Los Angeles Times – Howard Blume

“An audit of textbooks at 21 local high schools has found that lost books and excessive purchases at these campuses cost the Los Angeles Unified School District nearly $10 million.”(more)

The Seattle Times – Jerry Large

“At the University of Washington, the summertime Mathematics Academy is trying to broaden the appeal of engineering. The College of Engineering hopes to close the gap between what students learn in high school and where they need to be to succeed in college math. All kinds of students fall into the gap, but it is more marked with students from some minority groups or from low-income families.”(more)

Miami Herald – Kathleen McGrory

“With school starting at 7:30 a.m., Camonique White admitted it was difficult not nodding off in her first-period honors chemistry class. It’s not that the class was a snoozer. The soon-to-be senior at Booker T. Washington High School loved it. It was just so darn earrrrllllyyyy.”(more)

The Washington Post – Jay Mathews

“In what many teachers of my acquaintance would consider an understatement, Simpson said that “students do not always embrace the learning opportunities that fill the school day.” In other words, teachers have to be persistent and tough. “Plenty of books detailing various methods of teaching writing attempt to maximize student success and minimize educators’ time and level of disillusionment,” she wrote. “The truth is that learning to write takes a great deal of practice, and giving students feedback takes time and effort.””(more)

The Hechinger Report – Susan Sawyers

“Teens are enthusiastic about these subjects, with 77 percent interested in pursuing a STEM career, according to this year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, an annual survey that gauges perceptions about invention and innovation. As standards for scientific literacy are developed, questions about how to prepare science teachers effectively to educate and engage students are vital.”(more)

San Jose Mercury News – Sharon Noguchi

“At a time when districts throughout the state have cut summer school, a class to boost algebra readiness in Silicon Valley has more than doubled enrollment. Stepping Up to Algebra is conducting a mathematics boot camp for about 1,000 seventh and eighth graders in nine school districts. A vigorous fund-raising campaign by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation enabled the program to expand.”(more)

The Hindu – Staff Writer

“Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have decided to organise a Science Olympiad for students as the first major initiative under the IGNOU-UNESCO joint work plan signed earlier this year.”(more)

The Hechinger Report – Kristen A. Graham

“For a time in the mid-2000s, small schools were booming. They were supposed to transform the large, failing American high school, to engage students and boost their achievement to ready them for college. But the results have been mixed, national and local research shows. Students at small high schools were more likely to graduate, have positive relationships with their teachers, and feel safer.”(more)

The Star-Ledger – Kristen Alloway

“”We have to tell the world we really do care that kids can read, write and do mathematics when they leave us,” Deputy Education Commissioner Willa Spicer said. “Our point is to make sure we have evidence they can do it.”"(more)

Los Angeles Times – Howard Blume

“A revamped Fremont High, which opened its school year Tuesday with a majority of new teachers, has become a local test case for a controversial school makeover approach being tried around the country.”(more)