Daily EducationNews.org
Thursday, September 7, 2006

Akron Beacon-Journal
Science theories may face scrutiny
Ohio school board will consider template for controversial issues
The state school board will consider Monday whether the debate over intelligent design vs. evolution should have a second coming. At the request of the board, the Ohio Department of Education drafted a nine-page ``Controversial Issues Template.''

Arizona Republic
Brain network forms early, research says
It takes more than Baby Einstein DVDs to prepare a child for a lifetime of learning.

Boston Globe
Most post MCAS gains
As students in the northern suburbs settle into a new school year, educators are dusting off old practice exams and turning to new technology to inspire 10th -graders -- even those in the upper echelons -- to achieve better scores on the state's standardized tests.

Boston Herald
The incredible shrinking lunch: School kids moan over tiny portions
By Jessica Fargen & Cathy Flynn / Boston Herald and MetroWest Daily News
Bay State students looking to load up at lunch are growling about a new federal eating edict just launched that is shrinking school lunches...

Chicago Sun-Times
City schools adding 2,500 preschool openings
Taking a step toward offering free preschool for any child who wants it, Chicago will use $16.8 million in new state money to add at least 2,500 preschool students this year, pushing the number of kids in preschool to30,000.

Report: Higher education system sliding
The system of higher education in the United States, long seen as the best in the world, is starting to lag behind other countries, a new national report card says. Today's generation of students could end up less-educated than previous ones, the report card warns.

Cleveland Plain Dealer
School administrators well-paid
New Cleveland schools CEO Eugene Sanders came from Toledo with his talent and good reputation and about a dozen staffers from northwest Ohio, all of whom are earning salaries well into six figures.

Deseret News
8th grade target of ed plan
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and higher education bosses today are unveiling a Utah Scholars initiative, aimed at getting eighth-graders, with a little guidance, encouragement and some pats on the back, to prepare now for college and the workplace.

Detroit Free Press
Life without teachers
Joi May is getting worried. Her friends who go to charter schools have been in class for two days now but, because of the Detroit teachers strike, she has no idea when seventh grade will begin for her.

DETROIT TEACHERS STRIKE: Law isn't seen as magic bullet
As a Wayne County judge considers today whether to order 7,000 striking Detroit public school teachers back to the classroom, a bigger question remains about the constitutionality of the state law that prohibits public employees from striking and requires her to order the teachers back to work.

Detroit News
School strike law faces test
DETROIT -- Community leaders criticized a Detroit judge Wednesday as Republicans vowed to toughen a law that they believe should have forced striking teachers of Michigan's largest school district back into the classroom

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Far-out learning
Teachers plan to launch lessons inspired by NASA in effort to boost science interest
Science teachers Whitney Isbell and Susan Williams are spacing out this fall.

Hartford Courant
Literacy Program Emerging
Hartford school officials said Wednesday they plan to hire a specialist to confront one of the pressing problems confronting city students - poor reading performance.

Houston Chronicle
Pre-K HISD students putting in a 7-hour day
The instructor's directives went like this: Swing your arms like a monkey. Arch your back like a cat. Wriggle your hips like a crocodile.

Indianapolis Star-Tribune
Education board overhauling ISTEP
Springtime exam, shorter diagnostic tests during the year are part of the plan State education officials in charge of overhauling Indiana's mandatory exam began looking Wednesday at a proposal to test students in the spring instead of the fall.

Inside Higher ED
NYU Strike Is Over - Without Contract  
Graduate students resume teaching duties, failing to win recognition of their union.

Mediocre Grades for Colleges  
"Report card" on higher education finds U.S. trailing other countries - with cost of attendance growing as problem for families.
Learning to Teach  
CUNY program trains grad students to teach at 2-year colleges - where the job market favors those who understand the mission.

Los Angeles Times
Blacks May Gain as UCLA Moves to Alter Admissions
By Rebecca Trounson Using a `holistic' model, officials would view student achievements in light of life experiences.

RIAA in the Classroom
Bit Player: The RIAA gets it right by educating younger students, but it errs by instilling fear in kids rather than respect for copyrights

New York Daily News
On 9/11, keep war politics out of classroom
Jonathan Zimmerman: Next Monday, schools in Killeen, Tex., will host "Freedom Walks" to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In Little Rock, Ark., one high school will stage a dramatic play about victims and survivors of the tragedy.

New York Times
A Not-Quite-New Teacher Starts a New School Year
By DAVID STABA
In Batavia, N.Y., a male high school science teacher is returning as a woman and while school officials were worried about public outcry, students seem to think it's no big deal.

Report Finds U.S. Students Lagging in Finishing College
By TAMAR LEWIN
A new report says that the United States ranks seventh among developed nations for 25- to 34-year-olds in college completion rates.

Preparing Hispanic Parents and Children for School
By VALERIE COTSALAS
A museum on Long Island is offering a program to introduce children from immigrant Hispanic families to an American classroom before they walk into one.

City's Lawyers Say Mayor Can't Control Class Sizes
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Lawyers for Mayor R. Bloomberg told an appeals court that the mayor did not have the authority to force the New York City school system to reduce class sizes.

N.Y.U. Teaching Aides End Strike, With Union Unrecognized
By KAREN W. ARENSON
In a victory for New York University, its graduate teaching and research assistants have ended the contentious strike that disrupted hundreds of classes last November.

Orlando Sentinel
Uneducated kids imperil state growth, report says
A generation of poorly educated children unlikely to get college degrees threatens Florida's ability to create a competitive work force and may weaken the state's economy, a new report being released today says.

Pasadena Star News
PUSD pressed to make cost cuts
PASADENA - How many students file into class today will gauge the depth of anticipated cuts to the Pasadena Unified School District's budget.

Philadelphia Daily News
City controller flunks some schools for safety
By MENSAH M. DEAN
When Philadelphia public school students begin classes today, a small number will enter new facilities, including those selected to attend the Microsoft Corp.-aided School of the Future.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Virtual classes opening worlds
By Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer
David Inserra has already sailed through every social-science course tiny Plumstead Christian Academy has to offer, but his senior year promises to be anything but boring.

Despite a host of changes, some teachers see problems
By Melanie Burney, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Camden school system is ushering in a new school year with sweeping changes aimed at boosting student performance by focusing on math and language arts, and improving test security to avoid scandals that have plagued the district.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Charter school to open in city despite appeals
Career Connections Charter Middle School plans to open its middle school this morning despite appeals filed by Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Freshmen in a foreign land
From loneliness to language to long underwear, international students enrolling in Minnesota's colleges and universities face unique challenges.
Vishal Gupta longs for Indian food - really good Indian food that tastes like home. Seynabou Ndiaye wonders why she left Senegal for the University of Minnesota.

Seattle Times
Apparent drop in WASL scores has schools upset
An anticipated drop in statewide test scores, particularly in seventh-grade reading, has prompted several school districts to raise questions...

Tallahassee Democrat
School leaders ask community for help
Leon County public school officials on Wednesday told members of the business and professional community about the school system's accomplishments - as well as about the negative things they'd like to turn around.

Wall Street Journa
In Los Angeles, four million children left behind.
Forced to attend failing schools in Los Angeles.
BY CLINT BOLICK
LOS ANGELES--This city is the main front in the pitched battle over the No Child Left Behind Act. Like many large urban school districts across the nation--though more brazenly--the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is resisting the law's core command: that no child be forced to attend a failing school.

Washington Post
D.C. Schools Fall Short Of Test Goals
Superintendent plans to announce that the number of city schools that failed to meet academic goals increased this year.

On Facebook, Sharing May Go Too Far
Denizens of one of the Web's most popular student hangouts are in an uproar over changes to the site that they say make their online musings much too public.

Wilmington News Journal
Del. gets mixed grades for higher education
State needs to make college more affordable, research group says

Audit finds faults at Christina
Cafeteria record keeping, business practices questioned

International Articles

The Arab News
Kingdom Offers Aid to Lebanese Students
Saudi Arabia will pay the fees for all the students of all levels studying in Lebanese government schools. Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Abdul Aziz Khoja made this announcement...

As School Year Is Set to Begin, Education Minister Addresses Teachers
Education Minister Abdullah Bin-Obaid held a meeting yesterday with the men and women education supervisors and school principals in Jeddah - two days before the beginning...

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Earlier target for times tables
Pupils will have to master their times tables a year earlier in future, the government says.

Call for more non-white governors
School governors must be drawn from a wider range of ethnic groups and ages, a charity says.

The Evening Times
Parents face prison for taking kids on holiday
A CRACKDOWN could see parents put behind bars if they take their children out of school to go on holiday.

The Gulf Times
Parents feel heat as kids swelter in school buses
Many parents, whose children are studying at three of the prominent Indian schools, have complained about the inconvenience and health hazard their children are facing because of inadequate air-conditioning in some of the school buses. "Ever since the summer heat became intense, my child, a student of MES Indian School, has been reaching home sweaty and tired on the days when the air-conditioner in the bus breaks down," a parent told Gulf Times.

RLIC distributes school bags
THE management of the Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC) has distributed school bags to children of primary schools in Al Khor, Al Dhakira, Simaisma, Umm Qarn, Madinat al-Shamal and Al Ghuwariya.

The Peninsula
Al Jazeera Children's Channel to air special programmes
DOHA . The Al Jazeera Children's Channel, the first Arabic edutainment channel, to mark its first year of going on air, will telecast a range of special programmes on September 9,

The Press New Zealand
More apply for religious schools
Religious schools are getting more enrolment applications as parents become convinced they offer the best education for their children.

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