By Winnie Hu, New York Times, April 13, 2010

PEARL RIVER, N.Y. — It has long been a rite of passage for teenagers here to hit the Manhattan clubs or make a road trip to the Jersey Shore after prom.

But after years of failed efforts to curb excessive after-parties, Pearl River High School has scheduled this year’s junior and senior proms for school nights. And the morning after each one, the principal and the Parent Teacher Association will be waiting at the school door: anyone not there by 7:34 a.m. sharp will be unable to make up academic work or participate in sports events that day.

By Alix Spiegel, NPR, March 29, 2010

The rules in 8-year-old Cameron Slaughter's house are clear: Children must do their homework when they get home from school; bedtime is 7:30; and stabbing one's brother with a pencil is not permitted.

Though Cameron, like most 8-year-olds, doesn't always execute these rules perfectly, when pressed, he does say that he appreciates them. They keep you safe, he explains, so they are good.

By Larry Abramson, NPR, March 25, 2010

The cafeteria at Urbana Middle School outside Frederick, Md., is a happy, sunny place, redolent of corn chips and pizza, the daily special.

A group of sixth-grade boys look up from their food. Question: Do you guys all feel like at some point in your lives, somebody has bullied you? Answer: a chorus of "yeah!"

Engaging students, teachers, and parents to help end the High School Dropout Epidemic

By John M. Bridgeland, Robert Balfanz, Laura A. Moore, Rebecca S. Friant, Civic Enterprises, 2010

After conducting research and issuing three reports on the perspectives of high school dropouts (The Silent Epidemic, 2006), parents (One Dream, Two Realities, 2007), and teachers (On the Front Lines of Schools, 2009), we discovered that these constituencies share different and often conflicting views of the causes and cures of dropout. We found that students, parents, and teachers have perspectives that exhibit significant discon­nects that, if not more fully understood and bridged, will continue to set back efforts to keep more young people in school and on track to graduate prepared for postsecondary education. We brought together these three key constituencies, from the same schools, in Baltimore, Maryland; Dallas, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Kingsport, Tennessee. In each case, individuals remarked that this was the first time that teachers, parents, and students had been brought together to talk about any issue, including the dropout crisis.