Poll Finds Rise in Unfavorable Views of NCLB
Andrew Trotter, Education Week
More Americans say they are knowledgeable about the No Child Left Behind Act than just last year, but familiarity appears to breed dislike. In addition, Americans remain concerned that the federal education law’s focus on testing students for their proficiency in reading and mathematics is leading to a narrowing of the curriculum, at the expense of subjects such as social studies, science, and the arts. (Subscription Required)

School District Has Dress Code, and Is Buying the Uniforms, Too
Winnie Hu, NY Times
Many public schools are supplying their students with an ever-growing list of essentials that go far beyond textbooks to include scientific calculators, personal laptops and free breakfast.  Now they are dressing them, too.

New Incentive for Teachers
Rosalind Rossi, Chicago Sun-Times
About five years ago, as a teacher in Los Angeles, Nicole Guillen supported a pay-for-performance plan that was voted down by her public school. As Chicago Public Schools open a new school year, Guillen is part of a new effort that makes Chicago the largest school district in the nation to offer teachers performance-based pay.

Secretary of Education Criticizes Proposal
Diana Jean Schemo, NY Times
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on Wednesday criticized a Congressional proposal to soften provisions of President’s Bush signature education law, saying it would severely weaken the federal effort to raise achievement among poor and minority children.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive
Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
If lenders and college officials weary of the months-long student loan scandal hoped that the August recess might dampen Congress’s ardor to turn over rocks, their hopes were dashed — and on lawmakers’ first day back in Washington, to boot.

Democrats Set Education Budget Compromise
Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
Congressional leaders — well, Democratic Congressional leaders, anyway — reached agreement Wednesday on compromise legislation that would increase the maximum Pell Grant to $5,400 by 2012 and finance that and other new spending by slashing federal payments to student loan providers.

Permissible Preferred Lender Lists
Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
The U.S. Education Department has been quietly proceeding with its examinations of colleges where all or most of the federal loan volume flows to one lender, giving a clean bill of health to at least two institutions so far.  Administrators report that department officials had visited their campuses in recent weeks and departed having concluded that the fact that so many of their borrowers used one lender did not signify a problem.

As Support Lags, Colleges Tack on Student Fees
Jonathan D. Glater, NY Times
College administrators say public universities are increasingly tacking on fees for the same reasons that some are experimenting with differential tuition for different majors: state support for higher education has languished, and legislatures shy away from approving tuition increases.

 Brown Shakes Up Education Arena
BBC News
Gordon Brown has placed his former adviser Ed Balls in charge of a new department focusing on England's children, families and schools.  The children's department will have a ”co-ordinating role" on children's health, welfare and child poverty.

Mergers for Struggling Schools
BBC News
Mergers between struggling and successful schools will be the next phase of efforts to raise standards, says Schools Secretary Ed Balls. There will be a £300,000 incentive for high-achieving schools to merge with their unsuccessful neighbours.

Researchers Question School in High-Tech Age
Dean Bennett, Canadian Press
Researchers say students weaned on collaborative learning with high-tech devices are suffering in classrooms ruled by defenders of lecture-based orthodoxy wielding overhead projectors and reciting from dog-eared history textbooks that climax with Paul Martin's run for 24 Sussex Drive.

Out of Balance
Erin Millar, Macleans.ca
Student financial aid is not going to those who need it most, says a new study by the Educational Policy Institute. The report argues for more need-based financial aid, rather than funding that benefits all students equally, such as tuition cuts and merit-based scholarships.

Fund to Benefit the Best
Catherine Armitage and Bernard Lane, The Australian
Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop has admitted for the first time that not every university can expect money from the $6 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund, which she said was a mechanism meant to catapult more universities into the top 100 in the world and perhaps two into the top 10.

UWS Draws the Line at Mosque
Bernard Lane, The Australian
The University of Western Sydney has knocked back a request that it build a mosque for its Muslim students. A local Muslim spiritual leader had made an informal suggestion of a mosque at UWS about six months ago."We said, 'We are a secular university, we don't do these kinds of things'," said UWS director of equity and diversity, and chairman of the first national conference on Muslim university students, held this week at UWS.

More Student Success: A Systemic Solution
With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) has released a new report, "More Student Success: A Systemic Solution," an updated successor to the 2003 publication, "Student Success: Statewide P-16 Systems." The report has updated the earlier book to reflect progress since 2003, and it includes a new chapter, by George Kuh, on increasing the rate of student achievement in postsecondary education.  Download the report here.

State High School Exit Exams: Working to Raise Test Scores
This report looks at the new developments in the implementation of state high school exit exams in the 26 states that currently implement or plan to implement these exams. The report focuses on the efforts made at the state and local level to raise initial pass rates for all students, help students who fail on their first attempt, and close the achievement gap. View Materials

Australian University Student Finances 2006
A report by Universities Australia discusses the findings of a survey of Australian public university students.  The survey asked students about such financial issues as employment and income, ability to provide for personal needs, loans, and debt. Find the full report here.

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.