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One of the challenges facing teachers of children whose first language is Spanish is figuring out if those who need extra help learning to read are having trouble with English, or if they have larger problems with literacy development. Thanks to a program developed at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, teachers and kids can get the answers they need before it's too late to make a difference.

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Laura M. Justice, a clinical speech-language pathologist at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education who specializes in research on early language and literacy skills, received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers on July 26.

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New study provides a novel explanation for the rhythms of the ice ages, inverting established theory. New hypothesis may explain why the strongest cycles of ice response are not in correspondence with those in orbital cycles.

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The University of Virginia Curry School of Education has been awarded $10 million from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to determine if a new method for training preschool teachers results in their students, especially disadvantaged children, learning language and literacy skills better.

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There are better ways than testing to improve teaching and learning says Robert Pianta, Novartis US Foundation Professor of Education, head of the U.Va. Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning.

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At a time when the federal government's No Child Left Behind legislation is requiring teachers to be deemed "highly qualified," U.Va. psychology professor Joseph Allen and education professor Robert Pianta are going beyond superficial criteria to the heart and soul of the classroom.

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While most Americans grin and bear their commute 50 weeks a year, it puts a strain on all but the most determined vacationer to begin and end a relaxing summer vacation sitting in traffic. Yet millions of Americans will be doing just that this summer as state departments of transportation grapple with construction projects to repair, replace and expand the nation's aging highway infrastructure.

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"Look both ways for cars before you cross the street." That's one of the most important warnings American children hear when they're old enough to walk alone. That's because we live in a culture in which cars, trucks and SUVs rule the streets. But it wasn't always that way, said Peter Norton, assistant professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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A study co-authored by a University of Virginia professor suggests that seniors citizens will die in car accidents at a higher rate in the years ahead as America's 75 million baby boomers age, grow more frail and continue to drive.

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In late April, Maine Republication Senator Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, issued a report that recommended replacing FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with a new organization. Calling FEMA "discredited, demoralized, and dysfunctional," Collins proposed creating a "stronger, more capable structure" within the Department of Homeland Security.

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New research calls into question the linkage between major Atlantic hurricanes and global warming. That is one of the conclusions from a University of Virginia study to appear in the May 10, 2006 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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The University of Virginia Patent Foundation has named George T. Gillies, a research professor in mechanical and biomedical engineering at U.Va., as the recipient of its top award, the 2006 Edlich-Henderson Inventor of the Year Award. Gillies is being recognized for two decades of work in developing innovative catheters for use in brain surgery.

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Students who had block scheduling enjoyed no advantage in college science compared to peers who had traditional class schedules in high school, according to Robert Tai, assistant professor of science education at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education. In fact, they performed worse, he said.

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Cheryl Burgan Evans, a dedicated advocate for graduate student research, especially among students of color, will join the University of Virginia's Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies as its new director of Graduate Student Diversity Programs. Her official start date will be June 25.

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To assist in your reporting on Earth Day and the stewardship of our resources, the University of Virginia has experts in a number of fields that bring into focus the widespread concern for and research in protecting our planet from the global challenges that confront us.

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Developed at the UVa's Curry School of Education, "My Teaching Partner," provides teachers with individualized, sustained support through a dynamic interactive Web site. The Web site provides resources and activities that improve children's language and literacy skills and promote social relationships.

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African-American students still tend to make significantly lower scores than their white peers on standardized tests. University of Virginia assistant professor Robert Q. Berry decided to look at what factors help African-American students succeed.

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A University of Virginia study shows that parents are better at assessing their child's emotional states, while teachers are better at rating bad behaviors. The results emphasize the importance of teachers and parents working together in the child's best interest.

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Let there be ...projector light. Following its record-breaking 2005 program on the theme of "In/Justice," the Virginia Film Festival has chosen another illuminating theme for its nineteenth annual event: "Revelations: Finding God at the Movies."

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A pair of supermassive black holes in the distant universe are intertwined and spiraling toward a merger that will create a single super-supermassive black hole capable of swallowing billions of stars, according to a new study.

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University of Virginia assistant professor of architecture Phoebe Crisman and students are exploring an exciting and unique floating environmental education field station located on the most polluted river in the Chesapeake Bay, the Elizabeth River.

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From environmentally responsible design criteria to building performance and environmental impact, architecture students at the University of Virginia are learning the importance of stewardship of our resources and how to incorporate environmentally sound principles in design.

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Psychologists and married couple Peter L. Sheras and Phyllis Koch-Sheras have developed a creative, positive approach called Couple Power TherapyTM (CPT) that teaches partners positive ways to create a vital, fulfilling loving relationship "” and have more fun together.

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Highlighting issues and practices surrounding the financing of corporations in emerging countries, the conference participants will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing corporations to access capital on domestic and international markets.

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Design has been called the "secret weapon" of business in the twenty-first century. That might be a stretch. But what would it actually mean if business managers took design seriously? How do designers think? After studying various kinds of designers for a decade, 10 patterns emerge.

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University of Virginia English professor Rita Dove has won the 2006 Common Wealth Award for Literature. She is one of five individuals honored with Common Wealth Awards of Distinguished Service, the PNC Bank of Delaware announced on March 2.

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A new study finds that the single most important factor in women's marital happiness is the level of their husbands' emotional engagement "” not money, the division of household chores or other factors.

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To assist in your reporting on the current wave of sectarian violence in Iraq, please consider the following source from the University of Virginia, who is an expert on Islam, has studied at the Golden Mosque of Samarra and has returned from six months in Iran.

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From children with autism or Down's syndrome to adults who have speech loss due to a stroke, more than two million Americans are not able to communicate easily or at all with words. One device, the B.A. Bar is being used with people from the ages of 2 to 89 and has helped them learn or relearn how to speak and become more independent.

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Even before President Bush's State of the Union speech put science and engineering education on the front page, the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science has reached out to students in middle schools and high schools around Central Virginia.

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University of Virginia economist John Pepper has examined the interaction of hunting regulations and hunter safety as a case study of the economic concept of "moral hazard" "” whether reducing the risks in one area can increase the risks in another area.

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During his State of the Union address tomorrow, President George W. Bush is expected to discuss healthcare and tax reform, plus the increased use of nuclear energy to help reduce U.S. dependence on oil.

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The University of Virginia will become the academic home for the highly regarded Semester at Sea Program beginning with the 2006 summer session as part of a new partnership between U.Va. and the Institute for Shipboard Education, according to a joint announcement made today.

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University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III today named former Virginia Gov. Gerald L. Baliles as the fifth director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs, the leading nonpartisan institution dedicated to studying U.S. national and international policy, with a special emphasis on the American presidency.

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Athletes often say that when they are playing well "“ shooting hoops, hitting baseballs, catching passes "“ the ball appears bigger. Likewise, they say that when they are in a slump the ball appears smaller. When Mickey Mantle hit a 565-foot home run he said, "I just saw the ball as big as a grapefruit."

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The Ivy Foundation of Charlottesville has given $45 million to the University of Virginia Health System to expand laboratory space for biomedical research and to speed the translation of new discoveries into effective treatments and cures.

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A new study suggests that stem cells act as construction supervisors, directing the work of other cells, rather than doing the heavy lifting themselves.

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With a federal deadline looming at the end of the 2005-2006 school year, all public school teachers will need to be assessed state by state to see if they are "highly qualified" under the definition included in the federal legislation, "No Child Left Behind."

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Edgar Olsen has studied public housing issues for the past 35 years. He worked on a Department of Housing and Urban Development task force and reviewed the final reports of the influential Experimental Housing Assistance Program as a visiting scholar at HUD.

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A gradual lengthening of the snow-free season in Alaska's tundra, and a corresponding northward progression of the growth of shrubs and trees, may be creating a cycle of warmer and longer summers in the Alaskan Arctic according to a new study.

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University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III today named William B. Harvey, a nationally known higher education expert on diversity in colleges and universities, the University's first vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity.

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The immediate need of most people displaced by Hurricane Katrina is permanent housing. This need is especially pressing for the poorest people who have no savings to use in an emergency. Now located in temporary housing throughout the south central region, these families cannot wait for new housing to be built.

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With the Red Lake High School shooting this past spring having left 12 wounded and 10 dead, including the student-shooter, school administrators across the nation may be starting a new school year concerned about the potential for students to threaten and carry out acts of violence.

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Don't believe everything you hear. A high school guidance counselor told Rodney Mills that he was not college material. So after graduating in 1997, he drifted from job to job for several years in economically struggling Southside Virginia. Ultimately, Mills proved the counselor wrong.

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Thanks to AccessUVa, the University of Virginia's year-old financial aid program, the University this week welcomes an entering class of first-year students who are just as academically prepared as previous classes, but whose ranks are more socio-economically diverse than ever "” a major goal of the University's Board of Visitors.

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Duke illuminates the complex task of running a school system and how Fairfax does it, offering lessons from which other school systems might benefit. Its successful attributes include a demonstrated openness to innovation and change and a commitment to address and balance competing interests and problems, he said.

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A new study demonstrates that the brain's central timekeeper -- the biological clock that regulates waking and sleeping cycles -- has two parts that fall out of synchrony during light schedule shifts of six hours, the time it takes to fly across the Atlantic.

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U.Va. education student Heather Welch, who graduates on May 22, has some stellar ideas about how best to put her science education to work and drum up interest in the subject among American students. Her work has won her a selective Knowles Science Teaching Foundation Fellowship, worth about $50,000.

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Popular teens are particularly vulnerable to peer pressure. That was one of several conclusions drawn by a team of researchers led by Joseph P. Allen, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia.

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Amid growing concern that too few American students are pursuing science careers, Robert H. Tai is using a $1 million grant to gather and analyze data on what steps or experiences make up the critical transition period on young people taking the path toward the science professions.