Students in grades 4 through 6 may vote for their favorite book through March 16 in this year's Nene Award competition.

Submit votes at your school or any public library.

The Nene program began in 1959 when third-graders at the then-University Elementary Lab School created the book award. They chose the nene goose, the state bird, as the award's motif. Children selected "The Blue Mountain" by Beth Lewis to win the first Nene Award. Last year, Christopher Paolini won for "Eragon."

To learn more about the award and find out which books are eligible, visit http://nene.k12.hi.us.

— Catherine E. Toth, Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

EDUCATION FACT

In 2003, 35 percent of men who were parents when they completed a bachelor's degree later enrolled in a graduate degree program, compared with 41 percent of women.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

IDEAS

SCIENCE SCHOOL WILL OPEN IN CHICAGO

Donations totaling $4.2 million are helping open Chicago's first math and science public high school this fall, city officials announced last month. Named in honor of its donors — Exelon chairman John Rowe and fellow utility company executive ComEd chairman Frank Clark — the Rowe-Clark Math and Science Academy will serve about 530 students when fully enrolled.

The school intends to offer a rigorous curriculum that requires six instead of four credits of math and four lab sciences. The academy's school day and school year will be extended to provide about 33 percent more reading and math instruction. On the Noble Street Charter School campus, the school will be open to all graduating eighth-graders in the city.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, The Achiever, March 2007