Education News: September 21, 2007

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending September 21, 2007.

Reading, Writing, and Rebellion
(Source: The Boston Globe, 9/21/07):  Education activist Jonathan Kozol has maintained a partial hunger strike since early July in an effort to convince Senator Edward Kennedy, whom he knows personally, to overhaul No Child Left Behind.  Kennedy represents Massachusetts, where Kozol resides, and was a sponsor of the original bill.  Kozol, who is 71, has already dropped 29 pounds, claiming that the education law forces teachers to become “drill sergeants for the state.”

Tens of Thousands March on Jena
(Source: The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, 9/20/07):  Tens of thousands of marchers converged on Jena, Louisiana, on September 20 to rally for judicial fairness for the ‘Jena Six.’  The ‘Jena Six’ are a group of six black students accused of beating a white student following a series of racially charged incidents at their school.  The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was leading the procession of marchers, said the students were being punished unfairly because of their race.

Measure Would Offer Legal Status to Illegal Immigrant Students
(Source: The New York Times, 9/20/07):  A bill that would offer legal status to illegal immigrants who graduate from U.S. high schools has been revived in the Senate.  If the measure passes, students who come to the U.S. before the age of 16, graduate from high school, and agree to either serve in the military or complete at least two years of college will receive permanent legal status.

Many Colleges Ignore SAT Writing Test
(Source: The Boston Globe, 9/20/07):  A writing section was added to the SAT in 2005, but many colleges and universities are not taking students’ writing scores into account.  The section’s effectiveness has been in question since an MIT professor demonstrated last year that simply using big words and writing longer essays improved scores.

School Cheating Scandal Divides N.H. Town
(Source:  The Boston Globe, 9/19/07):  In two incidents, a total of nine high school students in Hanover, New Hampshire, are accused of breaking into their school to steal copies of math and chemistry exams.  Upon discovering the break-in, school officials notified the police, and the police prosecutor has since brought criminal charges against the students.  The town is divided as to whether it is fair or overly harsh for the students to face these charges.

Alumna Donates $128.5 million to George School
(Source:  The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/19/07):  George School, a private prep school near Newtown, Pennsylvania, has received a $128.5 million donation from Barbara Dodd Anderson, who graduated from the school in 1950.  Her father was Warren Buffet’s professor and an early investor in Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.  The donation is believed to be the largest ever to an existing private school.the staff and students moved to a different facility.

Alabama Plan Brings Out Cry of Resegregation
(Source: The New York Times, 9/17/07):  A new school rezoning plan in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will require hundreds of students, most of whom are black, to transfer from high-performing schools to all-black, low-performing schools.  The plan, which was created to alleviate overcrowding, has angered black parents, who call it resegregation.  The school district claims the rezoning process was color-blind, but there is some question as to whether the rezoning trumps the No Child Left Behind law’s prohibition against moving students into low-performing schools.

Back to School: Reading, Writing, and Internet Safety
(Source: NPR.org, 9/17/07):  Virginia has become the first state to require public schools to teach Internet safety to students.  The mandate is intended to help students protect themselves from sexual predators who troll social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook.