on the local school district getting 10 million bucks from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will help develop a new teacher evaluation system.

on the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ union approving a new contract.

on Young Mentors helping at-risk students out.

is out with a look at the freshman class of 2009.

Some results:

55.4% say they have some concerns of paying for college. That is the highest level since 1971.

53.3% will be using loans to pay for college. The percentage level in a nine year period.

26.1% got aid over 10 grand.

41.6% said cost of going to college is a very important factor.

with a survey looking at foreign language instruction in the classroom.

They found from 1997 to 2008 a drop from 31% of elementary schools teaching a foreign l language class down to 25% and from 75% of middle schools teaching a foreign language class down to 58%.

From 1997 to 2008 French classes took a big drop while Chinese and Arabic grew.

on quality of questions on Common Tests being an issue.