The Government Accountability Office finds that parents often have a hard time initiating complaints about special education services, but that these barriers don't affect all parents in the same way.

Several of the already existing restrictions on U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' authority to waive federal education law deal with school funding.

We report the first clinical Escherichia. coli strain EC3000 with concomitant chromosomal colistin and carbapenem resistance. A novel in-frame deletion, 6-11(RPISLR), in pmrB contributing to colistin resistance was verified using recombinant DNA techniques. Although decreased fitness compared to the wild-type (WT) strain or EC3000 revertant (chromosomal replacement of WT pmrB in EC3000), a portion of serially passaged EC3000 strains preserving colistin resistance without selective pressure raises the concern for further spread.

Staphylococcus aureus osteomyelitis is a debilitating infection of bone. Treatment of osteomyelitis is impaired by the propensity of invading bacteria to induce pathologic bone remodeling that may limit antibiotic penetration to the infectious focus. The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diflunisal was previously identified as an osteoprotective adjunctive therapy for osteomyelitis, based on the ability of this compound to inhibit S. aureus quorum sensing and subsequent quorum-dependent toxin production. When delivered locally during experimental osteomyelitis, diflunisal significantly limits bone destruction without affecting bacterial burdens. However, because diflunisal's "quorum-quenching" activity could theoretically increase antibiotic recalcitrance, it is critically important to evaluate this adjunctive therapy in the context of standard of care antibiotics. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of vancomycin to treat osteomyelitis during local diflunisal treatment. We first determined that systemic vancomycin effectively reduces bacterial burdens in a murine model of osteomyelitis, and identified a dosing regimen that decreases bacterial burdens without eradicating infection. Using this dosing scheme, we found that vancomycin activity is unaffected by the presence of diflunisal in vitro and in vivo. Similarly, locally-delivered diflunisal still potently inhibits osteoblast cytotoxicity in vitro and bone destruction in vivo in the presence of sub-therapeutic vancomycin. However, we also found that the resorbable polyurethane foams used to deliver diflunisal serve as a nidus for infection. Taken together, these data demonstrate that diflunisal does not significantly impact standard of care antibiotic therapy for S. aureus osteomyelitis, but also highlight potential pitfalls encountered with local drug delivery.

Parenting styles run the gamut and so do the features in parental control and monitoring utilities. We've tested the top hardware- and software-based services to help you choose the right one for your family.

"The entire energy market is still on a knife edge," says an economist.

Ahead of Matchday 7, UEFA.com looks at some obvious selections and some lesser-owned options.

Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, Becky Shiring, Katie Robinson, Dr. Sonny Magana and Dr. Monica Burns contribute their suggestions on using tech to differentiate instruction.

Remittances from overseas are a lifeline for many South Africans, says Richard Ambrose, CEO of Azimo.

Community and university leaders collaborate to help students and parents residing in the McKeesport Area School District.

If you want to keep your kids safe online, you need a parental control solution that monitors all of their devices, including phones and tablets. These apps are the top cross-platform performers in our testing.

The Government Accountability Office finds that parents often have a hard time initiating complaints about special education services, but that these barriers don't affect all parents in the same way.

A leading autism researcher and former special education teacher offers advice to help students cope with the abrupt changes brought on by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

A survey found that while fewer parents think students should spend considerable time in front of screens in schools, teacher support was unchanged.

Penn State Law in University Park will host "A Take on the Term" with Sarah Harrington and Erin Murphy, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Sutliff Auditorium of the Lewis Katz Building.

You may be able to save money and get faster speeds by buying a cable modem instead of renting one from your ISP. Here's what you need to know.

Ahead of Matchday 8, UEFA.com looks at some obvious #UCLfantasy selections and those who could cause a surprise.

Combining a transparent LCD panel, driver-facing camera, and AI facial detection system, the Virtual Visor blocks the sun's glare, not your view of the road.

As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in some states have started to form new advocacy efforts—trying to pressure states and districts to adopt new approaches to teacher training and evaluating materials.

A proposal to make civil partnerships available to different sex couples will strengthen equality and advance human rights in Scotland, according to a Holyrood Committee.

In India and China, indigenous drug manufacturers market arbitrarily combined parenteral β-lactam and β-lactamase inhibitors (BL-BLIs). In these fixed-dose combinations, sulbactam or tazobactam is indiscriminately combined with parenteral cephalosporins, with BLI doses kept in ratios similar to those for the approved BL-BLIs. Such combinations have been introduced into clinical practice without mandatory drug development studies involving pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic, safety, and efficacy assessments being undertaken. Such unorthodox combinations compromise clinical outcomes and also potentially contribute to resistance development.

Mathematics Vision Project has dismissed the lawsuit after the surprising move the company made this summer to take legal action against one of its most vocal parent critics.

As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in some states have started to form new advocacy efforts—trying to pressure states and districts to adopt new approaches to teacher training and evaluating materials.

When parents or guardians hope for a miracle for their child who is critically ill, ethical and professional challenges can arise. Often, although not always, the parent or guardian’s hope for a miracle entails a request for continued life-sustaining interventions. Striking a balance between the pediatrician’s conception of good medicine and the parent or guardian’s authority requires a response that is sensitive, practical, and ethically sound. In this article, we recommend 3 cumulative steps that promote such a response. First, we recommend ways of exploring essential issues through open inquiry, interdisciplinary dialogue, and self-reflection. As part of this exploration, pediatricians will discover that parents or guardians often have unique ideas about what a miracle might be for their child. The second step includes analyzing this diversity and seeking understanding. We classify the hope for a miracle into 3 distinct categories: integrated, seeking, and adaptive. After the pediatrician has categorized the parent or guardian’s hope, they can consider specific recommendations. We detail context-specific responses for each kind of hope. By attending to these nuances, not only will the parent or guardian’s perspective be heard but also the pediatrician’s recommendation can strike a balance between advocating for their conception of good medicine and respecting the parent or guardian’s beliefs.

Successful intervention for inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) is a triumph of modern medicine. For many of these conditions, medical foods are the cornerstone of therapy and the only effective interventions preventing disability or death. Medical foods are designed for patients with limited or impaired capacity to ingest, digest, absorb, or metabolize ordinary foods or nutrients, whereby dietary management cannot be achieved by modification of the normal diet alone. In the United States today, access to medical foods is not ensured for many individuals who are affected despite their proven efficacy in the treatment of IEMs, their universal use as the mainstay of IEM management, the endorsement of their use by professional medical organizations, and the obvious desire of families for effective care. Medical foods are not sufficiently covered by many health insurance plans in the United States and, without insurance coverage, many families cannot afford their high cost. In this review, we outline the history of medical foods, define their medical necessity, discuss the barriers to access and reimbursement resulting from the regulatory status of medical foods, and summarize previous efforts to improve access. The Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children asserts that it is time to provide stable and affordable access to the effective management required for optimal outcomes through the life span of patients affected with IEMs. Medical foods as defined by the US Food and Drug Administration should be covered as required medical benefits for persons of all ages diagnosed with an IEM.

By Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J.

In a week or two, freshmen from around the country will begin their college education. The first year, the most important of the four, is meant to build a strong academic foundation for the remaining three years and even beyond.  

Freshmen year often awakens in the student a love for learning. In college, self-identity is chiseled out, attitudes and values mature, friendships and new loves, discovered. The halls of university academe can be an exciting place to hope and dream about one’s future.

Attending college is both a privilege and responsibility.  Here the phrase, noblesse oblige applies (literally, nobility obliges): Those who have received much are expected to share their gifts with others to make society a better place in which to live. 

Seeking a Liberal Arts Education

Colleges typically organize their curriculum around their mission statement. An institution of higher learning worthy of its name offers a core curriculum, also known as the humanities or liberal arts.  Some have general requirements.

The humanities offer a splendid array of disciplines, and one of them will be chosen as the focus of students’ special attention in junior and senior year.  Courses include: foreign language(s), linguistics and literature, philosophy, theology/religious studies, social sciences, the refining arts—music and art. 

The liberal arts develop the student as an intellectually rounded person exposing students to disciplines that broaden their horizons and add meaning to life.  It has been said that a specialist without a liberal arts background is only half a person.

Importance of the Humanities

Did you know that two-thirds of humanities majors find satisfying positions in the private sector?  If the college one attends does not require the humanities, here are eight benefits for choosing them on one’s own:

They help us understand others through their languages, histories, and cultures. They foster social justice and equality. They reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of the world. The humanities teach empathy. They teach us to deal critically and logically with subjective, complex, and imperfect information. They teach us to weigh evidence skeptically and consider more than one side of every question. Humanities students build skills in writing and critical reading. They encourage us to think creatively.   They develop informed and critical citizens.  Without the humanities, democracy could not flourish. (Curt Rice, “Here are 9 reasons why humanities matter. What’s your number 10?”) Listening to the Parents

 Before the 1990s, most parents were satisfied with the college education of their sons and daughters who had graduated with more than a passing knowledge about great ideas and universal questions. 

In recent years however, an increasing number of parents have expressed dissatisfaction: “I spent $100,000.00 for my daughter’s (my son’s) education at a four-year private college.  She graduated with a degree in Peace Studies.  She has no job.” 

Content of subject matter and intolerance of diverse opinions are two major concerns.

Content of Subject Matter

Too many colleges have abandoned required courses—no foreign language, no language arts. 

What great literature and poetry are students studying?  A prevailing attitude sees the Great Books Tradition as little more than the political opinions of dominant groups. 

What of philosophy and religious studies? Why aren’t students exposed to the ancient philosophers who wrestled with perennial questions:  Who am I? What am I doing, and why am I doing it? What is the purpose of my life? Few colleges offer a course in world religions.

As for history and American government, they’re bunk. War after war—it’s all an inventory of political grievances; our American government is composed of corrupt politicians. 

And what of art and music history?  Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bernini?  Are they the preserve of dead white males, a phrase used by collegiates?  Is the answer offering the “gutter phenomenon” of Rock, Rap, or Hip-Hop which use orgiastic and foul language and offering shock art like the photograph, “Piss Christ,” by Andres Serrano?  A few years ago, why did Syracuse University offer a course called “Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B*tch 101?” To exalt Lil’ Kim? 

Parents are willing to spend generously on education that expands the mind with a classic education but not for studies whose content is without purpose.  Why should they squander hard-earned dollars on a core curriculum that is a sham or on courses that entertain pubescent students with a degraded popular culture? Such institutions are caricatures of what used to be referred to as higher education.

Liberal Intolerance

Until the 1990s, the phrase: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" was operative on college campuses.  Today, those who speak what is opposed to the majority must refrain from giving their opinions that are open to critical and healthy discussion.

In former days, institutions required students to challenge each other to think clearly and logically about a topic.  In class, the Socratic methodology was employed to insure that students’ views could be articulated without reprisal.  In Jesuit education for example, students are required to argue both sides of an issue, including those topics that are abhorrent to defend or condemn.  

To give one example, if a person holds to what he or she considers a good action, does intention alone make for a moral act?  As students work their pros and cons, eventually someone will cite Hitler whose good intention was to exalt the German people beyond all others.  However, he ostracized German Jews whom he derided as polluting the German race.  This view led to the barbaric means he took to achieve his end—their annihilation.  The conclusion to the discussion? The immoral end does not justify a moral means or intention. The intention and the end must together be moral acts.

Since the 1990s, intellectual diversity has gradually muffled honest debate.

A Confession of Liberal Intolerance

Recently, the liberal columnist, Nicholas Kristoff, published two essays in the New York Times on the present status of liberal thinking in this country: Nicholas Kristoff’s “Confession of Liberal Intolerance” and “The Liberal Blind Spot.” Some of his observations apply to what unsuspecting freshmen might find on certain campuses with varying degrees of intensity. Increasing numbers of liberal professors and students pride themselves on their diversity and their tolerance of diversity—diversity of various minority groups but not of conservatives—Evangelical Christians, and practicing Catholics.  Kristoff calls this “liberal arrogance”—“the implication that these groups don’t have anything significant to add to the discussion.”

The unwritten motto may be: “We welcome people who don’t look like us, as long as they think like us.” Or, “I disapprove of what you say, so shut up.” Or I close my mind to what you may want to say because it’s not worthwhile saying, in my view. Thus we hear: “We’re tolerant. You are entitled to your truth, but keep it to yourself.  And don’t force it on me.”

What Is Truth?  

Alan Bloom, the author of The Closing of the American Mind, made the argument in the 1980s that American youth are increasingly raised to believe that every belief is merely the expression of an opinion or preference.  They are raised to be “cultural relativists” with the default attitude of “non-judgmentalism” (Patrick Deneen, “Who Closed the American Mind?”).

Parents object: “My son, my daughter entered college with a moral compass with a belief that there is such a thing as objective truth.  But in my son’s college, only the relativity of truth and the absolutism of relativity are taught across the board.  Thus, there is no longer any possibility of objective truth.”

The Crisis of Higher Education

We are experiencing an intellectual crisis that has already affected our work force, our politics, and our culture.  College costs are escalating, while too many colleges and universities without a core curriculum or without any substantive requirements are failing this generation. Western civilization, the human culmination of centuries of learning is pummeled by a pop culture.  Too many academic leaders fail to uphold the purpose of teaching Western civilization.  Academic leaders don’t believe that the humanities have any fundamental influence on their students.  There are no shared values. The result?  The advent of identity courses: Feminist studies, African-American, Latino, LGBT studies.  As long as everyone is tolerant of everyone’s classes, no one can get hurt. 

Yet not all institutions of higher learning fit this description. Many non-sectarian and private colleges offer a structured curriculum or a core curriculum around which other subjects are framed. At least twenty-five colleges and universities in the United States offer the Great Books tradition to their undergraduates. These books are part of the great conversation about the universal ideas of cultures and civilizations.

The authors of Academically Adrift, the most devastating book on higher education since Alan Bloom’s book, The Closing of the American Mind, found that nearly half of undergraduates show no measurable improvement in knowledge or “critical thinking” after two years of college. Weaker academic requirements, greater specialization in the departments, a rigid orthodoxy and doctrinaire views on liberalism are now part of the university’s politics and cultural life.

Freshmen entering college today should be aware of the crisis of liberal education which is in conflict and incompatible with the traditional aspirations of the liberal arts.

Advice to Freshmen

Choose your friends wisely. Confide in a very few. Find a small group of friends who are serious about studies and who know how to balance work with play.  Form or join a reading group. Establish healthy eating and sleeping habits. Don’t pull all-nighters. Don’t go out on the week nights.  Study for about 50 minutes.  Take a ten-minute break.  Then return to study. Repeat.  Make a habit of this process—study, break, study. If you put your energies into academics, you will be handsomely rewarded later on. Don’t get behind in your assignments.  Make certain that you are up-to-date on all of them.  In the case of writing papers, get started on your research as soon as the assignment is given.  Work a little on the research every day. Keep a dictionary and thesaurus at hand at all times. Make it a habit of looking up the meaning of words.  Words are power and the right word is a sign of right thinking. Be your own leader.  Do not follow the crowd if you sense they engage in actions contrary to your beliefs.  For example:  doing drugs or binge drinking. Be reflective.  Reflection means going below the surface of an experience, an idea, a purpose, or a spontaneous reaction to discover its meaning to you.   Find an older mentor, not necessarily a professor, but someone whom you have observed has wisdom and common sense.  Place your confidence in this person as your unofficial adviser. Remember:  Your college life is an open book.  Whatever you do or avoid doing becomes common knowledge—quickly.     Every College Has its Own Soul

Every college builds its own identity, its own reputation. Some colleges are known for the seriousness with which they pursue academics.  Some are known as “party” schools.  Still others are best known for their sports prowess.

According to John Henry Newman, the ideal university is comprised of a community of scholars and thinkers, engaging in intellectual pursuits as an end in itself.  Only secondarily, does it have a practical purpose, for example, finding a job.  Today, most people would scoff at this assertion.  For them, today’s goal of education is to find a job.   The facts however don’t lie.  Those with intellectual pursuits as an end are the most likely to secure the best positions. 

A university is a place where one looks out toward everyone and everything … without boundaries.  A university is a place where one discovers and studies truth. A person of faith holds sacred this belief.

According to Newman, knowledge alone cannot improve the student; only God is the source of all truth; only God can impart truth. Today, this notion alienates students at secular colleges and universities.  

It no longer looks like a syringe, so parents can stop being suspicious their kid is doing drugs.

Are deposits necessary? When can they be retained? And how much can be asked for? Attorney Simon Dippenaar explains.

Governor Jack Markell, Delaware State Housing Authority, and their partners are pleased to announce the launch of a free housing locator website providing information about rental housing across the First State.

Governor Markell and the Delaware State Housing Authority announced the launch of a free housing locator website providing information about rental housing across the First State.

Delaware’s State Rental Assistance Program (SRAP) received national attention last week when it was honored with an Award for Program Excellence during the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) 2013 Annual Conference & Showplace in New Orleans, LA. This year’s conference was attended by more than 900 affordable housing industry professionals.

Changes will offer more housing choice near job centers, quality schools DOVER, DE — To ensure that all Delawareans have more choice of where to live, the Delaware State Housing Authority is increasing available rental assistance in Areas of Opportunity across the state, allowing families with housing vouchers to move closer to employment centers, quality […]

Ziqi Yin, who will graduate Saturday, May 9 with a degree in marketing and a minor in digital media trends and analytics, has been selected as Smeal’s spring 2020 marketing student marshal.

Every person can use his or her abilities to serve. With that thought, a hundred people gathered in Brazil to learn more about missions.

A perceived lack of liquidity can make creditors uneasy.

A recent blog post by Walt Gardner ("The Hard Truth About the Achievement Gap," placed the blame for the achievement gap on one group above others: parents.

Teachers and parents need to work on communication with one another, two recent studies suggest, and that may be especially true when immigrant students or students of color are involved.

A new study shows that teachers with negative parental interactions are more likely to have such experiences. How can teachers deal with parental harassment?

By building relationships and keeping the communication lines open and honest, parents feel included and involved in their child's education, teacher Beth Adreon says.

Learning how to listen and act with empathy is radically different from assuming traditional roles of teachers as experts, John M. Holland writes.

Teacher Adrianne G. Williams cultivates an environment where she focuses on students' interpersonal qualities as well as their academic ones. The students see her effort, she says, and the parents follow.

Let's make engaging students and families beyond our classrooms a part of every lesson plan, Megan M. Allen writes.

When teachers open up their classrooms and their teaching to parents, they build mutual trust and respect and avoid the nasty business of conflict, Eoin Lenihan writes.

Two new international studies look at how parents judge how to invest in their children's education, and what happens to children's academic progress when one parent can't be involved.

A first look at new federal data on parent involvement suggests a disconnect between parents' expectations and school outcomes.

Students whose teachers viewed their parents as less engaged in their schooling had lower grade point averages and were less likely to be recommended for advanced courses, according to a new study.

While most parents of K-12 students seem pleased with the communication and educational activities schools are providing during the COVID-19 shutdowns, some are still concerned about how prepared their children will be for the next school year, a University of Southern California survey finds.

Accreditation is the highest recognition afforded to museums in the United States.