Education

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Dunbar Senior High School on New Jersey Avenue in Northwest is one of the high schools in the nation’s capital. The District’s public schools had the worst four-year high school graduation rate in the country 2010-2011. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson noted the difficulty of comparing the District’s strictly urban school district to geographically diverse systems in states across the country. (The Washington Times)

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A gambling school student (top) practices on a blackjack table in Macau as others (above) learn how to run roulette games. Their school, the Gaming Teaching and Research Center within the Macau Polytechnic Institute, maintains the biggest mock casino in Asia. Macao has become the world’s biggest gambling market, and the demand for casino workers has driven unemployment down to 2 percent. Along with the benefits, however, have come a lopsided economy, soaring property prices and what many see as the erosion of traditional community values. (Associated Press)

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During his biweekly press briefing Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray and state schools superintendent Hosanna Mahaley talk about how a 4-year-old special-needs student was left alone on a school bus for several hours Tuesday. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Kayla Saucedo, an eighth-grader at Anson Jones Middle School, uses her new ID card to check out a book in the library in San Antonio. The fourth-largest school district in Texas is experimenting with “locator” chips in student ID badges, allowing administrators to track the whereabouts of 4,200 students. (Associated Press)

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Rep. Michael G. Grimm (left) joins President Obama on a visit to the FEMA recovery center on the grounds of New Dorp High School on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012, in the New York borough of Staten Island. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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Young dancers playing the part of the mice get ready to go onstage for "The Nutcracker" at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Va., on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. This is the final day of the show, which is presented by the Fairfax Ballet 2012. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Dancers Ariane George (left) and Emily Bond (right) stretch in a side room offstage before their performance of "The Nutcracker" at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Va., on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. This is the final day of the show, which is presented by the Fairfax Ballet 2012. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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University of Maryland football head coach Randy Edsall (right) chats with Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany (left) following a press conference to announce the University of Maryland's joining the Big Ten Conference at the University of Maryland in College Park on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Pordrea Moore, 16, with the Anacostia High School Marching Band Ebony Dolls, warms up prior to the game as Anacostia High School faces Dunbar High School in the 43rd annual DCIAA Turkey Bowl varsity football championship at Eastern High School in Washington on Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012. This game, played between two D.C. high school football teams, is rich in tradition and always played on Thanksgiving Day. This year's contest, however, had a slight change in the previous few days leading up to the game when Woodrow WIlson High School was disqualified because one the team's players was found to have been a resident of Maryland. Anacostia was chosen as an alternate. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush casts a silhouette against the projector screen as he and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant discuss the importance of pursuing education reforms, especially charter schools, during an education policy forum hosted by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy and Mississippi First at the Old Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)