AIE — Adventures In Education

Sep 26, 2007 - Efforts to Create a Standard Early-Admissions Policy Run Into Trouble. When it comes to college admissions, how early is too early? (The New York Times)

Sep 25, 2007 - How a Virtual AP Course Changed Her Son. Maria Allen worried about her son Matthew's prospects in high school and beyond. He had always been regarded as an underachiever by his teachers. He received B's in middle school with virtually no effort because he did well on what were, she thought, very easy tests. (Washington Post)

Aug 13, 2007 - School Translators Can Help Parents Lost in the System. With 40 employees and a $4.5 million annual budget, the translation office for New York City's public schools claims to be the largest of its kind in the country. (The New York Times)

Aug 12, 2007 - Va. Raises Bar With VIP Award for Schools. To spur improvement in academic performance, Virginia plans to honor excellence with an award for what the state calls "VIP schools." (Washington Post)

Aug 12, 2007 - Joanne Levy-Prewitt is an independent college admissions adviser who works with students throughout the Bay Area / COLLEGE BOUND / A weekly guide to higher education. Question: My daughter is a rising senior. She is bright, athletic and does volunteer work. She has A's in all her classes, very high SAT scores and will graduate high school with eight advanced-placement classes on her transcript. She will apply to small... (SF Gate)

Aug 11, 2007 - Students teach educators about schools. Teens research some of L.A.'s most troubled schools and report to the mayor's team. (Los Angeles Times)

Aug 1, 2007 - On Education: A Teacher Grows Disillusioned After a 'Fail' Becomes a 'Pass'. For one teacher, the introduction to his new high school's academic standards proved a fitting preamble to a disastrous year. (The New York Times)

Jul 16, 2007 - Nipping bias in the bud. Some preschools are using a special program to teach their students, before prejudices take hold, to respect cultural, racial and religious diversity. (Los Angeles Times)

Jul 15, 2007 - School Diversity Based on Income Segregates Some. Recent experiments show how hard it can be to balance academic success and socioeconomic and racial diversity. (The New York Times)

Jul 14, 2007 - Dewey? At This Library With a Very Different Outlook, They Don't. An Arizona library has forsaken the Dewey Decimal System, and is arranging books in a manner similar to the approach taken by Barnes & Noble. (The New York Times)

Jul 13, 2007 - At Tech Camp, Video Games, Robots -- and No Lanyards. The Bible says it took God a week to create the universe. At Cybercamps, this feat took 14-year-old Justin Cook about two days. (Washington Post)

Jun 25, 2007 - Disciplinary Policy in Texas Schools Raises Concerns. A growing number of kids in Texas are being suspended or expelled for relatively minor, non-violent offenses. But researchers say that this "zero tolerance" approach leads more kids to drop out. (NPR)

Jun 24, 2007 - Study on I.Q. Prompts Debate on Family Dynamics. New evidence tying birth order to I.Q. has intensified the debate over what family dynamics enhance intelligence. (The New York Times)

Jun 12, 2007 - Higher Pay Urged to Fight Dearth of Math and Science Teachers. Higher starting salaries, more rigorous teacher training programs and additional support for first year teachers are just a few of the incentives needed to deal with a projected shortfall of more than 280,000 math and science teachers across the country by 2015, according to a group of business... (Washington Post)

Jun 12, 2007 - Scholars' hard work earns rewards. A trio of high school students in Paramount, near Downey, are recipients of Gates Millennium Scholarships. (Los Angeles Times)

Jun 11, 2007 - Rating Education Gains. We seem to be doing a bit better educating our most disadvantaged students. But many educators think that is not enough. (Washington Post)

Apr 30, 2007 - How'd You Do In School Today? At the beginning of this semester, Laura Iriarte Miguel switched anatomy classes. (Washington Post)

Apr 30, 2007 - Top Teachers Issue Call for Revamped Pay Plans. Tired of reports by business executives and Cabinet officers on how to fix U.S. schools, 18 award-winning teachers produced their own recommendations this month, starting with a major overhaul of how teachers are paid. (Washington Post)

Apr 30, 2007 - Keeping Kids in the Classroom. The problem of truancy has drawn widespread attention this year, prompting some area lawmakers to call for tough measures to keep track of the most habitual offenders and leading school officials to crack down on those who constantly skip class. (Washington Post)

Apr 30, 2007 - P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs. Schools are deploying Dance Dance Revolution as the latest weapon in the battle against childhood obesity. (The New York Times)

Apr 19, 2007 - Advanced Courses for Everyone: A Good Policy? Next month, Newsweek magazine is scheduled to publish its annual list of America's Best High Schools, based on a measure I invented a decade ago that takes into account Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge test participation. Seventy percent of Washington area public high... (Washington Post)

Apr 19, 2007 - Two Teachers With Winning Ways. Sue Saadawi, a former student at J.E.B. Stuart High School, remembers thinking she'd never graduate. Her grades were poor, and dropping out seemed like the only option. (Washington Post)

Apr 19, 2007 - Laws Limit Options When a Student Is Mentally Ill. For the most part, universities cannot tell parents about their children's problems without the student's consent. (The New York Times)

Apr 17, 2007 - Persistence pays on high school exit exam. Nearly half who failed the high school test are back at the books, and pass rates are climbing. (Los Angeles Times)

Apr 16, 2007 - With Homework, a Helping Hand Can Sometimes Be a Hindrance. Joe knew just what to do when his daughter, who was studying Roman history, came home with an assignment to build a catapult. He ordered a catapult kit from the Internet and put it together himself. (Washington Post)

Mar 26, 2007 - Is This the Answer to Drug Use? For middle and high school students in about two dozen districts in New Jersey, random drug tests have become routine. (The New York Times)

Mar 26, 2007 - Failing Schools See a Solution in Longer Day. Spurred by grim test results, districts are moving to longer days, but many teachers and parents are critical. (The New York Times)

Mar 6, 2007 - Look to the rookies for students' needs. If D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and other big city leaders want to know what is missing from their plans to remake their schools, they might ask Colleen Dippel why she popped open a ceiling tile and cut the wires to her classroom loudspeaker while trying to teach low-income Houston fifth-graders 10 years ago. (Washington Post)

Feb 9, 2007 - Tests can help identify a boy's learning problem. Could my 12-year-old stepson have attention deficit disorder or some other learning disorder? (Washington Post)

Feb 8, 2007 - Advanced placement tests are leaving some behind. African-American students, who made up 14 percent of the student population last year, were only 7 percent of the participants in Advanced Placement courses. (The New York Times)

Feb 7, 2007 - Study looks at longer day for public schools. There are many approaches to improving education in urban districts. But maybe students just need to spend more time in school? A new study examines the trend toward extending the public-school day. (NPR)

Feb 7, 2007 - African American History Month. Sixty resources for learning about Frederick Douglass, the Harlem Renaissance, the 369th Infantry, Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, and more. (U.S. Department of Education)

Jan 30, 2007 - New studies say AP works. The College Board releases its annual Advanced Placement Report to the Nation next week. (Washington Post)

Jan 29, 2007 - Pushing back at bullying. An anti-bias program provides a forum for teenagers where voices are heard and tears and apologies flow. (The New York Times)

Jan 29, 2007 - A new semester at Northwestern High. At a high school in Baltimore, two teachers take very different approaches to the start of a new semester. It's a chance to make a fresh start for some teachers, but also a confusing time, as new schedules upend their routines. (NPR)

Jan 29, 2007 - Librarian leaves mark at Sunnyvale school. Valerie Torres hadn't been at Sunnyvale's Lakewood Elementary School a year when colleagues gave her their highest honor, voting her Teacher of the Year. (MercuryNews.com)

Jan 16, 2007 - America's best classroom teacher. Rafe Esquith is the most interesting and influential classroom teacher in the country, but he is not getting nearly as much glory as he deserves. He won't SAY that, of course. (Washington Post)

Jan 15, 2007 - Scholarship scams. There isn't a fool-proof method for determining scholarship scams, but some warning signs include guarantees of winning, implying that anyone is eligible, or pressure tactics. (Adventures In Education)

Jan 13, 2007 - For teachers, being 'highly qualified' is a subjective matter. To overhaul public education, the No Child Left Behind law required a massive expansion of student testing. But it also called for states to ensure that all teachers in core academic subjects are "highly qualified" to help students succeed. (Washington Post)

Jan 11, 2007 - New teaching resources: Citizenship, rockets, Rembrandt and more. Citizenship, civil rights, reading, Rembrandt, rockets, slavery, statistics, and westward expansion are among the topics of new resources at FREE, the website that makes teaching resources from federal agencies easier to find. (U.S. Department of Education)

Jan 8, 2007 - What's a FAFSA? The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, usually the first step in seeking financial aid for a student's higher education. (Adventures In Education)

Jan 8, 2007 - NYC schools turn to phonics to boost reading. With tens of thousands of middle-school students reading below grade level, New York City has turned to a popular phonics-based program to help those kids relearn the basics. Member station WNYC's Beth Fertig reports. (NPR)

Jan 8, 2007 - An educational alternative is winning students over. Ninth-grader Anabel Gonzalez was in danger of dropping out of school. And she didn't care. (Los Angeles Times)

Jan 6, 2007 - SAT: Why memorize what you can rock? There's a new way to study for the SATs. Rather than a cursory glance at a vocabulary list, this study guide sets words to music and also offers humorous definitions. (NPR)

Jan 6, 2007 - Latina program gets a second try. Tania Montoya knows many Latina girls who never received encouragement from their parents to attend college. But with the help of a program offered by the San Mateo County Office of Education, Montoya, 18, and her mother began preparing for college when she was in the fifth grade. (MercuryNews.com)

Jan 2, 2007 - On the Web, ''Dear Diary'' becomes ''Dear World.'' Emily Butler used to keep a pen-and-paper diary. But after her mother found it, the Arlington teenager started pouring out her feelings online. (Washington Post)