September Contents

1 Editor’s Note: Breakthrough Highs

4 What Those “Breakthrough” High Schools
Broke Through to Discover
Elizabeth Hale and Kwesi Rollins / Principal Leadership
Leading the way to increased student learning.

10 “Breakthrough” High Schools Qualify 90% of Students
for College
Principal Leadership
Making school personal, relevant, and collaborative is key.

12 Separate Our Students by Race and Income
to Meet NCLB?
Lawrence Hardy / Special Report: Economics and Achievement
A long process marked by compromise and negotiation.

21 Creating CHAOS for Smart, Troubled High-Riskers
Rich Grimes
They need love, extra attention, support, and understanding.

25 “MySpace” Cadets Are Up for Sudden Death
Communicator
Students must see the dangers of social networking websites.

27 Stalked by E-mail on Vacation
Michael Bugeja / The Chronicle of Higher Education
Make sure you live by the biological clock, not the digital one.

33 President Bush Bails Out on Bird-Flu Plan:
“You’re on Your Own” If It Strikes
Ellie Ashford / School Board News
Truthful, if not fair, after Katrina’s endless broken promises.

39 Don’t “Dumb Down” Character Education
Bobby Ann Starnes / Phi Delta Kappan
We don’t learn virtue from oversimplified class curricula.

44 Don’t Get Snookered by Education Statistics!
Gerald W. Bracey / Principal
Those “three kinds” of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

48 Media-Savvy Educators: Pushing Past “News Lite” Reporting
Nora Carr / American School Board Journal
School leaders are beginning to fight back—and win.

53 Choose Colleagues Before Friends for Teaching Teams
Daniel L. Kain / Leadership Compass
Friends agree more, but colleagues are more productive.

57 Valuing Differentiated Instruction
Amy Benjamin / Leadership Compass
Be clear on the values that support it in order to succeed.

60 Working-Class Students:
Lost in a College’s Middle-Class Culture
Frank DiMaria / The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education
Talk of diversity may hide complicated realities for them.

66 The Teachers’ Lounge
70 Washington Scene
74 Education News in Brief
76 Calendar
74 Education Resources