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Juvenile Asylum

Confronting racial profiling in schools. Metal detectors and security officers have become fixtures in public schools across the nation. At many of these schools, where students are predominately Black and Brown, "security" has become a code word for "racial profiling." One group of New York City high school students decided to take their schools security policies to task.

Denied kindergarten for being Native?

Five year old Adriel Arocha is being blocked from attending school in a Houston-area school district. The reason? As an Apache, he has long hair that he has been growing in his Native cultural tradition that "violates" this school's dress code rules. The parents of a kindergartener in Fort Bend County are fighting for his right to have long hair in school. They say it's about freedom of religion. The Needville Independent School District says it needs proof. When Adriel Arocha, 5, was born, his father, Kenney, vowed to teach him his heritage. "We feel that it's important to raise him as Native American until he's able to make a choice," said Kenny...

1 in 4 California high school students dropped out in 2006-07, state says - Los Angeles Times

The state, using a new system for tracking dropouts, discloses a rate considerably higher than previously reported. About 1 in 3 students in Los Angeles Unified left school.

Her Dream, Branded as a Threat

Debbie Almontaser dreamed of starting a public school like no other in New York City. Children of Arab descent would join students of other ethnicities, learning Arabic together. By graduation, they would be fluent in the language and groomed for the country's elite colleges. They would be ready, in Ms. Almontaser's words, to become "ambassadors of peace and hope." Things have not gone according to plan.

One Million High School Dropouts in U.S. Each Year

"When more than one million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe," retired General Colin Powell, founder of America's Promise Alliance. "It's time for a national 'call to arms,' because we cannot afford to let nearly one-third of our kids fail." His statement of urgency came during a press conference announcing the release of a study that details why nearly one in three U.S. high school students drops out before graduating and how his group plans to reverse the downward spiral of retention.

Obama: Parents Should Help Students

The standard Barack Obama venue lately has been high schools. Truman High School, Theodore Roosevelt High School, Jefferson High School. The Democratic presidential candidate has been pitching an audience-pleasing message of economic populism to crowds of a few thousand packed into each gymnasium. But he gets some of his loudest applause when he segues to education - and a bit of a lecture to mothers and fathers on how to be parents.

A Subprime Schooling

Add another group to those feeling the impact of the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown: students and educators. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 28% of funding for America's public schools comes from local property tax. Property tax revenues, which in many areas of the country had grown along with property values, are poised to remain flat or even shrink in coming years.

The Year in Hate

The latest annual count of hate groups operating in the United States rose to 888 last year, capping a 48 percent increase since 2000.

(THESE are the terrorists Americans should be worrying about.)

Legislature OKs bill to put state-grown food in schools

Senate Bill 6483 relaxes food-purchasing regulations to allow schools and state-run institutions to buy fresh produce and meats from Washington farmers -- even if locally grown products cost a little more than their processed or canned counterparts.

IRIN humanitarian news: Less silence, more science could make anal sex safer

NEW DELHI, 27 February 2008 (PlusNews) - The silence and taboo surrounding anal sex is putting millions of men and women at risk of HIV, delegates attending the fourth international microbicides conference in New Delhi, India, heard this week.

Education

World class technology (embarrassment) in Seattle Schools

Has the University of Colorado sold its soul to the devil?

Last night, in one of the more controversial moves in some time, the CU Board of Regents elected Bruce Benson to be the university s new president. The 6-3 vote fell along party lines and marked the first time in nearly 35 years that a president has been approved by a split vote...

More Tests Please

No Child Left Behind has created the wrong kind of debate about testing. Given the lack of new funding, many states are jiggering their tests to obscure the failure of poorly performing schools and undermining the accountability that was the core goal of the program. Others are attempting to opt out of the program altogether. The process is wasteful, confusing to students, and fails to produce the information that education enterprises badly need to ensure continuous improvement in what they do

Medication Under a Microscope

A series of surprising findings about some of the most widely accepted assumptions in medicine has renewed debate about how aggressively doctors use drugs to prevent and treat some of the nation's leading health problems.

Vet Advocates Fight for New G.I. Bill

It's a program that meant a college degree for millions who wouldn't previously have been able to afford one, and its advocates say the benefit helped make the "greatest generation" what it is today. But the World War II veterans who took advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights to gain a college education got a lot more out of the deal than today's vets, say advocates and some key lawmakers on Capitol Hill.