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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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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Grace Groner was a very sweet woman. Living through the Great Depression caused her to be very frugal with her limited income. She lived in a small, one-bedroom house. She never bought a car, because walking was free. She bought all of her clothes in rummage sales. Her house only had “a few plain pieces of furniture, some mismatched dishes, and an old television.”

Grace had attended Lake Forest College when she was younger, and evidently held the school close to her heart. Grace died in January 2010. A little bit later, her attorney told the president of Lake Forest College that Grace had left her inheritance to the school.

How much could a woman who could afford to wear second-hand clothes have in savings? The president of Lake Forest College was shocked to learn that Grace had $7 million.

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Just because students attended low-scoring elementary schools in Chicago doesn’t mean they can’t succeed in high school. Thanks to the No Child Left Behind Law, four selective-enrollment high schools in Chicago are accepting 100 top students from these low-scoring schools. These high schools are some of “the highest-scoring and most sought-after high schools in Chicago,” according to the Chicago Sun Times.

For students who now get to attend these schools, it is the opportunity of a lifetime. These college prep schools will offer the students more chances to succeed and improve their chances of attending college.

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It’s always exciting when your school’s team wins against a rival school. In my opinion, this always calls for a celebration. After the Sooners beat the Cowboys, my friends and I went out for ice cream. But we have never joined in a celebration that was so big that police officers were called in, 28 people were arrested, and five ended up in the hospital.

When the University of Maryland’s men’s basketball team beat Duke’s team on March 5, 2010, students gathered together and celebrated. They were very excited after defeated their rival, and “sang and cheered over their team’s success.”

However, police officers were not pleased. Officers showed up in full riot gear, with the goal of clearing the street. According to the Washington Post, many eyewitnesses reported that the officers were being overly dramatic, “banging clubs against their riot shields as they slowly moved forward.”

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If students are not doing well on standardized tests and are not keeping up to national standards, what’s the solution? Offer improved teacher training? Have students attend small group tutoring sessions? Put more of an emphasis on test preparation?

Or, if the school in question is in Central Falls, Rhode Island, the option might be to fire the entire faculty of the school.

This decision was a very controversial one and is sending shockwaves across the country. Even more shocking to some was President Obama’s endorsement of the decision.

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