The debate in the U.S. House of Representatives over whether the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915 should be declared "genocide" has been resolved in practice in many American classrooms. That era has become intertwined with lessons on the Holocaust in the history curriculum. This article describes how teachers are finding ways to give…

For decades, the Montana Constitution has made preservation of American Indian culture an explicit educational goal. Educators did little about it until 2004, when the state supreme court ruled that Montana had ignored its responsibility to teach about the state's seven tribes. That ruling jump-started an effort that has yielded curriculum…

Chanelle Brown has not found much she can relate to in the classic texts assigned in her English classes at Evanston Township High School. A top student, the junior has toiled through "The Odyssey," "All the King's Men," "The Scarlet Letter," and other standards, she said, while many of her classmates at the suburban Chicago school have given up…

After nearly eight months on the job, Superintendent David L. Brewer III has rolled out his strategy for improving student achievement in the 708,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Three new, reform-minded members also have been sworn in on the school board. But so far, the momentum for improving high schools in the nation's…

Taking a significant step toward supporting district-level changes, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last week announced a $21 million grant to help the Chicago school system overhaul teaching and learning in high school classrooms. The effort, which is to start in the fall with 14 schools is slated to reach about half of Chicago's high…

The reading and math skills needed for success in the workplace are comparable to those needed for success in the first year of college, a study released this year shows. Conducted by ACT Inc., the study provides some of the first empirical evidence for those contending that the skills needed for work and postsecondary education are converging…

This article describes an academic choice program in Texas public schools where 8th graders are being given a choice of three different academic plans to follow through graduation, two of which are distinctively tougher than the third. Policymakers in Texas, Arkansas, and Indiana are opting to raise academic standards by making a college-prep…

Responding to demands by parents and a concern that high school was just too easy, the San Jose Unified School District (California) did away with a two-track high school system, demanded that all of its students take a college-prep course of study, and adopted some of the most rigorous graduation requirements in California. In the two-tiered high…

Proposals to make high school more rigorous continue to surface in the states. Governors, lawmakers, and blue-ribbon panels are championing the plans, which are fueled by local and national concerns about economic competitiveness and jobs. But the agenda is growing to included calls for better middle school preparation, more flexible options for…

With an urgency not seen in decades, policy leaders concerned about America's global competitiveness and widening income gaps within U.S. society are propelling issues of academic and workforce preparation to the forefront of the nation's education policy debates. Worried that current expectations and structure are ill suited to the 21st century…

A new college-grant program slipped into a pending federal budget bill could ultimately influence course offerings at high schools across the country and has stirred a debate about creeping federal authority over curricula. The legislation would create a $3.7 billion annual program of grants aimed at students from low-income families who have…

States are moving to close the gap between high school preparation and college and workforce readiness, but momentum is far greater in some policy areas than in others, a 50-state survey shows. At the National Education Summit on High Schools, state governors agreed to a broad set of actions needed to address the gap. Those include raising…

School leaders have joined a six-state effort by the National Governors Association (NGA) aimed at making Advanced Placement (AP) classes more widely available, recruiting nontraditional students to enroll, and working to make sure those students succeed in the college-level courses. Participants say the NGA initiative is showing impressive early…

The Department of Education's May 2, 2006 announcement of a variety of methods that high schools may use to provide a "rigorous" curriculum to allow low-income graduates to qualify for a new federal college-grant program was welcome news to those who had feared that the government's reach into the classroom was too expansive. Students who complete…

Interest in online school courses is surging nationwide, especially at the high school level, according to those who follow trends in educational technology. Much of that demand is coming from those who enroll in just one or two a year to meet a particular academic need or resolve a scheduling hang-up. Online courses have become so popular, in…