AP - American shoppers, taking advantage of deep discounts and tax-free holidays, opened up their wallets a little more for back-to-school spending compared with last year, giving some retailers better-than expected gains for August.

AP - An 18-year-old high school student stockpiled bomb-making materials in his bedroom and wrote about wanting to blow up his school, target individuals he hated, rape women and "become the world's most infamous sociopath," authorities said.

• 'Birth tourism' a tiny portion of immigrant babies (AP)
  AP - When Ruth Garcia's twins are born in two months, they'll have all the rights of U.S. citizens. They and their six brothers and sisters will be able to vote, apply for federal student loans and even run for president.  More
  
  
• CA university upholds suspension of Muslim group (AP)
  AP - The University of California, Irvine has upheld its decision to suspend a campus Muslim group after some of its members disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador at a campus event.  More
  
  
• School Uses Anti-bullying App After Suicide (PC World)
  PC World - A school district in South Hadley, Massachusetts, is hoping a specialized software application will help stop tragedies like the one that befell Phoebe Prince, an Irish-born teen who committed suicide in January after an alleged bullying campaign by fellow students.  More
  
  
• Race to the Top promises new era of standardized testing (The Christian Science Monitor)
  The Christian Science Monitor - Put down your No. 2 pencils and get ready for the next generation of standardized tests, featuring fewer multiple choice questions and increased use of computers.  More
  
  
• Discounts spur surprising Aug. retail sales gains (AP)
  

  AP - American shoppers, taking advantage of deep discounts and tax-free holidays, opened up their wallets a little more for back-to-school spending compared with last year, giving some retailers better-than expected gains for August.

  
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• Police: SD teen wanted to be 'infamous sociopath' (AP)
  

  AP - An 18-year-old high school student stockpiled bomb-making materials in his bedroom and wrote about wanting to blow up his school, target individuals he hated, rape women and "become the world's most infamous sociopath," authorities said.

  
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• Texas governor offers school grants to spur sharing (Reuters)
  Reuters - Texas schools that cut bureaucratic costs by sharing services -- from accounting to transportation -- would get grants worth 10 percent of their savings under a plan Governor Rick Perry proposed on Tuesday.  More
  
  
• Wen says rote learning must go in Chinese schools (Reuters)
  Reuters - Chinese schools have to get their students to be creative and think for themselves, Premier Wen Jiabao told officials, in reference to the rote-learning deeply ingrained in the national education system.  More
  
  
• Private colleges 'act local' with financial aid (AP)
  

  AP - Hoping to portray themselves as more affordable and all-around better neighbors, private colleges from Appalachia to Boston are sweetening financial aid packages for students from their own backyards.

  
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• Armed man fatally shot at Tennessee high school (AP)
  AP - An armed man was fatally shot by deputies Monday at an east Tennessee high school after he went inside and pointed a gun at the principal's head, a sheriff said.  More
  
  
• Education secretary Arne Duncan: headmaster of US school reform (The Christian Science Monitor)
  The Christian Science Monitor - Growing up in Chicago, Arne Duncan learned early that education was a stark dividing line – sometimes literally between life and death.  More
  
  
• Rocket Boys' alma mater in W.Va. to be demolished (AP)
  AP - The wrecking ball is coming for a West Virginia high school that was home to the teenage amateur rocket enthusiasts profiled in the movie "October Sky."  More
  
  
• After Katrina, how charter schools helped recast New Orleans education (The Christian Science Monitor)
  The Christian Science Monitor - Before hurricane Katrina, the school system in New Orleans was like a dysfunctional marching band: It had structure and central direction, but academic failure and corruption dragged it down.  More
  
  
• Gaming Skills Become a College Course (PC World)
  PC World - Problem-solving skills used in one of -- if not the most -- popular real-time strategy games of all time are not unlike those used in the 21st Century real world.  More
  
  
• School's race rule prompts mom to pull kids out (AP)
  AP - A policy intended to achieve racial equality at a north Mississippi school has long meant that only white kids can run for some class offices one year, black kids the next. But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed race children, was stunned when she moved to the area from Florida and learned her 12-year-old daughter couldn't run for class reporter because she wasn't the right race.  More
  
  
• 2 more plead guilty in Obama student loan case (AP)
  AP - Two more people accused of illegally viewing President Barack Obama's student loan records have pleaded guilty.  More
  
  
• NJ Gov fires education chief over $400 mln typo (Reuters)
  Reuters - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican whose deep budget cuts have won wide praise, on Friday fired his education commissioner after a clerical error cost the state $400 million in federal education dollars.  More
  
  
• Gov. Christie fires education commissioner over video flap (The Upshot)
  The Upshot - Republican Gov. Chris Christie has fired New Jersey's education chief after the U.S. Department of Education released video that caught the administration in a lie, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. The state missed out on $400 million in federal education funds for submitting budgetary information for the wrong years, a move that Garden State Democrats [...]  More
  
  
• Video: NJ didn't fix grant error as governor says (AP)
  AP - A video released by the federal Department of Education shows that a piece of Gov. Chris Christie's explanation about what went wrong when the state made a $400 million mistake on a grant application may also have been wrong.  More
  
  
• Ill. educator named to NYC post, replaces Kerrey (AP)
  AP - The dean of the Northwestern University School of Law has been appointed president of The New School in New York City, replacing ex-U.S. presidential candidate Bob Kerrey.  More