By John H. Jackson and Pedro Noguera

By Marion Brady

Exxon-Mobil is airing education-reform television ads. In the one I’ve seen most often, implicit and explicit messages are simple and clear: (a) We live in a dangerous, technologically complex world. (b) Our lives, liberties, and happiness hinge on our ability to cope with that world. (c) Coping requires mastery of math. (d) On standardized math tests, America ranks 25th in the world. (e) Be ashamed and afraid. (f) Get behind corporate education reform efforts.

The official Common App won’t go live until August, meaning that students have to wait until then to actually send them to schools. But there is no law against starting to write essays and figure out the information needed to complete both the undergraduate application and the one for transfer students.

The report, “Beyond Need and Merit,” comes from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Ostensibly, it recommends that states eliminate the distinction between need-based aid and merit aid and instead award all grant aid by a simple formula that considers both.

On April 11, Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced “Proving What’s Possible,” a new $10 million grant program designed to spur innovative ways of boosting student achievement. Officials are especially interested in funding schools that want to extend the academic day, leverage technology to improve learning, or upgrade staff.

It was the second annual such event organized by the Northern Virginia chapter of Our Community Salutes, a group that puts together independent graduation ceremonies to recognize enlistees and their parents.

Urbanksi suggested that the two sides might consider removing the four commandments that refer directly to God, according to the Lynchburg News & Advance.

If Virginia wants permission to opt out of the most vexing parts of the federal No Child Left Behind law, it must produce a more rigorous accountability plan of its own.

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A verdict is expected Thursday in a Loudoun County court case that has raised questions about whether parents should be criminally prosecuted for frequently failing to get their kids to school on time.

That was the message the Department of Education delivered in an April 17 letter in response to Virginia’s request for relief from the federal education law, which requires that all students demonstrate proficiency in math and reading by 2014.

The school’s Gay-Straight Alliance created a rainbow-colored paper doll and sent her around the world. “Allie the Ally” can be printed out and photographed anywhere and with anyone who wants to show support for gay youth.

The General Assembly passed a budget during the regular 90-day session, but did not agree on any new taxes to cover rising costs. The so-called “doomsday budget” that now stands would mean $500 million in cuts to state agencies and public schools in the fiscal year starting July 1.

We are not popular in some quarters. How dare we try to compare one school to another with numbers and miss their indefinable essences? But U.S. News and its list guru, Robert Morse, have been ranking schools, starting with colleges, for 30 years. They have proven that readers appreciate such lists.

Meekins, who works in special education, was among this year’s 21 recipients of the Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Awards, sponsored by The Washington Post Educational Foundation to recognize teachers throughout the region for their initiative, creativity and professionalism. A group of area principals also received Distinguished Educational Leadership Awards. A full list is here.

The students were traveling Saturday morning near the town of Taupo, part of a two-van convoy en route to hike the famed Tongariro Crossing. University authorities identified the dead as Daniela Lekhno, Roch Jauberty and Austin Brashears. A fourth student, Margaret Theriault, was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, officials said.

Beginning this month, high school students across the country will be making choices about the colleges they will attend for the next two or four years. Whether they are choosing from among elite private colleges and flagship public universities, or from a list of open-access state four-year and community colleges, how will they and their families make those decisions?

The University of Florida recently decided to drastically shrink its computer science department, a move that will save the university around $1.4 million. At the same time, the university’s athletics budget went up by around $2 million. Although there has been a strong reaction against this move in the media, there have been those who supported the UF decision, saying that it was an expression of the free market. For instance, an article in The Atlantic noted that UF Athletics, as a nonprofit entity, returns part of its profit to the university and also receives generous contributions from alumni and others. This line of reasoning implies that athletics should not be cut, as they contribute directly to the college’s bottom line. However the argument being made is seriously flawed. Let’s explore why.

On Friday afternoon, the fake president tweeted about undergoing surgery and then sent out a link to a column in the student newspaper that is headlined, “I am Fake Wallace Loh: And so can you!”

In a study of nearly a million Texas children described as an unprecedented look at discipline, researchers found that nearly identical schools suspended and expelled students at very different rates.