In Brief

Testing: Senate’s Ed. Package
Annual state tests in reading and math would be required in grades three through eight and once in high school, under an education package passed by the US Senate. The vote, a victory for President Bush, means the bill now goes to a House-Senate conference to hash out differences. —www.ed.gov

Summer Food Service Program
Free breakfast and lunch will be made available at 1,000 locations throughout the five boroughs through August 31. Sponsored by the NYC Board of Education’s Office of School Food and Nutrition Services, the federally funded Summer Food program is available to students under 19 years of age and to disabled persons regardless of gender, race, color, religion or national origin. For more information, call 718-729-6100 or visit www.opt-osfns.org. —NYCBOE

Southern States Create Exam
Organized by the Southern Regional Education Board, a group of 12 Southern states has joined forces to improve algebra instruction and testing in school. The group is seeking proposals from companies and non-profit groups to create a set of common test items. —NEGP

Learning Zone
The Board of Education has established an experimental “Learning Zone” to provide high-performing schools with the flexibility afforded to charter schools in return for their increased accountability for their students’ achievement. The seven-member Learning Zone Board of Directors will include the Chancellor, heads of the UFT and CSA and other public and private sector leaders. The Chancellor will determine school admission to the Zone based on criteria recommended by the Board of Directors. The first two schools to enter the Zone in September will be Middle College and International High School, both in Queens. —NYCBOE

 Today’s Shrinking Libraries
According to a recently released study by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) about the status of academic libraries, there seems to be a steady decline in the percentage of total expenditures that institutions have spent on libraries since 1974. The largest category of expenditures was current serial subscriptions, accounting for fully half of the information resources-related expenditures. Visit www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html for more information. —NCES

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