report is out comparing math and science scores of US states to those of foreign countries. Around 45 countries get compared to each single US state separately.

Each state performed mainly in the middle for science and math. A couple of states such as Connecticut, Delaware, and Maine performed near the top while states such as Louisiana and the District of Columbia performed thew worst.

Singapore, China, and Japan were always at the top of the score charts.

On NCLB is out. They are releasing the 2007 Pangloss Index. The one state they focus the most on and had the biggest jump was Alabama. Jumping up to 5th place from 22nd in one year.

The report gets into detail on how the Birmingham Alabama school districts cheated the students in the school district by using a high subgroup size to get less students counted and getting the US Department of Education to agree giving schools half credit for every student who missed level III but achieved level II just to help with AYP goals. With almost every student at level II it screwed up real AYP progress big time.

on AP and IB classes is out. The report is asking if they deserve gold level status.

The reported grade they give are:

B+ for AP Literature and Composition
C+ for AP calculus
B- For AP History
A- For AP Biology

B+ for IB Language A English SL
B- for IB Math SL
B- for IB History SL
A for IB Biology SL

The report does get into details of what the AP and IB programs are and they get into details on the courses and exams which is great.

on English Language Learners in Arizona and the high school exit exam is out. The report looks at five high schools in the Arizona with high amounts of ELL kids.

Some of the key findings from the report:

Major differences in educational levels of the ELL students.
Limited intervention for these students.
Lack of resources for the ELL students.
Limited proficiency in the English language killed test scores.
Taking the exam over and over again caused stress.

says that the teacher shortage in the state got worse this year. The report says that schools in Utah were 173 teachers short on the first day of school which is a 25% increase over last year.

35% of teachers leave after two years which is up from 29.6% and 55.4% leave after five years which is up from 47.4%.

eighth-graders who failed graduation requirements were kept back from going to the ninth grade.