Some spooky Halloween disappearing act (or perhaps a whisper from DOE?) may explain how a piece of investigative reportingvanished into thin air. Another surprise came from the UFT, in support of the Teaching Fellows - the groups haven't always had the coziest relationship, but now, the union's defending more than 100 new fellows who have yet to be actually hired by any specific school. And substitute teachers will now have to pass a testbefore being allowed to take over the classrooms.

One snobby newbie will hopefully never teach again; the courts supported a Bronx principal who fired a teacher for cursing at his students and boasting that his parents didn’t send him "to Cornell so I could take care of a bunch of animals." Others, thankfully, go above and beyond in their lessons on global warming - a Harlem teacher taught class from Antarctica and a Brooklyn teacher did same, from the Canadian Arctic. Not to be outdone,math teachers study comedy improv solutions to classroom problems. And one struggling artist/author who turned to teaching suddenly hit it big with his latest book - but plans to keep teaching art anyway.

And how much art is being taught in city schools? We may never really know, contends an article that questions the DOE's latest report. But a new research center to study city schools opened this week... again.

So now there are two centers researching what is happening in classrooms and principals’ offices across the city. Maybe they can study the effects of overcrowdingand reports that schools in some neighborhoods are less and less diverse.

The feds, through No Child Left Behind, announced plans to hold schools accountable for the achievement gap in high school graduation rates, and another report said that parents make a substantial difference in a child's decision to drop out. A Voice column argues that the actions of school safety officers need to be better regulated, and there may just be an obvious, fair, easy, and inexpensive solution to the issue of military recruitment in city high schools.

Maybe the next generation of investors can learn from the current market-troubles: when CNBC recently reported a bounce in the Dow, cheers broke out in a fifth-grade class in Queens. Parents celebrate more options for autistic students, like a charter school specifically designed for students on the autism spectrum, and a school for social justice finally found a permanent home, delivering on a deathbed promise. Seward Park High School's rooftop got a hip-hop redesign, organized by the New Design High School, and the students at PS 19 weren't about to let a state-senate hopeful off easily when he served as principal for a day. As 8th graders consider their high school picks, current Staten Island high school students weigh in on the commute to Manhattan.

We can bet the state certainly won’t increase aid to schools next year, but will they decrease it?

With all the talk of cut-backs, the DOE defends spending more than $5 million for courier services. After all, high stakes testing necessitate high security. And some wonder how the job of school district superintendent fitsinto the new systems in the city. Chancellor Klein said he would look into it.