The Daily brief: Aug. 23, 2010

Stanford School of Education (File/The Stanford Daily)

Charter | Standardized test results for Stanford New School, a Stanford-run charter school in East Palo Alto, improved this year, according to last week’s release of state data: 23.4 percent of students scored as proficient or advanced in English, compared to 16 percent last year. In math, 22.2 percent scored as proficient or advanced, compared to 16 percent last year. Other subject areas saw smaller jumps. But the scores come too late for the venture, which the school district decided to shutter in April, citing poor performance. Stanford School of Education officials disputed the decision at the time, saying more years of data would have proven the school’s potential. “We were pretty confident our scores would look good this year but it’s almost painful to see because it’s a few months too late,” said School of Education Dean Deborah Stipek on Friday. She said she hopes “we’ll figure out how to maintain that high school” — the high school that is part of the charter, which the district gave two more years. Stipek recently said she will step down as dean in 2011.

CourseRank | Chegg, a textbook-rental company, announced last week it bought CourseRank, which was started in 2007 by Stanford computer science students Benjamin Bercovitz, Filip Kaliszan and Henry Liou, all of the Class of 2009. Students at 175 schools, including 95 percent of Stanford students, use the site, say the founders.

Room service | Stanford Hospitals & Clinics has finished a six-year, $1.5 million project to improve patient amenities. Patients can now check their e-mail, get hospital announcements, answer poll questions or watch a “dreamy beach sunset on the Sea of Cortez” on high-definition monitors in their rooms, says the hospital.

Hospital CEO | Mike Peterson will become interim CEO of Stanford Hospitals & Clinics in September, replacing retiring exec Martha Marsh.

Pakistan floods | Student organizers on Friday picked UNHCR to receive money they plan to raise in a campus campaign for Pakistan flood relief, says ASSU President Angelina Cardona ’11.

Go Saints | Political science professor Condoleezza Rice appears in Spike Lee’s second post-Hurricane Katrina documentary, “cooperative” and supporting the New Orleans Saints, the filmmaker said. Rice was spotlighted in Lee’s first Katrina documentary for reportedly shopping in New York during the hurricane.

Overheard | “For the first time, there is now a public interest lawyer in the Oval Office.” — Diane Chin, director of the law schools’s Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law, on a possible explanation for why more Stanford Law students are committing to public service (36 this year, compared to 25 in 2009).