GIVEN HALF A CHANCE: Report Highlights Huge Gap in Graduation Rates Between Black Males and White Males: Over the past twenty-five years, the social, educational, and economic outcomes for black males have been "more systemically devastating" than the outcomes for any other racial or ethnic group or gender, according to a new report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education. The report, Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, examines the disturbingly large gaps in graduation rates between black males and while males. It also highlights the resource deficiencies that exist in schools that black males attend.

MATH PROBLEM: Report Finds That Over Half of Recent High School Grads Aren't College Ready: Though slightly more of the Class of 2007 was found to be college ready in math than the Class of 2003, the majority still fell short of the ACT College Readiness Benchmark. So says the recently released EPAS State of the Nation Report 2007: Mathematics.

TALKIN' ‘BOUT MY GENERATION: Report Compares Well-being of Today's Teens With That of 1970s' Teens: After an upward trend from 1994 through 2002, improvements in the well-being of America's children and youth have stalled, according to the 2008 Foundation for Child Development Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI). The index peaked right after September 11 but has dipped and risen by fractional amounts since then. Overall, the CWI shows less than a 3 percent improvement for kids over the past generation.

"PREPARING ALL STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE AND WORK": Alliance for Excellent Education Selects Presenters for Its 2008-09 High School Achievement Forum Series: Earlier this month, the Alliance for Excellent Education announced the six presentations that it has chosen for its upcoming High School Achievement Forum series, titled "Preparing All Students for College and Work." The presentations, which were chosen from open-call proposals, will take place over a twelve-month period beginning this fall.