To overcome low test scores and a high dropout rate, an entire school district is implementing radical reforms. For starters, when the elementary and middle-school students come back next fall, there won’t be any grade levels – or traditional grades, for that matter.
The 10,000-student district in metropolitan Denver is modeling its new “standards-based” program, where the students help plan the lessons, on an effort in Alaska that was able, in five years, to turn around the lowest performing schools in that state. (Read the full story in the Christian Science Monitor)
A biotech firm in Washington recently announced an overwhelmingly positive response to compounds from a rain forest botanical for treating Alzheimer’s Disease, along with its intention to safeguard the very forests that provide such a remarkable pharmacopeia. 
