No Educator Left Behind
Does NCLB Allow Untested Programs to Be Used in Classrooms?
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/NELB/NELB154.shtml

Starr Points
Teaching Today Is Just Impossible -- Isn't It?
How did 4,500 high poverty and/or high minority public schools become top performing schools? They did it simply by accepting their inability to change society, by facing facts about the obstacles today's society places in their students' educational path, and by working to overcome those obstacles. Your school can do it too!
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/starr/starr017.shtml

Whatever It Takes
Signs of Spring at Bennet Middle School
With spring in the air, or at least on the calendar, units wind up, and lessons focus on a new season. Bennet students get ready to show their stuff on science tests, literary essays, and bar graphs.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/WIT/WIT027.shtml

Read About It
What Is Reading First?
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/readit/readit009.shtml

News for Kids
‘No Cussing’ Clubs Catching On With Kids
A boy in California was tired of his peers’ bad language, so he decided to do something about it.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/newsforyou.shtml

Administrator's Desk Articles
Organizing Staff Meetings Even You Want to Attend
Do you run your staff meetings like press briefings? When administrators abandon the idea that staff meetings should merely be news briefings and instead use them as a means to boost morale and collect teacher input, chances are people will stop scheduling their dentists’ appointments on meeting days, according to Sheila and John Eller, authors of Energizing Staff Meetings.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin518.shtml

Hold the Fries! Three Programs Are Improving Student Nutrition
Halting the trend toward child obesity is a challenge, but some schools are meeting that challenge with more than food that is nutritionally balanced. They are using technological tools and nutrition and exercise curricula to help students make wise choices about what they eat and do...for life!
http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin346.shtml

Turnaround Tales
Capitalizing on Reading First Grants
Thanks to grants through the No Child Left Behind Act's Reading First program, two elementary schools in Colorado beefed up their reading materials and resources and provided teachers with new professional development.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/nclbwork/nclbwork039.shtml

From the Education World Archives
Remembering, Supporting, 'The Forgotten Middle'
Many of today's students are what educators call "average," not distinguishing themselves academically, yet not doing poorly enough to warrant attention. One educator says these "forgotten middle" students have been ignored too long.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat165.shtml

School Doodle
The Modern Principal's Mantra
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/school_doodles/school_doodles27.shtml

School Issues Spotlights
Issues Spotlight 1 Teaching about Native Americans
Issues Spotlight 2 Cheating
Issues Spotlight 3 Grading
Issues Spotlight 4 Motivating teachers
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/glossary/n.shtml#nativeTeach http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/glossary/c.shtml#cheating http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/glossary/g.shtml#grading http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/glossary/m.shtml#motivation2

*******************************************************************
THE WEEKLY SURVEY
*******************************************************************

Each week, we ask readers to cast their votes in The Weekly Survey. Cast your vote in this week's question of interest to all educators.

This Week's Survey Question
A Florida school district plans to teach its sixth graders about contraceptive use. Are sixth graders too young for this information?
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/survey/survey168.shtml

Last Week's Survey Results
How interested do you think your students are in the presidential campaigns?
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/survey/survey167.shtml

*******************************************************************
NEWS HEADLINES FOR ALL EDUCATORS
*******************************************************************

Report: Streamline Math Instruction
A panel of scholars that spent two years studying U.S. math education found that students are being forced to learn too many concepts in unnecessarily large textbooks. Among the panel's suggestions: Children should learn automatic recall of math facts in addition to understanding bigger concepts; Americans should view math less as a talent and more as hard work; and schools must streamline their math courses.
Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-03-13-math-panel_N.htm

Looming Science Test Has Schools Scrambling
The launch this autumn of science testing under NCLB should lead to a renewed focus on science instruction, at a time when the U.S. is facing a "crisis" in science education, said educators and science advocates.
Source: e-School News
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=53031;_hbguid=93197112-b5f4-4154-85e0-a7cd97f9911d&d=top-news

More High Schools Adding Classes Scripted by Corporations
Some major U.S. accounting and engineering firms, partly because of fears about labor shortages, are creating free curricula for high schools to introduce students to careers in engineering and finance.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120476410964115117.html

College Offers Online AP, Honors Courses
The University of California, Irvine Extension, is offering advanced placement (AP) and honors courses online to high-school students nationwide. Courses have been approved by the College Board.
Source: University of California, Irvine Extension
http://www.unex.uci.edu/collegeprep

****************************************************************************
LOCAL SCHOOLS MAKING NEWS
****************************************************************************

Training Principals to Be Instructional Leaders
Officials in the Norwalk-La Mirada school district have hired consultants to transform their 29 principals into instructional leaders rather than building managers.
Source: Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/03/12/27leadskills_ep.h27.html

Do State Test Scores Belong on Transcripts?
Minnesota state education officials are pushing to add state test scores to high school transcripts that students submit to colleges and universities, in order to get students to take the tests more seriously.
Sources: Twin Cities.com/Associated Press
http://www.twincities.com/minnesota/ci_8602444

Students Get to Choose H.S. Diploma
Beginning in 2009, Hawaii will offer high-school students the option of earning a "College and Career Ready Diploma" instead of a regular diploma. The new diploma would require students to take higher levels of math and English.
Source: The Honolulu Advertiser
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080312/NEWS01/803120415/1001/NEWS01

Serving Breakfast Leads to Better Scores
After adopting a free, school-wide, in-class breakfast program, Maryland's District Heights Elementary School saw attendance increase and test scores improve enough for the school to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
Source: The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/12/AR2008031202274.html

*******************************************************************

Education World now incorporates www.SchoolNotes.com "everybody on the same page!" The leading school-to-home communications platform, with FREE pages for teachers and automatic notification of parents and students when new homework is posted!

For a modest $24.95 PER YEAR, upgrade to Personal Edition, "Super SchoolNotes," with thousands of resources linked to your state's standards!

Click here for more information.

*********************************************************************
NEW CHANNEL! LIFESTYLE
*********************************************************************

*******************************************************************
SIGN UP FOR OUR OTHER NEWSLETTERS
*******************************************************************

We hope you enjoy receiving this Education World e-newsletter. Did you know that Education World offers eight other FREE weekly newsletters?

Have you signed up to receive the...
Education World LESSON PLANNING NEWSLETTER?

The weekly Lesson Planning Newsletter offers links to all new lesson plan content posted to the Education World Web site in the previous week. You will find all our regular features there, as well as links to new tutorials, timely holiday lesson planning ideas, and great lesson plans from our archives.

Would you like to see a sample of the Lesson Planning Newsletter? If so, simply click the link below:
http://www.educationworld.com/newsletters_images/lp_sample.shtml

If you would like to subscribe to the Lesson Planning Newsletter, please click this link:
http://www.educationworld.com/maillist.shtml#lessons

If the Lesson Planning Newsletter is not of interest to you, do you know somebody else who might benefit from it? Perhaps you could pass this information along to that person.

*******************************************************************

If you enjoy this News Headlines of the Week Newsletter, please feel free to forward it to other teachers! If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, you may sign up for it -- and any of the other Education World newsletters -- at http://www.educationworld.com/maillist.shtml.

===================================
Education World®
http://www.educationworld.com/
newsletter-headlines@educationworld.com
===================================
Education World
1062 Barnes Road Suite 205
Wallingford, CT 06492
===================================