States' Evidence: What it Means to Make 'Adequate Yearly Progress' Under NCLB
Erin Dillon & Andrew Rotherha, Education Sector

Under NCLB, the consequences
for missing AYP are substantial. Schools that do not meet performance targets for multiple years are deemed to be
“in need of improvement” and face an escalating seriesof interventions, including giving students the chance to
transfer to other public schools or using school funds for extra tutoring.

English, Math Time Up in 'No Child' Era
Jay Mathews, The Washington Post

In the five years since a federal law mandated an expansion of reading and math tests, 44 percent of school districts nationwide have made deep cutbacks in social studies, science, art and music lessons in elementary grades and have even slashed lunchtime, a new survey has found.

A Taste of College Life, and a Plan for Making It Reality
Winnie Hu, The New York Times

There will hardly be any summer break for 30 high-achieving and low-income students in the Orange and Englewood school districts in New Jersey who are mastering statistics, writing papers and going to study hall as part of a new program aimed at eventually getting them into the nation’s best colleges.

New Bill Would Revamp Ed-Tech Funding
Laura Devaney, eSchool News

A new bill introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, called the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act, aims to make significant improvements to the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) block-grant program. Backed by several major educational technology groups, the bill would increase the size of formula grants, target funding more effectively to schools in need of improvement, and specify that a higher percentage of funds be used for sustained professional development, among other changes.

Overweight Kids: College Less Likely
Coco Masters, Time

Kids struggle in high school for a lot of reasons — drugs, lack of interest, trouble at home, to name a few. But a new study in the July issue of Sociology of Education highlights a factor that doesn't immediately come to mind: obesity.

Charter School to Teach in Three Languages
Education Week (subscription required)

A new study of Chicago students suggests that the federal No Child Left Behind Act may indeed be leaving behind students at the far ends of the academic ability spectrum - the least able students and those who are gifted.

Gender Bias in College Admissions
Christian Science Monitor

Inside the ivied halls of higher education, a quiet courtship is taking place. The suitors are admissions directors who seek out qualified males. With women outnumbering men on many campuses, schools use gender bias to adjust a gender imbalance.

College Rankings: Higher Education's Battle Royal
Kevin Carey & Thomas Toch, Education Sector

The next U.S. News and World Report college rankings, those ever-more-influential arbiters of higher education status, are only weeks away and the leaders of dozens of high-profile schools, including Barnard, Sarah Lawrence, and Scripps, have vowed to boycott the newsmagazine's survey of "best colleges." The move is a sharp escalation in a long-brewing battle over ratings of the nation's colleges and universities.

Senate Streamlines Student Loans
Nancy Zuckerbrod, The Washington Post

The Senate sought Tuesday to simplify the financial aid process for students and to cut down on conflicts of interest in the student loan industry. In a 95-0 vote, the Senate passed a bill aimed at streamlining the financial aid process by creating a new, simplified financial aid application form. Critics say the existing one is too long, seeks redundant information and is confusing.

More Specific Listing of Ethinicity at UC Urged
Anna Gorman, The L.A. Times

Frustrated by the assumption that all Asian American youths are well represented at UC schools, a coalition of Pacific Islander and Asian students at UCLA is pushing for the university to expand its demographic categories to highlight low numbers in some of those communities in hopes of boosting enrollment and outreach programs.

Positive Financial Assessment of Private Colleges
Jennifer Epstein, Inside Higher Ed

Offering a largely upbeat assessment, Lori Torrey, primary credit analyst, said the ratings were bolstered by the double-digit endowment returns that many institutions experienced for the second consecutive year, as well as record-high levels of fund raising and demand from students in 2006. Trends for the first half of 2007 suggest a stable or positive outlook for 96 percent of the institutions in the ratings, Standard & Poor’s said.

Oxford Plans to Attract Working Class Pupils
Graeme Paton, Telegraph

Bright children from good schools may be turned away from Oxford University under plans to admit more working class pupils. The university has changed its admissions policy to recognise the most able candidates from poor-performing secondary schools and sixth-form colleges.

Deals in Textbook Business Make Irishman a Leader in U.S. Publishing
Eric Pfanner, New York Times

Irishman Barry O’Callaghan is turning a small Irish software company into a giant American textbook publisher. Mr. O’Callaghan, 38, is the chief executive of Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group and is its largest investor. The company was formed last year when Riverdeep, based in Dublin, combined with Houghton Mifflin, based in Boston, in a $3.4 billion deal. If the Harcourt acquisition is completed, the company would vault past McGraw-Hill and Pearson to become the biggest textbook publisher in the United States.

Uganda: Usaid Starts New Education Program
Francis Emorut, All Africa

The United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) has pledged to continue supporting education in the country. Margot Ellis, the Usaid mission director, told stakeholders at the closing of the national education conference at the Sheraton Hotel, Kampala that education programmes would be implemented under a new initiative called Unity.

Staying the Course: Retention of Students in Higher Education
EGov Monitor

Four out of five students starting a full-time course in England are expected to complete their course, the NAO reported today. The United Kingdom’s performance on retention compares favourably with most other OECD countries, during a period of expansion in higher education.

Students Decry 'Deal with the Devil' Loan Terms
Karen Pinchin, The Star

Canada's student loan program is making millions of dollars by gouging cash-strapped graduates who extend their loan terms, say credit counsellors and student activists. The number of students paying a long-term financial penalty in order to renegotiate payment schedules has risen about 77 per cent since 2002.

Two Thirds of Applicants Denied Student Loan Disability Benefit
Erin Millar, Mcleans.ca

Thousands of applicants have been denied the Canada Student Loan (CSL) Permanent Disability Benefit since January 2005. In fact, only one third of the applicants received full or partial support, according to documents obtained by a freedom of information request. However, just why such a large number of applicants are being declined is unclear.

India Seek Canada's Excellence in Higher Learning
The Times of India

India has sought Canada's excellence in higher learning and said the country could help Indian universities become globally competitive. "India's emerging middle class is creating a demand for higher education and, India and Canada could work together to provide affordable and quality education to Indian masses," Narayan said.

Free Degrees to Lure Accountants
Melinda Rout, The Australian

Universities and big accounting firms are recruiting high school students for free accounting degrees in a desperate attempt to alleviate the skills shortage in the profession. Talented Year 12 students are being offered part-time jobs and free university degrees by firms, even before they have applied for a university place. First-year students are also being poached by companies to work full-time with incentives such as sign-up bonuses, rumoured to be as much as $10,000 for each student.

Peer Review Proves a Good Experiment for Students
Anna Patty, The Sydney Morning Herald

Aboriginal senior high school students are being recruited to run science workshops for younger students to encourage them to complete year 12 and study science at university. Macquarie University trained the student role models in response to concerns that less than a third of indigenous students complete their final year of high school, compared with 65 per cent of people in the broader community.

Status of Education in Rural America
National Center for Education Statistics

TIhis report presents a series of indicators on the status of education in rural America, using the new NCES locale classification system. The new system classifies the locale of school districts and schools based on their actual geographic coordinates into one of 12 locale categories and distinguishes between rural areas that are on the fringe of an urban area, rural areas that are at some distance, and rural areas that are remote. The findings of this report indicate that in 2003-04 over half of all operating school districts and one-third of all public schools in the United States were in rural areas; yet only one-fifth of all public school students were enrolled in rural areas. A larger percentage of public school students in rural areas than those in any other locale attended very small schools. A larger percentage of rural public school students in the 4th- and 8th-grades scored at or above the Proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading, mathematics, and science assessments in 2005 than did public school students in cities at these grade levels.

Student Loan Report: Confusion Reigns
Consumers Union

Consumers Union (CU) undertook original qualitative consumer research in five
major metropolitan areas with over 130 students and parents to develop practical
policy recommendations to improve student loan counseling and to enhance
student loan information disclosures. CU’s research focused on the student loan
information needs and experiences of high school juniors and seniors, current
undergraduates, recent graduates, parents of high school juniors and seniors,
and parents of current undergraduate students. They identified several critical pieces of information that the federal government, colleges, lenders, and others can provide to families so that they can make informed choices about how to pay for college.

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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.