Board puts faith in 'In God We Trust'
Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times
After months of debate, a Bakersfield school district votes to display posters explaining the motto in 2,300 classrooms and offices.

Utah Vouchers Rejected in Overwhelming Vote
Michele McNeil, Education Week
After a multimillion-dollar political campaign that pitted teachers’ unions nationally against school choice advocates, Utah voters yesterday repealed the nation’s first universal voucher law by an overwhelming margin.

Review says abstinence-only ed fails teens
AP, msnbc.com
Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.

No Child Left Behind looks to be stalled
The Washington Post
Bush and Kennedy had thought it would be reauthorized this year, but wrangling of friends and foes has stopped it.

50 New York Schools Fail Under Rating System
Elissa Gootman & Jennifer Medina, The New York Times
Under a blunt new A through F rating system that judges schools not just on performance but also on progress, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg designated 50 New York City public schools as failures yesterday, saying they were so dismal that their 29,000 students would be allowed to transfer elsewhere.

Reaching Students With Chronic Illness
Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed
Cecilia Reyes was 20 when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Then a student at DePaul University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, she was overwhelmed by a feeling of disconnection with professors and fellow students, and struggled to get the support she needed from the student disabilities office. “I look healthy,” Reyes explains. “I have trouble walking when I get sick. But other than my speech right now” – she was having some difficulty talking last Thursday morning – “I look pretty normal.”

At a University in West Virginia, New Protections for Pagans
AP, The New York Times
At Marshall University, pagan students are now allowed to miss classes to observe religious holidays or festivals.

Grading the AP Curriculum
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed
The College Board announced the results of its audit of Advanced Placement courses Monday, saying that most AP courses meet college-level standards, and that the review process had helped thousands of others reach appropriate standards. At the same time, the process identified thousands of courses that didn’t earn the right to keep identifying themselves as part of the AP program.

School leaving age plans unveiled
BBC News
Raising the education leaving age in England and Wales to 18 is a key plank of the government's legislative plans, set out in the Queen's Speech.

Students in developing nations learn a lot thanks to small loans
Tristan McConnell & Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, The Christian Science Monitor
Microloans, often used to help small businesses, are now helping private schools in Ghana and elsewhere.

University of Waterloo moves to the Middle East
Carson Jerema, Macleans.ca
Students in Waterloo won't be the only ones receiving the type of education that only Blackberry money can buy. The University of Waterloo is set to participate in a billion dollar university to be located in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates.

ONTARIO STUDENTS COMMEND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT INVESTMENTS IN EARLY OUTREACH
OUSA
The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) is pleased to see the provincial government significantly increase funding for the Pathways to Education early outreach program. The six year old program has had a dramatic result in reducing the high school drop-out rate in Regent Park from 56% to 10% and increasing the proportion of young people attending post-secondary education from 20% to 80%.

Maclean's 17th Annual (and biggest ever) university rankings to be unveiled
CNW
Maclean's magazine will be unveiling its highly-anticipated 17th annual (and for the second year in a row, biggest ever) ranking of 47 Canadian universities tomorrow. What does the hard data reveal? What do the experts say? And what do students think? It's all revealed in the insider's guide to Canadian post-secondary education soon arriving on newsstands.

Eight Aussie unis in world's top 100
Guy Healy, The Australian
Eight Australian universities have made the top 100 in the latest world rankings of institutions of higher education.

Law to get tough on truancy
Anna Patty, The Sydney Morning Herald
THE State Government has prosecuted 100 parents for failing to send their children to school in the past three years, but it has vowed to come down harder on more parents in the future.

Online pointer to answers
Guy Healy, The Australian
"For our generation, using the net is natural," says Hamida Novakovich, 22, a student welfare officer at the University of Western Australia.

WICHE Policy Alerts

A new policy brief by Jobs for the Future, "Building a Culture of Evidence in Community Colleges," highlights four community colleges leading the way in using institutional research to identify the problems students have and to create programs that directly address them.

For more Click Here.

Online report questions federal student loans

Last week, "Canada Student Debt" released a 17-page report on Canada's student loan programs: "Canada Student Loans: The Need for Change."  The report includes "red-tape nightmares" of more than 6,000 Canadian students.  Federal student loans charge prime plus 2.5% -- higher than many commercial loans, argues the report's author.  Students are unable to file for bankruptcy within 10 years of completing their studies.  Students living in urban areas are unable to meet payment schedules that do not consider higher living expenses.

For More Click 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.