education – News Stories About education - Page 29

Sep 10, 2007 8:35 AM CDT

UC Berkeley Gets $113M to Corral Profs

Gift will slow loss of good teachers to richer, private schools

(Newser) - UC Berkeley will announce a $113 million gift today, which the school will use to create 100 new endowed chairs—hopefully slowing the emigration of professors to the juicier paychecks offered by private universities. The gift is unusual in that it will go straight to ordinary activities rather than building...

15-Year-Old Frosh Enters UPenn

Sep 3, 2007 3:33 PM CDT

15-Year-Old Frosh Enters UPenn

(Newser) - Brittney Exline is just 15, but Wednesday she begins her Ivy League career at UPenn. The Colorado Springs native started sixth grade at age 8, and finished high school math at 13, the AP reports. "Her motivation, discipline and maturity provided clear evidence that, despite her age, she was...

School Segregation Is Up

Aug 30, 2007 7:39 AM CDT

School Segregation Is Up

Black and Latino children flood public schools, risk receiving "separate and inferior" educations

(Newser) - US public schools are more and more divided by race, a trend likely to continue thanks to a June Supreme Court ruling forbidding most local integration efforts, Reuters reports. Many black and Latino children, who now make up 43% of the population, are receiving what a leading civil rights research...

So, You Need to Learn Swahili?

Aug 26, 2007 5:08 PM CDT

So, You Need to Learn Swahili?

Learning languages is labor-intensive. Here's how to get you up to speed.

(Newser) - Get ready for your business trip or vacation with these programs recommended by Porfolio.

Pimsleur Approach: 10-day courses offered in 40 languages.
Rosetta Stone: Promises competence in 2 weeks in 30 languages.
Teach Yourself: CDs and books offer 200 languages at varying speeds.

Princeton Wins
College Rankings
for 8th Year

Aug 17, 2007 6:35 PM CDT

Princeton Wins College Rankings for 8th Year

Annual survey comes under increasing fire for favoring the rich

(Newser) - Facing a barrage of criticism, the latest college rankings from U.S. News and World Report were released today, and Princeton is still No.1, followed by Harvard and Yale. The editors have tried to address complaints about the survey's bias toward schools that educate the well-to-do and the well-prepared....

Four in 10
US Kids Can
Balance Books

Aug 8, 2007 9:12 PM CDT

Four in 10 US Kids Can Balance Books

First national test reveals exposure to economic ideas

(Newser) - A new national test reveals that four in 10 U.S. high school students can grasp economic concepts like tariffs, banking and investment—a result that one expert says is “not discouraging.” Results showed that three in five students can point to factors that increase national debt while...

Principal Fired for Staff Santeria Rites

Aug 8, 2007 9:30 AM CDT

Principal Fired for Staff Santeria Rites

Candles, incense and chicken blood didn't earn A's from bosses

(Newser) - A New York City public school principal's head is on the chopping block for forcing teachers to participate in spiritual cleansing rituals using chicken blood and incense, the AP reports. The principal paid another woman to perform several ceremonies practiced by followers of Santeria, a Caribbean blend of Christianity and...

‘Baby Einstein’ Dumbs Down Toddlers

Aug 7, 2007 12:25 PM CDT

‘Baby Einstein’ Dumbs Down Toddlers

Videos that claim to jumpstart learning do the opposite

(Newser) - The popular “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” video series, intended to fast-track young geniuses, actually have negative educational effects, a new study concludes. Infants who watch them have smaller vocabularies than other children, the Los Angeles Times reports, For every hour per day that 8- to 16-month-olds watched...

Muslim Creationists Damn Darwin

Aug 2, 2007 6:31 PM CDT

Muslim Creationists Damn Darwin

Turkish anti-evolution tract distributed worldwide

(Newser) - A Muslim group in Turkey is widely disseminating a 768-page tome that slams evolution and promotes Islam-inflected creationism, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The Council of Europe has issued warnings—particularly to schools—against the "Atlas of Creation," which has been published in 80 countries and 59 languages.

Schools Cater to Tech-Enamored Students

Jul 31, 2007 6:33 PM CDT

Schools Cater to Tech-Enamored Students

New teaching, learning styles may spell an end to lectures

(Newser) - An increasing number of colleges and universities are using new Web applications to engage a generation of students eager to collaborate—and strut their stuff—on the Internet. Blogs, wikis, and other collaborative tools are being used as more than just empty Web 2.0 buzzwords, CNET reports; they allow...

House Votes
to Overhaul Student Loans

Jul 12, 2007 6:10 AM CDT

House Votes to Overhaul Student Loans

Increases Pell money, slashes interest rates on federal loans

(Newser) - The House OKed a major shakeup of student loans yesterday, in a plan that will eliminate $19 billion in subsidies to lending companies and send the cash directly to students. The bill will increase funding for Pell grants and cut the interest rates on all federally-funded loans—assuming it survives...

States Discover, Spend Surpluses

Jun 11, 2007 11:15 AM CDT

States Discover, Spend Surpluses

Embarrassment of riches will benefit education, gay rights, or just make tax cuts

(Newser) - Oversized tax collection has left state governments with unexpected funds to dole out, and newly Democratic governments are working some big-government swagger. The Times reports that more than 40 states have deeper coffers than budgeted, and new money is going to local initiatives in education, health care and gay rights—...

EU Universities Could Lose Ground to Asia

May 21, 2007 6:21 PM CDT

EU Universities Could Lose Ground to Asia

Old-world schools hear footsteps from China, India in college rankings

(Newser) - Top-tier European universities like Oxford, Cambridge and the Sorbonne will fall behind competitors in China and India within 10 years, the EU's education commissioner warns. The Times of London reports underfunding and outmoded curricula could cost the mossier Western schools their international reputations, and international enrollments with them.

African Colleges Fail
a Generation

May 19, 2007 9:49 PM CDT

African Colleges Fail a Generation

Underfunded and overcrowded, promising universities begin to buckle

(Newser) - Once a beacon of hope for the world's poorest continent, Africa's colleges are collapsing under the weight of too many students and too little cash, the Sunday Times reports. At Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, students are packed into overcrowded dorms and classrooms, labs are dilapidated, and qualified teachers...

Students Sue for Homework

Apr 10, 2007 4:16 PM CDT

Students Sue for Homework

(Newser) - Four teenage students are suing an antiplagiarism website for the rights to their schoolwork, arguing that they were forced to turn over original work without compensation, the Christian Science Monitor reports. When their school adopted an antiplagiarism service called Turnitin, students were required to submit essays to be stored and...

India Short On Skilled Workers

Apr 9, 2007 10:42 AM CDT

India Short On Skilled Workers

Despite the tech boom, a third of the country is still illiterate

(Newser) - Why is India short on skilled labor when it's teeming with Ph.D.s? While the staggering growth of its tech industry seems to have put the country in the running for the world’s next superpower, James Surowiecki observes that the Bengal tiger could be made of paper. Thirty...

Islamic Scholars Need U.S.

Apr 6, 2007 4:27 PM CDT

Islamic Scholars Need U.S.

Freedom fosters faith and scholarship

(Newser) - The Iraq war may be unforgiveable, but America has given Islam a priceless gift: a haven for Muslim scholarship, says a professor at the University of Deleware. "Muslim scholars have always maintained that true happiness comes from the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge," writes M. A. Muqtedar Khan....

NYC Pays Kids To Go to School

Mar 30, 2007 8:17 AM CDT

NYC Pays Kids To Go to School

Cash bonuses to poor families for attendance, grades, holding jobs

(Newser) - Forget gold stars: poor New York City kids who attend class regularly or improve grades will get cash rewards. Mayor Michael Bloomberg tells the New York Times the program, which could net a low-income family up to $5,000 a year, is akin to sales bonuses in the private sector.

Day Care Kids Learn to Act Up

Mar 26, 2007 10:55 AM CDT

Day Care Kids Learn to Act Up

Study finds preschoolers in day care

(Newser) - Day care centers enlarge kids' vocabularies--and teach them how to act up, too, says a study that’s followed 1,300 children from birth through 6th grade. Although parental guidance and genes were the strongest predictor of behavior, who attended day care as preschoolers were slightly more likely to be...

V-Word Gets
Teens Suspended

Mar 8, 2007 2:11 PM CST

V-Word Gets Teens Suspended

"Vagina Monologues" excerpt deemed too racy for children in audience

(Newser) - Three high school girls in a New York City suburb were suspended for reciting the word "vagina" in an excerpt of the "The Vagina Monologues" during a school open-mic night. Faculty had instructed the 16-year-old honors students to delete the word, in deference to children in the audience,...