“People in the U.S. are breathing cleaner air than a year ago, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. So says the American Lung Association’s (ALA) ‘State of the Air 2006.’ The annual report focuses on particle pollution (soot) in the air, as well as ozone levels (smog). Last year’s winners and losers for […]
“A new study has found that seeing the buildup of plaque in their own arteries is the incentive patients need to comply with doctor’s orders. The study, conducted at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) and published in the journal Atherosclerosis, found that patients who see more plaque in […]
“A software product originally intended for use by big-name media outlets has recently begun cropping up in college lecture halls across the country, enabling professors to easily record live classroom lectures and presentations and post them to the internet for students to review. Called Apreso, the multimedia software package–first adopted by big-name media providers such […]
“Two sets of parents filed a lawsuit Thursday against a Massachusetts town and its public school system after a teacher read a gay-themed fairy tale to children without notifying them first, their lawyers said. The lawsuit against Lexington, a wealthy suburb about 12 miles west of Boston, seeks unspecified damages after book ‘King & King’ […]
“Math scores for fifth-grade students displaced to Texas after last year’s hurricanes are lagging significantly, mirroring similar low scores in reading. Just 45 percent of the 2,396 fifth-graders who enrolled in Texas schools after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita passed the math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, according to the Texas Education […]
“These are the kids who mow your lawn, flip your burgers and work the register at CVS. Some vanish from the D.C. schools before they turn 15. Some have babies before they can drive. … Now they are back in school, on track to earn a diploma and know a trade — construction, learned on […]
“By one vote, the House today rejected a plan to set up a voucher program for students attending New Orleans’ worst public schools. The bill, by Representative Tim Burns, of Mandeville, would set up a four-year pilot program applying only to students in the worst schools in New Orleans. If it becomes law, those students […]
“We should all know by now that the public school system needs to be overhauled, and the changes will not come about as quickly as necessary. There will be battles with the unions, which hold failed practices in place while providing cover for the many incompetents whose terrible or substandard work disgraces what is one […]
“Good teaching—the kind that can routinely raise student achievement—is the most valuable of all education resources. When a teacher inspires, children learn, even when the building is antiquated, the Internet is missing, and classes are bigger than usual. So teacher quality matters. A lot. Yet the standard measure of quality today, the teaching credential or […]
“The decision by an increasing number of parents to home school their children has begun to have an affect on the attendance at public schools. In some areas, the number of children now attending home school has more than doubled in recent years. Public schools receive federal funds for each enrolled student. […]
