Florida Politician Introduces Bill To Let Teacher's Also Grade Parents

If an elementary school teacher graded you on your involvement in your child's education, what kind of a grade would you get?

Should your kid's first-grade teacher be grading you in the first place? If Florida state Rep. Kelli Stargel's bill becomes law, public school teachers will be required to grade the parents of students in kindergarten through the third grade.

The parents' grades of "satisfactory," "unsatisfactory" or "needs improvement" would be added to their children's report card. Read the full story.

PA School Segregates Students In Attempt To Raise Black Student's School Performance

Pennsylvania's McCaskey East High School located in Lancaster has come up with a controversial plan to help the school's black students: to segregate them.

The policy applies only to homeroom, which meets each day for six minutes and once a week for 20 minutes, and was intended to help close the school's racial achievement gap. Read the full story.

Mother Of Two Convicted Of Felony For Using Her Father's Address So Daughters Could Attend A Better District

Ohio mother of two Kelley Williams-Bolar was released from jail on Wednesday after serving nine days for falsifying records so that her two daughters could attend a better school.

Williams-Bolar was convicted by a jury of using her father's address to claim residency status that would allow her children to attend a higher-performing suburban school.

While her sentence was light in terms of jail time, Williams-Bolar was put on probation for two years and ordered to complete 80 hours of community service. The conviction will threaten her ability to get the teaching license she was working on and teach in an Ohio school. Read the full story.

She Argues With Police And Is Neither Cuffed Or Tasered

Janet Huckabee, the wife of former Arkansas governor and potential 2012 GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee, was recently involved in a multi-car traffic accident that later sparked an argument with the officer who appeared on the scene.

The Tolbert Report provides a transcript for part of the conversation which is posted below. They also provide information about how the incident was resolved in court.

Janet Huckabee - "Did she say I was on the phone?"
Trooper Blackmon - "Ma'am, that has nothing to do with it."

Huckabee - "It has everything to do with it.

Trooper - "No it doesn't."

Huckabee - "It has to do with whether I am telling the truth or not."

Trooper - "Okay, they gave me an exact description of your vehicle. I mean..."

Huckabee - "That's why I stopped up here. Yeah, that's right. I realize there was a vehicle and we were both merging."

Trooper - "They gave me an exact description of your vehicle. They told me exactly what you were doing. You told me that you were going into their lane as well."

Huckabee - "Did she tell you I was talking on the phone?"

Trooper - "Ma'am, that has nothing to do with..."

Huckabee - "I just want an answer from you. Did she tell you I was talking on the phone?"

Trooper - "She didn't tell me. The passenger told me."

Huckabee - "That is a lie. That is an out lie."

Trooper - "Ma'am, I don't have anything to..."

Huckabee - "So if that is a lie how can I know that the other part is not a lie."

Trooper - "Ma'am, you verified it by your own statement."

Huckabee - "I said I was merging but I said she was merging."

Trooper - "Okay, well she said she wasn't merging."

Huckabee - "She also said I was on the phone. So if one is a lie, why shouldn't the other be a lie."

Watch the video.

Bomb Found On Route Of Martin Luther King Parade

In Spokane, Washington the FBI offered a reward Tuesday for information about a potentially lethal bomb found in a backpack along the downtown route of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.

The discovery before Monday's parade for the slain civil rights leader raised the possibility of a racial motive in a region that has been home to the white supremacist Aryan Nations. Read the full story.

Why Asian Mothers Are Superior

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover
• have a playdate
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
• not play the piano or violin.

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up.

But if done properly, the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it's math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more. Read the full story.

The Incredible Shrinking Value Of A Law Degree

Based on many sources of information, a generation of lawyers face the toughest job market in decades. Since 2008, some 15,000 attorney and legal-staff jobs at large firms have vanished, according to a Northwestern Law study. Associates have been laid off, partners nudged out the door and recruitment programs have been scaled back or eliminated.

And with corporations scrutinizing their legal expenses as never before, more entry-level legal work is now outsourced to contract temporary employees, both in the United States and in countries like India. It’s common to hear lawyers fret about the sort of tectonic shift that crushed the domestic steel industry decades ago. Read the full story.


The Wall Street Journal reported that a survey found that nearly 25% of employed graduates said their work was temporary. And almost 22% said they were still looking for work even though they were employed, up from 16% in 2008.

Oxford, Cambridge Fail To Admit Black Students

Last year in 2009, 21 Oxbridge colleges did not offer admission to a single black student.

The worst offender is Oxford college, Merton, which has admitted no black students n the last five years and just one in the last decade. Cambridge accepted six, according to the Daily Mail.

The racial disparity at the schools extends to Cambridge's faculty as well. There are no black people among the more than 1,500 academic and lab staff employed by the university.

Affirmative Action For The Elite

Harvard researcher, Michael Hurwitz studied the legacy advantage at undergraduate institutions in America and found that it is a bigger issue than previously reported.Read about the research in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

According to his research, those who are considered to be primary legacies -- applicants whose parent obtained an undergraduate degree from the institution -- have an advantage of 45.1 percent, and those with a sibling, aunt, uncle or grandparent who attended or a parent who was enrolled at the graduate level -- secondary legacies -- are 13.7 percent more likely to be accepted than students with no connection at the top schools in the country.

Remember President George Bush had average Prep school grades and average SAT scores but he was admitted to Yale as a legacy student because his dad and grandfather both attended and graduated from Yale.

African American GOP Official Resigns Because of Tea Party Threats

The only black Republican Party district chairman in Arizona resigned from his post in the wake of Saturday's shooting, citing threats from the Tea Party faction and concerns for his family's safety.

Republican District 20 Chairman Anthony Miller was not the only party official to resign following the shooting that killed six and wounded 14 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and a federal judge.

"I wasn't going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday," he said. "I love the Republican Party but I don't want to take a bullet for anyone." Read the full story as reported in the Arizona Republic.