UPDATES -
* The U.S. Commission on the Future of Higher Education met again.
* In what may surprise many, the Commission seems headed toward a
proposal for standardized testing of college students. Commission
Chairman, Charles Miller, stopped short of saying that the Commission
would push for testing for all students, however, he did say that the
Commission might propose making an institution's eligibility for federal
student aid conditional on such testing. Miller said, We're looking for
leverage points. Funding is one, accreditation is another.
* In one of its last acts of 2005, the U.S. Congress chopped the
government-backed student-loan programs...cutting 12.7 billion dollars
to help slow the growth of federal spending over the next five years.
* And in our update segment, you may remember the story we did last
Fall on the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program. We
announced applications were still open and gave listeners a website.
Well, they had nearly 25-thousand applicants, and just selected 543
new International Fellows.
Dr. Karen Hitchcock reports. (1:30)
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VIDEO REVIEW: MARTIN'S BIG WORDS -
This month, people everywhere celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
birthday. Long-time listeners of The Best of Our Knowledge will recall
that 4-years ago we interviewed the Caldecott Winner of the book,
Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. You may
not know that the book has also now become a short movie. Harun
Thomas reviews the video tribute for young people about Dr. King.
The DVD was just released December 25th in an expanded new format.
Thomas is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at the
University of Florida.
Harun Thomas reviews. (2:22)
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SHOW CLOSE - Dr. Karen Hitchcock and Glenn Busby (1:30)