NYC: Small Schools Are Ahead in Graduation
Julie Bosman, NY Times

Graduation rates at 47 new small public high schools that have opened since 2002 are substantially higher than the citywide average, an indication that the Bloomberg administration's decision to break up many large failing high schools has achieved some early success..

New Math May Lower Graduation Rates
Daniel de Vise, Washington Post

For years, public educators in Maryland, Virginia and the District have measured graduation rates based on the number of students known to have dropped out, and many dropouts are never counted. Education leaders long defended the method, but increasingly they are agreeing with researchers that it yields inflated graduation rates.

High Rankings for DC Area Schools
Daniel de Vise, Washington Post

A new study, offering a rare glimpse at how high school graduation rates compare across state lines, ranks Fairfax and Montgomery counties fifth and sixth, respectively, among the nation's large school districts for percentage of students earning diplomas in four years.

Teachers Dubious of Merit Pay
Nancy Zuckerbrod, AP Education Writer

Merit pay tied to student test scores seems all the rage in some educational circles, but many teachers think it's an idea whose time hasn't come. It's a concept that is gaining ground in state capitals and in Washington, nevertheless. Members of Congress, for instance, are considering adding funding bonuses for teachers who raise student achievement as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for review this year.

Statewide Standards Ease Process of Transferring Credits in South, Report Says
Matt Petrie , The Chronicle of Higher Education

Students at two-year colleges in the South can more easily transfer to four-year colleges now than was the case a decade ago, but states could do more to ease the transition, according to a recent report by the Southern Regional Education Board. (subscription required)

University for Deaf is Put on Probation
Associated Press, NY Times

Gallaudet, the nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf, has been put on probation by its accrediting agency, a sign that the campus continues to face problems months after protests last year shut down the school for days.

Mapping Out the Future of Campus Maps
Terry Calhoun, Campus Technology

Ohio State University's online campus map has been proposed as a best in class by a list of college and university webmasters. 

At Yale, A New Campus Just for Research
Karen W. Areson, NY Times

Yale has announced it will buy the 136-acre campus of Bayer HealthCare, which straddles the line between West Haven and Orange, Connecticut, seven miles from downtown New Haven and the university’s main campus. This move will allow the university to begin science and medical research in the next few years that otherwise would have been delayed 10 or 15 years, until new buildings could be erected.

Hoping to Retain Grads, Maine Helps With Loan Costs
Katie Zezima, NY Times

Seeking to discourage Maine college graduates from leaving the state, Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill Monday giving tax credits to lower the cost of student loans for those who stay in the state. The program, called Opportunity Maine, starts in January and will apply only to new loans. The tax credit will last 10 years, or until the recipient moves out of state.

Social Networks Sap Bandwidth
Brock Read, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Movie downloads have been bandwidth killers on many campus networks for a few years now. But as colleges try to control online piracy, they may find themselves frustrated by a new class of bandwidth hogs: social-networking sites.

UK: College Loses Half of Its Teachers
BBC News

A college is losing more than half of its teaching staff in a dispute over new contracts and workloads. Academics' union the UCU says 97 out of 179 teaching staff at Harlow College, Essex, have decided to take redundancy, after five days of strikes.

Australia: Its a Woman's World on Campus
Brendan O'Keefe, The Australian

Women continue to outnumber men on Australia's university campuses, the 2006 census confirms. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, released last week, show that female tertiary students outnumbered males by nearly 100,000.

A More Global Way with Education
Jon Boone, Financial Times

Two of the world's most buccaneering education entrepreneurs have teamed up to build 60 multimillion-dollar schools in big cities across the world. The network of high-end international schools will cater to the children of bankers, diplomats and executives who have to regularly uproot their families.

Australia: Uni Costs Turn Rural Students Off
Adam Morton, The Age

Country students are more than twice as likely as their Melbourne peers to defer higher education, and increasingly blame their decision on the growing cost of university life.

Canada's Children in Need of XO Laptops, Too
Dan McLean. Globe and Mail

Consider that Canada has been criticized as a country that proportionately spends less on IT than most other Western nations. It's also been suggested that we're losing ground to other countries in terms of our future competitiveness and that the world in general may be facing something of an impending skills shortage in various IT-related disciplines. Everybody, and especially businesses, should be interested in seeing the next generation having the finest of tech-savvy and collaborative skills.

108 Toronto Schools Open for the Summer
Daniel Girard, The Star

More than 100 Toronto schools in troubled and poverty-stricken neighbourhoods are opening their doors beginning today, offering youths a range of programs from sports and arts, to leadership and job searches.

Maritime Students Head to Memorial for Lower Tuition
CBC News

Cheaper tuition fees at Memorial University of Newfoundland have proven to be a magnet for students from the Maritime provinces, new data show. Fees at Memorial - the only university in Newfoundland and Labrador - are significantly less than those at universities in the Maritimes, and often are half the amount charged elsewhere.

Centre Gets Youth Off the Street and Online
Jennifer Lewington, Globe and Mail

The Pro Tech Media Centre provides an opportunity to explore media, for creative young people living in areas of Toronto known for gun and gang violence. The centre is heralded as offering "hope to gang members."  Microsoft Canada has donated $400,000 in cash and leading-edge digital equipment. Humber College is providing the curriculum, and assistance from faculty at the School of Media Studies and Information Technology. 

Financing Education
Edweek.org

Eighty-six percent of high school guidance counselors are concerned about the amount of debt students take on to pay for college, says a study.

Literacy Instruction
Edweek.org

Middle and high school students must be able to exceed standard reading levels in order to compete successfully in a 21st century global economy, says a report by the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education.

The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher.

To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.