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Congressional report: N.C. emerges as national leader in education
BY KARA KIRK
STAFF WRITER
North Carolina’s achievement in edu
cation recently jumped ahead of other
states, according to a report released by
the National Education Goals Panel.
Congress created eight educational
goals in 1990 to improve learning and
teaching in school systems across the
country.
According to the report, North
Carolina became a leader in education
IN THE NEWS
Top stories from the state, nation and world.
Secret Service arrests
intruder in White House
WASHINGTON The Secret
Service detained a woman wandering
through the West Wing of the White
House asking for President Clinton on
Saturday and said they would charge
her with unlawful entry.
Clinton was taping an interview at
television studios across town at the
time. “There were no weapons and no
threat or danger that we have deter
mined at this time,” Secret Service
Public Affairs Officer Jim Mackin said
late Saturday.
The woman, smartly dressed in a
long brown cape with a matching hat
and handbag, was not being publicly
identified until formal charges were
filed, Mackin said. Agents were still try
ing to determine how she gained access
to the West Wing area, which is off-lim
its to the general public, he added.
At the time she was detained in the
White House driveway, just before 5
p.m., several special tour groups were
milling about the area with their White
House staff escorts and special-access
passes.
Just before uniformed agents calmly
restrained her by the wrist and searched
her handbag, she was seen without
any visible access pass in the base
ment of the press briefing room. There,
she nonchalantly approached two
reporters, asked “Where’s the presi
dent?” and made a reference to having
to meet him “in the Oval.”
The Oval Office is about 30 paces
from the entrance to the briefing room.
Hussein statement brings
threat of confrontation
BAGHDAD, Iraq lraqi President
Saddam Hussein declared Sunday that
his country had “to choose between sac
rifice or slavery,” suggesting that a con
frontation with the United States might
be inevitable.
His strident comments came as Iraq
barred U.N. weapon inspection teams
that included Americans for a seventh
day and sent its deputy prime minister
to argue its case before the U.N.
Security Council.
More ominously, the statement came
as Iraq has threatened to shoot down an
American U-2 spy plane scheduled to
resume flights over the country
Monday.
Hussein said Iraq has “been put in a
position where it has to choose either to
live honorably and with dignity or to
face all the possibilities.”
Films of the U.N. inspection teams’
activities in Iraq showed “how much
material and psychological harm people
of Iraq have endured,” according to the
statement on Iraqi television, carried
also by the British Broadcasting Corp.
“This path, however, has not led us
to any result, and there is not the least
hope that it will lead us to any result,"
he added. “We have to choose between
sacrifice or slavery.”
Scientists consider genes
to grow heart bypasses
ORLANDO, Fla. Scientists tin
kering with gene therapy think they
have found a way to make bad hearts
grow their own bypasses.
The idea is to inject extra genes
directly into the heart that will trigger it
to sprout new blood vessels within two
to three weeks. If all goes well, these
will work at least as well as the ones sur
geons stitch into place during coronary
bypass surgery.
So far, doctors from Boston have
tried the gene therapy on people with
dangerously clogged arteries in the legs,
where it seems to have spared some
from threatened amputations.
For several years, scientists have
talked about manipulating genes to cure
a variety of human ills. But until now,
there has been little firm evidence that it
; will do any good.
“This is the first time that any gene
therapy has been shown to be clinically
successful,” said Dr. Jeffrey Isner of St.
Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston.
“This is opening a door to genetic
therapy in cardiovascular disease,” said
Dr. Valentin Fuster of Mount Sinai
Medical Center in New York City,
incoming president of the heart associ
ation.
FROM WIRE REPORTS
through the realization of these goals
and the subsequent improvement of its
school system.
Gov. Jim Hunt, chairman of the
panel, said the state’s progress pleased
him. “This report from the NEGP
shows that we’re on the right track,” he
said.
Hunt said his Smart Start program
and the Excellent Schools Act, which
raised teacher pay, helped North
Carolina reach its educational goals.
“We’re doing so many good things,
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STATE ft NATIONAL
and we’re making progress because
we’re doing it together,” he said.
Weaver Rogers, executive director for
the state board of education, said a big
factor in reaching state educational goals
proved to be parental involvement.
“North Carolina schools are doing
something called sight-based decision
making, which is when parents and
teachers come together and discuss
issues,” Rogers said.
“Education is a focus for the whole
community, not just the schools.”
Joyce Elliott, president of the N.C.
Association of Educators, said North
Carolina’s high rank in the report did
not surprise her.
“In the past few years we have imple
mented many new educational pro
grams, and now we are finally seeing the
result,” she said
Elliott said she did not believe North
Carolina should add anything else to the
programs already in place.
“Now I think we need to focus on
working out any problems that may
already exist and not worry about imple
menting anything else.”
She said teachers found different
learning styles helpful, because it was
almost impossible to teach all children in
the same way.
“The most important thing we can do
is subscribe to the philosophy that all
children can learn,” she said.
Weaver said he believed North
Carolina was improving in education
because of qualified and experienced
teachers.
Monday, November 10,1997
He said he supported state universi
ties' efforts in educating future teachers.
“One filing colleges are doing in their
education programs is encouraging stu
dents to go out and acquire hands-on
experience,” he said.
Libby Vesilind, coordinator of middle
grades and UNC's School of Education,
said UNC established a collaboration
between five professional schools.
“Our students are out there in the
schools learning how to become better
teachers.”
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