Around the Web

Summer Break

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:46:17 -0500

Around the Web is taking its summer holiday and will be on hiatus for a while. Please check back in the fall....

Building School Pride One Street at a Time

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:35:00 -0500

"If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Parkview High School should be blushing." That's how Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter D. Aileen Dodd begins her story on a new high-end subdivision in Atlanta with six streets named for the nearby...

New School Promises 'Customized Education'

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:22:17 -0500

A new private school in Miami promises "customized education" for children with autism and other neurobiological disorders, The Miami Herald reports. Kevin Gersh, the school's founder, says allowing students to help design their educational plans ultimately helps them focus on...

Back-to-School Spending is Big Business

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:45:00 -0500

The National Retail Federation projects that back-to-school spending this year will exceed a whopping $18 billion. According to the National Retail Federation’s 2007 Consumer Intentions and Actions Back-to-School survey, conducted by BIGresearch, American "families with school-age children are expected to...

"Mister Rogers" Goes Digital

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:30:00 -0500

Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., has begun digitizing 900 episodes of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" dating to 1967 and will make them available to educators and media specialists studying child development, early learning, and children's media, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports....

Heartbreak and Progress in Afghanistan

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:50:00 -0500

The International Herald Tribune offers a harrowing tale of schooling in Afghanistan. Reporter Barry Bearak opens with a scene out of a war movie—young girls trying to outrun gunmen lurking just outside the Qalai Sayedan School. Bearak says six girls...

CNN Gives Education Headlines a Summer Break

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:24:16 -0500

The nation’s schoolchildren aren’t the only ones taking a vacation from school. When it relaunched its Web site last month CNN.com nixed the “Education” news link on its home page in favor of a category dubbed “Funny News,” Dan Brown...

Study Examines Teasing's Impact on Overweight Kids

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:20:00 -0500

Children who are made fun of for being overweight may carry deep psychological scars because of it, according to The Boston Globe. A new Yale University study "found that overweight and obese children who are subjected to verbal taunts and...

Multiple Choice on Choice

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:55:00 -0500

"Place yourself back in First Grade," Matthew Ladner writes on edspresso.com. Then, choose where you'd like to attend the public schools: (a) Washington, D.C., (b) Los Angeles, (c) Chicago, or (d) none of the above. Did you choose (d)? Uh-oh....

Summer School, Not Summer Jobs

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:30:00 -0500

More teens are spending summer days in school rather than on the job, USA Today reports. According to U.S. Labor Department statistics released July 6, only 48.8% of teens ages 16 to 19 were working or looking for work in...

Tracking School Law Twists in the Internet Age

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:50:00 -0500

The American School Board Journal offers educators perspective on legal twists and turns of the cyber age in a piece titled, "Blogging for Columbine." "The 'dark side' of student online expression, including some aspects of social networking sites like MySpace,...

Boost in Autism Numbers Strains Services

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:35:00 -0500

The Boston Globe reports on the sharp increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism in Massachusetts and the impact its having on programs that serve them. "Many people who haven't had the experience assume the hardest part is...

What's in a School Name?

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:08:37 -0500

The Kansas City Star reports that schools are less frequently being named after historical figures and are instead becoming namesakes for geographical features or forces of nature. The article is based on this report out of the Manhattan Institute, that...

Commentary on the Court

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:31:10 -0500

As school districts try to interpret last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision on school desegregation, editorial pages across the country have offered the following opinions: The two major newspapers covering the districts in the case were split. The Seattle Times...

Following the Supreme Court Decision on Race

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:59:19 -0500

Though the U.S. Supreme Court today rejected school diversity plans that use race as a factor in the case involving voluntary integration plans in school districts in Louisville, Ky. and Seattle, the ruling didn't stop bloggers from opining about the...