What's New - Study Concludes Merit Software Increases Student Achievement

A newly released study concludes that Merit's reading and writing intervention increased student achievement for randomly assigned groups who used the software. The Merit intervention was found to have an unusually large effect on students -- the magnitude of which has rarely been found in other educational research studies.

Click here to view press release

Grants for US Educators - $100 Million AT&T High School Success Grant

As part of its $100 million dollar Aspire initiative to address high school success and workforce readiness, AT&T will provide funds to eligible nonprofit organizations and schools across the country. The grants will provide either project support for existing high school retention programs with a successful track records, or planning support is for efforts that need additional planning time and resources. Applicants can ask questions until May 1st. All applications must be received in AT&T's offices by 5 p.m. Monday, May 19, 2008.

Click here to view grant information

In the News - Special Report Analyses Graduation Rates in American High Schools

A new report, "Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation" shows that far fewer American students are completing high school with diplomas than had previously been realized. The report suggests that only about 7 in 10 students are actually successfully finishing high school. Graduation rates are even lower among certain student populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities and males.

Click here to view the report's web page

Resources for Teachers - Adobe Brings PhotoShop Online

Adobe has launched PhotoShop Express, a free online version of it's popular image editing software. The service offers two gigabytes of online storage space and requires Flash Player 9, which is also free. The interface should be familiar to anyone who's used Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and offers tools like cropping, red eye correction, sharpening, touchup , and more, including a set of advanced effects for changing colors, distorting images and converting photos to black and white.

Click here to sign-up for PhotoShop Express

Product Updates - 3 New Titles Added to Book Punch

This month we added three new titles: Maniac Magee, Dragonwings, and The Island of the Blue Dolphins to Book Punch, Merit's new online response to literature program. We are excited by the initial response to Book Punch and we would like to thank everyone who contributed suggestions for additional Book Punch titles.

Click here to view available Book Punch titles