The story behind the stories is a little magical itself: a single mother, getting by on public assistance and living in a small Edinburgh flat spends her days at a cafe nursing a cup of tea and writing about a fantastic world inhabited by all kinds of wonderful wizards and clueless muggles, humans who are unaware of the mystical world just outside their line of vision.   More  

Holding its annual convention in Chicago this summer, the National Education Association (NEA), the nations' largest union of teachers, considered adopting a policy of endorsing contracts based on teacher and student performance when members are negotiating teacher salaries with school districts. On July 6, in a close decision, the NEA voted against approving such contracts, thus ensuring future debate on the subject.   More  

The home schooling movement has gained prominence across the nation over the past decade as more and more parents opt out of the public school system to educate their children themselves. Once considered an underground sector of education, home schooling is now recognized as a legal practice in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The vast majority of states do not require parents to have specific qualifications for teaching their children at home, but most states do require home-schooled students to have regular evaluations or take standardized tests.   More