Book Lists and Reviews

High school grades keep climbing, but not test scores. The typical grade-point average of a high school senior in 2000 was 2.94, or almost a B, according to an Education Department sampling of 21,000 transcripts in public and private schools. Ten years earlier, the average was 2.68. Meanwhile, reading scores stayed flat throughout the 1990s and math and science scores leveled out after 1992.

Separate middle schools questioned. A report released by the RAND Corp. in March questions whether middle school students should be in separate schools at all during such an emotionally turbulent stage of life. American students in grades 6 to 8 feel unsafe, socially isolated and academically unchallenged. Middle schools and junior highs "became the norm more because of social and demographic reasons, and not so much because of any empirical basis for their existence," states the principal author, Jaana Juvonen. The middle school years are when American students start to lag behind students in other countries. School systems in Baltimore, Cincinnati, New York City and Philadelphia have begun returning to traditional K-8 schools or high schools for grades 6-12, and more districts may follow suit. (Education Week, 3-17-04)

The NEA Convention New Business Item 29 calls for establishing an annual electronic discussion bulletin board called "National Directory of Successful Diversity Day Programs." This will feature programs administered by public school districts that celebrate National Multicultural Diversity Day (NMDD), which is annually observed on the 3rd Monday in October.