NEW YORK (AP) -- Public schools will begin introducing portable metal detectors at random and searching students for weapons, city officials said Thursday.

By April 26, school safety officers will begin putting up temporary, portable walk-through detectors to screen middle and high school students, officials said. On days machines are at a site, signs will alert students. On any given day, detectors will be in as many as 10 schools.

Crime is falling in city schools, but the number of weapons confiscated is up. This academic year, 307 weapons have been confiscated in schools, including 20 guns, officials said. That's up 5 percent from the same time last year.

About one-fifth of middle and high schools already scan students regularly, but the new program is the first one in which scanners will be introduced at random.

The program is raising privacy concerns. Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that it is important to keep schools gun-free but that her organization is examining the program's legality.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday it would take time to make sure the process is efficient and doesn't delay students.

"I think it's clear that we are on the right course to make our schools safer ... by stopping disorder before it gets out of hand," he said during a news conference at a Brooklyn high school.

Teacher quality numbers in, states await their fate

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under federal pressure, most states are close to getting teachers who are rated highly qualified in front of every math, history, language and other core class by the end of the school year. Or so they say.

Russian students win programming contest

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) -- A team of three students from Russia proved their brainy prowess Wednesday, winning an academic competition in which they had just five hours to solve perplexing computing puzzles such as how to connect gears of a clock when given a specific shaft speed.

Student election marked by campaign violations

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- Yale University, where presidential hopefuls have been groomed for generations, held an election for student body president Tuesday in which all five candidates were cited for campaign violations.

Defunct trade school faces $57 million in claims

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- A defunct trade school involved in a federal investigation faces $57 million in claims from more than 600 creditors, a bankruptcy trustee said Tuesday.

American students favor Iraq troop reduction

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Three out of five American college students support a U.S. troops reduction in Iraq and nearly three quarters think the United Nations and other countries should take the lead in solving future global crises, according to a poll released Tuesday.