Morning Announcements: May 3, 2012

Happy Thursday. Here are the top stories in education news!

Congratulations to NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal, who will earn his Ph.D in organizational learning and leadership this weekend. A professional athletic career can only last so long, but an education lasts forever.

The push for a technology-enriched classroom continues as a survey of K-8 teachers shows nearly half of them are incorporating digital games in lessons to engage students and personalize learning. Education Week analyzes the rising popularity of digital learning.

Special needs students are often segregated into separate learning environments, void of interactions w with children in mainstream classrooms. But that may not be necessary. National Public Radio’s education correspondent Claudio Sanchez and Thomas Hehir of Harvard University talk about how to integrate special needs students into mainstream classrooms.

It is no surprise that being sleep-deprived is not conducive to learning. Most American teenagers would probably agree. As the reports Huffington Post, in high school, Melissa Edwards woke up at 6:30 a.m. to catch a bus. It was dark, she was tired and the school's 7:15 a.m. morning bell forced the St. Louis teen to eat lunch at 10:45.

According to the Chicago Tribune, spurred by student and community groups demanding a less punitive student discipline system, a City Council committee  passed a resolution calling on Chicago Public Schools to reduce suspensions and expulsions by 40 percent.