As social networking web sites such as Facebook and MySpace become increasingly popular channels for student communication, schools are struggling to define the rules for whether, and how, it's appropriate for teachers to interact with their students through these media.

If you're applying for the 2009 e-Rate, the $2.25 billion-a-year federal program that provides discounts on telecommunications services to eligible schools and libraries, you won't find many new additions to this year's program, e-Rate officials say. Instead, you'll find live training sessions, online videos, and other web-based resources designed to help you become more comfortable with the e-Rate application process.

e-Rate audits are increasingly becoming a fact of life for e-Rate applicants. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been allowed to spend more and more money to examine applicants to ensure they are compliant with e-Rate rules and regulations. The key to surviving an e-Rate audit is to always be prepared for one by maintaining proper documentation about your e-Rate activities.

To engage today's students and get them to learn, information must be more than just words on a page, educators told publishers at a recent forum: Instead, students need relevant and interactive material, as well as resources and activities that can provide real-life experiences.

This year, California schools were required to make what experts call a gigantic leap, increasing the students proficient in every group by 11 percentage points, reports The New York Times.

According to the Associated Press, a Silicon Valley company is claiming a major victory in its efforts to sell computers to schools that might otherwise be enticed by low-cost laptops such as the green-and-white XO from One Laptop Per Child or Intel Corp.'s Classmate PC.

Some unlucky investors like Dino Macaluso are feeling the double whammy of the market meltdown: They are watching their investment portfolios shrivel while college tuition payments loom, reports BusinessWeek.

The New York Times reports that the United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, according to a new study--and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. signed a bill Oct. 6 that will allow as many as five school districts and five charter schools to change the way they test students by piloting computer-adaptive testing, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.