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• Louisiana implements high school redesign this year [HTML 4,335kb]
  Louisiana high students will be facing stiffer graduation requirements beginning with this year’s incoming freshmen, reports the Shreveport Times.
  
• Florida court dismisses suit over district’s low graduation rate [HTML 3,224kb]
  The Peach Beach Post reports that a Florida circuit court has ruled that the Palm Beach County School Board cannot be sued for its lackluster graduation rate. The state—not any individual district, school board or superintendent—is obligated to provide an adequate education for all children, the judge found.
  
• Judge upholds invalidation of AP exam results in Calif. cell phone cheating incident [HTML 2,798kb]
  An Orange County judge has denied a request from a student group to block the national administrator of the Advanced Placement exams from retesting 375 Mission Viejo high school students, the Orange County Register reports.
  
• New Texas law regarding calculating GPA causing confusion [HTML 2,697kb]
  According to the Star-Telegram, a recently enacted Texas law might require school districts to change the way they calculate grade point averages (GPA) this fall, bumping some students out of the top 10% percent of their class and taking away automatic admission into public universities. In addition, scholarship money could be at stake.
  
• Some states report tutoring ineffective in raising student performance [HTML 3,859kb]
  A recent Washington Post story reports that the free tutoring services that struggling schools are required to provide to students under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have had little or no positive effect on student test scores in Virginia, Maryland, and several other states, according to early evaluations.
  
• Parents question Pennsylvania proposals for gifted students [HTML 3,397kb]
  Pennsylvania is taking steps to make gifted education available to more students, but that has done little to quell long-standing tension between parents and school districts over how the state's brightest are educated.
  
• Seattle teacher suspended for refusing to administer standardized tests [HTML 1,880kb]
  A Seattle teacher is spending two weeks on leave without pay for refusing to give the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) to his sixth-graders this month at Eckstein Middle School.
  
• Iowa sued over the quality of public education system [HTML 3,910kb]
  Three Iowa families filed the lawsuit against Gov. Chet Culver and Judy Jeffrey, Iowa Department of Education director. Des Moines businessman Marvin Pomerantz, a past president of the Iowa Board of Regents, is financing the lawsuit.
  
• ACLU sues Florida district over low graduation rates [HTML 5,399kb]
  Low graduation rates in Palm Beach County show the school district has failed its students, especially minority children, by not providing a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality education," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
  
• Presidential panel calls for focus on core math skills [HTML 4,706kb]
  A presidential panel has declared math education in the United States "broken" and called on schools to focus on ensuring that children master fundamental skills that provide the underpinnings for success in higher math and, ultimately, in high-tech jobs.
  
• Some states granting school districts more flexibility [HTML 6,137kb]
  The push to give school districts greater operating flexibility—a grassroots rallying cry eclipsed in recent years by the charter school movement—is seeing a resurgence, as states seek to spur innovation that will help raise student achievement.
  
• Indianapolis to “cluster” kids who have repeated grades twice [HTML 2,643kb]
  Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) will target its toughest academic cases next year: the more than 1,400 students who have been held back at least twice before eighth grade.
  
• Arizona weighs state takeovers [HTML 3,475kb]
  Arizona lawmakers are moving closer to giving the state power to take over an entire school district where students fail to learn year after year.
  
• California state officials propose big education agendas, little money [HTML 5,358kb]
  Even though California schools could lose millions in funding next year, the state's education system can be improved through streamlined preschool and other low-cost efforts to close the achievement gap, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell says.
  
• President Bush signs off on five-year renewal of preschool program [HTML 2,071kb]
  President Bush has signed off on a five-year renewal of a federal preschool program for poor families—a move lauded by local education officials who say it has been a long time coming.
  
• Organizations join appeal of ruling prohibiting schools from forcing students to attend year-round school [HTML 4,743kb]
  Several organizations have joined in the Wake County School Board’s appeal of a Wake County Superior Court’s ruling prohibiting schools from forcing students to attend a year-round school.
  
• Momentum grows in several states to begin school year later [HTML 4,045kb]
  After a swing toward starting the school year earlier, sometimes as early as the first week of August, momentum has grown in several states to begin school later in August or after Labor Day.
  
• California court approves settlement of legal challenge to the California High School Exit Exam [HTML 2,454kb]
  A California state court has approved the settlement of a legal challenge to the California High School Exit Exam (“CaHSEE”). As a result, high school students in the classes of 2006 and 2007 who failed to graduate and earn a diploma because they couldn't pass the exam may have earned a reprieve.
  
• President Bush signs into law a bill seeking to bolster math and science education [HTML 2,813kb]
  Earlier this month, President George Bush signed into law a bill that seeks to bolster mathematics and science education through improved teacher recruitment and training and the promotion of successful classroom practices through federal grants for schools.
  
• Survey reports increase in student achievement and narrowing of achievement gap since NCLB was signed [HTML 4,573kb]
  Student achievement has increased and test score gaps between white students and black and Hispanic students have narrowed in many states since President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) in 2002, according to a new survey of state scores in reading and math.
  
• Students with disabilities may be required to pass the California High School Exit Exam to receive a diploma [HTML 2,511kb]
  Despite pleas from the public not to do it, the California State Board of Education has unanimously recommended that students with disabilities in the classes of 2008 and beyond be required to pass the California High School Exit Exam in order to receive a diploma.
  
• Schools boards change their focus to improving student achievement [HTML 3,328kb]
  Schools boards are changing their focus from the day-to-day minutiae of running a school district to concentrate on their larger goal of improving student achievement.
  
• Commission proposes changes to shake up public education [HTML 5,151kb]
  An independent commission has proposed dramatic changes that would shake up American public education in an effort to make the nation more competitive globally.
  
• Report charges schools suspend low performing students before testing to raise school performance [HTML 2,987kb]
  A report by University of Florida economics professor David Figlio charges that schools disproportionately suspend their academically weakest performing students just before standardized testing is scheduled, in order to ensure fewer of those students take the tests and lower the school's overall score.
  
• Review reveals FCAT temporary workers hired to grade essay questions lack degrees in subject area they scored [HTML 3,131kb]
  Following settlement of a suit brought by two Florida state senators to gain access to information regarding the qualifications of test scorers on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), a review has revealed that some of the temporary workers hired to grade essay questions on the tests lack degrees or college course work related to the subjects they were scoring.
  
• Motion to expedite California exit exam case is denied [HTML 2,725kb]
  Following the California Supreme Court's order transferring the California exit exam suit to California Court of Appeals for the First District, that appeals court has denied a motion by attorneys representing students to expedite the case so that a ruling on the constitutionality of the exam will be issued before this year's crop of seniors are scheduled to graduate.
  
• California high court stays lower court order overturning exit exam [HTML 3,195kb]
  The California Supreme Court has issued a ruling reinstating the state high school exit exam and sending the case back down to the California Court of Appeals.
  
• State of Florida agrees to disclose qualifications of test graders [HTML 3,009kb]
• California superior court tentatively rules state's high school exit exam is unfair [HTML 2,620kb]
  A California superior court has issued a tentative ruling, based on the concept of equal protection, that California's high school exit exam is unfair to students enrolled at substandard schools.
  
• Two groups seek to prevent California from withholding diplomas from seniors that fail to pass the California High School Exit Exam [HTML 5,195kb]
  The Public Advocates law firm (PA) and Californians for Justice (CFJ) have filed a second lawsuit to prevent the state from withholding diplomas from high school seniors that fail to pass the California High School Exit Exam.
  
• Students file suit challenging exit exam requirement for graduation [HTML 2,433kb]
  A group of California high school students and their parents has filed suit in state court challenging California's requirement that students must pass an exit exam in order to graduate.
  
• Suit seeks to exempt English-learner students from Arizona's assessment test until funding for English-learner instruction improves [HTML 3,436kb]
  Tim Hogan of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest (ACLPI) has filed suit in federal district court, seeking to stay the State of Arizona from requiring English-learner students to pass the state's assessment test (AIMS) in order to graduate until the state complies with a federal court order to improve funding for English-learner instruction.
  
• Virginia State Board of Education considers changes to its Standards of Accreditation of schools [HTML 1,883kb]
  The Virginia State Board of Education (VBOE) is considering making changes to its Standards of Accreditation of schools. Among the many changes and improvements suggested are some that would sanction habitually low-performing schools.