U.S. school systems are paying more attention to accreditation, fearing state takeovers or a loss of students, officials said. Factors that include poor academic performance, inadequate governance and financial fraud are forcing private monitoring agencies to deny accreditation to school systems and private schools, USA Today said. After the Missouri State Board of Education declared Kansas City's public school districtRead more

Oprah Winfrey said the first students to graduate from her academy for underprivileged South African girls were “free to soar,” during a graduation speech Saturday. Winfrey also praised the teachers, administrators, social workers, psychologists and family members she said had ensured the students succeeded. Since the school opened five years ago, Winfrey said she has learned it takes a teamRead more

Two mandatory safety standards for school buses passed a review by a national industry committee after a string of accidents ignited public fury, China's industrial watchdog said Friday. The approval will be significant for improving school bus safety, said an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The standards cover school buses for preschoolers above the ageRead more

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Friday attended the graduation ceremony held by the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. Xi, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee as well as the president of the CPC's top Party School, awarded graduation certificates to theRead more

A Philadelphia-area school district sued the state of Pennsylvania Thursday, seeking enough money to keep running for the rest of the year. Gov. Tom Corbett, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, rejected a request from the Chester Upland School District last month for an advance on state funding payable in June, The Delaware County Daily Times reported.Read more

A federal judge says a prayer banner that has been on display in a Rhode Island high school for decades must come down right away. U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux ruled Wednesday in favor of a 16-year-old student at Cranston West High School, who argued the banner violates the First Amendment, The Providence Journal reported. He gave Cranston 10 daysRead more

Officials at the University of Connecticut Health Center say they sent letters to 11 scientific journals saying a member of its faculty fabricated data. Philip Austin, interim vice president for health affairs, said Dipak K. Das, a professor in the department of surgery and director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, was subject to a three-year investigation that examined more thanRead more

At the end of Dr. Martin Haberman’s most recent monograph on teaching is a collection of ugly comments made to actual students. He introduces them: “One of the questions which the (teacher-preparation) trainees are asked in the course of their training is the following: ‘Looking back on your own K-12 schooling, has any teacher ever said anything to you thatRead more

The government has confirmed plans to make it easier for head teachers in England to sack under-performing staff. It says under new arrangements coming in from September, poor teachers could be removed within a term instead of a year, which can be the case at present. The education secretary, Michael Gove, says schools have been "tangled in red tape" forRead more

Iranian students will stage rallies before French, German and British embassies in Iran's capital Tehran on Thursday to protest against the assassination of an Iranian nuclear official, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. According to Fars, students from Tehran universities will gather in front of French, German and British embassies on Thursday afternoon to protest against the assassination of MostafaRead more