European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse D nato Cool to Gysi s troop reduction plan Page 2 d real Winner Steps Forward in $35 million . Lotto Page 5 d Pardee named oilers coach Page 23 d Peru Grants Asylum to 12 panamanians Back Page the stars vol. 48, no. 269 . Children flunk Basic education skills Ducal inn Secretary Ca a is an suits question about the study. Washington a american schoolchildren Are dreadfully inadequate in the two basics of learning Reading and writing. Education Secretary Lauro c Ava of said tuesday in releasing results of a nationwide study. Among other findings the nation s report card determined that Only 63percent of 9-year-Olds have Basic Reading skills Down from 68 percent in 1980. The study conducted in 1988 by the federally funded National assessment of educational Progress said in general Reading and writing skill Levels of Stu dents aged 9. 1.1 and 17 Are almost unchanged since the last gloomy assessment was reported in 198-4. The report found Only Subtle changes in Reading performance at the National Lex Al since the first Reading assessment in1471. There was no improvement in an already Low writing performance. As a nation we should be appalled that we have placed our children in such Cava of told reporters. The Reading and writing skills of american students remain dreadfully the report also showed that dramatic gains in the Reading ability of Young Black children slowed after cuts in head Start and other Federal preschool pro Grams. The study noted that minority Chil Dren who came of school age in the 1970s, when Federal spending on Early childhood programs was High showed substantial Reading improvement throughout their later classroom years. However after an 11 percentage Point gain in the 1970s, test scores for 9-year old Black children have remained almost unchanged since 1980. Education department officials re fused to speculate on Why the scores flattened out. But Wilhelmina do co. A Texas mate legislator and vice chairman of the department s National assessment governing Board acknowledged that the increase in minority results is directly attributable to the great Deal of emphasis on the head Start program which since been substantially diminished in some areas and even abolished As for the general conclusion of inadequate skills among students of All races the National education association the nation s largest teachers Union said in a statement that the findings offer nation Al education goal setters some important food for the key Impact of today s reports is that they stress the need for us to Redou ble our efforts to ensure that every Stu Dent masters the basics of Reading and writing added Nea vice president Hob Chase. He said among other things teachers need to spend More Lime with smaller groups of students. National assessment or Nap uses see children on Back Page bigots will face Justice Bush vows Washington ii president hush signing a Martin Luther kingly Holiday proclamation vowed to bring to Justice lie bigots responsible for the re cent wave of bombing against civil rights figures. Bush invited my Ribhan 125 civil rights activists to the while House for no signing ceremony on tuesday and later met privately with Benjamin Hooks executive director of the Acap. Whose organisation target. R of King s birth on monday will a each Jan. 15 been since been a main bombing the 61st Anniversar be a Federal Holiday. 1 1986. King the be Adelof the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s 1at helped bring an end to Legal rated in Memphis in i9f 8. King saying that his life was Merica. His Hie Vujs a met segregation. Was Assas Bush paid tribute id Central to the Story of abhor for 1 his goal was an Tierica where Equality and Opportunity could coexist said hush. He went to cities at i towns Large and Small places like Selma and Birm High him and Montgomery. Wherever he found a Ever there was bigot there was segregation t he endured death i Calls in the dead of a intimidated. Through forever America for the red. He condemned it. When he assailed it and wherever defied it. Cats and these obscene phone night and he refused to be is courage. Or. King changed belter. While he did so much see bigots on Back Page Columbia liftoff the shuttle Columbia gifts from its pad at the Kennedy space Center at Cape canaveral ha., tuesday earning a Crew of five on the first Mission of the decade. The Light a 10-Day Mission to recover a battered space platform will be the second longest of the shuttle series. See Story on Page 28. Of Fame Page 21
