Daily EducationNews.org
Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Arizona Republic
More students facing drug testing
Student athletes, cheerleaders and musicians who participate in after-school activities have increasingly been subject to random drug testing.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Regents make deal on tuition
Rates increased 4-7 percent, but incoming freshmen offered locked-in price.

Incoming college freshmen offered locked-in price
Rates to increase, but rate guaranteed for four years

Anxiety high as 8th-graders take rigorous test

Baltimore Sun
High school graduation gap more than racial
Gregory Kane
Anew Manhattan Institute study released today has the title "Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates."

Charlotte Observer
Charlotte nonprofit tackles education issues
When a staff member at Pineville's Sterling Elementary approached Whitni Wilson-Wertz about parent-leadership training, her response was immediate:

Chicago Tribune 
Parents of truant student charged
PORTAGE, Ind -- Parents of a 13-year-old Portage girl who has missed 102 days of school this year have been charged with educational neglect of a dependent.

Columbus Dispatch
Loophole lets schools exclude minority scores
LaTonya Robinson knows her son did well on tests at his Columbus elementary school. What she didn't know was the limits the school put on reporting his results.

Dallas Morning News
Religious group still irked over campus rights
Information about a Bible study group has returned to a Plano school's Web site, but the surrounding legal battle continues.

Denver Post
Making the new grade
It's one thing to set the academic bar higher. But the key to Denver's proposed tougher graduation requirements lies in a commitment to helping students surmount it, education experts said Tuesday.

Des Moines Register
Officials: D.M. graduation rate estimate too high
The Des Moines public schools' 2005 graduation rate of 79.5 percent is probably too high of an estimate, but so are estimates at other Iowa school districts, said Des Moines school officials.

Detroit News
Parents back early sex ed in schools
Many parents in Howell Public Schools want various aspects of sex education to be taught to their children at a younger age.

Houston Chronicle
Harris County DA eyes Slade's spending at TSU
A day after the university's governing board decided to fire Priscilla Slade as president, District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said his office is reviewing the results of the regents' investigation into more than $260,000 of questionable expenses.

Moving on: TSU regents' decision to fire President Priscilla Slade was fair, decisive and best for the university

Many students in Texas exempt from No Child law
Schools with small enrollments don't have to report the test results for ethnic groups

Commissioners, Harris tax chief clash over HISD
Commissioners argue Bettencourt kept them in dark on his proposal to collect school taxes

Indianapolis Star-Tribune
Teachers plan suit over financing
Union wants more cash to meet stricter standards Indiana would become the 33rd state to face a court challenge over how it pays for schools if a teachers union follows through this week with plans to sue for more money.

Inside Higher ED
Be Polite, E-Polite
Some professors respond to publicity about students' online demands by setting out some rules

Dissent vs. Vandalism  
Northern Kentucky suspends professor photographed removing anti-abortion display on campus.

Reprimand at Penn State  
University finds that women's basketball coach - long accused of anti-lesbian bias - created "intimidating and offensive" environment.

Los Angeles Daily News
Villaraigosa promises to fix L.A.'s problems while calling for a Revolution in education
BY RICK ORLOV, Staff Write
Promising to confront the city's problems and make each tax dollar count, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed on Tuesday a six-year experiment in school reform led by an education czar empowered to streamline the bureaucracy and oversee schools largely run by parents, teachers and principals.

Saving the LAUSD
In last night's State of the City speech, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa finally offered some details of his plan to reform Los Angeles public schools, setting the stage for a showdown with the failed education establishment.  

Los Angeles Times
Panel Votes to Cut Money for State Education Board
By Carla Rivera
Assembly members seek to slash $1.6 million for staff members and to allow schools to spend government funds on unapproved texts

Mayor's School Takeover Would Bypass Local Voters
By Duke Helfand and Steve Hymon
Villaraigosa plans to ask legislators for control. He would lead a council that approves the budget and decides the superintendent's fate.

Critics Fear Plan Gives Mayor Too Much Power
By J. Michael Kennedy and Joel Rubin
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's call for a dramatic change in how local schools are governed received a largely harsh reception Tuesday as critics questioned whether the plan would give him too much power, and even supporters warned of significant political opposition.

Miami Herald
Communities unite to save failing schools
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR
The schools have been dying for years without much attention, like a bedridden aunt that everyone loves but no one can find time to visit anymore.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee near bottom for graduation rates
Milwaukee public high schools have one of the worst graduation rates in the country among large school districts, according to a new report that takes the unusual step of trying to make comparisons across large school districts as well as states.

New York Post
TEACHERS TO GET 'HOUSE' MONEY
By DAVID ANDREATTA In an effort to lure experienced teachers in hard-to-staff subjects like math and science, the city will offer nearly $15,000 in housing incentives to recruits, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said yesterday.

BID TO JAIL POLS WHO DON'T COUGH UP SCHOOL BUCKS
AP Advocates who were promised billions of dollars in extra state funds for the city's public schools are asking the state's highest court to force Albany lawmakers to pay the full amount - or face fines and jail time.

New York Times
New York Offers Housing Subsidy as Teacher Lure
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
The city will offer up to $14,600 to help recruit new math, science and special education teachers.

Boys Are No Match for Girls in Completing High School
By TAMAR LEWIN
In 2003, about 72 percent of girls but only 65 percent of boys earned diplomas, a gender gap that is far more pronounced among minorities.

Collegians Smoking Hookahs ... Filled With Tobacco
By TAMAR LEWIN
Hookah bars have been cropping up in immigrant enclaves and have made inroads in chic downtown areas. Now, college students are discovering their appeal.

Philadelphia Daily News
Education initiative launched for northwest
By MENSAH M. DEAN
Less than 25 percent of Philadelphia's youth graduate from high school with enough skills to go to college or career-training programs, according to education advocates who yesterday launched a 10-year initiative to support children through every stage of development.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
State certifies city schools math expert
Diane Briars, the Pittsburgh Public Schools' top math and science officer, is back at work after state Secretary of Education Gerald L. Zahorchak said other aspects of her career compensated for a lack of classroom teaching experience.

Rocky Mountain News
Businesses stress education
Business leaders believe improving schools is more important to the state's economy than such traditional steps as lowering corporate taxes.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
U business school to put star students on road to college
Arlington, Henry freshmen will be picked for four-year program
BY PAUL TOSTO, Pioneer Press
As many as 80 high school freshmen from St. Paul and Minneapolis will land the recruiting offer of a lifetime this fall - four years of academic help from the University of Minnesota's business school intended to groom them for the U.

San Antonio Express-News
'Robin Hood' being held up in Boerne
'Rich' district wants a ruling about dying finance law.

Perry touting bigger cut in homeowners' taxes
But some say money from surplus should boost education funds.

UT System to produce public TV series
Shows will highlight the contributions of public higher education in tackling challenges facing the state.

San Diego Union Tribune 
46 questions posed for charter school for gifted
Before Encinitas trustees are prepared to approve a proposal for a charter school geared toward gifted students they'd like the answers to numerous questions, such as how the petitioners would determine if a child is gifted and whether nongifted children would be admitted to the school.

San Jose Mercury 
Poll: Preschool measure still winning
BUT FORMIDABLE ADVANTAGE FOR PROPOSITION 82 HAS NARROWED SINCE MARCH, AFTER ATTACKS
California voters support Proposition 82, dubbed the Preschool for All Act, by a 13-point margin, according to a Field Poll released Wednesday.

Seattle Times 
Math camp a plus with WASL looming
Anthony Esposo recognized that the two lines on the geometry problem were parallel, but he didn't know how to put his understanding into...

USA Today 
Free speech' cries ring hollow on college campuses and beyond
By Nat Hentoff
Karen Murdock is an adjunct professor of geography and earth science at Century College, a two-year community college in White Bear Lake, Minn. She often posts news articles and blank comment sheets on a faculty bulletin board that she says she hopes students read and argue about ?and thereby think beyond White Bear Lake into the world.

Washington Post
More Master's Courses Designed To Expedite Students Into Jobs
New programs are career-oriented -- the biggest trend in master's-level education, which enrolls 1.1 million students

Wichita Eagle
Students learn CSI science
Students at Allison Traditional Magnet learned the fundamentals of crime scene investigating Tuesday. Sixth-graders learned in their science class how to dust for fingerprints. Groups of students placed fingerprints on beakers and then used powder and brushes to find and lift the prints.

Wilmington News Journal
Insurer sues Indian River School District
Board's rejection of prayer lawsuit settlement blamed

WorldNet Daily
Book-banning 'gay' profs forced to drop allegations
Librarian accused of 'sexual harassment' after recommending 'Marketing of Evil'
After the entire faculty voted, with no dissenters, to brand their head librarian as a sexual harasser because he recommended the bestselling book "The Marketing of Evil" as required reading for freshmen, Ohio State University has finally dropped its controversial charges in the glare of national media attention.

International Articles

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Head denies cash for honour claim
A head teacher arrested as part of a cash for honours probe says he will vigorously contest all allegations.

Rural schools face closure
Another three rural school in west Wales face closure under a programme to tackle spare pupil places.

Pupils 'might get Pepsi uniforms'
The government's education plans are ridiculed by the leader of Britain's biggest classroom union.

The Globe and Mail
Schools snub Maclean's survey
CAROLINE ALPHONSO 
Four universities shun graduate project, calling magazine's methodology 'flawed'

The Guardian 
Teachers' leader attacks school sponsorship plans
Education: Warning that businesses may hijack curriculum
· Former academies adviser denies honours claims

The Independent (UK)
Lessons in life: Why I'm teaching happiness
Anthony Seldon, the headmaster of Wellington College and renowned historian and author, is planning to instruct his pupils on how to be happy. Here he explains the thinking behind his pioneering curriculum

Blair faces backlash over drive for academy schools
Tony Blair will today face a backlash from his most senior Labour MPs over the drive to create the city academy schools which has fuelled the "cash for peerages" scandal.

The Peninsula
Cherie Blair to attend Shafallah opening
DOHA: H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, the wife of the Emir and Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation, will open the new premises of the Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs on May ..............

The Toronto Star
Throws like a girl
Samantha Mullins ignored the chatter and focused on making her school's boys baseball team roster when the Toronto District School Board season starts in a few weeks, writes David Grossman.