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WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News Media Group today released the 2010 edition of America's Best Colleges, which includes rankings of more than 1,400 schools nationwide. Harvard University and Princeton University tie the top of the list for Best National Universities, while Williams College is ranked top for Best Liberal Arts College. The exclusive rankings, available online today at www.usnews.com/colleges, will also be published in the September issue of the U.S.News & World Report magazine, on newsstands starting August 20th.

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Safety Tips to Help Parents Keep Kids Safe Before, During and After School BOCA RATON, Fla., PRNewswire -- Over 50 million kindergarten through 12th grade students will soon return to classrooms with backpacks full of new pencils and books. But, one more must-have item should be checked off the back-to-school list--school safety. According to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, an estimated 2.2 million crimes were reported on public school campuses nationwide during the 2005-06 school year alone and 78 percent of schools reported violent incidents. Patrick Fiel, public safety advisor for ADT Security Services and former head of security for Washington, D.C. Public Schools says, "Parents who are actively involved in their student's school security can improve their child's safety and success on campus. Bullying, gangs, drug sales, weapons and sex predators are on the streets every day." To help parents prepare for a safe school year, Fiel and ADT have developed a list of safety tips to help parents keep kids safe before, during and after school:   Before school:   --  If your child walks or rides a bicycle to school, help him or her       choose the safest possible route with the fewest street crossings and       walk or ride with him or her if possible. According to a child safety       organization, pedestrian injury is the second leading cause of       accidental injury-related death among children ages 5 to 14. Talking       with children about biking and walking safety can help to reduce their       risk of injury.   --  Be sure there is at least one parent with children waiting at a school       bus stop.  This is a time when potentially risky activity, such as       bullying and fighting, can take place.   During school:   --  Educate yourself about school safety and security. Talk to your       children about their safety concerns and visit their campus to talk       with an administrator about the school's security plan. Find out       whether your child's school uses technology like access control and       visitor management systems to protect students from potential sex       offenders and criminals who may try to gain access to the campus.  If       a parent can walk into a school unchallenged, so can unwanted       visitors.   --  Get to know the law enforcement officials or other security personnel       assigned to your child's school. Find out when they are on campus and       what their responsibilities include. If your child's school does not       have regularly assigned law enforcement or security presence, work       with school administrators and other parents to get it done.   After school:   --  If kids are alone in the afternoons, teach them to go straight home,       keep doors locked and not answer the door for anyone.   --  Do not keep firearms easily accessible in your home and talk to kids       about the potential dangers of guns and what to do if they find one.       If you do have a gun in the house, it is vital to keep it unloaded and       in a locked area with the ammunition stored separately.  Parents       should check their weapons periodically. Fiel said, "Keeping kids safe is one of the most important things parents, teachers, administrators and the surrounding community can help to accomplish this year. We hope that these tips will remind parents to make school safety a priority so they are able to send their students off to school with confidence."

AUSTIN, Texas, PRNewswire-FirstCall -- Whole Foods Market and Chef Ann Cooper, the nation's "Renegade Lunch Lady," have joined forces to transform lunch in schools across the country with the "School Lunch Revolution" campaign. This national effort, which launches during the back-to-school season, aims to enable schools to revolutionize and improve the way children eat. The free, first-of-its-kind Lunch Box Web site - thelunchbox.org - provides the necessary resources for food service directors to make tangible changes in their cafeteria menus.

Chef Ann Cooper's Lunch Box Web site is the most comprehensive, easily accessible and FREE set of resources available to help schools replace frozen processed foods with fresh, natural, made-from-scratch foods in a realistic, cost-effective manner.

"One in three children born in the year 2000 will have diabetes, and 30 percent of them are overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC also says that the cost of treating diabetes in the United States is estimated at $174 billion each year," said Cooper. "The reality is we're going to pay now or pay later with rising health costs and poor health."

More than 30 million children eat a school lunch that is federally funded through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) every day. On average, only 90 cents per lunch is spent on food. That, combined with free commodity foods, like cheese and ground beef, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Distribution Program and many children are eating mostly frozen, processed, packaged foods. With no national standardized limit on sugar or other ingredients like artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, it is not uncommon to find hamburgers, French fries chocolate milk and popsicles offered as a typical school lunch.

TEMPE, Ariz. and SATELLITE BEACH, Fla., PRNewswire-- Lighting Science Group Corporation (LSG) (Lighting Science) today announced that Arizona State University (ASU) has taken yet another step in its commitment to 'going green' by retrofitting six parking structures on the Tempe campus with new light emitting-diode (LED) fixtures. Changing the existing fixtures to Lighting Science's LED low bay solution will afford ASU with an annual savings of up to $127,000 in energy and maintenance costs for the six structures that were retrofit.

As part of a Phase II energy conservation and sustainability project underway throughout campus, ASU's partner APS Energy Services replaced over 2,000, 150 W metal halide fixtures with Lighting Science's 78 W LED low bay luminaires. By replacing existing metal halide fixtures and lamps, ASU will reduce its energy consumption by 1.5 million kW hours, which is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 208 passenger vehicles.

Improving the light quality in a parking facility enables people to better identify pedestrians, other vehicles and obstructions, helping them feel safer. Lighting Science's pyramid-shaped LED fixtures are made up of 108 light sources, whereby if one light source dims or fails, other light sources remain to provide a reliable level of illumination. The new fixtures are also less costly to maintain because they last 50,000 hours, or approximately three times longer than the typical metal halide fixture they replace.

The EEOC had charged that Adelphi paid a group of women professors less than male professors performing the same work.


NEW YORK – Adelphi University of Garden City, N.Y.,  has agreed to settle a pay discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for more than $300,000 and significant remedial relief, the federal agency announced today. The EEOC had charged that Adelphi paid a group of women professors less than male professors performing the same work.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a class of female full-time professors was paid less than male professors of the same or lesser rank teaching within the same school. This violation had been ongoing since at least April 2004, the EEOC said. Pay discrimination by gender violates the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (EEOC v. Adelphi University, No. 07-CV-4001).
“Working women should never be shortchanged by receiving unequal pay for performing equal work,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru, who noted that the agency receives upward of 5,000 wage bias charge filings nationwide each year under all the statutes it enforces. “The EEOC intends to enhance enforcement in this area by focusing on systemic cases, in addition to increasing public outreach and education.”
Under the terms of the consent decree settling the suit, Adelphi agreed to pay $305,889 to 37 claimants, as well as salary increases for 30 claimants. Further, Adelphi agreed to comply with the requirements of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII. The decree also requires monitoring and training on federal employment discrimination laws for the following three years.
EEOC New York Trial Attorney Louis Graziano, said, “The consent decree puts mechanisms in place to prevent pay discrimination at Adelphi in the future.”
New York District Director Spencer H. Lewis added, "Employees are entitled to a workplace without disparity and differential treatment based on sex. The EEOC will seek full relief against employers who continue to pay women less than their male peers for performing the same work."

WordWorld is an Emmy-award-winning animated TV series that helps 3- to 5-year-olds develop early literacy skills. A new study, funded by the Department of Education, found that watching it for just 15 minutes a day improved a child's vocabulary and readiness to read. The show is now seen in nearly two dozen countries.

WordWorld creator Don Moody says he got the idea for the television show when he was working on a computer program to promote literacy

Don Moody is the creator of WordWorld.
"WordWorld is basically a world where objects are made up of the letters that spell what they are," he says.
WordWorld is a colorful animated world where letters become words and come to life.
"[Take] dog - spelled d-o-g. When you push the letters 'd, o, g' together, they magically morph into a dog, who is a fun-loving puppy with a clever personality," he explains.
Moody says the idea for the show was born a couple of years ago, as he worked on a computer-based learn-to-read program that relied on letters and text on the screen.

Adventures of animated characters engage preschoolers and teach them how to read

"While trying to do that, I realized it doesn't work," he says. "Children want to see animated characters. They really don't want to see the text on the screen. So one day, I was working with the word 'shark' on the screen, and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if the letters 's-h-a-r-k' turn into a shark and just scare the children?' And that dramatic moment would help them remember the word 'shark' forever and how to spell it."

The stories and jokes are all told by a group of three-dimensional animated characters, called WordFriends. They include Dog, Duck, Sheep, Frog and Pig. Each of the characters has a distinctive personality that young viewers can relate to.

Each WordFriend has a distinct personality. The character Pig is a chef

"Pig is the chef in WordWorld," he says. "He's always cooking something. So, if we're trying to teach letters, he might be cooking alphabet soup. If we're trying to teach compound letters, he might be cooking meatballs and pancakes and popcorn."
Duck is the star of the show.
"The children at home associate themselves with Duck," he says. "And Duck goes on adventures. He learns. So, if Duck goes out, and he's on an adventure and he needs to cross the river, he might find the letters to spell the word bridge, 'b-r-i-d-g-e,' put them together and boink! They morph into a bridge over the river, and then he can get across the river."
WordWorld is now reaching 9 million viewers a month. It airs in 22 countries and in three languages: English, Cantonese and French.

Words morph into the objects they represent, helping children remember how to spell

Moody says the feedback the show has been drawing is overwhelmingly positive, and he thinks he knows why.
"You really need to entertain a child and let the byproduct of your entertainment be the literacy," he says. "I think if you can make them laugh, if you can take them on a story with you and bring the literacy in through a plot line or even in a joke line, I think that's the way to keep a child's attention."
While WordWorld exists on television, Moody says computers can be an equally important tool for teaching children to read.

Animated WordFriends help about 9 million viewers in 22 countries learn how to read

"It used to be that you wouldn't think of a preschooler on a computer, but now you're seeing 3-year-olds on computers," he says. "So, I think that's a platform that we can do a lot of teaching on. I certainly hope that other people are out there thinking that they should make reading shows, too, because I think the more shows reach the more children in the more countries in the world, the more literate our societies will be, and, eventually, I think the more peaceful our planet will be.
"So I hope, if anybody needs any help, they can call me. I'll help anybody that wants to make a reading show, because I think that's the best thing you can do for children."
Moody says reading is one of the most important skills children need to develop early on. It's the foundation for learning math, science, social studies and other subjects. He encourages parents to prepare their youngsters for school by reading to them and helping them explore for themselves the magic world of words.