Big Stories Of The Day

Students pass state test, but at what cost to their education? Cleveland Plain Dealer
For all of those accomplishments, Principal David Root has only one thing to say to the students, staff and citizens of Rocky River: He's sorry

Audit: Detroit Public Schools misused $53.6M (Detroit News)
Detroit Public Schools misused $53.6 million in federal funds designated for low-income children and should return that amount to the U.S. Department of Education or provide documents that the money was used properly. .

First Lady defends critcized 'No Child' tests USA Today
Ask first lady Laura Bush and she'll tell you that, come what may, the 2002 education law, championed by President Bush, will be a lasting part of her husband's legacy.

Time is on charters' side (Las Vegas Sun)
How long does it take for a charter school to find its groove? In the case of Clark County’s Explore Knowledge Academy, five years.

Districts Compare Notes on DataThe most successful systems were found to be those that focused on how to use the information to improve instruction.

Big Stories Of The Day

Arlington schools superintendent resigns Dallas Morning News
Arlington Independent School District's superintendent resigned Monday after officials began looking into whether he had violated state laws dealing with the acceptance of honorariums from nonprofits that do business with the district.

Does new S.A.T. help with admissions decisions? CSM
The College Board releases a positive report on the writing section, but many schools are doing their own studies.

Doubts Linger on Pre-K-8 Strategy  Washington Post
Like surgical scars, once promising or trendy ideas for reform have left their marks all over the D.C. school system. Many came as officials pursued the best way to configure schools for students coping with their turbulent adolescent years.

San Antonio district debuts propane buses  MSNBC
San Antonio-area school district showed off new classic-yellow school buses Monday. They look the same as most others, but officials said they are the first propane-fueled buses in the nation.

District bars teacher-student texting MSNBC
A new school district policy in southern Mississippi prohibits teachers from texting or communicating with students through Internet social network sites such as MySpace.

Big Stories Of The Day

The Next Kind of Integration New York Times
In response to the courts, class is replacing race as the primary basis for desegregating schools. It’s a mix that just might work.

Teachers battle summer slide Arkansas Democrat - Gazette
Children make strong academic progress during the school year, but some of that seems to evaporate during summer, educators here say.

 1,250 N.O. families apply for private school vouchers Times Picayune
About 1,250 families have applied for the state's first school voucher program, seeking mainly to enroll children in kindergarten classes in Orleans and Jefferson parishes' private and parochial schools, state education officials said Saturday.

 US company sets up £100,000 emergency exam marking centre Daily Mail (UK)
The American company at the centre of Britain's school exams fiasco has set up an emergency marking centre in an airport hotel in a bid to clear the backlog of test papers.

 Skepticism Greets Big Gains Washington Post
State reading and math tests taken by Maryland students were shortened and tweaked this year, leading some critics to question whether the shifts contributed to surprisingly strong gains in achievement.

Big Stories Of The Day

Education Reformers Tackle NCLB Flaws US News
"I know this is hard for you to hear Chairman [George] Miller, but we need national standards and national assessments," Klein said. He pointed out that the country needs an accurate and uniform way to measure how students are doing across states and against students from other developed and emerging economies.

In squeeze, teachers do work of nurses Associated Press
During the past two school years, teacher Julia Keyse had to enforce an unusual rule in her kindergarten and first-grade classroom: No interrupting while she pricked Caylee's finger to check her blood sugar and adjusted her insulin pump.

Nat'l Education Assn. spent $285K lobbying in 1Q Forbes
The National Education Association spent nearly $285,000 in the first quarter to lobby on everything from the No Child Left Behind Act to charter schools and school vouchers, according to a recent disclosure form.

1 in 4 California high school students drop out, state says LA Times
The state, using a new system for tracking dropouts, discloses a rate considerably higher than previously reported. About 1 in 3 students in Los Angeles Unified left school.

Big Stories Of The Day

Barack camp: Beware of 'recycled bromides'Los Angeles Times
The statement went on to promise that Obama would "fix and fund No Child Left Behind, expand access to early childhood education, and make an affordable ...

McCain's Education Plan Includes a Policy Departure NY Sun
The promise to "fully fund" No Child Left Behind was a departure; previously Mr. McCain has said he would freeze nondefense discretionary spending, including spending on education.

PLUS:  Choice and Teacher Quality Top McCain’s Education Agenda EdWeek

Push to double U.S. science grads is lagging San Francisco Chronicle
A high-profile push by business groups to double the number of U.S. bachelor's degrees awarded in science, math and engineering by 2015 is falling way behind target, a new report says.

Students at L.A. alternative school tell success stories in their own words Los Angeles Times
The new state system of tracking individual students to determine a more accurate dropout rate is also a step toward helping those who have left school and preventing others from leaving, officials say.  

Big Stories Of The Day

Budget woes force cuts in summer-school programs Boston.com
From coast to coast, tough financial conditions are forcing school districts and nonprofit groups to cut back on summer programs that are widely viewed as invaluable to both struggling and superior students.

Renegade parents teach old math on the sly MSNBC
On an occasional evening at the kitchen table in Brooklyn, N.Y., Victoria Morey has been known to sit down with her 9-year-old son and do something she's not supposed to.

School policy splits family's twin kindergarteners Seattle Times
When the Jewett twins enrolled in Seattle Public Schools for kindergarten this fall, each was assigned a different school, thanks to a quirk in the district's student-assignment policy.

Site Offers Translated Standards EdWeek
A new English-language Web site provides access to mathematics and science standards from several high-performing Asian nations.

Case Goes to Jury in Ex-Schools Chief's Retrial Washington Post
The witness list was virtually unchanged. The judge and lawyers were the same. So, too, was much of the evidence, as former Prince George's County schools chief Andre J. Hornsby, whose last trial ended in a hung jury, was tried again on public corruption charges. PLUS:  Arlington trustees may place superintendent on paid leave Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Big Stories Of The Day

Only 9 percent of sophomores reading at grade level Palm Beach Post
It was a recipe for success at other schools...But at Glades Central High School, it didn't work.

Md. Scores In Reading, Math Show Big Strides Washington Post
Maryland's march toward the goal of having all students reach grade level in reading and math gained momentum today with the release of test scores that show surprisingly strong gains in those subjects, especially among disadvantaged students.

Just having the TV on can distract kids, cut down on playtime USA Today
After videotaping and carefully analyzing the children's reactions, researchers found that kids watched the TV only in snippets but that it modestly shortened their playtime. TV decreased play's intensity and cut by half the amount of time children focused on a given toy.

University apologizes to janitor over KKK book MSNBC
A janitor whom a university official had accused of racial harassment for reading a historical book about the Ku Klux Klan on his break has gotten an apology — months later — from the school.

Big Stories Of The Day, Part 1

Cheating on ACT, SAT exams has few consequences
Los Angeles Times
If the testing firms suspect fraud, they simply cancel the student's score -- but they never tell schools why.

Kids urged to walk, bike to school USA Today
Megan Schroeder rides her bike or walks to school to do her part to help the planet. She also likes the incentives that her school, Bear Creek Elementary, uses to reward kids who ditch mom or dad's car in favor of biking or walking.

In Search of Young Mouths To Feed In Summer Washington Post
Montgomery County officials dispatch a school bus daily to roam a Silver Spring neighborhood with an unlikely task: find children interested in going to school, in midsummer, for the food.

Loopholes Give Schools a Pass Even When Scores Fall Short
Thousands of our schoolchildren are being left behind. Only you wouldn't know it by looking at the test results that will be released next month.

Gone Are The Yearbooks Of Yesteryear NPR
Facebook, MySpace and other online sites are threatening the very existence of college yearbooks. Emily Heiser, editor-in-chief of Purdue University's yearbook, talks about the decision to end publication of her school's yearbook after more than a century.

Big Iranial Missile Stories Of The Day

A Hot Time For School Construction Projects Washington Post
Teachers and students get summer vacation, but it's the busy season for the people charged with building and maintaining schools.

Funds Misappropriated at 2 Nonprofit Groups New York Times
The groups, Acorn, one of the country’s largest community organizing groups, and the Points of Light Institute, which works to encourage civic activism and volunteering, have dealt with the problems in very different ways.

Economy Takes Toll On Education Funding NPR
Fairfax County, Va., is one of many school systems around the country facing budget cuts even as they grapple with sharply higher fuel costs.

More Educators Experimenting With ‘Open Content’ EdWeek
A small but growing movement of K-12 educators is latching on to educational resources that are “open,” or free for others to use, change, and republish on Web sites that promote sharing.

Some D.C. Principals Credit Rhee for Big Gains in Test Scores Washington Post
Principals at some D.C. schools that demonstrated a dramatic increase on this year's student achievement test credit the gains to programs they implemented after a push from Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.

Big Stories Of The Day

Testing for algebra Los Angeles Times
The federal act requires the state's proficiency exams to test whatever the standard is, and the state's standard is for all  eight-graders to take algebra.

As Textbooks Go 'Custom,' Students Pay WSJ
College students are encountering another financial hit: Publishers and schools are embracing "custom" textbooks that can limit the money-saving trade in used books. Some academic departments are sharing in the profits from these texts.

New dance fad is stepping out Seattle PI
There are thousands of high school students looking for a new way to get their dancing in, and Facebook, airplane hangers and ambitious underage entrepreneurs are playing a part in filling that void.

Tape players help moms in jail connect with kids Argus Leader
The Words Travel program at the jail allows women inmates to record stories to their children on tape. Those recordings are sent to their children along with a backpack filled with books and a tape player.

Big Stories Of The Day

Study: Bush's Reading First program ineffective USA Today
"This is a big study." [Sorry -- my RSS reader playing tricks on me.] McCain to talk pocketbook education issues AP
Sen. John McCain intends to talk about how teachers are paid and tutoring for poor kids when he goes before the NAACP convention next week. Presidential Hopefuls Differ on K-12 Spending Education Week
Obama is proposing $18 billion in new federal education money, while McCain sees NCLB funding as adequate, and weighs a domestic spending freeze.

School cafeterias struggling to keep food on the table USA Today
The U.S. Agriculture Department chipped in an extra dime a meal last week to help schools pay for lunches.

At Magnet School, An Asian Plurality Washington Post
Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at the region's most prestigious public magnet school this fall, a milestone reached as the number of African Americans and Hispanics has remained low and the Fairfax County School Board prepares...

Big Bertha Stories Of The Day

Education makes a fleeting appearance in presidential campaign Minnesota Public Radio
Less than 80 percent of the teachers in Washington D.C. voted to affirm their leadership's endorsement for Obama.

NEA President-Elect Pledges to Stay the Course EdWeek
In four-day meeting, delegates ban private school workers from joining union, boo Obama on performance pay, and listen to Dennis Van Roekel say he won’t change NEA’s direction.

 Technology reshapes America's classrooms Reuters
From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.

Failure not an option for middle school kids Miami Herald
Failing English, math, science or social studies classes in middle school never kept Florida students from moving on to high school in the past. Getting into high school is getting more difficult for Florida students because of law enacted two years ago that will affect all incoming ninth-graders.

Big Stories Of The Day

Poor kids' teachers earn less in Metro Tennessean
"The days are gone when I could tell a teacher, 'I offered you a job at Napier and you turned it down so I am not going to offer you a job anyplace else,' " Keel said.

Student locator tags: Evil or helpful? Providence Journal
Do tracking devices that follow students� every movement go too far?

 Chicago gun ban may test high court ruling Chicago Sun Times
One small reflection of Chicago's bloody year is a sign outside a South Side school that says, "Congratulations Class of 2008. Stop the Violence." The school is not a college or a high school, but Carnegie Elementary in Woodlawn.

 Schools feeling fuel pinch Arizona Republic
Increased fuel prices pinch Arizona school districts, which look for more school-bus efficiencies. When Scottsdale Unified School District transportation director Daniel Shearer budgeted $4 per gallon for fuel a year ago, he figured he'd get some of that money back in June.

 Rhee Deploys 'Army of Believers' Washington Post
Rikki Hunt Taylor is filled with fire and educational jargon. When the Takoma Educational Center's new principal describes her vision for the school, she promises "a data-driven culture" and teachers committed to "differentiated instruction."

Big Stories Of The Day

Teachers Union To Back Candidate WashPost
A torrent of teachers is flowing into Washington this week as one of the nation's largest and most powerful unions aims to decide whom to endorse in the presidential race, what position to take on revisions to the federal No Child Left Behind law and how to react to state and local proposals for ...

Education secretary touts 'No Child' renewal SA Express-News
Spellings says Bush's program has spurred accountability by schools in kids' educations.

Rhode Island to Allow Mayors to Charter Schools EdWeek
Groups of municipal leaders could get together to form a regional school and find an operator to run it.

Rhee Targets Teachers' Seniority, Tenure Rules WashPost
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is proposing a contract that would give mid-level teachers who currently are paid $62,000 yearly the opportunity to earn more than $100,000 -- but they would have to give up seniority and tenure rights, two union members familiar with the negotiations said...

Chef Proves School Lunch Can Be Healthy, Cheap NPR
Chef Dominique Valadier once worked in the glamorous world of French Riviera restaurants. Now he is making his gourmet meals, with all local ingredients, for public school children.

Big Stories Of The Day

Reading First program could be on its last legs USA Today
Most of the bad things that befell Reading First erupted over squabbles about how the Education Department handed out money.

Missouri Outlaws Cyberbullying in Wake of Teen Suicide EdWeek
The state's governor signed legislation Monday outlawing cyberbullying, partly inspired by the death of a teen girl who was harassed online.

Profit at Apollo Group AP
The Apollo Group, an education company that owns the University of Phoenix, says it earned $139.1 million in the third quarter as enrollment grew by 11 percent. PLUS:  Edison Moves Into Online-Learning Market.

Maryland Granted Leeway to Rescue Failing Schools Wash Post
Maryland and five other states have been granted flexibility in how they administer the No Child Left Behind law, including how to label schools that need help, under precedent-setting pilot programs the federal government announced today.

Big Stories Of The Day

6 states to design own plans for fixing schools AP
The states getting more freedom under a pilot program are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland and Ohio. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings plans to make the announcement during a speech Tuesday in Austin, Texas.

State weighs limits on school 'timeouts,' restraints Des Monies Register
Iowa has joined a nationwide push to curb the use of physical force and "timeout" rooms in schools to discipline the most unruly students.  PLUS:  How to make "timeouts" less like bar fights (Slate).

Harlem School Aces Math Test NPR
One hundred percent of 8th grade students at Harlem Village Academy Charter School passed this year's state math test, a first-time achievement in the history of New York City charter schools and also in the history of Harlem public schools.

Teen Suffers From 'School Phobia' NPR
It may sound like a fancy term for a kid who just doesn't want to go to school, but the mental health community generally recognizes it as a real disorder, often causing severe panic attacks.

Big Stories Of The Day

In Philadelphia, Privatized Schools Suffer a Setback Washington Post
Six years ago, the Philadelphia School District embarked on what was considered the country's boldest education privatization experiment, putting 38 schools under private management to see if the free market could educate children more efficiently than the government.

Slight gains, but sanctions list grows Minneapolis Star Tribune
The percentage of black students deemed proficient in math and reading hovered 36 percentage points below that of their white counterparts.

Tenure makes bad teachers hard to fire MSNBC
Few people know better than school superintendent Allan Gerstenlauer that disciplining a tenured teacher can be a long and expensive process.

Public gives schools low marks, wants more English and math AP
It's not much of a report card.  Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force.

Education: Bringing Potential Dropouts Back From the Brink NYT
To improve their dropout numbers, officials in districts throughout Long Island say they are taking aggressive steps to keep students in the classroom.

Big Friday Stories Of The Day

Across U.S., schools feel budget pinch Christian Science Monitor
Slashed funding and rising costs are forcing school districts to cut back, even close down.

Poll: Math, yes; standardized tests, maybe AP
A large majority of Americans think schools are placing too much emphasis on the wrong subjects, and more than half think they're doing just a fair job in preparing children for the work force or giving them the practical skills they need to survive as adults, according to an Associated Press poll released Friday.

Universal preschool students perform better USA Today
An ambitious public pre-kindergarten program in Oklahoma boosts kids' skills dramatically, a long-awaited study finds, for the first time offering across-the-board evidence that universal preschool, open to all children, benefits both low-income and middle-class kids.

Patrick unveils extensive education plan for next decade Boston Globe
Over the next six months, a grass-roots effort the governor's office launched will promote the changes to local school committees and city councils, a Patrick spokesman said. [my kinda grassroots effort]

One fish, two fish, cosine of Q fish LA Times
In China, competitive math teams are groomed and cosseted like college football squads. And in Vietnam, a television show called "Go to Olympia" tracks math contestants almost as if they were budding American Idols.

Big Stories Of The Day

Schools for teachers flunk at math MSNBC
Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Study: Teachers not being taught math properly AP
Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Taking Lessons, and Confidence, From the Water NYT
A New York City school is trying to raise academic achievement and confidence by having students learn about and navigate the harbor that surrounds the city.

Laptops for Kids in Small Towns May Not Be Panacea NPR
One Laptop per Child may have been thinking of the developing world, but cities such as Immokalee, Fla., feel its kids would benefit, too. But it's unclear how much the laptops can bridge the achievement gap for the kids of migrant workers.

Big Stories Of The Day

New Programs for Training Charter Leaders Scrutinized EdWeek
An emerging crop of programs to prepare principals of charter schools shows promise but ???miss or treat too lightly??? certain crucial issues facing leaders of those independent public schools, a new report says.

States refusing grants for abstinence education MSNBC
Barely half the states are still in, and two more say they are leaving.

Holding Back Young Students: Is Program a Gift or a Stigma? NYT
A New York school district has revived a controversial retention practice to not only hold back nearly 12 percent of its first-graders this spring but to segregate them come fall.

Laptops Help Keep Migrant Workers' Kids in School NPR
Juan Medina, a former agricultural worker, is part of a town effort to help the children of migrant farmworkers in school. His new tool is free laptops.

Soaring Food Costs Hit School Lunch Programs NPR
In addition to home cooks and restaurant chefs, food prices are a growing problem for schools. And the fact that the school year is at an end isn't relieving concerns for a district in Massachusetts.

Teacher Bonuses Get Unions' Blessing EdWeek
One of the most ambitious pay-for-performance initiatives in Washington area schools is drawing strong teacher interest and local union support even though many national labor leaders have long asserted that it is unfair to link teachers' paychecks directly to their students' test scores.

Big Stories Of The Day

Ocean City Elementary only school in state leaving no child behind Examiner
Teachers chalk up the school’s success to communication with parents, high behavioral and academic expectations, and a passion for education.

Rich nations copy Venezuela's anti-gang music schools Washington Post
Venezuela's youth orchestras and choirs have helped thousands of children resist thug life in some of South America's most violent slums, and now wealthy countries are lining up to emulate the system.

Hacking Case Jolts Affluent California High School NYT
A senior has been arrested on charges that he broke into the high school several times, hacked into administrative computers, changed grades and sent copies of test answers to dozens of students.

To Avoid Student Turnover, Parents Get Rent Help NYT
In response to the turmoil in Flint schools, Michigan is giving some families $100 a month to help them stay put.

Big Stories Of The Day

L.A. Unified will have more seats, but fewer students to fill them Los Angeles Times
Despite falling enrollment, the district will keep building schools as a way to eliminate year-round calendars, forced busing and portable classrooms. Critics say it's overbuilding.

Fuel Costs May Force Some Kids To Walk Washington Post
The Montgomery County school board today will consider giving Superintendent Jerry D. Weast emergency powers to make students walk farther to school, if need be, in the coming academic year.

Ore. students set to get choice of graduation test Washington Post
When Oregon education officials set out to devise a graduation testing requirement for high school students, they looked to other states for inspiration _ on what not to do.

Does 8th-Grade Pomp Fit the Circumstance? NYT
While some educators are grateful that notice is still being paid to academic achievement, others deride the festivities as overpraising what should be routine accomplishment.

Clinton fulfills promise to student MSNBC
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton fulfilled a pledge to a young supporter by speaking at the teenager's high school graduation on Sunday.

Big Friday Stories Of The Day

House Panel Would Kill ‘Reading First’ Funding EdWeek
Citing a federal study of the program, lawmakers would zero out funding for the beleaguered program in the fiscal 2009 budget.

Denver School Tries Reinvention as Reform NPR
Poor achievement and low attendance at Manual High School in Denver led the district to close its doors and open a year later. Closing Denver's oldest high school was not without controversy or protest. But administrators said starting fresh was the only fix.

Board members surprised by attempt to oust Crew Miami Herald
Miami-Dade School Board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla took the first steps toward ousting Superintendent Rudy Crew on Thursday, calling upon the board attorney to clarify the requirements for terminating Crew's contract.

D.C. Teachers Struggle to Adapt to School Reforms PBS
Washington, D.C.'s schools struggle to bring students up to proficiency standards while losing thousands of them to charter schools.

Big Power Couple Stories Of The Day

2 School Entrepreneurs Lead the Way NYT
Wendy Kopp and Richard Barth are a power couple in the world of education, emblematic of a new class of young social entrepreneurs seeking to reshape the United States’ educational landscape.

Yellow Buses Put Schools in the Red Wall Street Journal
School administrators nationwide are budgeting rising fuel costs for buses into the school year. But the price of running these vehicles has a direct impact beyond the bus, including cutbacks on ordering new textbooks.

Court Upholds ‘Highly Qualified’ Teacher Rules EdWeek
Alternative-route teachers-in-training can be deemed to hold that status under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Phila. taking back 6 privatized schools  Inquirer
In a blow to the Philadelphia School District's historic privatization experiment, the School Reform Commission voted yesterday to seize six schools from outside managers and warned them that they are in danger of losing 20 others if progress is not made.

He's admitted into 7 Ivy League schools MSNBC
The New York teenager, who couldn’t even speak English when he emigrated from Poland only five years ago, applied to seven Ivy League schools  and was accepted by all of them, along with 10 other top schools.

Big Stories Of The Day

Top Students Said to Stagnate Under NCLB EdWeek
A report finds that gains on national tests by high-achieving students lagged behind those of students at the low end of the spectrum.

Talk on education hits home in Flint Detroit Free Press
Before his speech, she was undecided who she would vote for in November, but she especially liked Obama's education plans. "I was educated here in Flint," ...

Is new SAT better? Not much, study says MSNBC
The writing section added to the SAT has done very little to improve the exam's overall ability to predict how students will do in college, according to research released Tuesday by the test's owner.

Jeb Bush campaigns for education, not office St. Petersburg Times
Jeb Bush is back. This week, in the center of the state he governed for eight years, Bush ends his 18-month hiatus from Florida public life.

School Officials in New Orleans and D.C. Face Tough Road to Reform PBS
On Tuesday, Merrow checks on how first graders in New Orleans are faring or you can watch the full series of reports here.

Big Stories Of The Day

Obama says McCain will keep US in economic hole. Sun-Times
"We could have made a real commitment to a world-class education for our kids, but instead we passed “No Child Left Behind,” a law that – however well-intended – left the money behind and alienated teachers and principals instead of inspiring them."

Study Sees Mixed Results In Unique Voucher Program NY Sun
Students who spent two years in private schools courtesy of the nation's only federally funded voucher program saw no significant benefits overall, though several particular types of children did benefit, a new study has found.

States move toward uniform graduation rate reporting USA Today
No Child Left Behind was supposed to focus on the inequalities in the nation's public schools, but has done little to improve graduation rates.

State Testing Mandates Swell Summer School Ranks EdWeek
Students in a number of states often end up attending summer school programs because they didn’t meet academic standards set by the state.

How a group of California teens won a national science bowl CSM
The team from Santa Monica High School – a band of savants in the land of surfers – went through a grueling yearlong quiz class.

$700,000 verdict gives chaperones pause MSNBC
When she traveled to China with her son's school choir, Teresa Cleary spent a fair amount of time worrying that a student under her supervision might become lost or ill.

Big Stories Of The Day

More Schools Trying Separation of the Sexes Washington Post
Mrs. Demshur's class of second-grade girls sat in a tidy circle and took turns reading poems they had composed. "If I were a toucan, I'd tweet, I'd fly," began one girl. When she finished, the others clapped politely.

Few options offered for Texas schools facing closure Houston Chronicle
One driver is the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which like Texas' accountability system, orders escalating sanctions against schools each year they fail ...

God vs. Science: Keeping Creationism out of School NPR
This summer, the Texas Board of Education gears up to possibly consider whether biology classes should include the "strengths and weaknesses" evolutionary theory — known as creationism to some. Biology professor and textbook author Kenneth Miller discusses the debate.

 Project Aims to Improve H.R. Systems in Big Districts EdWeek
Two experts have launched an organization to push for transforming how the nation’s largest school districts recruit and groom teaching and school leadership talent.

 Teachers defend shock tactics in teen drunken driving program San Francisco Chronicle
On a Monday morning last month, California Highway Patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino

Big Stories Of The [TGIF] Day

Sharpton's New Education Group Under FireNY Sun
Rev. Sharpton said on his radio show that he received a telephone call from a union leader after his announcement that he is starting a new education group with school leaders who have called teachers unions obstacles to improvements.

Mandated Tutoring Not Helping Washington Post
Nationwide, nearly 530,000 students -- 14 percent of those eligible -- participate, officials said.

Schools experiment with paying kids AP
Studies into the effects of school-based rewards programs are limited. But research by an independent think tank at Stanford University indicated they can raise scores.

State to Memphis schools: Recover or suffer Commercial Appeal
If the City Council doesn't reinstate $73.3 million in funding to Memphis City Schools, the Tennessee Department of Education is going to withhold $423 million from the district.

Racial Identity's Gray Area WSJ
The Census Bureau says minorities will outnumber whites by 2050, but the definition of white keeps shifting. Groups have been welcomed in or booted out; people opt out or sue to get in. Some jump back and forth.

DWI shock tactics at school defended MSNBC
Highway patrol officers visited a California high school with horrible news: Several students had died in car wrecks. But classmates' tears later turned to rage — it wasn't true.

Big "Terrorist Jab" Stories Of The Day

Bush Loyalist Fights to Save ‘No Child’ Law NYT
On a cold and soggy morning in March, Ms. Spellings, the relentlessly cheery and sometimes sassy United States secretary of education, turned up here, at a little brick elementary school across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

'Standing Up for the Children' Washington Post
It was the kind of odd coupling that seemed more like the premise for a reality show than a news conference on education policy: New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

At Benning Elementary, School's Out Forever Washington Post
Last June 12 was a day of unusual promise at Benning Elementary, a dingy, virtually windowless school near RFK Stadium with a leaky roof, occasional air conditioning and dismal test scores.

Somber Students Found to Outperform Cheerful Students EdWeek
A new study found that children who feel happy don’t do as well on tasks that require precision as their peers who are sad or have neutral feelings.

Report: Violence taught at Islamic school MSNBC
Textbooks at a private Islamic school in northern Virginia teach students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam, according to a federal investigation released Wednesday.

Mississippi School Holds First Interracial Prom NPR [14 min.]
With a nudge and a check from local resident Morgan Freeman, the high school in Charleston, Miss., integrated its prom this year for the first time ever.

Big Stories Of The Day

Miami-Dade cuts 800 teaching jobs Miami Herald
The Miami-Dade school district has eliminated 800 teaching positions over the past two weeks, district officials said Monday.  The reassignments could sharply reduce the number of new hires.

Rochester prepares for its first charter high school Democrat and Chronicle
Parents who packed a recent Rochester Academy Charter School open house peppered school leaders with questions that revealed excitement and anxiety about what will be the city's first charter high school

No excuses Dallas Morning News
Mr. Sanchez has mixed feelings about No Child Left Behind, the federal education act that controls the fate of his school.  PLUS:  Law makes few allowances for immigrant students

No cheering allowed at S.C. graduation MSNBC