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NewsPapers
- -01-17-09 Supreme Court May Determine Limits on School Searches (CNN News)
"The high court has had a mixed record over the years on students' rights. The court could now be asked to clarify the extent of student rights involving searches, and the discretion of officials over those for whom they have responsibility." 01-09
- -02-18-09 Gradeless School District Trial (Christian Science Monitor)
"Selleck decided the district needed a massive transformation, and got the OK from the state. This year, the district is beginning to phase in the changes before all the schools switch to the new, gradeless system next year. One elementary school is serving as a pilot program, and many of the 300 or so teachers who have undergone training from DeLorenzo are implementing a modified approach in their classrooms – albeit still in traditional grade levels." 02-09
- -02-23-09 Study: Low Carbs and Memory (CBS News)
"Eliminating carbohydrates from your diet may help you lose weight, but it could leave you fuzzy headed and forgetful, a new study suggests."
"The body breaks carbohydrates into glucose, which it uses to fuel brain activity. Proteins break down into glycogen, which can also be used for fuel by the brain, but not as efficiently as glucose."
"So it stands to reason that eliminating carbohydrates from the diet might reduce the brain's source of energy and affect brain function. But there has been little research examining this hypothesis in people following low-carb weight loss diets." 02-09
- -03-10-09 Shakespeare's Portrait (Time.com)
"Shakespeareans have been tantalized for generations by the possibility that a genuine life portrait of the man survives somewhere. Now Stanley Wells, professor emeritus of Shakespeare Studies at Birmingham University and one of the world's most distinguished Shakespeare scholars, says he has identified one. Wells is convinced that an oil painting on wood panel that has rested for centuries in the collection of an old Irish family was painted from life around 1610, when Shakespeare was 46. If that's so, it would be the only true likeness we have of the greatest writer of the English language." 03-09
- -03-14-09 California Teachers Face Pink Slips (MSNBC News)
"The state Department of Education estimates that preliminary pink slips will have been handed to 26,500 teachers by the Sunday cutoff — two-and-a-half times as many as were issued last year. Another 15,000 bus drivers, janitors, secretaries and administrators also were expected to receive the written warnings, said Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. "
"Because of the state's less-than-rosy economic outlook, California's 1,000 K-12 school districts have been instructed to absorb more than $8 billion in funding cuts over the next year." 03-09
- -04-02-09 Progress on Autism Slow (CNN News)
"It's been a year since the first U.N.-declared World Autism Awareness Day. In those past 365 days, nobody has discovered the cause of autism, which the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest affects one in 150 children. Nor has a cure been found. However, new research and major court decisions have emerged to explain further what may contribute to the developmental disabilities of the brain known as 'autism spectrum disorders' or ASDs." 04-09
- -04-16-09 Supreme Court May Determine Limits on School Searches (USA Today)
"Drug searches, along with drug tests for students in athletics and other extracurricular activities, have become common in schools across the nation. But the search of Savana at Safford Middle School on Oct. 8, 2003, ignited a legal dispute that has landed before the U.S. Supreme Court — and could transform the landscape of drug searches in public schools." 04-09
- -04-22-09 Graduation Rates for High Schools (MSNBC News)
"The numbers in the map reflect the latest data, which is from 2005. Most states still use the so-called leaver rate, which calculates students who didn't drop out of high school. Nearly all states are expected to adopt the cohort rate by 2012, which calculates the percent of students who enter high school in ninth grade and leave four years later with a standard diploma. That method uses an standard identification number to track students across schools, districts and states." 04-09
- -04-25-09 Important Find of Benjamin Franklin's Letters (CNN News)
"An American professor doing research in London stumbled across a series of previously unknown letters written by, to, and about Benjamin Franklin, a stunning find that sheds new light on early U.S. history."
"The letters cover Franklin's success in dealing with British Gen. Edward Braddock, who had been sent to Pennsylvania in 1755 to defeat the French at Fort Duquesne, in modern-day Pittsburgh." 04-09
- -05-03-09 India's Teachers Use Corporeal Punishment (Time.com)
"Teachers say they resort to physical punishment because of the inherent problems of India's public education system, specifically, the immense challenge of maintaining control of huge classes of unruly children. 'Most children in my school are criminal-minded,' says Dr. S.C. Sharma, the principal of a government school in South Delhi. 'We have caught them stealing fans from classrooms and even the iron grills from the windows. How do you discipline such kids?' In Sharma's school the teacher-student ratio is 1:63, compared with a recommended ratio of 1:35." 04-09
- -05-19-09 Genetic Marker for Autism Found (Time.com)
"The newly discovered autism-risk gene, identified by authors as CACNA1G, is more common in boys than in girls (why that's so is still not clear), and the authors suggest it plays a role in boys' increased risk of the developmental disorder." 05-09
- -09-21-09 Students Launch Camera to the Edge of Space (CNN New)
"These enterprising students seem to have hit a nerve with the public, probably because their effort costs so little, suggesting that anyone with some know-how and a few common tools can photograph the edge of space. That's something normally reserved for big-budget agencies like NASA."
"They've gotten so many inquiries they had to post this warning: 'CAUTION/DISCLAIMER: Launching things into the stratosphere can be DANGEROUS! Please contact the FAA before trying ...' " 09-09
- -10-06-09 Children Begin Receiving Swine Flu Shots (ABC News)
"The first doses of H1N1 flu vaccine were given to children today, a day after health care workers began getting doses in what is likely to be the largest flu vaccination campaign in U.S. history." 10-09
- Generation Diva (Newsweek.com)
"How our obsession with beauty is changing our kids." 03-09
- -Editorial: The Right Focus in Education Is Relationships and Rigor (New York Times)
"The Obama approach would make it more likely that young Americans grow up in relationships with teaching adults. It would expand nurse visits to disorganized homes. It would improve early education. It would extend the school year. Most important, it would increase merit pay for good teachers (the ones who develop emotional bonds with students) and dismiss bad teachers (the ones who treat students like cattle to be processed)."
Editor's Note: David Brooks, author of this article, is a conservative columnist for The New York Times and commentator for The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. 03-09
- Court Ruling Helps Special-Needs Students (U.S. News)
"The case before the court involved a struggling Oregon high school student, identified in court documents only as T.A., who was found ineligible for special-education services in the Forest Grove district after school officials evaluated him for learning disabilities. His parents removed him from public school in his junior year and enrolled him in a $5,200-a-month residential school. Only after T.A. enrolled in the private school did doctors say he suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other disabilities."
"The crux of the case was whether a 1997 amendment to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, prohibits students from receiving private-school tuition reimbursement if they never enrolled in special-education services in a public school. The high court's ruling makes it clear that it does not." 07-09
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