Alabama schools have been having a rough time of it, and it only looks like it's going to get rougher. The Cotton State recently came in last place in the federal Department of Education's Race to the Top grant competition. And a steadfast global recession combined with the Gulf Coast oil spill this summer have put a severe strain on the state's tax receipts, the primary source of revenue for Alabama's education system, forcing several school systems to take out private loans just to make it through the year. [More]

More children are crowding into classrooms in Modesto, Calif. Parents are paying extra to send their kids to full-day kindergarten in Queen Creek, Ariz. And the school buses stopped rolling in one St. Louis area school district. [More]

A proposed health curriculum in Helena, Montana, public schools has riled up some parents who say it starts teaching students about sex far too early. [More]

Just one in 10 Latino high school dropouts earns a high school equivalency degree, compared with two in 10 African-American dropouts and three in 10 white dropouts, the Pew Hispanic Center said Thursday. [More]

At least 28 children were injured when a man with a knife attacked a kindergarten in east China on Thursday morning, state media said. [More]

Think your children are getting hours of playtime, story readings and stimulating lessons at day care? Maybe they are, but they could also be spending a chunk of their day watching TV or DVDs. [More]

That first Friday at Grove City High was so quiet. Any other school year, the school's nationally acclaimed band would have ended the day by marching through the halls blasting the fight song. Any other school year, more than 11,000 would have gathered later that evening at the stadium behind the school to watch the Greyhounds -- better known as the Dawgs -- open their season. Any other school year, Friday would have meant something. [More]

Whoever said names will never hurt you was wrong, according to a new study. [More]

"Everybody was scared," a former student recalls, "and the parents were even more scared than the kids" [More]

Jon and Kate see Collin, Hannah, Leah, Joel, Aaden and Alexis off to pre-K [More]

The twins start third grade and the sextuplets head to junior kindergarten [More]

Seventh graders at Ron Clark Academy became an overnight sensation during the presidential election when their YouTube performance of "You Can Vote However You Like" catapulted them to online stardom. [More]

Seventh graders at Ron Clark Academy became an overnight sensation during the presidential election when their YouTube performance of "You Can Vote However You Like" catapulted them to online stardom. [More]

There was stone cold silence in the car, as the Kumars drove home. [More]

It was Halloween night when 12-year-old Lucy Gross picked up her first marijuana cigarette, starting a spiral from which she is still struggling to recover. [More]

Teachers in the United States are contracted to work more hours than their counterparts in other Group of Eight countries, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Education. [More]

Is your kindergartner easily distracted? Maybe a little hyper? This might seem like typical child behavior but a new study published in the March 2009 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine suggests it could be a red flag for a potential gambling addiction as he or she ages. [More]

When Bill Gates gets worked up about something, his body language changes. He suspends his habit of rocking forward and back in his chair and sits a little straighter. His voice rises in pitch. Today the subject is America's schools. [More]

Forget the beach. Bridget Kerr, 10, would rather play in the snow. [More]

Did your child walk and talk early? Does she have a brain like a sponge? Scribble magnificently? Love learning? Ask questions that leave you marveling (and scrambling to Google an answer)? [More]

Kevin Newsome, an honor student from Virginia who also plays a little quarterback, won't need any help to qualify academically to play college football. So why is Newsome headed to prep school next month? [More]

Chinese police cordoned off quake-hit schools and towns Thursday in an apparent attempt to quell protests by parents angry over shoddy school construction [More]

Much has been made of people who live beyond their means. When you see a neighbor bring home a fancy new car, you can't help but wonder how she can afford it on her salary. However, you can't assume you know how much she (or anybody) makes unless you've seen her tax returns. [More]

What's it really take to parent a preschooler? It's pretty simple, once you realize what kids this age can and can't do (and what sets them off and what keeps them happy!). Here are seven qualities that make it much easier to manage all that, and why they're so crucial when you've got an independent-minded, boundary-testing picky eater on your hands. [More]

Draconian bans on public displays of affection in a growing number of schools have parents and students up in arms. Has the concern about harassment gone too far? [More]

A female schoolteacher and the 13-year-old boy she allegedly ran away with have been arrested in Mexico, a prosecutor said Saturday [More]

The outcry over Portland, Maine's decision to provide the pill to young girls shows that adults still have trouble discussing sex with each other, much less with our kids [More]

Fourth-grade teacher Elisabeth Beckwith wants her students at Fernbank Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia, to pay attention to a lesson on Greek mythology. [More]

A trailblazing Chicago school starts economic education early to give inner-city black kids a leg up [More]

John W. Rogers Jr. is a patient man. The head of Ariel Capital Management in Chicago and manager of the flagship Ariel Fund, Rogers typically holds a stock for four or five years, an eternity compared with the 14-month holding period of the average mutual fund. [More]

John W. Rogers Jr. is a patient man. The head of Ariel Capital Management in Chicago and manager of the flagship Ariel Fund (ARGFX), Rogers typically holds a stock for four or five years, an eternity compared with the 14-month holding period of the average mutual fund. In the past decade his fund has earned nearly 14% a year, beating the market by more than five percentage points annually and outperforming three-quarters of all similar funds. Rogers has pulled off this feat while investing much of his own time in two problems that many other leaders have long since given up on: improving inner-city schools and encouraging African Americans to save and invest more. Rogers donates a hefty share of his firm's profits, helps design teaching curriculums, meets with children and educators, and brings students along to board meetings. Here too, patience is paying off: 80% of the eighth-graders who graduate from Ariel Community Academy have been accepted to elite high schools in the Chicago [More]

On April 19, just 11 days prior to the start of spring football practice at Hoover (Ala.) High, athletic director Jerry Browning hosted a meeting in his first-floor office with Andy Craig, the Hoover public schools superintendent. [More]

America's once-proud public school system -- the great equalizer of our democratic society -- is failing an entire generation of students. Millions of high-school students are donning their caps and gowns this month, but a new Education Week report reveals that more than 1.2 million students will fail to graduate high school this year. Half of our black and Hispanic male students are dropping out of public high schools. [More]

It's 8 a.m. in the morning and a group of tiny tots are heading towards a simple building on the outskirts of their village near Mombasa. [More]

A hot trend in the publishing industry these days is children's books "written" by sports stars. Alex Rodriguez released his effort, Out of the Ballpark, this week, featuring a baseball-crazed boy named Alex who makes an error in a key game because he's trying so darn hard. That joins, among others, Terrell Owens' trenchant Little T Learns to Share. (T.O. apparently hails from the "write what you don't know" school.) Here are some other children's books that we can imagine being penned by sport figures: [More]

Cody Chang and Jonathan Mohan didn't even know what an entrepreneur was when they signed up for a class on business and entrepreneurship at their local YMCA. [More]

Students at the West Atlanta Young Scholars Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, are expected to go to college. [More]

Science teachers consider Pluto's flunking out of planet status a plus rather than a minus. [More]

One story we brought you this week concerned a teacher who, as part of a class exercise, burned the American flag in a civics lesson for seventh graders. We asked for your opinion on the story, and here are a few of your responses, some of which have been edited: [More]

As more of America's school-age children are growing fatter, the physical education curriculum that might help them win the fight is gasping for air, says a recently released report. [More]

AMERICAN STUDENTS MAY BE POOR AT MATH, but when it comes to understanding the money in their lives, they are positively bankrupt. A recent national survey testing high school seniors about basic fi... [More]

At home, the phrase "Go watch TV" to kids has replaced "Go outside and play" in many families. At school, the daily hour of recess is dwindling. The combination is contributing to many kids not getting enough exercise, according to some experts. [More]

The Red Cross has opened the following emergency shelters in Florida for people affected by Tropical Storm Alberto: [More]

CNN.com asked readers to share their most vivid memories of the day of the Challenger disaster. That day, millions watching the shuttle take off realized, at the same moment, something had gone terribly wrong. Here is a sampling of those responses, some of which have been edited: [More]

Ever made a midnight run to buy poster board for a school project due the next morning? Afraid of what forms, homework and other forgotten but important pieces of paper might be unearthed in a thorough backpack search? Have a Top 10 list of excuses for missed assignments? [More]

Whether you are the parent of a toddler with a burgeoning vocabulary, a kindergartener just learning to read or a 12-year-old headed off to middle school for the first time, there are days when you... [More]

There are lots of ways to tell you're officially old. There's a "Sixteen Candles" remake in the works. Madonna's writing children's books. And you go to a David Byrne concert to find yourself surrounded by 50-year-olds. OK, that kind of makes sense since Byrne's hair is now completely gray. [More]

In a deal that would unite the biggest stars of the two-to-five-year-old set, Comcast Corp. (CMCSK) is in advanced negotiations with the Public Broadcasting System, Sesame Street Workshop and HIT Entertainment to develop the first 24- hour network dedicated to preschool kids, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. [More]

For my son Jake, who is now nine and may be none too pleased that I'm telling this story, learning to ride a bike was difficult. His dad and I tried everything we could think of to get him to balan... [More]

Gearing up for an election-year fight over the centerpiece of his education agenda, President Bush hailed his "historic" No Child Left Behind Act Thursday and announced he will seek a substantial increase in its funding for 2005. [More]

It's lunch hour at the Kent Denver School. The cafeteria is serving chicken over rice. Backpacks lie strewn across the common area. Some students sit and do homework, others sprawl on couches and t... [More]

It wasn't one of the usual explanations for a plant closing. In early May, Dana Corp. announced it was shutting down an injection-molding facility in Marine City, just northeast of Detroit, where s... [More]

The presidential candidates have seized on education in the hope of finding an issue that will ignite voter excitement. Bush's and Gore's plans differ in nuance, but both men advocate policies that... [More]

I've come to Nashville to find out if and how the Internet has changed life for normal people--for folks who aren't programming for Microsoft or writing columns for FORTUNE. I'm thinking of the cit... [More]

Americans like to say that our children are our most valuable asset. Yet children at all income levels are suffering from neglect--not just the children of poverty, as some would like you to think.... [More]

Lillian Micko had a vision. It was around five o'clock one evening last spring. She was pulling out of a McDonald's drive-through in her hometown of Mount Laurel, N.J. with her boys Danny, 11, and ... [More]

7:46 a.m.: The mother's face tightens into a fist: "It isn't fair! The other kid started the trouble with my boy yesterday." The mother nearly shouts the words into the face of the principal of P.S... [More]

YOU KNOW THE BULL MARKET IS LONG IN THE hoof when a tightwad like me is attracted to three small growth stocks that each rose 100% or better in 1995. Yet I'm convinced that as long as the bulls don... [More]

With prep school costs running nearly as high as the $26,000 a year that Ivy League colleges command these days, most families who send their kids to private or parochial schools must sacrifice new... [More]

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While Americans proclaim the social and academic benefits of early-childhood education, the French deliver it: Virtually all children attend preschool, and eight of 10 go to free, government-run in... [More]

THE EDUCATION message is getting through. When asked how concerned corporations were about the problems in American public schools, 98% of the companies responding to FORTUNE's fourth annual educat... [More]

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! That percussive sound bite uttered by George Bush as the reason for his ill-fated trip to Tokyo has become the watchword of America's anxiety about its economic future. The giant ... [More]

IF THE WELL-BEING of its children is the proper measure of the health of a civilization, the United States is in grave danger. Of the 65 million Americans under 18, fully 20% live in poverty, 22% l... [More]

Carl Bernard, a senior at Connecticut College who considers himself so lucky, credits a teacher and a businessman for his change from a ninth-grade dropout to a campus leader. For many of these sur... [More]

WHEN DETROIT announced a plan to open three all-male, all-black public schools last year, the National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union rose up and defeated it. In resp... [More]

WHAT DO KIDS know about the world of work, that mysterious adult realm hidden behind the concrete walls of factories and the reflective windows of office towers? Not much, and not nearly enough to ... [More]

WHEN IT COMES to early childhood education, the U.S. ranks near the bottom of the class. Nearly every other major industrialized nation -- and even some developing countries -- see the job of educa... [More]

WILL THE DRIVE to revive America's ailing public schools, launched in the early 1980s, start producing results in the 1990s? It had better. By the latest tally, the high school dropout rate remains... [More]

At a time when the news is full of alarming reports of the crisis in U.S. education, how do you know whether your kid's school is doing the job? All parents want their children to get the best educ... [More]

For college-bound youngsters and their families, an aptitude for meeting deadlines is the first college entrance requirement. Failure to file the right form at the right time could hurt your chance... [More]

Like most parents, Blake Magee's mother and father want only the best for their 15-month-old son. Since both Jennifer and Donald work, they pay a nanny to take care of Blake (left), and hope to pla... [More]

STEVE JOBS remembers vividly the day he began to understand supply and demand. As a 12-year-old visitor to a NASA research center, he started fiddling on a computer with a game called King Hammurab... [More]

SUDDENLY Head Start is on nearly everybody's agenda. Calling the $1.4 billion federal preschool program ''something near and dear to all of us,'' President Bush proposes to spend an additional $500... [More]

ON THE DAY he was leaving for college, Benny (not his real name) had a last- minute crisis. His mother and her boyfriend, both crack addicts, stole his train fare. At a loss about what to do, Benny... [More]

BY NOW it is clear: Corporate involvement in public school reform has become serious business. Since the education system has failed to check the erosion of basic skills, companies are proposing in... [More]

America's 83,000 public schools are spending more but educating our 40 million schoolchildren less. Last year, U.S. taxpayers paid about $4,500 per pupil, up an inflation-adjusted 28% just since 19... [More]

IF THE FUTURE has a voice, it is the voice of youth. To learn more about the world to be, FORTUNE asked a diverse group of 20 mostly high-school-age youths around the country about their expectatio... [More]

JAPAN'S STUDENTS score so high against other youngsters in standardized international tests, and its schools turn out such able workers and managers, that the country's educational system has becom... [More]

BUY A BURGER and catch a disturbing glimpse of America's future. When they ring up your order, those bustling teenagers behind most fast-food restaurant counters are pressing pictures of hamburgers... [More]

THE TEACHER CAPTIVATES the class as he paces back and forth, commenting, cracking jokes, asking questions. ''Everybody loves a sincere speaker,'' says the wiry young instructor, immaculately dresse... [More]

''Investing in our children is not just rhetoric. It's sound business practice, although many of our colleagues have yet to make that discovery.'' So said Arnold Hiatt, CEO of Stride Rite, who alon... [More]

SO IGNORANT and benighted are many young recruits to the U.S. work force that ) one executive after another has recoiled in horror, gasping with astonishment. These are the troops we're supposed to... [More]

James Underwood memorized every question in the driver's license handbook, then persuaded the exam administrator to test him orally. ''People who can't read and write have very good memories,'' he ... [More]