Daily EducationNews.org
Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Arizona Republic
Enrollment drop curtails teacher raises
Tolleson Elementary School District teachers will get a lesser raise next school year due to lower enrollment numbers.

Baltimore Sun
With state plans at bay, city acts to save schools
Officials move quickly after winning back control in legislature

Boston Globe
Legislators block Illinois junk food ban
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The Illinois Board of Education's plan to restrict junk food in elementary and middle schools was blocked Tuesday by a legislative committee that said the state should also address the quality of cafeteria meals.

Judge lifts decree on L.A. school teachers
LOS ANGELES -- Satisfied with efforts to spread experienced teachers more uniformly across Los Angeles' 750 schools, a judge lifted a consent decree imposed 15 years ago on the school district.

Charlotte Observer
Gorman wins job as CMS superintendent
Contract negotiations to begin; $1 billion budget request OK'd
Peter Gorman was picked as the next superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, giving the district a new face as it struggles to regain trust.

Chicago Sun-Times
Colleges can snub 'perfect'
In college admissions this year, perfect is no longer good enough. Adam Ammar scored a perfect 36 on the ACT college entrance exam. Only 251 students out of the 2.1 million who took the test -- .01 percent -- scored so well last year.

Dallas Morning News
UT applications rise with on-field success
Yeah, you were pumped as you watched the Longhorns win the Rose Bowl in January. But that thrill of victory may have cost your kid a coveted slot in this fall's freshman class at the University of Texas at Austin.

Denver Post
Parents & protest
Whether the issue is speech rights in the classroom, immigration reform or academic freedom, students and parents in Colorado's public schools appear more willing to take sides in the culture wars.

Detroit News
U-M drops its ban on Coke products
Coca-Cola drinks will soon be back in vending machines at the University of Michigan after the university restored its 13 contracts worth $1.4 million with the soda giant Tuesday.

eSchool News
State funding to the rescue?
Educational technology in line for state dollars as fiscal outlooks brighten

Inside Higher ED
Out of Control Admissions Hype  
This year's headlines aren't only deceptive, but they may be needlessly discouraging students, many experts say.

The Race to Frame  
Will Michigan become the next state to ban affirmative action at public universities?

Comeback for Coke?  
U. of Michigan abandons boycott. Its officials says the company agreed to real changes, but activists say the shift is a sham.

Los Angeles Times
As New Schools Are Put Up, Quake Retrofits Are Put Off By Sharon Bernstein Repairs lag at L.A. Unified and other districts. The statewide cost could hit $5 billion.

Better Teachers, but Still Too Few
By Carla Rivera
More classes in the state are being taught by qualified instructors, but inner-city schools continue to lag, a federal commission is told.

Newsday
LI schools fix menus, gym programs
Local districts race to trim fat from menus and improve gyms, in effort to meet federal September deadline

New York Daily News 
Ed Dept. plans report cards on all schools
Finding out how your kid's school is doing will soon be as easy as A, B, C, D and F. The Department of Education unveiled a streamlined rating system yesterday that will assign every public school an old-fashioned letter grade.

Supersize kids' fast-food smarts
Lenore Skenazy: The sign at McDonald's says, "99 billion served." So why is it worried about a new book for middle school kids? Because the guy behind the book is Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation." That best-seller breathed new life into a stale topic: the fact that fast food is - surprise - bad for you (and for the animals getting nuggetized, and the world getting ever more homogenized).

Transform teaching now
Kevin Carey: For all the New York City students working to meet rigorous new academic standards, nothing is more important than having a good teacher. Teaching is a tough job, requiring a high level of talent, drive, knowledge and skill. But a new study of graduating college seniors found that students who major in education - the future teachers of America - have lower levels of literacy than all other students studied.

New York Post
GRADE-A SCHOOLS TO GET PRIME KLEIN CASH
By DAVID ANDREATTA
Think your child's public school makes the grade? You'll know next year. The city will begin rating each of its 1,400 schools next year with letter grades as part of a new initiative aimed at holding schools accountable for their

PRINCIPAL PRAISES NEW 'QUALITY' CONTROL
By DAVID ANDREATTA When Bob Lubetsky, principal of City-As-School HS in Manhattan, was offered a chance to have the "quality" of his school evaluated by a private firm, he opened his doors.

New York Times
Principals' Jobs on Line as City Grades Schools
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
New York City will give grades from A to F each year and principals at failing schools could be removed.

Panel Considers Revamping College Aid and Accrediting
By SAM DILLON
One proposal calls for scrapping the current system of accreditation in favor of a National Accreditation Foundation created by Congress and the president.

A District Coming to Terms With the American Swirl
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Even as Greenwich, Conn., remains one of the wealthiest communities of its size in the country, its public schools have grown racially, ethnically and economically varied.

Oregon Register-Guard
Students bear the flag at immigration rally
They wore white T-shirts to symbolize peace, waved U.S. and Mexican flags, and turned out by the hundreds in a daylong rally at the Federal Building in Eugene, one of dozens around the nation .

Philadelphia Inquirer
Teacher firings in Phila. are up
Tighter monitoring has led to 19 this year. Still, dismissals due to poor performance are not easy, educators say.
By Susan Snyder, Inquirer Staff Writer
Few teachers get fired in the Philadelphia School District, but this year the number has more than doubled as the district, under federal pressure to raise student achievement, has encouraged principals to observe and evaluate teachers more aggressively.

Rocky Mountain News
Kepner students take a long protest walk
Yet another student walkout Tuesday at a Denver school, coupled with rumors of two larger rallies in coming weeks, has Denver Public Schools leaders issuing guidelines on how to react to student protests.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Poll finds faith important to most college students
Religion, morality could affect voting behaviors
BY JENNIFER MARTINEZ, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - A majority of U.S. college students say religion is important in their lives and that they're concerned about the country's moral direction, a finding that could influence the way they vote in upcoming elections, according to a poll released Tuesday.

San Antonio Express-News

San Diego Union Tribune 
College Board president apologizes for SAT scoring mistake in e-mail :
The president of the College Board sent an e-mail to the group's members Tuesday apologizing for scoring problems on the SAT exam. He pledged the organization would learn from the experience.

San Jose Mercury 
First virtual high school for the gifted
AIM IS TO NURTURE TALENT
Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth is taking the next logical step: launching what is believed to be the nation's first online high school for gifted students.

Seattle Times 
"Everybody's jockeying" to get college
A four-year state college in Snohomish County is still largely a fervent wish - a row of gleaming Corinthian columns on the horizon...

Private school plans rigorous IB program
Today: Edmonds School Superintendent Nick Brossoit will host a noon discussion at district headquarters, 20420 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood, on building community...

Washington Post
Kaine to Name Cannaday Schools Chief
Va. Governor will announce that he is appointing Billy K. Cannaday Jr., superintendent of the Chesterfield County school system, to be Virginia's top schools official.

Wichita Eagle
State hears opinions on sex ed
BY ICESS FERNANDEZ, The Wichita Eagle
State Board of Education members put off taking action Tuesday on a proposal to add abstinence-only education to the state's sex education curriculum.

Wilmington News Journal
State to alter how it counts test results
Special-needs scores mask progress
The state Department of Education has agreed to change the way it counts the scores of some special-needs students in assessing schools' progress toward federal targets set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

International Articles

The Australian
Students fight for grammar
A BAND of high school students fearing for the quality of their education has joined the fight against new teaching methods that dictate that students cannot be failed for poor spelling and grammar.

School head defends hardline Islamic teacher
THE principal of an Islamic high school in Perth has described as a "peaceful man" one of his teachers who labelled Christians and Jews as the enemy.

High school strategies pay off for future of science
SEVEN years ago the science faculty at Gosford High School in NSW looked at attitudes and influences to science, engineering and technology and came up with very similar conclusions to the recent Macquarie study. We examined each influence and designed and implemented a range of strategies to revitalise science in the school.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Schools to get £50m for diplomas
Schools and colleges which offer diplomas in subjects like engineering will get an extra £50m, the government says.

4x4 vehicles 'school run hazard'
Danger signs should be placed on 4x4 vehicles to prevent parents from using them on the school run, teachers say

Children 'must have a childhood'
Children are facing increasing pressure to grow up and must be allowed a childhood, teachers say.

The Daily Yomiuri 
Princess Aiko starts kindergarten in Tokyo
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, entered Gakushuin Kindergarten on Tuesday.

The Globe and Mail
The Educators
JAMES ADAMS 
They've held their top jobs for 15 years -- longer than most people expected, writes JAMES ADAMS. But Robert Sirman says his long tenure has steered the rebirth of the National Ballet School, just as Peter Simon has turned around the Royal Conservatory of Music

U. of Michigan ends Coca-Cola boycott

The Guardian 
Royal Society attacks teaching of creationism as science
Education: Theory likened to belief that storks bring babies

The Independent (UK)
Faith schools are 'at odds with reason', says chaplain
Teachers' leaders have demanded an end to the funding of more faith schools, saying pupils risked being indoctrinated by religious extremists.