Check out the latest education-related news from around the web -- then be sure to sign the Mom Congress petition to fix No Child Left Behind.

‘Race to the Top' grant rules laid out (Chicago Tribune, 11/13/09)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued rules for a $4 billion grant program to promote innovation in education, allaying fears from some education groups that it would be too focused on testing.

'Staggering’ Crisis in U.S. Education Found in Study (Bloomberg, 11/9/09)

More than two-thirds of U.S. teachers disapprove of how their public schools are run and 90 percent say “routine duties and paperwork” interfere with their teaching, a report found.

Gates Foundation gives $335M for teacher quality (Associated Press, 11/19/09)

Three school districts and a coalition of charter schools have agreed to be test kitchens for some radical ideas for improving teacher quality. In exchange, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $290 million in grants to the four groups, plus another $45 million for education research aimed at uncovering what exactly is an effective teacher.

Schools in the dark about tainted lunches (USA Today, 11/17/09)

Following an outbreak of over 100 illnesses at five area schools in Racine, WI – believed to have been caused by flour tortillas from Chicago's Del Rey Tortilleria – parents and school officials are wondering why the FDA never alerted them to company’s long history of making children sick.  See the U.S. agriculture chief’s response and pledge to issue better food alerts to schools on USAToday.com.

One NJ school district considering fee for detention (Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/19/09)

School board members in one New Jersey town want parents of high school students who are habitually sent to detention to pay, saying the district spends $10,000 per year in overtime and maintenance to run after-school detention.

Every Tuesday, we’ll report exactly how much our three families have in their checking accounts -- and what they’re planning to do with it.

Who has $4?

Who has $184.37 and is feeling great?

Who’s caught up and still has $368.70 in pocket?

Click Read More to find out!

Read More

Check out the latest education-related news from around the web -- then be sure to sign the Mom Congress petition to fix No Child Left Behind.

“Race to the Top” education grant propels reforms (USA Today, 11/4/09)
States that want their share of the $4.35 billion federal grant must commit to closing historic achievement gaps and getting more kids into college – and while the first batch of money isn't scheduled to go out until January, state legislatures are scrambling to rewrite laws governing these systems.

A year after election, Obama focuses on schools (Boston Globe, 11/4/09)
President Obama is using the anniversary of his election to call for "a national mission" to improve public education and build it into a pillar of the new economy.

Rachael Ray's sizzling taco strategy to have students eat healthier (New York Daily News, 10/24/09)
This week, 1,200 public schools across New York City will serve up Ray's "sizzling soft tacos" as part of a plan to get kids to eat healthier meals.

Teacher Training Termed Mediocre (New York Times, 10/22/09)
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has implored universities to change the way they prepare teachers to run classrooms, saying a “revolutionary change” was needed to train as many as one million new teachers in five years.

School chooses Kindle; are libraries for the history 'books'? (USA Today, 10/27/09)
A Boston-area boarding school replaces most of the library's books with a brand-new, fully digital collection.

We've been pretty obsessed with Halloween here at Parenting.com these last few weeks: Oohing and ahhing over your amazing Homemade Costume Contest entries, salivating at the thought of all of the treats we'll be making, lusting after all these incredible Etsy homemade costumes...

But yesterday, when talk at our morning meeting turned to "So what's everyone going to be for Halloween this year?", there was a lot of hemming and hawing. Almost no one, it seemed, had actually had time to think about their own costumes yet.

For once, I've avoided the last-minute costume scramble: I decided last week I was going to be Punky Brewster, and found all of my 80's costume elements pretty easily at American Apparel, H&M, and Strawberry. The finishing touch was a set of buttons from M&J Trimming, which I attached to my pigtails with thread.

How about you -- are you dressing up this year? Or is getting your little trick-or-treater outfitted and out the door enough of challenge?

 

Got a family of snow bunnies? You'll definitely want to check out 60 Days of Giveaways sponsored by our sister sites Ski and Skiing.  You could win one of sixty prizes, including skis, free lift tickets, resort accommodations, and more. All you have to do is check out this page and accept the daily "challenge" by answering a trivia question or performing a Facebook task.

Today's prize is 2 nights at Grand Summit and 3 days of skiing for 2 guests at The Canyons Resort in Utah. It would make a great kids-free long weekend (or bring the kids and sign them up for ski school!).  Plus, you'll be automatically entered to win the grand prize, a 4-day trip to Snowbird Resort.

Good luck! 

p.s.: Don't forget about all the great giveaways we have going on at Parenting.com:

Win all of our Early Years Toys of the Year (enter daily!)

Win all of our School Years Toys of the Year (enter daily!)

Enter the 2009 Homemade Halloween Costume Contest