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Next up is post-high-school planning. I break these activities into two areas: those for students who want to go to college, and those for students who don’t. I try to get my students to do the best they can, whatever that means for them. For students who don’t want to go to college, this means making sure they meet all of the requirements to graduate. For students planning to go to college, the process is a bit more complicated. Armed with information from college conferences that I attend every fall, I sit down with my seniors to make sure they...

LAST MONDAY, Sean Fisher of Waldwick collapsed while running drills. It was reported he may have had an undetected heart condition. Fisher died that day. It was his 13th birthday. On Tuesday, Douglas Morales of Cliffside Park died of injuries sustained during a football practice the previous week. He ruptured a blood vessel to the brain. He was 17 years old. Communities are in mourning, young athletes are unsettled by the untimely deaths of teammates and parents are trying to figure out what happened and how to prevent it from recurring. While each case is different and it’s too early...

ANAHEIM A north Orange County high school has been told it can no longer ban a Bible club from meeting on campus and must offer them listings in the school's yearbook and Web site, it was reported Thursday. Until the federal court ruling, students had been prevented from starting a Bible club at Esperanza High School in Anaheim. Placentia-Yorba Linda School District officials argued that only curriculum-related groups are allowed on campus, the Los Angeles Times reported. But in issuing a preliminary injunction last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said that Esperanza does allow other groups -- such...

For the second consecutive year, SAT scores for the most recent high school graduating class remained at the lowest level in nearly a decade, according to results released Tuesday. But the College Board, which owns the exam, attributes the lower averages of late to a more positive development: a broader array of students are taking the test, from more first-generation college students to a record number of students — nearly one in seven — whose family income qualifies them to take the test for free.

Students in Stripes? by: Deborah Lambert, August 25, 2008 At least one Texas high school has finally decided to get tough with students. Starting this fall, anyone who violates the dress code at Gonzales High School will spend the rest of the day in a prison-like jump suit. Opinions differ on the merits of this plan. “Some parents said the jumpsuits will make students feel like prisoners, but the district said it’s just a way to keep the children dressed appropriately for school,” according to NewsChannel6.com. Student Jordan Meredith suggests that his schoolmates may end up having the last laugh....

A shooting at Central High School ended the day before it even began as one student was fatally shot Thursday morning. Students were in the cafeteria of the school when witnesses said they saw two male students shoving and would end with the death of Ryan McDonald, age 15. The school went into lockdown immediately as students run into rooms and teachers locked doors. Other area schools were also put into lockdown mode. The shooting occurred at 8:11 a.m. and the school resource officer was at the school at the time. By 8:13 a.m. Knoxville officers had arrived at the...

If college students can take more than four years to graduate, why not high school students? State educators are considering a proposal to raise the number of years before graduation for some Michigan high school students. Under today's regulations, students count as "dropouts" in state records if they don't finish high school in four years -- even if they receive their diplomas within the next year. But that could soon change. "This is great news," said Mary Beth Handeyside, director at Omni Adult and Alternative Education, the alternative high school of Carrollton Public Schools. "It's not only in the interest...

Deploying a long-promised tool to track high school dropouts, the state released numbers today showing that 1 in 4 California students quit school in the 2006-07 school year, including 1 in 3 in Los Angeles. The rates are considerably higher than previously acknowledged but lower than some independent estimates. The figures are based on a new statewide tracking system that relies on identification numbers that were issued to all California public school students beginning in fall 2006. The ID numbers allow the state Department of Education to track students who leave one school and enroll in another, even if it...

Brooklyn teen Quashon Burton thought bringing a laxative-laced cake to school would be "funny" - but he's not laughing now.   After two teachers were sickened and he was hit with an assault charge, the senior is worried his whole future is collapsing like a half-baked souffle. "I'm pretty scared," Burton told the Daily News Thursday outside his home in Brownsville.  "I didn't mean to have this whole thing blow out of proportion. I thought it would be a senior prank that everyone would think is funny." Burton, 17, and pals Tiara Peoples and Kenny Ramirez got the idea to...

Grapevine High School senior Anjali Datta holds the highest grade-point average of the 471 students graduating from Grapevine High School this year. In fact, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD officials believe her GPA of 5.898 may be the highest in the high school's history. It's still not enough to make her the valedictorian, which brings a one-year college scholarship from the state. Her closest competitor's GPA is 5.64. No one disputes that she's the top student in her class numerically. The problem rests with another number entirely. Anjali rocketed through high school in only three years. But a school district policy states: "The...

River Dell Regional High School was one of three schools statewide to get a grant for its random drug testing program, federal officials said today. The school was awarded $43,100 for the upcoming school year as part of a $5.8 million grant program from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Schools in Hillsborough and Brick also received grants. “It’s another tool to reinforce positive decisions,” said Stephen Schatz, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “It’s really geared toward treatment.” River Dell Superintendent Patrick Fletcher said the money will fund better testing that...

FRESNO, Calif. — The valedictorian at Fresno's Bullard High School won't be attending college in the United States this fall because he's scheduled to be deported. Arthur Mkoyan's 4.0 grade-point average qualified him to enter one of the state's top universities. But the 17-year-old and his mother have been ordered back to Armenia after their last appeal for asylum failed.

The principal of T.C. Roberson High School says an alleged assault on a student has been blown out of proportion, but the teen's mother says her son is the victim and the school isn't sticking up for him. Principle Bob Weinkle says he ordered an internal investigation of the incident, and says while there may have been as assault, he doesn't believe it had a sexual motive. However, the 15-year old victim's mother says that is not the case. Elizabeth Murray says two boys pinned her son against a wall and sexually assaulted him while he was clothed. The Buncombe...

What is it?" Kelly Charles asked as he walked to his job as a custodian in downtown Los Angeles and gazed up at a rather odd construction project. "A roller coaster?" As I wandered the neighborhood, other guesses were: A ski jump. A toboggan run. A water slide. What's got everyone talking is the odd-looking tower that rises 140 feet above the 101 Freeway, directly across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The futuristic metallic edifice, with a wraparound spiral Dr. Seuss would love, is not part of a theme park. It is the signature adornment on...

President Bush speaking to graduating class Greensburg, KS-one year after tornado

Gary officials said they were busing in hundreds of high schools students to vote in advance of the May 6 primary as a learning experience. Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton denounced it Wednesday as a shameless political power play. "To me it seems like an orchestrated effort on behalf of the Obama campaign to take kids who should be in school learning to read and write, instead giving them a day off and telling them to vote for Obama. "When you corral kids together and ship them to polling places,...

Young people's financial know-how has gone from bad to worse. High school seniors, on average, answered correctly only 48.3 percent of questions about personal finance and economics, according to a nationwide survey released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve. That was even lower than the 52.4 percent in the previous survey in 2006 and marked the worst score out of the six surveys conducted so far. With home foreclosures at record highs, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke stressed in a speech that young people must sharpen their financial knowledge so they are in a better position to make sound investment decisions throughout...

A school board in Arizona has decided that condoms are among the items that should be given to students attending this year's prom. The school board in the Bisbee District voted 4-1 at a recent meeting to include the condoms in a "prom bag" that will be given to prom-goers this year. A spokeswoman in the office of Supt. Paul McDonald confirmed the condoms would be handed out to the event celebrants, along with other items such as picture frames, balloons and candy. "The governing board approved [this]," she told WND. "They are to have what they call prom bags,...

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- Cars lining the street. A house full of young people. A keg and drinking games inside. Police thought they had an underage boozing party on their hands. But though they made dozens of teens take breath tests, none tested positive for alcohol. That's because the keg contained root beer. The party was held by a high school student who wanted to show that teens don't always drink alcohol at their parties.

The athletic director and a guidance counselor at North Bergen High School were arrested Tuesday in a drug and gambling ring sting that authorities say was controlled by the Genovese crime family. Athletic Director Jerry Maietta and Guidance Counselor Ralph Marino were among 45 swept up in raids that began at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli described the two as lower level operatives in an expansive network of bookies, package holders, drug dealers and drug distributors. Mark Iafelice, 49, of Edgewater; Brian DiGuilmi, 48, of Emerson; James W. Skinner, 69, of Allenwood; and his son James J....

Punished for Patriotism by: Deborah Lambert, March 24, 2008 When Donald Miller of Lancaster, Pa. wore a patriotic t-shirt to school last year to support his uncle’s mission in Iraq, school officials told him to turn it inside out. When he refused, he received two days of detention, according to Yahoo.com. The reason? There was an image of a gun on the shirt, along with the words, “Volunteer Homeland Security.” On the back were the words “Special Issue – Resident – Lifetime license – United States Terrorist Hunting Permit." Now Donald's parents have filed a lawsuit, accusing the school district...

Arizona Hug Ban by: Deborah Lambert, March 20, 2008 First there was the ban on hugs and high-fives at a Fairfax County, Virginia middle school last year that resulted in a flap over a 13-year-old male student, putting his arm around his girlfriend while walking down the school corridor. This year, the Mesa, Arizona school district caused a campus uproar by enacting its own hug ban. Seeking to calm the storm, The local TV news channel (TV News 5) reported that school officials sought to calm the storm by brokering an agreement with the students that allowed hugs of two...

CHURCH HILL, Tenn. - Investigators are searching for whomever poured deer urine into an air conditioning unit at a school in eastern Tennessee. About a dozen students became ill after the prank at Volunteer High School in Church Hill. Firefighters were sent to the school Monday after the odor became overpowering in one classroom, and paramedics treated students who complained of headache and nausea. Church Hill Police Chief Mark Johnson says the stunt could result in a vandalism charge. Deer urine is sold by the bottle to be used to attract the animals for hunting.

Reading, PA - An impromptu celebration of the Dominican Republic’s independence day involving as many as 1,500 students outside Reading High School erupted in violence Wednesday afternoon. A city police captain was injured and at least a half-dozen students were arrested. An unruly crowd of 1,000 to 1,500 high school students blocked streets around the school and threw rocks and bottles at police when officers tried to disperse them, authorities said. Deputy Police Chief Mark E. Talbot Sr. said the violent mob was unprecedented and created one of the scariest situations he’s had in his career in Reading.

Conn. Girl Lights Teacher's Hair On Fire Jonathan Law High School Student Arrested, Expelled Milford officials have expelled a Jonathan Law High School student accused of lighting her science teacher's hair on fire during class. Police say the girl was arrested after she ignited the ponytail of George Lardas with a lighter. A police spokesman says Lardas did not require medical attention, but his hair was singed. School officals say the incident occurred in late January, but became public on Tuesday. School officials called police at the time and the girl has been charged with reckless endangerment, third-degree assault and...

Willie Angelo's grasp of math, never firm, took a sharp nose dive just before Christmas. "Towards the end of last semester, it was all building up," said Angelo... "It was too much for me to handle." So there he was at a recent early-morning tutoring session with his teacher, struggling to learn polynomials - mathematical expressions studded with digits, X's, exponents and parentheses. He's not alone. Students across Colorado are struggling with math, according to results of statewide achievement tests. And the test scores go down as the students get older. The vast majority of students - 68 percent -...

AmeriCorps Blowup by: Bethany Stotts, February 25, 2008 With a burgeoning achievement gap for minorities and low-income students, and American students performing poorly on international tests, many agree that America needs significant educational reform. For Center for American Progress (CAP) affiliates, at least, the front lines of that reform start with the AmeriCorps... CAP panelists... all praised the AmeriCorps for its vital role in education, highlighting essential tasks performed by members such as • mentoring, • conflict resolution or mediation, • monitoring recess, • and tutoring.... A 2006 Washington Post article estimates that non-NCCC AmeriCorps members each cost the government...

POWDER SPRINGS -Hillgrove High School student-athlete Tyler Woodruff, 17, was denied a hardship request Tuesday petitioning to play in his senior soccer season. He is already planning an appeal and has threatened a federal lawsuit. The Georgia High School Association, which governs athletics, denied the request. Tyler failed his honors calculus course last fall, which made him ineligible for extra-curricular sports activities. The class was the first the student, who maintains a 3.4 grade-point average, had ever failed. Students must pass their classes to qualify to play sports, but few students must maintain a 100 percent pass rate each semester....

COBB -Tyler Woodruff, a 17-year-old senior at Hillgrove High School, failed his honors calculus class last semester. However, the soccer star with a 3.4 grade-point average had no idea that failing one advanced elective - the first class he had ever failed - would end his high school athletic career. The state of Georgia has specific rules governing athletic eligibility. In general, students must pass classes to qualify to play sports, but there is some leeway. For example, a student taking four classes on a block schedule must pass three to be eligible for sports. A student taking eight classes...

RENO, Nev.: A prep football player who had claimed he was duped into believing he was recruited to play at a Pac-10 school admitted Wednesday he made up the story. Kevin Hart, a 6-foot-5, 290-pound offensive lineman for Fernley High School, offered a broad apology in a statement he issued through the Lyon County School District. Hart said he had wanted to play football at a Division I school "more than anything." "When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality. I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley...

Yoga Cred by: Deborah Lambert, January 29, 2008 Although students at Needham (Mass) High School may have felt a lot less stressed after principal Paul Richards stopped publishing the list of honor roll recipients last year, it seems the relaxation guru was just getting started, according to Michelle Malkin, who noted that his latest idea was for the school to sponsor “in-school yoga classes.” “It’s not that I’m trying to turn the culture upside down,” Richards told the New York Times, explaining that his goal was simply to bring “the culture to a healthier place.” These health concerns not only...

Some students want the school administration to ban the Confederate battle flag outright, even if its presence is mainly limited at this point to small decals, belt buckles or cell phone screens kept by a small number of students... Senior Megan Allen said she's gotten about 300 of the school's roughly 1,500 students and about 20 teachers to sign her petition calling for school officials to ban the flag on campus,

One day after an arsonist set fire to two classrooms at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in East Germantown, firefighters rushed to West Philadelphia High School - twice - yesterday morning when two more small fires erupted. Both of those fires also appeared to have been deliberately set. MLK High, which has been closed since the fire, will be closed again today as clean-up crews continue their work, district spokeswoman Amy Guerin said. Classes will resume Tuesday, and community-service activities planned for Monday, the Martin Luther King holiday, will proceed as scheduled, Guerin said

KISSIMMEE - Gateway High School junior Elizabeth Johnson got an unexpected fashion lesson this week: two days of detention for wearing a pair of sweats with the Playboy name and logo on them. Elizabeth says she was approached by a dean who insisted she change the offending pants, and she eventually did. But the 17-year-old says the school, which required her to stay after school for one hour on two school days, overreacted. "The bunny is just a logo," she said. "There's nothing objectionable about that."

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) -- WAVE 3 has learned that a man who is a local high school wrestling coach, a substitute teacher and a youth minister has been arrested. The Bullitt County Sheriff's Department says the Shepherdsville man sexually abused a 15 year old girl at the church. WAVE 3 Investigator Scott Harvey has the details. We had a chance to speak to the victim's mother who -- obviously distraught -- described 25-year-old Clayton Pruett as a wolf in sheep's clothing. She now has a strong warning for all parents. "Don't trust people that are alone with your children," said...

Students struggle as immigrants do Saturday, December 15, 2007 3:18 AM By Holly Zachariah THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Erica Vieyra's Spanish students at Olentangy Liberty High School present their projects on immigration -- the culmination of three weeks of pretending to go through the steps that Latino immigrants take to come to the United States, legally or illegally. FRED SQUILLANTE | Dispatch Erica Vieyra's Spanish students at Olentangy Liberty High School present their projects on immigration -- the culmination of three weeks of pretending to go through the steps that Latino immigrants take to come to the United States, legally or...

Fairfax County, Virginia is about to re-draw district boundary lines, which will affect at least 1/4 of the families in that county. School board says this is being done primarily because South Lakes High School, in Reston, is under-enrolled. Reston, a planned community has a variety of income levels including government project housing for low or no income families. At South Lakes H.S., 1/3 of the students are on free lunch. Gangs have caused problems in the school and fights have been violent. The school does offer the International Baccalaureate program which has brought in a few serious students, yet...

This is the column in the school newspaper sent the principal into a panic ... running around and confiscating uncirculated copies of the column. Another 'modest proposal' by Justin Jones Published on: 10/23/07 For a millennium, the world has been plagued with stupid people corrupting society and bastardizing the value of life for all of mankind. The intellectually handicapped have been reproducing at a substantially greater rate than those with a fully functional brain. The problem of the unintelligent reproducing is, and has been, a serious threat to society that has gone unchecked for far too long. It is the...

See You at the Pole™ is a student-initiated, student organized, and student-led event. That means this is all about students meeting at their school flagpole to pray—for their school, friends teachers, government, and their nation. See You at the Pole™ is not a demonstration, political rally, nor a stand for or against anything. See You at the Pole™ is scheduled annually on the fourth Wednesday in September, which is September 26 in 2007. The suggested starting time is 7 a.m. If that doesn't work for your school, choose a time that will work for your school, but let everyone at...

Bidwell Junior High School administrators said a letter sent home with students in an eighth-grade class Tuesday was a good idea for a history lesson, with bad execution. The letter, which appeared to ask parents to renounce their U.S. citizenship, prompted phone calls to the school from several irate recipients. He concluded the letter with "After careful consideration of the facts of our current situation, I have decided to announce to everyone that I am no longer a citizen of the United States, but a free and independent member of the global community." "The point was, I wanted to ask...

For the last few decades there has been a lot of controversy among many people about the break-up of families. They have a point, and it's an important one. But when families are intact, there is something else little noticed but very important. As Ortega y Gassett has written, "People do not live together merely to be together. They live together to do something together." Because of the way American life has evolved (in large part due to the interference of the State), there was no place for most teenagers when I was growing up, in society or the family....

Here’s a pop quiz for you, You’re in a country named the United States of America, American tax payers pay your salary, American tax payers paid for the Schools that you are in charged of and the American tax payers created and paid for the system in which you work. In America which flag should be allow to fly, wave or worn in the Public Schools?

Radicalism is no longer taught only in college; many younger students are getting a head start. Schools traditionally emphasized the “three Rs” – reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic. Recently a “fourth R” seems to have entered the American schoolhouse: radicalism. “When you go into a class where you’re supposed to learn about government or geography,” high-school junior Sean Allen says, “you expect to learn what the truth is.” He found out last year that some teachers don’t share his expectation. An Accelerated World Geography class at Overland High School in suburban Denver featured diatribes against the United States, capitalism and President...

Pop quiz. Which has been most important in reducing poverty over time: a) taxes, b) economic growth, c) international trade, or d) government regulation? We know what our readers would say. But lest you think American young people are slouching toward serfdom, you'll be pleased to know that 53% of U.S. high school seniors also answered "b." The latest version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) asked this question, among others on economics, and the results will not please members of the Socialist International, or for that matter the Senate Finance Committee. Since its founding in 1969, the...

Two Republican lawmakers said they were “profoundly troubled” by the possibility that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education could soften admission requirements for public colleges and universities at a meeting today. Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, and Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, encouraged the commission to oppose diminishing or abandoning its 2010 public college university admission requirements when it meets today at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. “A decision to roll back CCHE’s rigorous college admission requirements would give Colorado the ignominious distinction of being the only state in the nation that is actually weakening educational standards at a time...

Students will face somewhat less stringent admission standards to Colorado colleges in 2010 than previously planned. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education decided Tuesday to keep a fourth year of high school math as a requirement, but modified the requirement to allow courses such as business math, as well as harder courses such as calculus. The commission also reduced the two-year foreign language requirement to one year. The department of higher education, which staffs the commission, will come up with a plan by the end of the year to provide waivers for students who are unable to take all of...

High School Sports Recruiting Limited By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Friday night lights are lure enough for young football players, the Supreme Court said Thursday in a decision that upholds limits on high school sports recruiting. The high court ruled in a dispute between a Tennessee athletic association and a football powerhouse, the private Brentwood Academy near Nashville. The school challenged a rule of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which governs high school sports in the state. The association bars schools from contacting prospective students about their sports programs. Games have rules, wrote Justice John...

As the divorce rate plummets at the top of American society and rises at the bottom, the widening “marriage gap” is breeding inequality. There is a widening gulf between how the best- and least-educated Americans approach marriage and child-rearing. Among the elite (excluding film stars), the nuclear family is holding up quite well. Only 4% of the children of mothers with college degrees are born out of wedlock. And the divorce rate among college-educated women has plummeted. Of those who first tied the knot between 1975 and 1979, 29% were divorced within ten years. Among those who first married between...

Students at Boulder High School want an apology from national television host Bill O'Reilly, who's incensed over an April panel at the school that critics say encouraged young people to experiment with drugs and sex. Several of O'Reilly's shows have featured sound clips from the Conference on World Affairs panel "STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs,"... Dan Caplis, a Denver radio show host who has spoken on O'Reilly's show about the issue, said he thinks the clips were in "perfectly fair context." "I think that Bill has been on target with this, and they should be glad that he's willing to...

Senate GOP leaders bemoaned freshman Gov. Bill Ritter’s signing of an education bill they say micromanages sex-ed at local school districts, while leaving more urgent reforms on the back burner. Democrats once again are forcing their agenda on local schools, while overlooking legislation they say would have a much more positive effect on the education system. “I don’t understand how Democrats support telling schools how and what to teach their children about sex, but disapprove of creating math and science standards,” Assistant Senate Republican leader Nancy Spence ... Spence, also the ranking GOP Senate Education Committee member, pointed to Sen....