Education Headlines

The math requirements for graduating high school and gaining college admission to Florida universities are now both four credits. And some Leon County guidance counselors are worried this year's eighth-graders may be behind once they enter high school.

Growing up in New Mexico as the youngest of 12 children, Theresa Martinez never saw her family's ration of welfare cheese as a sign of shame. Then one day a government welfare worker told Martinez's mother, "You people breed like cockroaches.

It's not just in finance that the inquests have begun. What part have the business schools and business academics played in the implosion of the world's banking system? That was the question posed in a letter to the Financial Times last week by Nottingham University Business School's ...

A state education official says districts are waiting to see how much more money they're going to get. L.A. Unified has spent less than 20% of its share. Two years ago, California public schools received an unexpected gift: a grant of $250 million for new computers, software and training.

Amendment 50 has several layers, but the crux of the ballot measure is this: Should Colorado's three mountain gambling towns be allowed to raise the maximum bet at casinos from $5 to $100?

'Young Conservatives' handing out joke list called Top 10 'Safety Tips'
The Young Conservatives of Texas branch at the Houston-area Lone Star College-Tomball has been censored and threatened with campus-wide de-recognition for passing out a humorous pamphlet with gun jokes at a campus fair.

Michelle Rhee and Teach for America: Live Q&A: Monday, October 27, Noon ET. Post education writer Jay Mathews will be online Monday, Oct. 27 at noon ET to discuss his latest column, about what D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee learned during her time with Teach for America and her approach to reforming the D.C. school system.

Residents recall when former board of education was D.C.'s first elected body and pine for days when it could directly affect course of their neighborhood schools.

By WINNIE HU
Graduation rates in New Jersey and elsewhere have become a measure of the larger community outside the school and whether civil servants are doing their job.

With this year's election hype focused on the economy and health care, it seems the impact of No Child Left Behind on working-class families has been overshadowed by other issues. Not for me.

Local Latino students continue to trail their Anglo and Asian peers by almost every academic measure – test scores, graduation rates, college preparation and success in advanced courses – according to a new report.

VietNamNet Bridge – About 1,800 students from eight universities in Ho Chi Minh City will start on October 26 a two-month contest on accounting, auditing, finance and banking, organized by the city’s Banking University and the representative office

Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt read a book about vegetables and let himself be called a "pink squirrel" yesterday, all to help boost the district's flagging enrollment.

Chris Detrick
Utah could have nearly 50 percent more students in charter schools by the 2010-11 school year if the state Board of Education approves several new schools and agrees to expand others at its next meeting.

Concerned about rising college tuition bills and the plummeting economy, the Pennsylvania State Board of Education this week began hearings on college affordability, with an eye toward improving access and lowering costs for the state's students.

The government is considering cutting student grants and freezing the number of university places after it drastically miscalculated increases in the bill for higher education, the Guardian has learned. It would constitute a major U-turn, reversing last year's pledge to raise the number of stud

Revolutionary academy plans to help the problems of disenfranchised youth
By Richard Garner
The schools are based on the philosophy of the Austrian intellectual Rudolf Steiner. Children do not start formal schooling until six. Till then, rather than prepare for their first SATs national curriculum tests at seven, they typically play with simple wooden toys instead of bright plastic ones to allow their imaginations to develop.

After hearing that $45 million had been cut statewide for textbooks in the last legislative session, she couldn't understand why her daughter, who attends O.K. Adcock Elementary School, doesn't use the textbooks she has.

Donors have given more than $700,000 to support a proposed $7 billion bond that would benefit charter schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District. The Yes on Measure Q campaign reported on Thursday receiving $440,500 in the first 21/2 weeks of October, bringing the total sum of contributions to $704,800

Tuition hikes at nearly every college and university in the country may be imminent due to the current state of the economy. Consequently, paying for school is becoming increasingly difficult as private lenders become ever scarcer

Playwright extols value of free education as he donates his archive to the Bodleian library

DAYTON — The University of Dayton and the Dayton Early College Academy were recognized Friday, Oct. 24, as an exemplary partnership between a university and an urban school district that has had a significant impact on teaching and learning.

Mr. Scott met with Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, school board President Jack Lowe, trustee Carla Ranger, several members of the Texas Legislature and other district and TEA employees on Friday to discuss the district's financial problems.

Hundreds of thousands of book stolen by the Nazis are still in German libraries. A few librarians are acting like detectives, searching for the books and hoping to return them to the former owners or their families. However, many libraries have shown little interest in the troubling legacy tucked away on their shelves

"There's our home school, magnet schools, traditional schools … and then there are all these new magnet programs," said Henderson, who lives in the Highlands. "I'm just glad that they have the showcase, because all of the schools will be under one roof. I plan on being there several hours."

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
A GCSE examination taken by thousands of students was deliberately dumbed down to make it easier to pass, examiners have admitted. The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance - Britain's biggest exam board - said it lowered grade boundaries in science tests to make papers less demanding than previous years.

District falls farther from federal guideline
The latest graduation rates are a sinking sign for a school district with the motto "Every Child. Every Day. College Bound." Only 66.9 percent of the 2004 freshman class at Memphis City Schools received diplomas this spring, down nearly 3 percentage points from last year.

 
French revisionists are using the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 to accuse England's men of acting like 'war criminals'.

A 400-year-old volume of Shakespeare's work worth £15 million was returned to Britain today - 10 years after it was stolen.

First lady Laura Bush yesterday gave a national history teacher of the year award to a Massachusetts high school instructor who advocates using, original sources in class.

Heads in Scotland warn the SQA chaos in 2000 could be repeated unless ministers rethink an overhaul of the exam system. School Leaders Scotland (SLS), the heads' union, maintains the proposals are incomplete and seriously flawed.

The number of pupils suspended 10 times or more in a year more than doubled between 2004 and 2007, while permanent exclusions fell by 13%. Disruptive pupils are being given repeat suspensions rather than being permanently excluded from England's schools, official figures suggest.

New book blames race for 'bigotry' in society
Unrepentant terrorist William Ayers and his wife, onetime federal fugitive Bernardine Dohrn, are releasing a new book that blames whites for the problems in the U.S. since its independence from Great Britain more than two centuries ago.

By Bill Turque
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and the Washington Teachers' Union -- aided by its national parent organization -- are digging in for what could be a protracted struggle over Rhee's plan to fire instructors deemed to be ineffective.

The increasing number of raids on undocumented immigrants is putting a hardship on public schools, who are left to care for students stranded on campus after parents are taken into custody, leaders of some of the nation's largest school systems said Friday.

Two former professors sued last year, claiming they had been forced out after uncovering financial and ethical wrongdoing.

By ELISSA GOOTMAN
An elaborate $80 million system that was supposed to be ready in September has been unavailable, and 21 principals have turned to a program created at a Brooklyn high school to track progress.

By KATE ZERNIKE
Gov. Sarah Palin vowed that a McCain administration would allow all special-needs students the choice of attending private schools at public expense.

Welcome to Facing Race, a National Conference sponsored by the Applied Research Center. From the thousands rallying for the Jena Six in Louisiana, to the outcry against the upsurge in nooses and hate crimes, to the protests against fatal police shootings, the continued struggle to recover on the Gulf Coast, and the fight for immigrants’ rights as raids rip apart families, our communities are working to change the rules so that privileges and punishments are not determined by the color of our skin.

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, speaking Thursday morning alongside seven experts tasked with studying the problems at the Louisiana School for the Deaf, reiterated his pledge to reopen the school on the tentative date of Nov. 3.

The Francis Howell North squad was the only one with hearing impaired cheerleaders that Missouri NCA officials could recall at recent summer camps.

Late last week, the University of Nebraska rescinded an invitation to William Ayers to speak on its campus after the election. Mr. Ayers, the co-founder of the Weather Underground and the man responsible for bombing a number of federal buildings in the 1960s, has been the subject of much media attention recently, thanks to his associations with Barack Obama.

AUSTIN — Community and state technical colleges are fueling enrollment growth in the state of Texas, a trend that will likely continue for years to come, according to preliminary fall enrollment numbers released Thursday by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

A key legislator discouraged leaders at the state's public colleges and universities from passing on to students the pain of budget cuts through a mid-year bump in the cost of tuition. Most of the state's higher education institutions took a 15 percent hit to their 2008-09 budgets in the latest round of budget slashing in Columbia. The state Senate approved the cost-cutting plan Thursday.

by Andrea Gordon
A growing number of parents and family therapists are seeking help for teens who appear to be hooked on cyberspace.

Teachers in private schools and colleges with grievances against their institutions may soon be able to seek government intervention through a controversial job dispute

A salary roster UNLV released this week shows 1,427 of 1,968 faculty and professional staff members are receiving merit-based raises this fiscal year worth $1,000 to $4,500 annually. That means 72.5 percent of UNLV workers eligible for merit pay were awarded it

The Government has announced that children as young as five will receive sex and relationship education lessons under plans to cut teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Sex and relationship education will become compulsory for all five to 16-year-olds in English state schools under proposals expected to come into force in September 2010.

Children as young as five will receive compulsory lessons in sex education and the dangers of drink and drugs, the Government announced.

A CSUN graduate student was arrested last week in Iran and locked up in a notorious prison, and family and friends worried for her safety have launched an international campaign seeking her release.

Dallas schools superintendent Michael Hinojosa said Wednesday that bilingual teachers were largely protected from recent layoffs because of the district's student population. Students with limited English proficiency now number 53,785 in DISD, or 34 percent of total enrollment. There are 105,075 Hispanic students, making up 66 percent of students

School-related shootings, high dropout rates and a lack of parental involvement are among the litany of problems plaguing Detroit Public Schools students

Local organizers of this year’s Texas Association for Bilingual Education state conference hope having the event in Arlington will draw attention to the growing number of students who are learning English while attending North Texas schools.

Iowa City, Ia. - University of Iowa President Sally Mason must lead the school in creating a new process to investigate sexual assaults on campus, complete a search for at least three new top administrators and make headway at restoring flood-damaged buildings to receive a $80,000 bonus in the coming year.

Utah's public school enrollment increased 2.5 percent from last fall, according to preliminary numbers released Thursday by the state office of education

A decision to send a group of London headteachers on a £60,000 trip to Arizona has been condemned as a waste of public money and "crashingly insensitive" given the financial crisis.

Refugee staff is key to the International Community School. But with credentials lost in war or flight and English not yet perfect, they are also a liability.
By Mary Wiltenburg
Not everyone can do it. The geography lesson is a riot of pens, plastic knives, and sawed-apart oranges, as sixth graders struggle to turn fruit into globes.

First Lady of California Maria Shriver (R) greets on stage Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Women's Conference 2008
LONG BEACH, California – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that failing public schools pose her greatest national security concern, one she warned could undermine the United States' ability to lead and to compete in a global economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your child is less likely to graduate from high school than you were, and most states are doing little to hold schools accountable, according to a study by a children's advocacy group.

Calvert County board votes to keep a book about two male penguins on the shelf in the children's section.

William R. Hite Jr., the second-in-command of Pr. George's schools, will step in for outgoing chief John E. Deasy, who is leaving the position to work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

NORMANDY, Mo. (AP) — Students at a suburban St. Louis high school headed to the gymnasium for HIV testing this week after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.

AUSTIN — A state district judge has issued a $16.2 million judgment to the parents of a University of Texas freshman who died two years ago in what authorities said was an alcohol-related hazing incident.

by Bruce Alpert
WASHINGTON -- Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas says schools would be the winners if Congress adopts parts of both Barack Obama's and John McCain's education platforms.

Students set on attending a Cal State campus next fall may want to fire off an application right now. The 23-campus California State University system already has seen a 24 percent increase in applications at a time when the state budget crunch is forcing many of the campuses to consider closing application windows early and capping or reducing enrollment levels for fall 2009.

A controversial plan to standardize the calculation of high school grade point averages across the state was revised at the last minute by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Commissioner Raymund Paredes.

Baltimore Examiner and Washington Examiner
The future of downloadable school books isn't here yet, but with its purchase of 147 Amazon Kindles, the Granite School District is counting on it. At $359 apiece, the wireless devices aren't cheap

A U.S. university was shut down on Wednesday following reports saying that gun shots were fired during altercations, said a TV report.

VietNamNet Bridge – Transferring from junior college to university has become the choice of many students since it allows them to have higher education even with a low start.

BRITISH COLUMBIA - British Columbia is the least-generous province in Canada when it comes to non-repayable financial aid for needy post-secondary students, says a report released Wednesday in Montreal.

The 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, including West Chester and Cheyney, will be faced with some unexpected budget slashing in the coming months, courtesy of the cash-strapped state.

Debate over the power of the legislative branch to change the Constitution is flourishing following the release of the reasoning behind the Constitutional Court's decision to void the government's headscarf amendments. “Can Parliament amend the Constitution?

by Trish Crawford
Boys, not just girls, should also be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), says the Nobel-prize winning

By YOAV GONEN
A faulty entrance exam may have excluded thousands of brainy teens from coveted seats at the city's nine specialized high schools, a study claims. Many students who weren't accepted at...