European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 2b the stars and stripes saturday March 26,1988 25-cent stamp available at Post offices next week rheingau West Germany is Twenty file cent sumps will be available at army and air farce Post offices next week. Other denominations also will be available so ital customers can use their 22-cent sumps by adding 3-Tcnt Stamps said capt qary Way army postal group spokesman. Although the Price increase is effective april 3, a sunday mail deposited Over the weekend will need Only a 22-Cenl stamp. Mail deposited in military mail Banes april 4 will require Post age at the new Rale Way Laid. Hie Domestic first class rate will be 25 cents for the first ounce and 20 rails for cacti additional ounce. Pott card Rales increase from 14 to 1j cents. A3 income tax filing deadlines near Way cautioned that the internal Revenue service will not pay postage due so patrons should take special care that Correct postage is affixed to their re turns. Many businesses do not nay postage due either he said. Daylight saving time begins this weekend Munich is Daylight saving time be gins this weekend in Europe. Turning the clock ahead one hour at 2 . Sunday will be West Germany France the Netherlands Belgium great Britain Spain Italy Turkey Denmark Finland Yugoslavia Austria Easl Germany. Luxembourg Malta Norway. Austria Poland Sweden Switzerland Czechoslovakia Hungary Ireland and Portugal. Daylight saving time in those countries ends sept. 25 except in great Britain and Ireland where clocks Are set Back sept. 23. Bulgaria Romania Cyprus and the soviet Union reset heir clocks today and will operate under Daylight saving time until sept. 24. According to the German automobile club adar the average German household will have to change 12 clocks and watches to Kee Correct time the most forgotten clocks Are those on Cen iral heating systems and car clocks the adar spokeswoman said. Heart attack kills no. Lawmaker Washington a rep. James Howard d no. The influential chairman or the House Public works acid transportation committee died Friday. He was 60, Howard had suffered a heart attack thursday while on a Burburan Maryland Golf course. Reagan urges caution on truce in Nicaragua Washington a president Reagan Friday said he welcomes the cease fire in Nicaragua but there is reason to have caution As to whether the country s leftist government Wilt observe in of course we look Forward to this and Hope it continues but i think we should keep in mind that just As in Tome other meeting that have gone on in which i have been involved t think that we should keep in mind that both parties must be dedicated to the things that Are said and agreed to in those meetings the president said. When a reporter said that it sounded As though he were suspicious that this would not be the Case with the sandinista Reagan replied i think there is Rea son to have caution they have a past record that Indi Cates that we should be. The president did Noi say who he was talking about but he supports the Contra rebels and has often said that he considers the Sand Nisu government unreliable. The Exchange with reporters look place As Reagan was preparing to meet with visiting president Joaquin Balaguer of be dominican Republic. Earlier Secretary of slate George Shutlz raised the possibility that the administration will seek legislative authority for a Quick Vole on military Aid to the nicaraguan rebels if the cease fire there Breaks Down. Shultz Laid thursday night that the Prospect of additional military assistance to Ibe rebels would be added insurance thai Nicaragua s leftist government will abide by promises it make under it cease fire agreement with the Contra rebels. But House speaker Jim Wright a Tex indicated Thil he would oppose any Effort by the administration to have an expedited procedures provision Tor Mili tary Aid included in a Contra humanitarian assistance package Congress will take up next week. I want to emphasize positive things and nol anticipate failure said Wright who was interviewed with Scullion pbs1  the reaction of both the administration and con Gress was generally positive to the agreement reached by the sandinista and the Contra which Calls Tor a 60-Day cease fire during which talks on a final settlement will Lake place. There is agreement among the administration and the lawmakers that the United slates should provide humanitarian Aid to the contras permitted under the agreement but the comments of Shultz and Wright indicate the military Aid Issue ii nol dead. Meanwhile the temporary cease fire Between Sandi nista troops and the Contra rebels held Friday and the Jungles that had been their Battleground Tor six years were quiet the defense ministry said it had no reports of com Bat Friday morning the fifth Day of the Short Tern cease fire imposed during peace talks that ended wednesday night with an agreement for a 60-Day truce. As part of the agreement Contra and Sandin Iila Leaden extended the informal cease fire to april 1, when the 60-Day truce Lake effect and they will meet in Managua Nicaragua to seek a permanent peace. Sandinista troops withdrew thursday from a Jungle War tone in Central Cho Lales province according to stale Security official who spoke on condition Ofano nym ily. The province has been a hot spot in the War. Radio liberation the Contra radio station has reported no combat since monday the first Day of peace talks Between the government and contras at the Border town of Samoa Nicaragua an International verification commission on Friday began its second Day of an inspection of the Northern Border with Honduras. The group was asked by the sandinista government to prove that its troops had not infiltrated Honduras As charged by the honduran gov Senate from Page 1 plans for . Military action in Panama. Two weeks ago the administration Cut off the Low of . Dollars Panama s official currency after � Florida grand jury charged Noriega Wilh multimillion Dollar drug Iraq at the White House Friday presidential spokesman Marlin Fitz Walcer said we have no timetable for getting Noriega to step Down. We continue to watch he said the economic sanctions against Panama have been very successful in achieving our desired results of Bringm pressure on Noriega to gel out we re confident that order will be restored there he said. Asked whether the United states was consid ering any move to seize Noriega Fitzwater said  tests from Page 1 Kent Rossier Dodds Early childhood coordinator said. This causes inaccurate results. These tails also place the child in a More stressful situation when he first begins his school  a draft of Bredekamp s group Posi Tion paper said partly because of misuse of tests Many kindergartens arc now highly s re cured. Watered Down first grades emphasizing workbooks and other paper and Pencil activities that Are developmentally inappropriate for 5  our biggest objection is when tests Are misused to keep children out of school. That should occur Only after a Complete diagnostic evaluation said Bredekamp in an interview adding thai parents and leathers generally Are More reliable than less in gauging the Readi Ness of children for school. Louise Bales Ames co founder of the Gesell Institute which produce a widely used screening test said it was discouraging that these groups have taken ibis political  our position is that if there Are 25 children in a classroom All acting at s year old maturity level the teacher Stilt has to individualize the curriculum to different ability Levels. But if you put children together at different maturity and ability Levels then you have differences you can t possibly Span she said in a Telephone interview from the Institute s new Haven conn., Headquarters. A department of defense dependents schools spokesman in Wiesbaden said Friday thai children entering Dodds kindergarten for the first time Are physically screened and development Auy assessed. Children entering the system with records from other schools Are Nal screened or assessed this screening provides a service in finding physical problems talk Rosier. The assessment checks Fine muscle development coordination and verbal speech  the screening and assessment do not keep children meeting age requirements from entering kindergarten but help guide teachers in providing appropriate activities he said. Children develop in set stages he said. First they crawl then they walk then they run. To put a child in a hurdle contest when he can i crawl yet does t work for anyone. We Don t give work to a child that he can t physically be expected to  Rossier admits that in a class of 20 or More students teachers May find it impossible to provide for each child s Spe Cial needs. But he said children in More advanced stages of development May act As role models for their slower class mates who usually look up to them. At Issue Are three types of tests. Developmental screening to Sis like the Gesell preschool Tot Are designed to assess a child s ability to acquire skills. Readiness tests help determine if preschoolers Are physically and mentally mature enough to enter kindergarten. They might ask youngsters to perform such tasks As hopping drawing straight lines or circles and counting to 10 Back Ward and Forward. Achievement tests Are used As Early As kindergarten to measure whether a child has Learned enough to be promoted to the next Grade or if the youngster needs extra help or should be held Back. Grade advancement in the military s overseas school system is based on what the teacher feels is most appropriate for the child. If a child is recommended As non promotable then a child study com Mittee to formed and a conference with the parents is scheduled Rossier said. Many states and school districts adopted such testing after the tale 19soi sputnik Era when educators decided that the very Youra could and should handle academically demanding studies. The school Reform movement of the 1930s accelerated the trend. In 1984, Minneapolis began testing kindergarteners in Basic math and Reading skills. Ten percent a year flunked and had to repeat kindergarten and 75 per cent of those were minority students. But some experts. Including David Al kind who wrote the Best Selling the hurried child criticize this get Lough trend saying elementary schools should return to less stressful curricula More appropriate to that age group. Last september North Carolina legislators decided to end mandatory testing of first and second Grad Fra because of concern Over mounting academic pres sure in those grades tests that exclude children from pub Lic education services or that delay their Access to the education. Mainstream. Are antithetical to Legal and Constitution Al rights to free education and equal Protection wrote University of Michigan education professor Samuel Meisels in a paper published in january 1937. He and other critics say readiness tests like the Gesell Are based on a discredited theory of development that children at certain Ages behave in highly predictable ways thai Are largely beyond the control of teachers or parents. Few teachers today would willingly accept such a passive approach to Educa Tion Meisels wrote