Too many Newbery books turn off young readers
By honoring books that are too complex for most young readers and that deal with difficult emotional or social issues, the annual Newbery Medal children's literature award may be failing to help attract more young readers, some high-profile critics say.

California elementary achievement

California elementaries not on track to meet AYP targets in 2014
California elementary schools on average have boosted student proficiency by less than 4 percentage points annually since 2003, indicating that few will meet adequate yearly progress this year as the state requires a 11 percentage-point jump in proficiency rates, according to research led by a professor at the University of California, Riverside. "We're hitting a balloon payment scenario, to use a housing analogy, where the expectations set forth in the federal law are far higher than recent performance levels."
Bryant, M., et al. (2008, Sept. 26). ASSESSMENT: School Performance Will Fail to Meet Legislated Benchmarks. Science, 1781-1782

Teens and sleep study

Too little sleep raises teens' risk of high blood pressure
Teenagers who get less than 6.5 hours of sleep each night have twice the risk of developing high blood pressure than those who get more rest, researchers report. Teens with troubled sleep had more than triple the risk. The survey of 238 youngsters found they got an average of 7.7 hours of sleep each night, while the recommendation for the age group is nine hours.
Redline, S. (2008, Sep. 2). Hypertension. Circulation.

Multitasking study

Multitasking may slow students down
College students' reading comprehension may not be hampered by interruptions from instant messages, but researchers found that those who try to multitask by reading an assignment and text messaging at the same time are about 15 minutes slower in working through their reading assignments versus their peers who work sequentially.
Bowman, L. (2008, Aug.). Media and Internet Psychology. American Psychological Association conference, Boston.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/08/27/01im.h28.html?tmp=620610677

California Teacher Demand

A new report highlights expected demand for teachers driven by projected growth in student enrollment and looming teacher retirements over the next ten years. County-by-county analyses suggest that California's Central Valley (North and South San Joaquin Valley and Upper and Sacramento Metropolitan Valley) and Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) will face some of the highest demand for new teachers in the coming decade.
WestEd. (2008). Trends in California Teacher Demand: A County and Regional Perspective. San Francisco: Author.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?projectID=144&productID=58

College admissions tests study

School achievement should play larger role in college admissions
U.S. colleges should shift away from their reliance on using ACT and SAT scores as the bar for college acceptance and toward admissions exams that better correspond with high school coursework and achievement, asserts a yearlong study.
National Association for College Admission Counseling Commission. (2008). Report of the Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergrduate Admissions. Arlington, VA: Author.
http://www.nacacnet.org/NR/rdonlyres/FE4E1899-653F-4D92-8629-86986D42BF5C/0/TestingComissionReport.pdf

Class time study

class time affects student test scores
Schools that cancel class for unscheduled purposes, such as snow days, can see a drop in student proficiency, according to findings by University of Maryland researchers. So far, however, there's been little research on whether additional class time can boost scores even though extended-learning initiatives are becoming more widespread.
Marcotte, Dave E. and Hemelt, Steven W.,Unscheduled School Closings and Student Performance(July 2007). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2923
Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1001409