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Page 4
The Battalion
Wednesday, August 22,1991
Wednesday,
Educators fear bias in new test
Largely ethnic districtsface loss of funds
Singer’s widow
remains jailed
as murder suspec
Coir
vide'
EL PASO (AP) — African-Americans and Hispanics
scored far lower than whites in the trial run of a new
minimum skills test for public schools, raising fears that
the exam may be biased, a local educator said Tuesday.
“I was looking at those statistics and found them very
alarming,” Gary Ivory, coordinator of research evalua
tion and testing for Ysleta Independent School District,
said Tuesday.
That could pose big problems for school districts
with large minority populations, say officials in the
mostly Hispanic Ysleta Independent School District.
The state plans to use the new test as an indicator of
school district performance. A district with a pattern of
poor scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic
Skills, or TAAS, can lose its accreditation.
“We’re real fearful,” Ivory added. “We’re worried
that a school district that serves a large population of
minority students will be labeled as inferior by defi
nition.”
The TAAS will be administered for the first time in
October. It replaces the 5-year-old Texas Educational
Assessment of Minimum Skills, or TEAMS, test. Stu
dents will take the exam every other year, and must
pass a final test to receive a high school diploma.
The TAAS test, designed to be tougher than the
TEAMS test, requires students to demonstrate ability to
reason. The new exam contains more math word prob
lems, longer reading passages and more thought-pro
voking questions than its predecessor.
In a mock test last October, Hispanics and African-
Americans posted consistently lower scores than white
students. More than 200,000 students from 784 school
districts took the preliminary test.
There are ethnic differences on the 1990 TEAMS
test results, but Ivory said the differences on the mock
test were greater. The gap between minority students
and white students widened for almost every age and
subject category during the TAAS trial run, he said.
Albert Kauffman, senior attorney for the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said
the group has not yet fully examined the results of the
new tests, but is vigilant on standardized tests.
“As they try to be more comprehensive on these tests
and try to cover more materials, the tests become more
and more tuned to an upper middle-class approach to
things in language,” Kauf fman said. “The more they do
that, the more the differences appear.”
He emphasized that he does not believe minority stu
dents don’t do well when standards are raised, but that
test designers may not be assessing minority students’
complex thinking correctly.
Texas Education Agency spokesman Joey Lozano
cautioned against drawing conclusions from the results
of the mock exam. Students may not have tried as hard
as they would try when taking a real test, he said.
But Lozano agreed that wouldn’t explain why one
ethnic group would post lower scores on the mock
exam than another.
Before the trial run, a “bias committee” of more than
400 teachers and school administrators reviewed the
TAAS questions and tried to eliminate questions with
wording or content that might be ethnically biased, he
said.
The test was reviewed again after the trial run, and
about 10 percent of the questions were dropped, Loz
ano said.
Results of the first real TAAS test will be studied for
any further evidence of possible bias, Lozano said.
TEA also will compare each district’s test results
against scores in other districts with similar populations
and ethnic characteristics, he said.
Next October, students in grades 3 and 5 must score
a 65 to pass the test, and students in grades 7, 9 and 11
will need a grade of 60 to pass. All grade levels will need
grades of 70 to pass the test beginning in the 1992-93
school year.
Houston loses conventions
from insufficient hotel space
HOUSTON (AP) —- The city is
losing out on a number of conven
tions and trade shows because there
are not enough hotel rooms down
town near the George R. Brown
Convention Center, a convention ex
pert says.
During the past year, about 10
groups have ruled out Houston as a
possible site for a convention pri
marily because of the dearth of
downtown hotel rooms, said Jordy
Tollett, director of the city’s civic
center operations.
The lost shows could have added
as much as $100 million to the Hous
ton economy, Tollett said.
Last month, the American Society
of Hospital Pharmacists, with an esti
mated attendance of 10,000, and the
Air & Waste Management Associa
tion, with an estimated attendance of
5,400, scratched Houston as a poten
tial site for conventions.
Another 125 to 140 groups won’t
even consider the city because there
is not a hotel close to the Brown with
1,000 rooms that can be used as a
convention headquarters, Tollett
said.
The Hyatt Regency Hotel down
town is the city’s largest hotel with
959 rooms.
The possibility of a new large ho
tel was a definite possibility in 1988
when Texas Eastern Corp. consid
ered building a large hotel at its
Houston Center property adjacent
to the Brown. But those plans fizzled
after the City Council killed an ap
plication for $20 million in govern
ment loans for the estimated $100
million, 1,000-room hotel.
Texas Eastern merged in 1989
with Panhandle Eastern Corp.,
which sold the downtown property
— including a 389-room Four Sea
sons Hotel — in December 1989 to
Chicago-based JMB Realty Corp. for
$400 million.
“The project is definitely some
thing JMB is interested in pursuing
if the economics can be worked out,”
said Ellen Horr, JMB spokeswoman.
“However, to my knowledge there
are not any negotiations with any
specific hotel chain,” she said.
or developer right now. We are
aware of the need and are willing to
talk,” she said.
RICHMOND, Texas (AP)-Tht
son of late country musician Isaac
Payton Sweat said the indictment is
sued against his father’s widow has
restored his faith in the justice sys
tern and proves the death wasn’t!
suicide.
Sharon Suzette Sweat, 38, re
mained in jail Tuesday, a day after
she was arrested on a murder indict
meat issued in her husband’s death
Bond was set at $50,000.
Investigators said a pending di
vorce action by the entertainer and
money may have motivated the slay
ing.
Sweat, 45, who was known as the
"King of the Cotton-Eyed Joe,” was
shot in the head shortly after he re
turned home from a nightclub per
formance June 23.
Although Sweat’s death was origi
nally a suspected suicide, investiga
tors said they were nagged by several
discrepancies found at the scene and
began investigating it as a homicide,
said Fort Bend Sheriffs detective
Larry Nemec.
The entertainer was found lying
on his back in a pool of blood, his car
keys, sunglasses and a .25-caliberau-
tomatic pistol near his left hand,
Sweat, who was right-handed, had
suffered a contact gunshot wound to
the left temple, meaning the weap
was touching him when it fired, in
vestigators said.
Autopsy results found no gun
powder residue on his hands.
Mrs. Sweat has told investigators
she was home when the shooting oc
curred and that she discovered her
husband’s body. Nemec said she has
continued to deny any involvement
in Sweat’s death.
The detective also said Mrs. Sweat
had been served with papers but re
fused to sign them after her hus
band filed for divorce in April.
If the pending divorce had be
come final, Mrs. Sweat would “defi
nitely not have” benefited financially
from the musician’s estate, Nemec
said.
The entertainer’s son, Sean Sweat,
24, of Malakoff, said he believed
shortly after his father’s death that
his stepmother was responsible.
“I believed it five minutes after 1
saw her,” the college student told the
Houston Chronicle. "It consumed
my whole being to prove this."
“He was stolen from us,” Sean
Sweat said. “He didn’t quit.”
In a separate (civil case, Sean Sweat
is contesting -the one-paragraph
handwritten wul submitted by his
stepmother. The singer’s son alleges
the document is a fraud.
Williams shows latest ad
denouncing Richards
Bus line shows profit
during lengthy strike
AUSTIN (AP) — So much for a
truce.
Less than 24 hours after offering
to abandon “negative” advertising,
Clayton Williams hit the airwaves
Tuesday with a new TV commercial
seeking to tie Democratic gubernato
rial candidate Ann Richards to a
failed Austin bank.
Williams’ aides said Richards had
rebuffed his peace offer, continued
her negative advertising, and left
him no option but a second televised
attack.
Richards’ press secretary, Bill
Cryer, said the truce offer was noth
ing but an excuse so Williams could
withdraw an erroneous ad. “That of
fer was window dressing,” he said.
And Richards issued a statement
saying Williams had taken a “dan
gerous” turn onto a course “charac
terized by factual errors” in ads and
speeches. “Clayton Williams’ facts
just don’t add up. His pattern of mis
takes, gaffes and wholesale fabrica
tions are unfortunate and frighten
ing,” she said.
With the election still 11 weeks
away, the candidates are spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars
this month to wage their video bat
tle.
Richards fired the opening tele
vised salvo with a commercial accus
ing Williams of shoddy business
practices, being mired in lawsuits
and swimming in debt.
Williams responded with an ad ac
cusing Richards of taking money
from savings and loan executives,
giving S&Ls state deposits during
her two terms as treasurer and de
stroying deposit records.
The Republican withdrew that ad
Monday while offering to stick to a
“positive” campaign if Richards
would.
But when the Democrat kept her
attack on the air, Williams campaign
manager Zack Dawes said the Re
publican felt compelled to fire an
other volley.
“We made a serious proposal and
she flatly refused,” Dawes said.
“We’d prefer not to use them (neg
ative ads), but she seems to have de
cided that’s the kind of campaign
she wants.”
BROWNSVILLE (AP) — Grey
hound Lines had an operating profit
of $1.5 million in June before inter
est, taxes and depreciation, four
months after its drivers went on
strike, a company official says.
Greyhound told a meeting of
creditors here Tuesday that prelimi
nary results for July and August
showed f urther improvement.
J. Michael Doyle, senior vice presi
dent and chief financial officer, said
the bus line will file a plan of reorga
nization in late October or early No
vember and hopes it will be con
firmed by the end of 1991.
“Passenger counts have continued
to climb throughout the summer,”
Doyle said. “Last weekend our traf
fic was 87 percent of what it was the
same weekend a year ago and 95
percent of our 1990 business plan,
which was developed in 1989.”
Some striking drivers have taken
temporary and part-time jobs with
tour or charter bus companies. Some
have been forced to use their savings
or are trying to survive on unem
ployment and $50-a-week strike
benefit checks.
The bus line, now under the pro
tection of bankruptcy court, has told
the 6,000 drivers who walked out
March 2 in a dispute over wages and
job security that their jobs don’t exist
anymore because the company has
resumed “business as usual” with
3,000 strikebreakers it hired.
Greyhound filed a federal racke
teering lawsuit April 29 against the
Amalgamated Transit Union, asking
for $30 million in damages.
The company is alleging that vio
lence during the strike was orches
trated by the Amalgamated Council
of Greyhound Local Unions and its
officers.
Union leaders repeatedly have
said they denounced violence and
were not connected with it. ;
AUSTIN (AP) ■
state textbook mor
discs” — like comp;
ommendation Tue
The State Board
sider the unanim
Textbook Commit
science program
school year in elem
If “Windows on
would be the first
riculum as an alte
according to the W
“The state of Te
tion today,” said R
Data.
The program is
Clark, the compar
come a model throi
fining the textbook
Rather than relyi
mation, the progra
illustrate scientific i
lines “hands-on” aci
For example, a
air includes video o
a television photogi
It uses graphics
and shows how stui
perature tester” wii
Act I
The Crime Pre
the University Pol
offers the followi
about how to ke<
stealing things fro
Any luggage, p
cameras or anyth
ting in your car ai
to be stolen.”
Take the time
valuables in the
better yet, take tf
you.
Mount CB radi
ponents, radar del
phones out of si
possible, take th<
with you.
Use slide-in-anc
and a portable ar
removal.
If you own a ti
with a case-harden
be installed in the
valuables can be st<
Be smart and 1
sessions safe by ma
for a thief to taki
ings.
Immediately re]
dous activity in oi
mobiles to the Uni
845-2345.
For more info
auto burglary prev
the Crime Preve
845-8900.
Man]
SAN ANTONIO
Force sergeant for
here pleaded guilt
wife, who had thre;
her husband’s role ii
cheating scandal.
Master Sgt. Williai
entered the plea M
mania! proceedings
Force Base in Hamp
laces a mandatory HI
Lipscomb also pi
an obstruction of jus
He was arrested ir
home near Langle)
Forme
10 yeai
SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE
5 oSiV
</)
Contact Lenses
Only Quality Name Brands
(Bausch & Lomb, Ciba, Barnes-Hinds-Hydrocurve)
'Ly
1*138
00 TOTAL COST + FREE SPARE
INCLUDES STD. DAILY WEAR, SOFT
LENSES, EXAM AND FREE CARE KIT.
(»
1*138
00 TOTAL COST
INCLUDES 1 PR. STD. EXT. WEAR, OR
STD. TINTED SOFT LENSES, EXAM
AND FREE CARE KIT.
Extended to August 31,1990
Sale ends July 27, 1990
Call 696-3754
For Appointment
CHARLES C. SCHROEPPEL, O.D., P.C.
DOCTOR OF OPTOMETRY
707 South Texas Ave., Suite 101D
College Station, Texas 77840
1 block South of Texas & University Dr. intersection
College Station, Texas 77840
SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE
THE UPPER LOFT f~
SAN ANTONIC
met elementary scl
been sentenced to 1
for molesting a 9-ye
in a bathtub at the n
State District Jui
denied a request f
John Charles Howa
tenced him to prisoi
He had pleaded
months ago to an i
ming from an April
MAKE YOURS FROM THIS SIMPLE CONSTRUCTION GUIDE
Written with the non-carpenter in mind, the step by step instructions/drawings and materials list were planned
specifically to be easily understood. Includes instructions for both the UPPER LOFT & LADDER.
To order, make check or money order payable to TOUCAN DO. Complete form and mail to:
TOUCAN DO
P.O BOX 841424
HOUSTON. TX 77284
(please print clearly)
Name: ■
Address -
City:
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BURGLARY C
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General Electric V
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speakers.
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CLE:
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Kent’s Daihatsu Hi
eated in Parking A
moved the knob