School cafeterias. Not one of our fondest memories from grade school. From the dried up tator tots to the lumpy mashed potatoes, school lunches need as much of a makeover as many of the country’s public education school districts.

In recent years, school lunches have been under the radar screen for their nutrition content. And after evaluations, many school lunch programs have received failing report card grades. Read the rest of this entry »

In its fight against childhood obesity, The World Heart Federation has been negotiating in recent months with soft drink makers to get them to remove sugar-sweetened beverages from schools. And now they are starting to enjoy the fruits of their labor, as Pepsi just announced this week that they plan on pulling all of their fully-sweetened drinks from schools in the U.S., and in more than 200 countries total, by 2012.

Coca-Cola, the leading soft drink maker in the world, has also made positive moves in a similar direction. This month their global sales policy was amended to not sell any of their beverages in primary schools world-wide, unless parents or school districts request them. However, this policy is not applicable to secondary schools.

Pepsi plans to sell only water, fat-free or low-fat milk, and juices that contain no added sugar in primary schools. In secondary schools they will sell those same products, plus Diet Pepsi and other low-calorie soft drinks. Read the rest of this entry »

When President Obama came into office, one of the first problems he addressed was the economic recession. Obama’s administration passed a $787 billion stimulus package; almost $100 billion of that stimulus package went straight for education.

In October 2009, officials said this stimulus saved 250,000 teacher, administrator, and other education-related jobs.

But now, less than six months later, many public schools are facing the financial danger of not having enough money to pay teachers, facilitate extracurricular activities for students, and offer elective classes.

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Everyone knows how hard it is to get a job in the current economic recession. Many students are graduating, and instead of landing a wonderful new job, they are simply keeping their college job. The New York Times reports that less than 20 percent of graduating college students found a job last year. John Challenger, a job market consultant, said job-seekers “will have to find new ways to get in front of hiring authorities, look where other people are not and be willing to take jobs that most people would avoid.” And that’s where Priority Candidates comes into the situation.

Lesley Mitler created Priority Candidates to help recent college graduates find a job. Priority Candidates has also partnered with the Greenberg Education Group, a tutoring company in New York City.

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If you don’t have spring fever, you’ve probably come down with a case of March Madness! With the preliminary round of the NCAA college basketball playoffs kicking off this week, and the brackets just released, fans are scrambling to put together their picks to play all the way to the Final Four.

Use our free printable NCAA bracket to keep your March Madness picks organized.

Print one for yourself or a pile for an office pool.

In his weekly address on March 13, 2010, President Obama said he plans on overhauling the education system and the No Child Left Behind program. President Obama said he intends to send a new blueprint for national education to Congress this week that will “improve schools, support teachers and set standards that will give high school graduates ‘the best chance to succeed in a changing world.’”

President Obama said this redraft was necessary to combat the trend of lowering education standards in America. He pointed to the past few decades as an example of how American students are not as competitive as foreign students.

“Unless we step up, unless we take action, there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential,” President Obama said during his weekly address. Read the rest of this entry »

Taking the SAT, ACT, or PSAT is a nerve racking experience. I froze up my first time taking the ACT and didn’t finish the math section. I knew how to do it; it was just new and scary. It would have been awesome if I had been able to take a practice test beforehand. That way I would have known what to expect, how to pace myself, and known where to spend most of my time, based on my strengths and weaknesses.

Evidently the people at the Princeton Review have heard several people share my same concern. They have declared March 20, 2010 as National Testing Day they are offering a free full-length, SAT, ACT, or PSAT practice test to anyone who signs up.

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Imagine this: Jenny Smith is a second-year teacher at a Happytown Elementary. Her students have been acing every standardized test they take. Smith is so proud of her students. But Smith isn’t the only one who is proud of the people who have learned from her; the college that Smith earned her degree from is also benefiting from the improved scores on her students’ tests.

On the opposite end of the spectrum: Jake Snow is another new teacher at Frownyville Middle School. His students’ test scores have been falling every year that he has been teaching. And now, the university where Snow graduated from is being scrutinized to see if they are adequately training their students.

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Constance McMillen, Via Huffington Post

A high school in a Mississippi school district canceled its spring prom because a student, Constance McMillen, asked to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo to the yearly gala.

Rather than owning up to the real reasons why the prom was cancelled, school officials are instead citing that it is ”due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events.” ”Recent events” being a request by openly gay McMillen to invite her girlfriend to the prom.

McMillen told CBS News, “I just want to go to the prom and bring my date, just like everyone else gets to.”

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Sometimes I really wish I could pay someone to go to my classes for me. Especially when it’s raining, and all I want to do is stay in bed and sleep through my alarm clock. But, I couldn’t really do that, could I? I mean, nobody would really pay someone else to take classes for them, right?

Wrong. Daniel Higgins, a California resident, was recently arrested for immigration fraud when it was discovered that he was attending classes and taking exams for Middle Eastern students who wanted to keep their visas. These students would pay Higgins up to $1,500 to pretend to be them in their classes. Higgins was attending classes for more than 100 students from Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

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