Daily EducationNews.org
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Decatur student wins top prize
Senior earns $15,000 scholarship for research on attitudes toward alcohol.

Schrenko jury to be selected
Ex-chief of schools accused of corruption

Boston Globe
The skittering claw
THE STORY SO FAR: Tommy Cawler is an unusually short 13-year-old. So short, in fact, that he is often mistaken for a 9-year-old. He finds out he is going to spend his summer vacation on a remote island in Maine with a grandfather he has never met.

The tools to turn schools around
By Gloria Larson and Paul Grogan
THE RECENT House Ways and Means Committee budget recommendation ignited a firestorm by proposing more than $70 million less in state education aid than was included in Governor Romney's budget proposal.

Cincinnati Enquirer
Bullied boy gets probation
A death threat from a Little Miami High School sophomore was spurred by endless name-calling and intimidation from classmates.

Dallas Morning News
Lunch isn't on us, schools tell parents
Some area districts owed thousands for unpaid student meals

Deseret News
Utah's public colleges fall behind in faculty pay
Utah's public colleges are falling behind in faculty pay, making it harder for some to retain professors and recruit new talent.

Helping deaf students read
Some researchers of deaf children advocate students learn to read in English before tackling American Sign Language. But not Marlon Kuntze, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley.

eSchool News
Feds to schools: Prepare for bird flu
Technology to play a key role in schools' contingency plans

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Trustees set to vote on student dress code
FORT WORTH -- School trustees tonight are expected to approve a standardized dress code for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and likely will add a twist for high schools: Each high school will vote on whether to set a standard for student clothing.

Herald Tribune
Schools put emphasis on reading
MANATEE COUNTY -- Middle school students here will probably be spending an extra 15 minutes in class next year learning to become better readers.

Houston Chronicle
Texas House OKs new tax on business
The $3 billion measure will now go to the Senate, with supporters hoping the two chambers will finally be able to agree on a tax overhaul. Four previous efforts in the past two years failed.

Pilot virtual schooling projects debut in Houston
HISD officials hope to launch a new state-approved "virtual school" for 200 students in the next few months.

University officials defend increases in tuition and fees

Inside Higher ED
Making the Case for Tenure  
Independent review offers upbeat assessment of U. of Colorado's practices and says public misunderstands tenure's value.

More Than a C- and a Heartbeat  
Some community colleges believe that focus on retention sets bar too low - and some long-accepted practices need rethinking.

Unapproved Pay for U. of Calif. Officials  
Audit finds that dozens of top administrators received benefits awarded without needed okay by regents.

Lexington Herald-Leader
Demand is high for summer activities for kids
By Rich Copley, HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Hear that ticking? It's the clock counting down until school's out. Do you know what your kids will be doing this summer? Laurie Evans, a writer for Lexington Family Magazine, says parents are increasingly looking to day camps for child care and enrichment.

Miami Herald
Book on Cuba will remain in school's library
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR
A controversial children's book about Cuba will stay on the shelves at a Miami-Dade school library following a committee's decision to reject a complaint filed by a parent.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
These cars go far on just a sip
More than 350 students from 41 Wisconsin high schools from Bayfield to Racine converged at the Road America racetrack Monday with homemade vehicles racing not for speed records - but rather to see how far they could travel on one tank of gas.

New York Daily News 
Teens protest plan for metal detectors
Nearly 50 high school students crashed the school chancellor's monthly meeting with advisors last night to protest spot metal detector scanning that starts tomorrow.

New York Post
PRINCIPAL COOK$ LUNCH BOOKS: PROBE
By DAVID ANDREATTA and DANIEL FRIEDMAN An aide at a Queens public elementary school, under the guidance of her principal, inflated its amount of federal poverty aid by lowering the salaries of parents listed on lunch forms, city investigators charged yesterday.

GOV GIVES SCHOOLS $11B BUILD BOOST
By DAVID SEIFMAN and DAVID ANDREATTA Twenty-one city school construction projects - including one stalled almost 40 years - will move forward this year, under an $11.2 billion funding package signed yesterday by Gov. Pataki.

New York Times
Harvard Novelist Says Copying Was Unintentional
By DINITIA SMITH
Kaavya Viswanathan, a sophomore, acknowledged that her recent chick-lit novel had borrowed language.

Oregon Register-Guard

Orlando Sentinel

Palm Beach Post
Senators sue state over FCAT data
Democratic leaders seek academic credentials of workers who grade essays.
TALLAHASSEE - Two Democratic senators filed a lawsuit Monday against the Florida Department of Education, saying the agency and its contractor violated state public records laws by refusing to release the names of the scorers of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

PSL schools may alter dress code
Superintendent's proposal would extend from kindergarten up to high school seniors.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
USC restores contested International Baccalaureate program
Faced with citizen pressure and a lawsuit, the Upper St. Clair school board voted last night to reinstate the district's International Baccalaureate program for at least two years.

Rocky Mountain News
Tenure trouble found
Panel finds many areas that it says should be fixed
A much-anticipated independent study of tenure at the University of Colorado found dozens of areas that need fixing, from professors who got the lifetime job protection despite poor evaluations to post-tenure reviews that aren't rigorous enough.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
State high school dancers fight for their sport
Officials, with eye on Title IX, would eliminate fall danceline
BY MARICELLA MIRANDA, Pioneer Press
Ashley Erickson has wanted to be a Blazette and perform in a danceline since she was a young girl. Blazettes stoke up Burnsville High School fans at pep fests and football games in the fall. In winter, they compete against other dance teams.

San Antonio Express-News
Carlos Guerra: Politics of privilege alive and well in the latest Austin session
Close to the front of the Texas Constitution - the nation's most-amended state charter - is Article 1, Section 3, which clearly states that "all free men have equal rights, and no man, or set of men, is entitled to exclusive separate public emoluments, or privileges."

Four vie to lead schools into growth era
Southwest ISD residents will pick two board members in an election next month.

Group aims to have mentors help kids whose parents are imprisoned
Rose Balderas remembers when her son Isaiah was full of aggression, fueled by circumstances out of his control.

San Diego Union Tribune 
UC paid top executives more than $1 million not disclosed to regents
Over the past decade, the University of California violated its compensation practices hundreds of times, providing more than $1 million of undisclosed additional pay to executives, including the president, an independent audit has found.

St. Louis Post Dispatch 
Parents oppose pupil transfers
Edwardsville School District parents who responded to a recent survey overwhelmingly did not want their elementary children bused from crowded schools to available space in other district schools.

Star Tribune
Jump-start for language
St. Paul schools are rated tops at closing the achievement gap for English learners.

Tallahassee Democrat
Dems sue for info on test graders
Senate Democrats sued Education Commissioner John Winn on Monday, saying his department violated Florida's public-records laws by not releasing information on people who grade the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Washington Post
Kindergarten to Rose Garden
Last fall it was a new car, $5,000 and a giant silver cup. Come tomorrow, it will be a visit to the White House, complete with presidential greeting in a Rose Garden ceremony.

10 Antidotes to College-Application Anxiety
by Jay Mathews
With the college search season almost at a close, how can students and parents reduce the stress? Admissions directors, guidance counselors and other admissions veterans have many suggestions.

D.C. Schools' Money Handling Criticized
The U.S. Department of Education has declared D.C. public schools at "high risk" for mismanaging federal funds, a rarely used designation.

Washington Times
Parents urged to monitor TV diet
By Gary Gentile
A coalition of entertainment groups will establish a $300 million educational campaign next month to urge parents to control what their children watch on television, the groups said yesterday.

Wilmington News Journal
School to offer science for real world
UD, Howard High program designed to get students to think in new ways

International Articles

The Australian
Author slams English syllabus
THE Year 12 English syllabus shows "contempt for literature" and does not spend enough time on the reading and studying of novels, plays and poetry.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Academies 'risky way to give £2m'
City academies are "a risky investment" for donors with £2m to put into education, a charity says.

Pre-school classes 'help pupils'
Pre-school education benefits children when they attend primary school, a study concludes.

University incomes and costs rise
Higher education in the UK had an income of £18bn in the last academic year, latest statistics show.

The Daily Telegraph (UK) 
True happiness is more than just feeling good
Pupils need to learn about morality - not positive psychology, says Richard Schoch .

The Globe and Mail
A place that doesn't hold back its best
GREG KEENAN, GORDON PITTS and HEATHER SCOFFIELD 
WATERLOO, ONT. -- Shoemaker Street traverses an industrial park in Kitchener, where there's no one left making shoes. The once-vital textile industry is a shadow of its former self. The last tire making factory in the onetime rubber capital of Canada will soon shut its doors.

The Guardian 
How heads bend the rules
Education: A quarter of headteachers surveyed admit they don't adhere to their school's policy on admissions.

The Peninsula
Qatar will attract talent from all of Mideast: Expert
DOHA: Qatar, which has a limited population and human resource, will attract talents from other countries of the Middle East to promote scientific research in the country, speakers at a working ..............

Arab League comes under spotlight at Doha Debates
DOHA: The faults and failures of the Arab League come under the spotlight at the Doha Debates this month, as Arab politicians and experts argue over the organization's future.