Daily EducationNews.org
Thursday, April 20, 2006

Arizona Republic
Governor: AIMS hurdle still in place
Gov. Janet Napolitano said high school students shouldn't read too much into a class-action lawsuit that tries to block use of the AIMS test as a graduation requirement.

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

Baltimore Sun
Pupils put learning into orbit
Astronaut helps kids at Rosemont explore math and science

Boston Globe
Poll: Parents confident about 'No Child'
WASHINGTON -- Setting high expectations for students has become such a priority that Congress passed a law about it. Now schools must make sure all children succeed in math and reading, no matter what their language barrier or level of poverty or support at home.

Governor embraces L.A. mayor's school plan
LOS ANGELES -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday embraced Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school takeover plan, giving the mayor a highly visible ally in his drive to gain control of the troubled regional school system.

Making the grade
As deadline looms, teachers scramble to document competency
John Fergus has been a history teacher for nearly a decade. He has a master's degree in secondary education, is enrolled in a doctoral program, and has taken classes that allow him to teach advanced placement courses at Revere High School.

Charlotte Observer
Student walkouts stir debate at CMS
Officials want to allow peaceful protests while minimizing absences
A walkout by 40 Latino students Tuesday -- the third in nine days -- has Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools debating how to allow peaceful protests and still enforce discipline.

Dallas Morning News
Panel OKs backup tax fix
House tax writers approved a stopgap tax relief bill Wednesday, preparing a temporary fix to the state's school finance system despite arguments that it would mainly benefit rich districts and block many others from raising money in the future.

Students ditch walkout plan for voter registration drive

Denver Post
2,500 join schools walkout
Hundreds of students spilled out of Denver's North High School on Wednesday morning - officially, an unexcused absence - for a 2.5-mile march that grew into an immigrant- rights rally and served as both energetic political statement and ultimate teachable moment

eSchool News
Stanford targets gifted high schoolers
Stanford-run online high school aims to help top students excel

Houston Chronicle
Admit it: State's insurance for low-income children is broken. No other child should lose coverage until it's fixed.

Inside Higher ED
A Win for Anti-Bias Policies  
Federal judge says public university doesn't have to recognize student groups that discriminate.

Cary Nelson's New Platform  
Outspoken advocate elected president of American Association of University Professors.

Pitchin' a Tent  
"Tent State Universities" pop up around the country as students try to promote funding of public higher education.

Las Vegas Sun
Six principals apply for local-control program
Only six Clark County school principals have asked to join the district's pilot program giving individual schools more control over staffing, budgets and instruction  ...

Lexington Herald-Leader
Going to prom willingly but not excitedly
By Merlene Davis, HERALD-LEADER COLUMNIST
Nearly everything in our older son's social life changes overnight, which doesn't seem to phase him in the least. After first vowing not to go to the prom, he agreed to go alone and in a pastel tuxedo. Now, he has decided to go to the prom with a date.

Los Angeles Daily News
Mayor finds ally in Capitol
Setting the stage for a fierce fight with the unions and other allies of Los Angeles Unified, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that he is "100 percent" behind Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to revolutionize the school district.

Academic army
LOS Angeles school officials hoping to ward off Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's takeover advances should pay close attention to the tutoring program at Sylmar High School.  

Teacher's car taken by 8-year-old pupil

Los Angeles Times
L.A. Schools Plan Splits Capitol
By Jordan Rau and Nancy Vogel
Governor backs mayor's takeover proposal, which faces a battle from teachers unions, some legislators and other cities in district.

Bush Lays Out His Plan to Protect America's Economic Standing
By James Gerstenzang
His goal is to improve math and science education and to restore a tax credit for research.

Miami Herald
Schools' zero-tolerance policy blasted
BY PETER BAILEY
A poorly defined and overused zero-tolerance policy, meant to deter violent crime in Florida public schools, has resulted in thousands of students being funneled into the juvenile detention system for minor offenses, according to a study being released today.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Deal to ease access from MATC to UW
Liberal arts students at Milwaukee Area Technical College who achieve a 3.0 grade-point average and 54 credits would be guaranteed admission to UW-Madison as transfers under an agreement that is nearing completion.

New York Post
IVY LEAGUE BILL
AP Chevy Chase, Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld - how about Bill Clinton? Princeton University's Class of '06 decided the former president was the best person to liven up Class Day, an annual bash the New Jersey college's graduating class throws itself the day before commencement ceremonies.

DOUBTS ON TEACHER INCENTIVES
By DAVID ANDREATTA
Educators across the country said yesterday New York City is right on track with new housing incentives for hard-to-find teachers - but doubted that longtime veteran instructors would be swayed by the offer.

New York Times
Duke Player Has Proof of Innocence, Lawyer Says
By DUFF WILSON
The lawyer for a Duke University lacrosse player charged with raping a woman at a team party said he had "irrefutable, independent evidence" that the player was not there when the woman says the rape occurred.

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.

The Teacher Subsidy
Elected officials must do whatever it takes to make sure that more of the most talented math and science students end up in classrooms and spend their careers there.

Palm Beach Post
Charter school check: State's getting closer
Christine Noe, director of the Florida Charter School Resource Center, resigned this year just as investigators began questioning $37,000 in travel and purchases charged to the center's credit card.

Pasadena Star News
Lemonade sale backs teachers
SOUTH PASADENA - When life gave a group of middle-schoolers lemons, they made lemonade, held a bake sale and circulated petitions.

Philadelphia Daily News
K12 Inc. could lose $3M district contract
By MENSAH M. DEAN
K12 Inc., the science-curriculum company whose founder, former education secretary William J. Bennett, drew fire last fall for suggesting that aborting black babies would reduce crime, is on the verge of losing its $3 million contract with the School District of Philadelphia.

District pushing teacher diversity
Eighty-five percent of students in the School District of Philadelphia are children of color, while teachers of color make up only 38 percent, the district's chief executive officer, Paul Vallas, said yesterday at a news conference announcing a new Teacher Diversity Campaign, designed to increase the ethnic diversity of its teachers.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Schools pay price for voters' discontent
Tax worries are blamed for broad budget defeats.
By Kristen A. Graham and Kaitlin Gurney, Inquirer Staff Writers
The message came loud and clear in the soundest trouncing of school budgets in years: New Jersey voters' wallets have been hit too hard, and they struck back in the only way available to them.

A move toward citywide educational equity
By Susan Snyder, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission approved a resolution yesterday promising to equalize educational services and programs throughout different areas of the city over the next four years.

School district plans program to draw minority teachers
By Susan Snyder, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia School District, in partnership with several colleges and associations, will create a student-teaching institute designed to increase the number of minority teachers in the district, officials announced yesterday.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bush aide to head St. Vincent College
Two years ago, H. James Towey had never heard of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, but now he has agreed to leave his Cabinet-level job to become the college's president July 1.

Richmond Times Dispatch
Emergency-broadcast plan tossed?
After spending years and thousands of dollars studying enhancements to a radio tower used by the schools supervisors are expected to scrap it.

Rocky Mountain News
Luck, love brought then-chemist to DU
Robert Coombe is in love. It's a romance that started nearly 25 years ago, when the chemist followed his heart to Denver, leaving his job just short of being vested in his company's lucrative retirement plan.

San Antonio Express-News
'Get out of Dodge' to get out of Austin?
Lawmakers advance school measure to meet minimum requirement.

San Diego Union Tribune 
Plan calls for selling off-campus property
A bailout plan for a San Diego State-related organization to pay off a $25 million debt gained initial approval yesterday.

San Francisco Chronicle
UC journalism school dean to step down
Charles Burress
Orville Schell, dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, plans to step down after 10 years, the campus will announce today. Schell, an award-winning journalist and China expert, said he wants to focus more...

San Jose Mercury 
More than 55,000 freshmen offered fall admission
More than 55,000 students have been accepted to the prestigious University of California this fall, setting a new record.

St. Louis Post Dispatch 
Success is an 'us' thing, SLU president says
The region's fiefdoms, polarization and overall "myopic attitude" are holding St. Louis back from greatness, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi told an auditorium full of community leaders and friends Wednesday.

Tallahassee Democrat
Students stage sit-in at Capitol
Local college students, dissatisfied with Gov. Jeb Bush's response to their demands for justice on behalf of Martin Lee Anderson, spent the night camped outside the governor's office.

Universities may get less money than thought
Florida's 11 universities may not get $283 million of $941 million in expected construction money over the next three years.

Washington Post
President's Salary, Transcripts Probed
D.C. Inspector General's office is investigating a charter school's decision to pay a $100,000 salary to a board member who served as school president and allegations that the principal attempted to alter transcripts to improve the school's overall grade-point average.

Finalists Identified, Called Highly Qualified
All three finalists for superintendent of Anne Arundel schools have put in time as educators in the Washington region. But they are men at very different points in their careers.

International Articles

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Students 'told to sue over exams'
Students are being urged to sue universities over a lecturers' marking boycott, a report says.

Two-year courses 'devalue degree'
Plans to allow students to study for degrees over two years will "devalue" the qualification, a union says.

Academies plan 'must be halted'
The city academies scheme should be suspended amid "unsavoury information" about funding, governors say.

The Daily Telegraph (UK) 
Fight for a better deal
Susan Bassnett , a senior academic at a leading university, knows what is needed to bring quality back to our campuses.

The Gulf Times
School aims for greater heights
The American School of Doha (ASD) formally launched The Friends of ASD Foundation yesterday.

The Independent (UK)
Legal threat over lecturers' dispute
Lawyers are to encourage students to sue their university or college for "breach of contract" if their degree course is disrupted by the increasingly bitter academics' pay dispute.

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

The Peninsula
TAMU hosts representatives from Qatar govt agencies
DOHA: Texas A&M University (TAMU) of College Station, Texas in the US, recently hosted representatives from Qatari government agencies, the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, the Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development and the Planning Council to discuss cooperation on research and policy development.

The Press New Zealand
Dad fined $500 for assaulting school bully