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As a community college administrator with an eye on the presidency, Dr. Walter Bumphus wanted to ensure he would be competitive when the time came to climb the career ladder. [...]

In its role helping the nation's schools connect to the Internet and other telecommunications services, the "E-rate" has been among the most consistent of federal programs. Funding for the "education rate" program has held at about $2.25 billion a year since it was created under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and it covers few of the technology services available to schools beyond simple Internet and phone connectivity. But now, with a critical mass of schools connected to the Web, experts say inadequate funding and the program's onerous and often confusing rules and procedures can complicate schools' efforts to pursue more innovative tech-based approaches to teaching and learning. The program is credited with helping most of the nation's schools move into the Internet age--just 14 percent of K-12 classrooms had access when the program was created in 1996, compared with more than 95 percent today. But confusion over which services qualify for discounts, the extent of the requirements for addressing Internet safety and access, and a paper trail laborious enough to frighten even the most seasoned of bureaucrats, have hindered plans in some districts to expand the use of digital tools, experts say. The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the E-rate program, has made changes over the years to make it easier and more accessible to applicants, and workshops are held each year to provide updates and guidance on rules and procedures, according to Carol Mattey, a senior policy advisor to the task force for the National Broadband Plan, which is scheduled to come out on March 17.

With scant research on the efficacy of social-networking tools such as Twitter, and few clear insights into the best (and worst) uses for them, there is little agreement among researchers and educators about how or whether Twitter-like technologies could or should be used in schools. This article discusses how teachers can use this popular social-networking site as part of their lessons and classwork. The author also shares some concerns on the potential negative impact of the latest technological applications.

School administrators in California are getting greater flexibility in how they spend more than $300 million intended for instructional materials, along with encouragement to use some free digital textbooks for high school courses, as a result of cost-cutting measures brought on by the state's budget crisis. Extensive changes to the state's curriculum policies have raised concerns among many educators that they will not have the guidance or resources they need to choose the best textbooks and teaching strategies for their students. Beyond those concerns, the changes have also left publishers reeling as they brace for the potential of huge losses of sales in what is their biggest and most influential market. Coupled with budget cuts in other states, the economic climate could jeopardize development of new print and digital products nationally, industry experts say. Lawmakers recently approved a four-year suspension of California's textbook-adoption process, as well as its curriculum commission, which was in the middle of updating state frameworks, or content guidelines in science, social studies, and other subject areas. A new state law also allows district officials to forgo purchasing instructional materials altogether and use the money instead on staffing and other critical areas to offset funding cuts resulting from California's $26 billion budget gap. District leaders, who have long sought flexibility to purchase instructional materials outside the state-approved list, do not necessarily welcome the changes. Some school leaders, however, welcome the flexibility, which they say will allow them to maintain sufficient staffing levels and salvage essential professional development and school programs.

This article describes how some teachers such as Gamal Sherif are turning to electronic resources to capture students' interest in the election. Sherif, who teaches history and science at the Science Leadership Academy, a public school in Philadelphia, said "the technology is fun and helpful, but it's also a tool one can use to get a better understanding of what the political and historical issues are." Armed with laptop computers, the students at Sherif's class monitor and analyze video footage of the candidates on the campaign trail and in debates. Using text-mapping tools, they can scrutinize the rhetoric in candidates' speeches and interviews, and document their positions on various issues. (Contains 12 resources.)

This article reports on findings from a national study of Reading First's effect on student reading achievement released last week by the Institute of Education Sciences. The major federal report finds that the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program has had no measurable effect on students' reading comprehension, on average, although participating schools are spending significantly more time teaching the basic skills that researchers say children need to become proficient readers. Reading First was authorized under the 6-year-old No Child Left Behind Act to help improve reading instruction in the nation's struggling schools. It requires schools receiving the federal grants to incorporate scientifically based reading research, which was defined by the National Reading Panel, in an influential 2000 report, as explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The long-awaited interim report from the "Reading First Impact Study" says that students in schools receiving grants from the federal program have not fared any better than their counterparts in comparison schools in gaining meaning from print. That central finding in the first national study, however, does not necessarily signal that the program, or the evidence-based instructional model it is based on, is not working, federal officials said.

At a time when many teenagers are consumed by such activities as text-messaging, blogging, and social networking, more middle and high school students than in the past have mastered the formal "basic" writing skills needed to express ideas or share information, national assessment results released last week show. But just small proportions--33 percent of 8th graders and 24 percent of 12th graders--show proficiency in the subject, meaning they usually use proper spelling and grammar and the more sophisticated skills they need to write a school essay or explain complex information. The National Assessment of Educational Progress in writing shows significant progress at both grade levels, and for most student subgroups, since the test was last given in 2002, and in the nine years since it was first administered. In both grades, more students displayed at least basic skills, and more were deemed "proficient" at writing than in 2002.

On the same day President Bush signed a $150 billion economic-stimulus package in an attempt to head off a recession and offset a crisis in the home-mortgage market, a group of financial experts and educators met a few blocks from the White House to craft a plan for better preparing Americans, young and old, to manage their money. Financial education experts have been advocating teaching students economics and personal-finance skills for decades. But while they have seen progress in getting those lessons into the nation's high schools, concerns about the foundering economy are helping to highlight the need to improve students' understanding of money matters. This article reports on the flagging economy concerns which prompt experts and educators to concentrate on financial education. Preparing citizens for the complex financial decisions they have to make when buying a home, choosing health-insurance plans, or investing in retirement funds should start early, many experts say.

The reading coaches, professional development programs, and instructional materials that are the cornerstones of the Reading First program and are credited with improving instruction in struggling schools may be threatened by a deep cut included in the 2008 federal budget, officials and observers say. The reduction of more than 60 percent--from nearly $1 billion each year since the program was rolled out in 2002 to $393 million for the fiscal year that began October 1--will likely inhibit further improvements and test the sustainability of the changes Reading First has fostered over the past six years. The cut is part of an omnibus spending bill President Bush signed into law last month. The U.S. Department of Education is working with states to identify other potential sources to pay for the program, such as with federal Title I and Title II money, according to Amanda Farris, a deputy assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education.

Aspiring middle school teachers in the United States take fewer math courses and are less knowledgeable in the subject than their counterparts in South Korea, Taiwan, and other countries. That gap in teacher preparation, coupled with curricular differences, could help explain achievement disparities between American students and their peers in other industrialized nations, researchers say. The preparation of teachers to impart high-level mathematics skills at the middle and high school levels has been gaining attention as U.S. business leaders and policymakers express worries about the ability of schools to train a globally competitive workforce. Now, in a study released this week, researchers are offering data on teacher education that hint at the extent of the problem. This article reports on the study of those on the brink of becoming middle school teachers in the U.S. and five other countries--Bulgaria, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan--which concludes that American teachers are ill prepared for the task.

After several years of planning and a series of false starts, a new federal venture to review reading research has hit another bureaucratic hurdle--one that could keep it from ever getting off the ground. A planned announcement last week of the membership of the Commission on Reading Research was put on hold by the National Institute for Literacy while officials sought final approval from the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies that the institute reports to. Although the institute, known as NIFL, has already recruited commission members after a lengthy nomination and selection process, Education Department officials said it has not been decided if such a panel will ever be established.

This article reports that national tests in several core subjects could be eliminated or scaled back over the next five years without more federal funding. The officials who set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) say scheduled exams in economics, foreign language, geography, and world history could be canceled if funding remains flat, as is projected. Moreover, some grade levels would not be tested in civics, U.S. history, and writing, and the NAEP long-term trend tests in mathematics and reading, which have been conducted regularly over the past 40 years, would be given in 2008, but not in 2012. The news came as a blow to several organizations representing subject-area teachers and researchers, which have lobbied over the past decade for an expansion of the federally sponsored testing program, known as "the nation's report card," as a way to improve instruction in those areas. Pointing to research showing that content tested on state and national exams garners a greater proportion of instructional time, the groups have argued that including their subjects in the national-assessment program raises their importance in the curriculum. Amid concerns that some core subjects are being marginalized under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, and calls from lawmakers and business leaders for schools to do a better job preparing students for the global economy, some observers say NAEP tests are more important than ever.

This article reports how the 10 "pilot" schools conceived by the Boston district in 1994 are seeing more students through graduation than regular high schools in the area. Conceived a decade ago as the district's response to charter schools, pilot schools have won praise from educators, business leaders, and community groups for providing school choice and innovation within the city's public school system. These schools also have significantly higher promotion and graduation rates, fewer dropouts, and fewer disciplinary issues. Still, some observers say their results are due more to the schools' ability to choose or remove teachers, lower proportions of high-needs students, and the control they have in selecting students or weeding out those who are not likely to succeed in them.

The debate in the U.S. House of Representatives over whether the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915 should be declared "genocide" has been resolved in practice in many American classrooms. That era has become intertwined with lessons on the Holocaust in the history curriculum. This article describes how teachers are finding ways to give their students a more comprehensive look at genocide historically and in current events. Human rights is one of the themes being highlighted in the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies next month, and more than a dozen sessions--the most in recent years--will take up teaching about genocide. The council has also crafted sample lessons for teachers on a variety of human-rights issues. The United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as any act committed with the idea of destroying in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Though killing is the ultimate destructive act, it is not the only one. Forcefully transferring children from one group to another represents one element of genocide. The New York City-based International Association of Genocide Scholars, a global, nonpartisan body that studies the causes and consequences of genocide, formally recognizes the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and considers it undeniable.

The random and sometimes erratic nature of state proficiency standards makes for an assessment system that is "slipshod," obscure, and potentially unreliable, contends an outspoken think tank's analysis of the testing benchmarks set by 26 states. The range of expectations--3rd grade reading proficiency can mean performing at the 6th percentile on one state's test, but at the 62nd on another's--spells "big trouble" for standards-based improvement efforts and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The report from Thomas B. Fordham Foundation reinforces growing concerns that, despite the federal mandates and the improved reporting of student-achievement data under the NCLB law, no common yardstick exists for comparing those school improvement gains across states.

Reed Elsevier's recently announced plans to spin off its Harcourt educational publishing divisions to the Houghton Mifflin Co. would complete a consolidation of most K-12 publishing in the United States into a new Big Three. If federal regulators allow the deal to go through, school districts that annually buy textbooks from the three companies--Pearson Education Inc., the McGraw-Hill Cos., and Houghton Mifflin with its newly acquired Harcourt units--would likely see little change over the next few years, analysts of the educational publishing market agreed. For the longer term, experts differ over whether the consolidation would speed--or slow--the ongoing transition to greater use of digital-based curriculum materials currently taking place in K-12 education. Pearson Education is currently the industry leader in U.S. education publishing, experts said. Depending on how size is measured, the latest deal could vault Houghton Mifflin to the top of the K-12 portion of that market.

A federal official gained significant financial benefit from a commercial reading program he wrote, which he actively promoted while serving as a high-level adviser to states during the implementation of the Reading First program, a Senate report said last week. The official, Edward J. Kame'enui, may have misrepresented those details when he testified under oath before a congressional committee last month, according to the preliminary results of a Senate education committee investigation. Kame'enui, who is now serving as the commissioner for special education research at the U.S. Department of Education, had close ties to publishing companies that were competing for business among schools and districts participating in the $1 billion-a-year reading initiative, concludes the report. It was released May 9 by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. At a House hearing on Reading First and student loans last week, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said she was "deeply concerned" by the Senate report and was "vigorously" investigating the allegations. However, she is unsure whether she will ask for resignation of official reported to have benefited financially from his position.

Schools taking part in the federal Reading First program are showing significant progress in boosting students' reading fluency and comprehension, according to state-reported data compiled and released by the U.S. Department of Education last week. In releasing for the first time detailed, multiyear data on how Reading First schools are performing on key measures, federal officials hailed the results as solid evidence that the $1 billion-a-year initiative is working. The analysis of test results from about half the states--those that reported baseline data on participating schools--shows about a 15 percent improvement in the proportion of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders who can read fluently, meaning accurately and at an appropriate rate. In measures of reading comprehension, those states averaged about a 12 percent increase in the number of 3rd graders who were deemed proficient. Students in most subgroups also saw gains. Some observers, however, questioned whether the data should be used to generalize about the program's impact on students' reading skills. They also noted the timing of the report's release, on the eve of what was expected to be a contentious congressional hearing late last week into allegations of mismanagement and conflict of interest in the program.

The recent wrap-up of an intensive, two-year examination of the federal Reading First initiative is not expected to halt debate over the program. Given the broad agreement in seven federal reports that serious problems occurred in the oversight of the program's implementation, the findings have sparked interest on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers continue their own review of Reading First, prepare for hearings on the program, and consider the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. This article discusses the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that highlights the effects that Reading First has had on instruction in underachieving schools. This latest review, released on March 23, 2007, reiterates the findings outlined in six reports by the U.S. Department of Education's inspector general: Federal officials failed to safeguard against potential conflicts of interest in administering the program; and they directed some states' and districts' choices of reading texts and assessments, despite legal prohibitions.

Chanelle Brown has not found much she can relate to in the classic texts assigned in her English classes at Evanston Township High School. A top student, the junior has toiled through "The Odyssey," "All the King's Men," "The Scarlet Letter," and other standards, she said, while many of her classmates at the suburban Chicago school have given up reading them altogether. Ms. Brown is glad that teachers at Evanston High, like educators elsewhere, have been supplementing the canon with recently published books to provide a more varied, and palatable, literary menu for students. Such decisions, some experts say, can add the kind of engaging and relevant content that high school reform advocates have been calling for. Doing so, however, can foster concerns about whether the content of such books is appropriate. Many young-adult novels, for example, feature violent scenes, topics such as death and abuse, or protagonists who purposely hurt themselves. This article explains why dark and disturbing themes in books get students reading and the concerns of parents and others regarding these themes. This article emphasizes the need for overhauling the high school English curriculum, including incorporating more relevant and engaging reading assignments.

Reading Recovery, a popular one-to-one tutoring program that Bush administration officials sought to shut out of a high-profile federal reading program, has gotten a rare thumbs-up from the federal What Works Clearinghouse. The positive rating comes after prominent researchers and federal reading officials tried to dissuade states and districts from paying for Reading Recovery with funds from the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program, which calls on school systems to spend their grant money on programs backed by "scientifically based research." In their objections to the tutoring program, critics raised questions about its cost and cited problems in the studies attesting to its effectiveness. In the What Works review, posted online March 20, the clearinghouse said the program had "positive" effects--the highest evidence rating possible--on students' alphabetic skills and general reading achievement. The reviewers also determined that the program had "potentially positive" effects, its next-highest rating, on reading fluency and comprehension.

The proportion of high school students completing a challenging core curriculum rose significantly between 1990 and 2005--from 31 percent to 51 percent--and students are doing better in their classes than their predecessors did. However, that good news is tempered by other findings in two federal reports. The performance of high school seniors on the National Assessment of Educational Progress has declined in reading over the past decade and is showing no signs of improvement. Student performance is also lackluster in mathematics. Moreover, a third of high school graduates in 2005 did not complete a standard curriculum, which includes four credits of English and three credits each of social studies, math, and science. In this article, the author discusses the 12th grade reading and math results on "the nation's report card," as well as the details of the transcript study. She also emphasizes that big steps are needed in order for high school graduates to get ready for college-level work and careers.

This article reports how an "Education Week" review of hundreds of e-mail exchanges that detail a pattern of federal interference in "Reading First" have skirted legal prohibitions. In regular e-mail discussions, Christopher J. Doherty, the Reading First director at the U.S. Department of Education until last September, and G. Reid Lyon, a branch chief at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development until June 2005 and an influential adviser to the initiative, closely monitored states' progress in applying for Reading First money, in issuing subgrants to districts, and in complying with the law's provisions for scientifically based instruction. Some former federal officials and supporters of the program argue that such oversight was essential to its success, but a number of state and local officials took offense and questioned whether Reading First staff members exceeded their authority.

Reading First's $1 billion-a-year investment in improving reading instruction seemed to be the kind of incentive that would push publishers to develop a new generation of products and approaches to match the research base the No Child Left Behind Act requires. But the money for instructional materials has not spread much beyond the handful of big publishing companies and name-brand programs that have dominated the market for years, according to industry reports and observers. Nearly five years after the federal program was rolled out, it appears that the intended expansion of choices of core and supplemental materials hasn't happened. This article discusses why the Reading law fails to bring innovations.

Reading First, a program under the No Child Left Behind Act, is intended to bring research-based reading instruction to struggling schools through the awarding of grants. In an audit of New York's Reading First plan, investigators concluded that the state erred in awarding grants to eight districts and a charter school that did not meet the minimum criteria for the program, and they recommended that the state return $118 million of the $216 million in federal money already awarded. New York state officials are disputing this report, maintaining that they administered the program the way the U.S. Department of Education demanded. This article details the confusion surrounding the implementation of the Reading First program and the U.S. Department of Education's management of the program.

This article reports how the Voyager Universal Literacy core program, which is sailing successively into the market for reading programs, has been the target of several speculations over its secrets of success. Use of the Voyager Universal Literacy program has since spread to 1,000 districts throughout the country since its introduction into the market in 2000 by founder Randy Best. Several studies, financed by Voyager, show evidence that the program is helping to raise reading achievement in selected schools and districts. However, its success has drawn questions about how a reading program with no independent track record could advance so far, so fast, and whether its rise has been accelerated by its effect on student achievement or by the political influence of Mr. Best and the researchers he hired who designed the program. Critics have charged that Voyager's success is more about gamesmanship in getting a share of the market than in finding a solution to reading problems.

Both as an 8th grader, and a 10th grader, Johnny may be on track for mastering the advanced reading skills he will need to succeed in college and the workplace. But by high school graduation, he and many other aspiring college students will likely be unprepared to tackle the complex reading and writing tasks they will encounter, a study set for release the week of March 1, 2006 concludes. While science and mathematics are claiming the spotlight in the latest push for improving high schools and sharpening the nation's competitive edge, a study by ACT Inc. makes the case for doing so through better reading instruction, clear and rigorous state standards for high school reading, and the use of more sophisticated texts and teaching materials. This article discusses the study, "Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT Reveals About College Readiness in Reading," which found that only 51 percent of test-takers who were planning on higher education met the ACT "college-readiness benchmark in reading." As 8th and 10th graders, however, nearly two-thirds of the students overall, and larger percentages in every subgroup were on course to be prepared for college. "In terms of readiness for college-level reading, students are actually losing momentum during high school," the report says.

The real-world experiments conducted by South Carroll students in the rapidly growing suburb west of Baltimore are intended to teach scientific principles while also dispensing significant life lessons about the environment and nature's delicate balance. Such moral and ethical principles often go hand in hand with academic content, educators say. Opinions are shared in this article.

This paper reports the results of a special urban study of the 2005 National Assessment of Education Progress which indicates that city school districts may be seeing some payoff from years of work to improve mathematics instruction. However, similar initiatives to raise reading achievement have not led to significant gains. While, most of the 11 districts that participated in the Trial Urban District Assessment fell below the national average on tests for 4th and 8th graders, officials and policymakers pointed to some headway in tests scores and achievement levels as promising signs that school improvement measures are beginning to show returns. "The results show that urban school districts can improve achievement when there is focus over time," said Thomas W. Payzant, the superintendent of the 58,000-student Boston district. Although most of the reading gains were not considered statistically significant, they should be seen as part of a positive trend, said Michael D. Casserly, the executive director of the Council of Great City Schools, a Washington-based advocacy group representing 66 of the nation's largest-city districts. The council had requested the special urban study. The results, mixed as they were, drew a range of responses from experts and observers. The outcome confirms the significant problems facing the nation's urban schools, but suggests that the attention placed on improving student achievement for their students is having an impact, according to Ross Wiener, the policy director for the Education Trust.

Nearly four years after Reading First was authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act, federal officials are renegotiating with Puerto Rico--one of the nation's neediest jurisdictions--on a revised plan for satisfying the program's criteria. Still, the self-governing U.S. commonwealth, the only jurisdiction that has yet to receive money from the $1 billion-a-year initiative, will not receive some $60 million from the first two years of the six-year grant, after failing to spend the money allocated in fiscal 2003, and declining another payment for fiscal 2004. Puerto Rico officials disagree with the instructional model outlined in the approved plan and the methods for teaching reading in English in the early grades. The U.S. Department of Education describes the commonwealth's new proposal as "under development." Puerto Rico officials have until September 2006 to reapply, which federal officials say they hope will finally put programs in place to improve reading instruction there.

This article reports that Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate education committee have joined the debate over the implementation of Reading First, with a call for an investigation into the federal program by the watchdog arm of Congress. The request to the Government Accountability Office follows allegations that federal officials and their agents may have steered program contracts to favored publishers and consultants, and complaints that the program has not adhered to the principles of scientific evidence outlined in federal law. Many reading experts have praised the program, which is supposed to promote the use of scientifically based reading instruction, materials, and teacher training to improve achievement in the subject in struggling schools. Since its inception, however, there have been numerous complaints that federal officials have placed too many restrictions on how the money can be spent. In addition, a number of state and district officials have reported that the Education Department and federal consultants pressured them to require the use of specific products and researchers as conditions for receiving Reading First money.

Just a few years ago, a set of tests known as "dibbles" would have elicited little more than a chuckle from educators or anyone else. Today, they're taking it seriously, because the acronym DIBELS has come to symbolize the standard for early-literacy assessment throughout much of the country. Teachers in Reading First schools in more than 40 states now use the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills to screen K-3 pupils for potential reading problems and to monitor their progress. And state officials are collecting the data from the short reading fluency tests to determine whether schools receiving some of the $1 billion given annually in federal Reading First grants are making adequate progress in getting students up to grade-level proficiency. Furthermore, developed by researchers at the University of Oregon, DIBELS has become a catchphrase in the schoolhouse and the statehouse as officials look to test data to inform instruction, to identify children at risk of failure in reading, and to hold schools accountable for student achievement. But while teachers, administrators, and researchers praise the tests for their ease of use and reliability in predicting which children may have reading difficulties later, the use of DIBELS has drawn criticism from some in the field. Critics cite the tendency of some educators to teach to the tests or give the measures too much weight in gauging reading ability, as well as the often aggressive promotion of DIBELS by federal employees and consultants to the Reading First program. Some critics charge that DIBELS got the competitive edge not because of its superiority, but because its developers and their colleagues at the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, were key consultants to the U.S. Department of Education for Reading First. Some researchers also questioned whether children's speed at reading nonsense words or carefully crafted passages has anything to do with the ultimate goal of comprehension, according to P. David Pearson, the dean of education at the University of California, Berkeley. Furthermore, Michigan State's Mr. Pressley is completing a technical report on DIBELS. So far, he said, his analysis shows that it is an accurate indicator of how pupils will perform on high-stakes state tests in reading. But DIBELS does not show whether students are on target for developing higher-level reading skills, such as vocabulary and comprehension.

A generation of reform measures in the Southeastern states appears to be paying off in higher student achievement, as measured by "the nation's report card." Nine- and 13-year-olds from that region, in fact, posted the highest gains in both reading and mathematics on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term-trend tests. The showing out of the Southeast likely played a large role in the overall headway of the nation's 9-year-olds, who turned in their highest scores ever in the three-decade history of the tests. Reading scores for 9-year-olds in the South rose 13 points between 1999 and 2004, to 218, a point below the national average. In math, they shot up 31 points, to 240, about the national average. Middle school students from the Southeast also made the greatest leaps in test scores on both tests nationally, scoring 257 points in reading, a 3-point gain over 1999, and 278 points in math, an 8-point improvement over the previous test. When the tests were first given in the early 1970s, those states were the lowest performers, with scores well below the national average. States in the West also registered gains on the 2004 NAEP, while the average performance of all students in the Northeast and Central regions has remained relatively flat over the life of the reading test, with only modest improvements in math.

Little solid evidence is available to gauge whether the federal government's multibillion-dollar Reading First initiative is having an effect on student achievement, but many states are reporting anecdotally that they are seeing benefits for their schools. Among those benefits are extensive professional development in practices deemed to be research-based, extra instructional resources, and ongoing support services. Hard data on the program's effectiveness are still a year or more away, but many state officials say they have received widespread reports from schools and districts of improved morale, more effective instruction, and, in a few cases, higher test scores. However, it was not smooth sailing for several Michigan schools. Six schools--three in Detroit, two in Muskegon, and one in Saginaw--were dropped after failing to make the progress outlined in the grant requirements. Throughout the country, a small number of other schools have been cut from the program primarily because of changes in leadership or because of consolidation. A handful of other schools, however, lost their grants from the voluntary program after failing to show sufficient progress on standardized tests. Participating schools, many of them enrolling predominantly disadvantaged children, agreed to follow detailed plans for improving reading instruction and must show progress in student performance within two years. Other schools bowed out of Reading First after administrators determined it was not meeting expectations.

College-based programs that motivate underachieving teenagers to graduate and pursue further education is part of a menu of initiatives Guilford County, North Carolina, has introduced to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of students in its middle and high schools, where racial and ethnic diversity and poverty have been on the rise. As a result of such efforts, officials say, the high school dropout rate has fallen from nearly 6 percent of students in grades 9-12 during the 1999-2000 school year to just over 3 percent for 2003-04. Educators point out that such students generally would not succeed without a lot of help getting back on the academic track. At the Early/Middle College, for example, teachers conduct home visits, meet regularly with students, and keep close watch on their progress. Students can take advantage of daily tutorials, make up school time on selected Saturdays and over the summer, or opt to attend a fifth year of high school. As a result, nearly all the high-risk students graduate with a college-prep or technical diploma, a majority earn grade-level marks on the state's end-of-course exams, and some leave with credit toward a college degree. Guilford County's high school options aren't limited to struggling students. Students across the district--which includes Greensboro and the surrounding suburbs--can earn a special Advanced Placement diploma for completing five AP courses and passing the exams. They can also choose from a handful of magnet schools, take courses at selected colleges, often with the district paying the tuition, or apply for the early- and middle-college programs. For many students, the programs have been life-altering.

North Carolina boasts a growing network of global-studies magnet schools, a prominent university center that sponsors training on international issues and study trips abroad for thousands of teachers, an innovative recruitment program to attract teachers from around the globe, and a popular former governor who has championed the cause of bringing a world focus to the school curriculum. However, despite agreement among business leaders, educators, and policymakers about the importance of teaching global knowledge, experts say the movement to infuse international education into the curriculum is hitting resistance at the state, district, and school levels. Proponents of international studies have thus broached the subject delicately, choosing to build grassroots support before pushing state-level initiatives. Activists in several states have taken care to frame their arguments in ways that will attract the most support. Beyond the expanded economy, advocates argue that building students' world knowledge would enrich the curriculum, engage students, improve school performance, and help children deal with the increasingly diverse communities in which they live. While there are signs that awareness of the need for international studies in schools is growing, progress has been slow. Expanding the curriculum to tackle such deficiencies is difficult, especially in view of the pressures mounting for schools to increase attention to reading and mathematics instruction due to state testing demands and the accountability measures under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Many teachers say they have little time to attend to all the material inherent in a well-rounded academic program. These concerns have prompted international studies advocates to take an integrated approach in crafting their recommendations.The North Carolina advisory board has called for "infusing international content into existing programs, rather than introducing a new subject to compete with existing priorities." Efforts in other states have also called for substantive changes throughout the curriculum.

This article reports on the action taken by Texas officials to maintain the integrity of their testing program. Responding to a potential cheating scandal uncovered by a recent newspaper investigation, Texas officials announced a sweeping review of test security and plans for a new monitoring scheme for the state accountability system, which has served as a model for other states as well as the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The move came after an analysis of test scores by "The Dallas Morning News" found that results at as many as 400 schools out of 7,700 statewide--including one celebrated Houston elementary school--were suspect. The newspaper, which used a regression analysis of all school-level results on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) for 2003 and 2004, outlined unlikely leaps in TAKS scale scores from one year to the next or students' inability to maintain high levels of achievement as they advanced in school. The analysis compares relationships between variables to gauge or predict consistencies, such as a school's performance in reading over several grades. The Commissioner of Education said the newspaper's use of scale scores--the average score a school achieves on a given test, as opposed to passing rates, may not provide the most accurate measure of how a school is performing. The commissioner acknowledged, however, that the state must devise a common formula for identifying questionable results.