The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (12/7, Dodd) reported on Celisa Edwards and Jayne Lawson’s methods for teaching algebra to struggling students. “Their classroom, twice the size of most, is equipped with rows of flat-screen workstations.” And, “Using the iconic television and movie science-fiction series” Star Trek “as a backdrop, complete with props,” Edwards and Lawson have been able “to motivate, inspire and entertain students all in one. Last year’s cadets boasted gains of 28 to 77 points on the math and science” Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) exams. To recruit cadets for the “Starfleet” program, “Edwards and Lawson analyze CRCT scores and show up on the doorstep of students promising a year of engaging lessons and, of course, adventure. Starfleet’s mission statement says cadets will ‘seek out new worlds of knowledge … and boldly go where no student has gone before.’”

The New York Times (12/8, A45, Hu) reports, “A year after Scarsdale became the most prominent school district in the nation to phase out the College Board’s Advanced Placement courses — and make A.P. exams optional — most students and teachers here praise the change for replacing mountains of memorization with more sophisticated and creative curriculums.” Still, “objective measurements have been mixed, with fewer students taking A.P. exams, and average scores rising in five Advanced Topics courses but dropping in two: United States history slipped to 4.2 out of 5 from 4.4 the year before…and United States government fell to 3.4 from 3.8.” Meanwhile, “49 percent of the 2008 graduating class are attending the nation’s most competitive…compared with 45 percent in 2007.” Scarsdale’s “move away from Advanced Placement began in 2005, as teachers seeking to improve the senior-year experience concluded that they could offer college-level instruction that went beyond A.P. exams,” the Times adds.

The Baltimore Sun (12/7, Fortin) reported on an outdoor science program taught by education students at Towson University, which correlates “to the third-grade curriculum unit” at Abingdon Elementary School “called ‘The Changing Earth.’” The curriculum is divided into five stations. “The first station…gave the kids a chance to create contour lines of elevations on a hill at Harford Glen. After they completed the project, they better understood how to read a topographical map.” Next, “students walked down to a sandy area by the water to gather wet and dry sediment samples. Then they carried their samples to picnic tables and viewed them through hand lenses and microscopes.” The third station required that the children pour “water into water tables and looked at models of the streams. They then walked down to two streams, where they observed where and how the streams connected. The fourth station had to do with land forms.”

The New York Times (12/7, L13, Mroz) reported on school-sponsored gardening programs like the New Jersey’s Princeton School Gardens program, in which “children regularly work in one of the district’s 15 gardens during school hours, preparing garden beds, planting herbs and vegetables and harvesting them when they are ripe.” Students in northeastern states such as New Jersey and New York “are getting hands-on lessons in how to plant vegetables, compost and prune. The garden is a year-round commitment, and it is being used to teach subjects like math, science and language arts.” Some school administrators say that “working in school gardens encourages kids to be physically active and it gets them out in nature. And children who grow their own vegetables are more inclined to eat them.”

Colorado’s Steamboat Pilot & Today (12/7, Fridell) reported that teachers at Steamboat Springs Middle School and Strawberry Park Elementary School have “arranged a monthly meeting between sixth-grade and third-grade students,” during which the older students help the younger ones learn Spanish. “Middle school Spanish teacher Cathy Girard said the sixth-grade students created a booklet with a story in Spanish during class, and translated and colored it as homework. From there, she turned the lesson over to the older students.” Each student, Girard said, “found his or her own way to help the younger children.”

The Washington Post (12/6, B3) reported, “For the second year in a row, the selective Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County (VA) has been named the country’s top public high school in a ranking by U.S. News & World Report. The magazine’s ‘gold medal list,’ published online [last] week, was developed through a formula using such variables as state test scores, student demographics and performance in college-level courses.”

        Nine Miami-Dade High Schools Named Among Best In US. The Miami Herald (12/6, McGrory) reported, “Students, teachers and principals celebrated in the halls of nine Miami-Dade schools on Friday after learning they had made the U.S. News & World Report list of best high schools.” Among them, Design and Architecture Senior High School “was named the fifth best public high school in America. Maritime and Science Technology Academy on Virginia Key was also named a gold medal winner, coming in at 86th in the country.”

        Two Nashville Schools Earn National Recognition. The Tennessean (12/8) reports, “Nashville’s Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School ranked 30th on the U.S. News and World Report list of America’s top 100 high schools released Friday.” And, “Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet School in Nashville ranked 41st on the new list, dropping down from its 32nd spot last year, according to the lists.” The Stockton (CA) Record (12/6) also reported on two area schools that made the U.S. News & World Report list.

The Pasadena (CA) Star-News (12/7) reported that “as part of the district’s focus on improving the middle schools, a longtime concern because of low state standardized test scores, math and English classes have doubled to 90 minutes throughout Pasadena Unified’s three stand- alone middle schools.” Last summer, the school board approved of a plan to improve student performance that “is structured around seven components, including block scheduling, weekly student-teacher conference[s], and giving assessment exams every nine weeks to gauge if students understand the material.” Longer class periods mean that “the middle school students’ day has dwindled from a high of seven classes a day to four. Class sizes will be decreased to a maximum of 32 students, with math and English intervention classes numbering 20 to 24 students.”

The Washington Post (12/6, A1, Greenwell) reported on its front page that Teach for America “has emerged as the most popular nonprofit service organization among college seniors in the United States, with 14,181 applications received this year and as many as 23,000 more expected by the end of February — all for fewer than 5,000 teaching spots.” According to the Post, “In part because of the dearth of other job prospects in the sagging economy but mostly because the program has captured the imagination of a generation of student leaders bent on doing good, some graduates of the nation’s elite universities are fighting for low-paying teaching positions the way they once sought jobs on Wall Street.”

The New York Times (12/7, L15, Kindall) reports that shortly after Election Day this year, Ludlum Elementary School administrators presented a proposal to the school board to rename the school after Barack Obama. The school board’s “vote was 5 to 0, and Barack Obama Elementary School was born.” Principal Jean Bligen said that “When the change was suggested to the board, school officials had no idea they would be the first in the country to name a school for the first African-American United States president.” The Times noted, “A Valley Stream school and one in Oregon have also applied to be renamed.”

The Baltimore Sun (12/7, Bowie) reported, “Many educators are looking to President-elect Barack Obama to revise a much-maligned federal initiative requiring annual tests to chart the progress of every school in the country.” They have criticized various aspects of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Law, with some saying “that its goal – to have all children reading on grade level by 2014 – is absurd. Others say that the federal government is micro-managing school curriculum, an issue usually left to state and local school officials.” And, “Some argue that states should be able to take into account the improvement a school’s students make on the tests.” Despite educators’ eagerness for NCLB reform, “representatives of mainstream education groups said that revisions would be unlikely before late next year or early 2010.”

The Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot (12/8) editorializes, “Barack Obama won’t have to look far outside his new home to find reasons for fixing the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law instead of dumping it.” That is because “there are signs that it is succeeding in its primary goal, making sure that disadvantaged students receive a meaningful education.” According to a recent analysis by the Washington Post, achievement gaps “between low- and higher-income students had narrowed throughout Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland, and in some cases had been cut in half” since NCLB took effect in 2002. “Obama understands the importance of the law and wants to make it better.” To improve the law, The Virginian Pilot suggests he consider certain reforms, which include revising “the ‘pass/fail’ system for judging school progress,” making sure federal aid keeps “pace with No Child Left Behind mandates,” and getting rid of the “2014 deadline for all students to be proficient in reading and math.”

USA Today (12/8, Morrison, Heath) reports that “school district officials pulled all students” from Meredith Hitchens Elementary School in Addyston, Ohio “three years ago, after air samples outside the building showed high levels of chemicals coming from the plastics plant across the street. The levels were so dangerous that the Ohio EPA concluded the risk of getting cancer there was 50 times higher than what the state considers acceptable.” USA Today adds, “The air outside 435 other schools – from Maine to California – appears to be even worse, and the threats to the health of students at those locations may be even greater. Using the government’s most up-to-date model for tracking toxic chemicals, USA TODAY spent eight months examining the impact of industrial pollution on the air outside schools across the nation. … The potential problems that emerged were widespread, insidious and largely unaddressed:”

        At Least One Sickness-Causing Chemical Said To Exist Outside Every School In U.S. USA Today (12/8, Morrison, Heath) reports, “Outside almost every school in the country, the model used by USA TODAY indicates the presence of at least one or two chemicals capable of causing a variety of ailments.” But, “Whether the chemicals could cause harm depends on which are in the air and at what levels.” For instance, small amounts of some chemicals such as “butadiene can slightly increase the risk of contracting cancer; authorities usually become concerned when the levels are high, especially if people are exposed to those levels for a long time.” Meanwhile, “ozone can exacerbate asthma, a leading medical cause of school absences, the American Lung Association says.” And, “the impact of one man-made chemical, acrylonitrile,” has proven to be much more harmful to children than to adults. However, “other chemicals have more limited effects. They can irritate the eyes or cause headaches, even at heavy doses.”

The AP (12/8) reports, “Missouri health authorities say preliminary October test results for St. Louis County show two new cases of HIV among people 24 and under.” Still, “It isn’t clear whether those cases are even connected to Normandy High School, where…an infected person told county health officials that as many as 50 teens might have been exposed to the virus.” In January, “a second round of HIV testing” is expected.

The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (12/7, Reid) reported that St. Gertrude High School “participating in an online program that helps students, parents and school personnel track grades, test scores, and likely college choices.” Since “the Family Connections feature of the Naviance program can be programmed with real-life data,” the school’s “guidance staff has input five years worth of student performance results” so that “students can instantly see how their scores compare to other students.”

The Pacific Daily News (12/7, Kelman) reported, “The National Education Association (NEA) last year asked more than 2,500 teachers what gift they enjoyed receiving from students the most,” according to the AP. “Forty-eight percent said they wanted an earnest ‘thank you,’ the article said.” Teachers said that “a heartfelt note with just a few thoughtful sentences tucked into a card made by your child is invaluable.” The NEA “also recommended picture frames, which can be easily personalized with a photo of students.”