News Sourcs - No Child Left Behind

January marks the sixth anniversary of the enactment of The No Child Left Behind Act, but it’s up for reauthorization by Congress and many education advocates are calling for a comprehensive overhaul. While it helps school districts identify achievement gaps, critics say it does nothing to help states address teacher shortages and it punishes entire schools for sub-par performances by sub-groups of students. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them on the COLLEGENEWS.ORG database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Judith T. Wagner - Professor of Child Development and Education, Whittier College - Wagner specializes in improving education and family life through greater understanding of growing children. She has spoken and published widely on education, child development and family life, and chaired the California Department of Education's early education coordinating committee. She is a Rockefeller Scholar for advanced study at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation.

David J. Menefee-Libey - Associate Professor of Politics, Pomona College. An expert on national politics and public policy, Menefee-Libey's recent research focuses on the politics of reform in urban school districts, particularly in the Los Angeles region.

Michael Miller - Professor of Education, Gustavus Adolphus College – Miller is an expert on teaching standards, student outcomes, organizational leadership, and community-college partnerships.

Spartans, Trojans and Hobbits

The study of mythology typically focuses on works by Homer and Virgil, but Centre College's Lee Patterson is also incorporating hobbits, Star Wars and "The X-Files." Patterson, a visiting professor of classics, says many contemporary authors incorporate mythological narrative patterns that are centures old, but which still resonate for audiences across the globe.

Remembering Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary, who died Jan. 10, became the first man to scale Mt. Everest largely through "happenstance," says Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman. However, Isserman - who has co-authored a history of Himalayan mountaineering to be published this spring - says Hillary had the character to withstand all of the public acclaim that came with the achievement and the generosity to never forget the Sherpas who helped him.

News Sources: U.S. Warns Iran

A confrontation between three U.S. Navy warships and five Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz almost triggered an exchange of gunfire, and if it happens again there may be a battle, the president's top security aide says. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online a the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on the names for contact information):

Shelley Deane - Assistant Professor Government/Legal Studies - Deane is an expert on the Middle East, security and has negotiated peace agreements involving Israel Palestine, Northern Ireland, the PLO and associated groups. She received has been interviewed by NPR, the AP, the Los Angeles Times and others.

Fawaz Gerges - Professor of Middle East Studies, Sarah Lawrence College - A MacArthur Fellow, Gerges studies Arab politics, militant Islamic movements, the Arab-Israeli peace process and America's relations with the Arab world. He is the author of America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests? and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. He has contributed to major foreign affairs publications and newspapers.

Douglas Stuart - Professor of Political Science/Director of Clarke Center, Dickinson College - Stuart can address American foreign policy, international relations theory, U.S. national security, NATO, U.S. foreign policy decision making, and U.S. defense policies.

The Welfare Debate

The controversy over how to help poor people largely boils down to tension between the rhetoric of the "good Samaritan" and that of those who fear creating dependency and corruption, says Illinois Wesleyan University Associate Professor of Political Science Greg Shaw. In his new book, Shaw examines the history and rhetoric that have led to a stalemate in the discussion of welfare in America.

How Should Presidential Candidates Be Nominated?

While political pundits try to make sense of the votes in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Allegheny College prepares to launch a national effort to reform the presidential nomination process. Meanwhile, a visit to the Iowa caucuses caused a skeptic from DePauw University to reassess his stance.

News Sources: Supreme Court and Lethal Injections

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today on whether lethal injection causes excruciating pain for death row inmates and violates the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them on the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Richard Moran - Professor of Sociology, Mount Holyoke College -Moran is a criminologist whose opinion pieces appear frequently in leading newspapers. He is a commentator for NPR's "Morning Edition" and a leading expert on public policy in crime control, capital punishment and incarceration.

Austin Sarat - William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College - Sarat studies legal theory and is especially interested in the death penalty, to which he is opposed.

M. Margaret Falls-Corbitt - Professor of Philosophy, Hendrix College - Falls-Corbitt is an ethicist who writes and lectures on ethics, religion, the death penalty and the penal system.

Non-Traditional 'Macbeth' Subject of National Conference

Macbeth, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, has long been adapted for African-American actors. National scholars, local artists, a film director and a Hollywood actor will participate in a conversation at Rhodes College about so-called ‘non-traditional’ casting of Shakespeare's plays and African American artists who have adapted Macbeth in their works.

Class Unites Alumnae, Students Via Internet

A class at Bryn Mawr College titled "Critical Feminist Theory" has harnessed the Web to allow alumnae to join current students and take part in a course as it's happening.