Posted by Rena Pederson, NMSI Communications Director

Two articles in major newspapers today spotlight AP programs and provide interesting context on how AP can raise the academic bar for more students. The articles from the Washington Post and New York Post follow:

Is AP for All A Formula For Failure?

By Jay Mathews

The Washington Post
Monday, June 8, 2009

I spend much time with aggressive Advanced Placement teachers. They tell me, quite often, that students must be stretched beyond their assumed capabilities. Whenever I try to pass on this advice, however, I become a target for ridicule and disbelief from readers.

Posted by Rena Pederson, NMSI Communications Director

Engineering Change in Education

Here's an invitation for Texas K-12 STEM teachers and pre-service teachers, counselors, and administrators as well as anyone else who is interested in engineering education: The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) will be offering a FREE workshop on "Engineering Change in K-12 STEM Education" in Austin Saturday June 13, 2009.

Andie Grasmick Nye
LAWRENCE - Andie Grasmick Nye wasn't always a numbers person. She had always gravitated toward social studies and English classes in high school.

LITTLE ROCK - As a senior at Lake Hamilton High School in Hot Springs, Kayln Duggan hasn't been concentrating on graduation or prom - she's been rewriting William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Regional Director for the National Math and Science Initiative, Dale Fleury, describes the importance of getting more Kentucky students into high school advanced placement courses.

President Obama and his team have alternated praise for the goals of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law with criticism of its weaknesses, all the while keeping their own plans for the law a bit of a mystery.