Morning Announcements: February 8, 2011

The U.S. Department of Education’s plan to transform the country’s lowest-performing schools by installing new principals has run into a small snag – there are not enough qualified principals to take over, the New York Times reports. The Times also reports that less than half of students in New York state are leaving high school prepared for college and well-paying careers.

Julia Steiny of the Providence Journal explains why fiction still holds real-life benefits for student learning.

Underscoring the deepening impact of the state’s budget crisis, nearly 60 percent of California school districts have reduced the length of the school year, and 30 percent have shrunk it to 175 days, according to California Watch.