Original Source | Deseret News, McClatchy Newspapers
By Rick Montgomery, Saturday November 14, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Chalk up another national-security threat - this one looming with each excess pound, failing grade and drug bust affecting young adults.

An alarming 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would not qualify for military service today because they are physically unfit, failed to finish high school or have criminal records. So says a new report from an organization of education and military leaders calling for immediate action on the early-education front.

Original Source | Education Week
By Dakarai I. Aarons, Friday November 6, 2009

The United States should invest in early education to help bolster the number of young people eventually eligible to serve in the military and protect national-security interests, a report released this week argues.

A majority of the nation's young adults are ineligible for military service because they have not graduated from high school, have criminal records, or are physically unfit, says the report, produced by Mission: Readiness-Military Leaders For Kids. The nonprofit national-security group, based in Washington, is made up of more than seven dozen retired senior military officers.

Original Source | The Oregonian
By Dana Hepper, Wednesday November 4, 2009

In September, The Oregonian asked whether Oregon schools would end up in a "race to the sidelines" while other states engage in the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" competition for a share of $4.3 billion in federal education reform funding.

As a member of one of the working groups developing Oregon's Race to the Top application, I'm here to report that we're approaching the starting line.

Original Source | The Oregonian
By Bill Graves, Friday October 30, 2009

Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian
Tammy Biles, kindergarten teacher at Mooberry Elementary School in Hillsboro leads a reading lesson last spring as students use whisper phones to hear their pronunciation of words. Students are (from left) Breanne Freshour, Austin Blankenship and Brandon Tuttle.

The Oregon Department of Education today announced it has suspended until further notice the use of a survey tool it has relied on to measure how well children are prepared for kindergarten.

Original Source | OregonLive
By Bill Graves, Wednesday October 21, 2009

Fredrick D. Joe/The Oregonian
Atkinson Elementary Principal Chris Gutierrez last winter stands at the door of Laura Pappas' kindergarten classroom.

The Children's Institute in Portland released a report today urging the state to improve the way its measures whether children are ready for kindergarten.