President Barack Obama announced a proposal that would amend the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind law at a meeting with state governors on Monday, The New York Times reported Monday. The proposed changes would require that states conform to higher standards of teaching and student achievement in math and reading to qualify for federal money. Under the current law, states are free to determine for themselves what constitutes "challenging" academic standards, resulting in large discrepancies between states. Forty-eight states, with the exception of Alaska and Texas, recently collaborated to compose uniform standards for math and reading, and the new standards drafted in the effort were adopted by Kentucky this month.
The Macmillan publishing company has plans to unveil software this August that will allow professors to modify electronic versions of textbooks, The New York Times reported Sunday. The software, called DynamicBooks, will allow professors to alter the text provided to suit their classes without consulting the publisher or author. Instructors will be able to remove sentences and entire chapters and can incorporate their own material. Clancy Marshall, the general manager of Macmillan, told The Times that the company reserves the right to remove offensive material and plagiarism from electronic textbooks and will rely on students, parents and other instructors to report such problems. The textbooks are compatible with all laptops and the iPhone, and Marshall said DynamicBooks plans to negotiate with Apple to make the textbooks compatible with the iPad. The electronic textbooks will be much cheaper than print editions, which should make the e-books appealing to students, Fritz Foy, senior vice president for digital content at Macmillan, told The Times.
Twenty-six Temple University students are set to participate in an 11-week weight loss program that aims to help students manage their weight by fine-tuning solutions to the unique health challenges of a college lifestyle, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday. The Onward to Weight Loss Success program has been in place for two-and-a-half years, but will be monitored by Temple's obesity center for the first time in hopes of expanding the program to other campuses across the country. Half of the students will remain outside of the program as a control group and then will receive guidance in the next 11-week cycle. The program helps students manage their weight by facilitating discussion about dining out, emotional eating and alcohol consumption and by providing a support group for students struggling to lose weight. Students will be reimbursed for their participation with a gift card and must have a sufficiently high body mass index to participate.
