News -01-12-06 Maryland Senate Votes to Require Wal-Mart to Pay More Health Benefits (USA Today) "Houston became the largest school district in the country on Thursday to adopt a merit pay plan for teachers that focuses on students' tests scores." "By a 9-0 vote, the Houston school board approved a plan that offers teachers up to $3,000 in extra pay if their students show improvement on state and national tests. The program could be expanded to provide up to $10,000 in merit pay for teachers." "The teachers' union doesn't approve of the plan, saying it focuses too much on test scores and is too complicated." 01-06 -01-13-06 "Stupid" in America (ABC News) " 'Stupid in America' is a nasty title for a program about public education, but some nasty things are going on in America's public schools and it's about time we face up to it." 01-06 -01-14-05 Senators Investigate Use of Education Funds (MSNBC News) "The [Education] department, through a contract with the public relations firm Ketchum, hired [commentator Armstrong] Williams to produce ads, featuring [Education Secretary] Paige, that promoted Bush’s No Child Left Behind law. The contract also called for Williams to provide media access for Paige and to persuade other black journalists to talk about the law." "Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda." "As part of a contract worth more than $1 million with Ketchum, the Education Department paid for a video that appeared as a news story without making it clear the reporter was hired to promote No Child Left Behind. The agency also paid for ratings of news reporters, with points for stories that make the law, the Bush administration and the Republican Party look good." 1-05 -01-19-06 Furor Over Targeting Liberal Professors (CBS News) "A former congressman is among three people who have quit the advisory board of a conservative alumni group at the University of California, Los Angeles, after it offered students money to police professors accused of pushing liberal views." "Former Rep. James Rogan, a Republican who served two terms, sent an e-mail Wednesday to Andrew Jones, head of the Bruin Alumni Association, saying he didn't want his name connected to the group." 01-06 -01-19-06 Study: College Students Unable to Complete Reading Tasks (MSNBC News) "Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food." "Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers." 01-06 -03-14-05 Administrators Poorly Educated for Jobs (ABC News) "The principals and superintendents who run the nation's schools are unprepared for their jobs by education colleges, where training ranges from inadequate to appalling, according to research by a leader in higher education." 3-05 -03-22-05 Why Teens Act as they Do (ABC News) "In the last year, I visited 30 high schools in 20 cities all over the country and probably talked to nearly 5,000 teenagers. ABC News gave me this fabulous opportunity to try to make a difference in your generation, because studies were showing that you don't care about current events. My challenge has been to persuade you of the necessity of reading, watching and/or listening to the news." "Your brains may be big, but scientists now say they are not fully developed. Guess what? They won't be 'grown up' brains until you're close to 25 years old!" 03-05 -06-23-05 Military Collecting Data on High School Students (ABC News) "Working with the private marketing firm BeNow, Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., the Pentagon has created a huge database of millions of high school students, aged 16 to 18." "But privacy advocates say it violates a federal law that restricts the government's ability to gather personal information. They say they understand the military's need to recruit but this type of information-gathering goes too far." "A growing number of parents were already upset about the military's recruiting techniques. A little-known provision in the 2002 'No Child Left Behind' education law requires every public school to provide the military with the names, addresses and phone numbers of students." "Last month, Louise Wannier went to her daughter's high school to submit an opt-out letter, which prohibits recruiters from accessing personal information." "She learned today about the new database, which may have much more information on her daughter than she'd ever imagined." 6-05 -11-16-05 Foreign Graduate Student Applications Down (International Herald Tribune) "According to a recent survey, more foreign graduate students enrolled in American universities this year than last, but their numbers remain far lower than they were in 2002." "Foreign graduate students, particularly those who study science or engineering, are a boon to the American economy and education system." 11-05 -12-11-05 Gradeschoolers Learning on Handhelds (ABC News) "As school districts scout ways to engage students already accustomed to instant messaging and interactive video games, they're buying up the kind of tech tools once reserved for jet-setting corporate executives." "Educational sales of personal digital assistants, laptop computers and handheld remote controls called "clickers" are ballooning nationwide. Last year, a survey by Quality Education Data Inc. found that 28 percent of U.S. school districts offered handhelds for student and teacher use. One of every four computers purchased by schools was a laptop." 12-05 -12-15-05 U.S. Has 11 Million Not Literate in English (Fox News) "About one in 20 adults in the U.S. is not literate in English, meaning 11 million people lack the skills to handle many everyday tasks, a federal study shows." 12-05 Pennsylvania Voters Oust Intelligent Design Supporters (USA Today) "Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who ordered a statement on intelligent design read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum." "Eight of the nine school board members were up for election Tuesday. They were challenged by a slate of Democrats who argued that science class was not the appropriate forum for teaching intelligent design." 9-05

Arabic, Chinese-Simple, Chinese-Traditional, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese,   Index, New, Search Engines, Dictionary, Bookstore, Licenses, Email Us, About Us, Link to Us, Sponsorships, or Privacy Policy.