At a training conference on Tuesday focused on the weeds of financial-aid policy, the U.S. education secretary, Betsy DeVos, spoke in broad and bombastic terms about what she called the “crisis in higher education.” What’s that emergency?
The nation’s $1.5 trillion in federal student-loan debt held by roughly 45 million borrowers.
At a training conference on Tuesday focused on the weeds of financial-aid policy, the U.S. education secretary, Betsy DeVos, spoke in broad and bombastic terms about what she called the “crisis in higher education.” What’s that emergency?
The nation’s $1.5 trillion in federal student-loan debt held by roughly 45 million borrowers.
In rethinking school discipline policies, administrators must find a balance between holding students accountable and earning their trust, reports Matt McKinney for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
As part of our Hard Lessons series on the Woodland Hills School District, @Mmckinne17 and I looked at how the high school is handling student discipline and carving out a new role for its school resource officers. @PittsburghPG#TellEWA
For The New Yorker, Casey Parks profiles a woman’s long path to a college degree and explores what her journey reveals about historically black universities.
This is an incredible education story by @caseyparks. Read it for the beautiful writing, attention to detail, and revealing history. You’ll be thinking about it long after you’re done. #tellEWA (Tell everyone. Damn.) https://t.co/cYy2kZO3UV
There will be a new cast of characters overseeing state education policy in 2019—and many of them will be looking to shake things up to deliver on the many promises they made on the campaign trail in this year’s midterm elections.
New governors—many of them Democrats—are expected to propose ambitious budgets with new ways of funding their K-12 systems. The fresh crop of governors and state board members is likely to lead to big turnover of state schools superintendents in places where they’re appointed.
Inside this high school at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, teenagers are immersed in a project with the potential to temper the divisiveness that is consuming U.S. politics. They’re learning to have calm, balanced conversations about controversial issues.
In two very ordinary classrooms here, students are aware that they’re trying to do something extraordinary, something many adults around them seem unable to do: study a problem, understand the arguments on all sides, and discuss it together to see what solutions might work best for the country.
School had been in session less than two months when Brenda Salgado and her kids packed and moved. It was mid-September and they’d already been in three places. First a motel, then a two-bedroom apartment stuffed with more than two dozen people, then one of the many discount lodges on a dreary stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills.
Dorian Ford preferred to do her homework in the bathtub. Most nights, she cooked dinner and then retreated to the bathroom of her mother’s cluttered house, where she and her two sons had been living for two years. Every time she tried to work anywhere else, her boys begged her to entertain them before bedtime. To carve out space to think, she had to pretend to take a bath.
Eva Moskowitz wants to fix a really big problem. There are over a million kids in New York City’s public schools. Most can’t read or do math at grade level. Many won’t graduate on time. And it’s largely poor, black and brown kids who are stuck in the lowest performing schools. Eva’s the founder and CEO of Success Academy, the subject of this season of StartUp. And she’s actually making progress.
Two days after the midterm election, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts signed into law a bill that encourages civics education in public schools.
Colleges are likely to continue investigating off-campus sexual misconduct with implications for classroom environment despite changes advanced in proposed Title IX rule, higher ed lawyers say. But questions remain.
Page after page, an accrediting agency ticked off all the problems at Virginia College, a large chain of for-profit schools with dwindling enrollment. There would be no seal of approval, the accreditor declared, no imprimatur necessary to participate in the federal student loan program that is the lifeblood of most colleges and universities.
But it turned out that Virginia College — and other for-profit schools — had a friend in high places.
In order to meet its top educational goal, Idaho will need to reinvent itself. And rethink success.
State leaders want more high school graduates to continue their education — to prepare young adults for a changing labor market, and to help Idaho compete economically. This ambitious aim runs headway into hard realities.
On a recent Friday, Kenith Britt joined a group of Marian University faculty members who were courting a student athlete over lunch. A young African-American man with a GPA of 3.99, the prospective student wanted to study engineering, like his father.
Britt gave his standard pitch for Marian’s brand-new Klipsch Educators College, the Indianapolis program where he is dean. “You can become a teacher, or you can become a teacher,” he joked at the end. “Those are your choices.”
College in Illinois is becoming more expensive on average, and fewer students are graduating from the state’s large public universities. That’s according to a decade’s-worth of federal education data.
Peter D’Amato of education news outlet The Hechinger Report helped put the data together for an online tool called Tuition Tracker. Among other things, the tool tracked the net price of schools across the country since 2009. Since then, average student costs to attend some of Illinois’ largest public universities have gone up.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will give $1.8 billion in scholarship money to the Johns Hopkins University, the largest gift to any academic institution in U.S. history.
Educators in North Carolina are claiming victory after last week’s midterm elections loosened Republicans’ grip on the state legislature, reports T. Keung Hui of The News & Observer.
#tellewa Thousands of North Carolina teachers marched on state lawmakers in May with a warning they'd vote in November for 'pro-education candidates.' Event organizers say that chant became reality last week when the GOP lost its legislative supermajority. https://t.co/YG520uuiNb
Education reporters were busy covering midterm elections this week. For The Chronicle of Higher Education, Eric Kelderman examines the consequences of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s ouster.
With a new governor soon to take the helm in Tennessee, the Commercial Appeal’s Jennifer Pignolet explores what’s next for education.
My piece for the USA Today - Tennessee network: What will education in Tennessee look like under Bill Lee? Here's what we know https://t.co/cDTkVj0KgP via @memphisnews #TellEWA
With midterm elections just days away, Eva-Marie Ayala of The Dallas Morning News explores how teachers in Texas are channeling their anger into action.
In Wisconsin, the Appleton Post-Crescent’s Devi Shastri spends a day with an emergency-licensed teacher and examines what’s driving people away from the classroom.
For The Hechinger Report, Kaitlin Gillespie explores how a small town’s high school is helping reverse the pattern of “rural brain drain.”
Since reading stories in the last year about Onalaska, Wash., I’ve been obsessed with this small town. So I went and wrote about it for The @hechingerreporthttps://t.co/QNxBu5DH2T
Erica Green of The New York Times and ProPublica’s Annie Waldman team up for a data-driven analysis of how the history of segregation in Charlottesville, Virginia contributes to persistent achievement gaps that are among the nation’s worst.
"I don’t think the hate groups selected our community by chance," Charlottesville Schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins tells @EricaLG@AnnieWaldman. Essential, painful look at legacy of racism and segregation. It's my (early!) pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/IP42aiROqS
A team of 30 journalists from the USA TODAY Network spent a day with teachers across the country and chronicled their common concerns beyond money: feeling misunderstood, unheard and disrespected.
Beatriz Alvarado, Thyrie Bland, Jason Gonzales, Leigh Guidry, Rick Hampson, Bracey Harris, Lori Higgins, Joe Hong, Austin Humphreys, Kristen Inbody, Annysa Johnson, Byron McCauley, Amanda Oglesby, Kelly Ragan, Meg Ryan, Lindsay Schnell,Devi Shastri and Alden WoodsUSA TODAY
It’s shortly after dawn when Edward Lawson, one of America’s 3.2 million public school teachers, pulls his car into the parking lot of Thomas Elementary in Racine, Wisconsin. He cuts the engine, pulls out his cell phone and calls his principal. They begin to pray.
Lawson is a full-time substitute based at a school with full-time problems: only 1 in 10 students is proficient in reading and math.
Allison Ross and Mandy McLarenLouisville Courier Journal
The littlest learners in Jefferson County Public Schools were suspended more than 7,600 days last year — the equivalent of 21 years — as the district’s use of its harshest punishment on elementary students skyrocketed.
JCPS is doling out suspensions at a higher rate — in one case, at roughly five times the rate — than its peer districts across the country, a Courier Journal investigation has found.
For a growing number of students and teachers, the weekend starts on Thursday, reports Tawnell Hobbs of The Wall Street Journal.
More school districts going to four-day week schedule to save money and attract teaches. This school year, about 600 school districts in at least 22 states on the compact week, primarily in rural districts but moving into suburban and urban areas https://t.co/9Z08NGWUOj#tellewa
What happens when a school’s student body is constantly changing? Erin Richards dives into the issue of student mobility for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
For Milwaukee schools, a high mobility rate means big challenges for students -- and schools -- to overcome. Stunning data viz paired with @emrichards's excellent reporting. She's my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/yusXii1ATm
On November 8, 2016, while the rest of the world anxiously awaited the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, a subset of voters with a keen interest in education had their eyes on Massachusetts. This was the day Bay Staters would vote on Ballot Question 2, a proposal to raise the state’s cap on public charter schools by up to 12 new schools per year.
With allegations against Brett Kavanaugh dominating headlines, graduates of elite institutions are grappling with their own memories, reports Lindsay Ellis of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In the first of a four-part special report, Texas Public Radio’s Bekah McNeel examines the challenges first-generation college students face on campuses far from home.
Every year, first-generation students across the country step onto college and university campuses that are different from their hometown in every way. Even for those financially and academically prepared, social and emotional challenges can influence their ability to stay and graduate.
This is the first of a four-part special report, “Far From Home.”
A new focus on suicide prevention in some schools is showing positive results, reports Marlon Walker for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Doris Adhuze found her 13-year-old son hanging from his coat rack after school one day last year. With child suicides up dramatically, schools are doing more to help detect signs that a student may want to hurt themselves. #SuicideAwarenessMonth#tellEWAhttps://t.co/wFXqqNdkH6
One year after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, students and educators are still grappling with the physical and emotional damage left by the storm, reports Education Week’s Andrew Ujifusa.
In the year since #HurricaneMaria, Education Week has been following the story of Puerto Rico’s devastation and the island’s slow rebuilding as seen through the eyes of educators and students. See all of our coverage here: https://t.co/kepJp7wLpQpic.twitter.com/9BV3r8IYub
In Memphis, a decision to halt an investigation into improper grade changing is raising questions about whether anyone will be held accountable, writes Chalkbeat’s Laura Faith Kebede.
In a new radio documentary, APM Reports’ Emily Hanford looks at why teaching reading has become so controversial — and ineffective — in many U.S. classrooms.
As a nation, we've come to accept a high percentage of kids not reading well. But we shouldn't. Science shows clearly how kids learn to read and how they should be taught. Why are so many schools not doing it? https://t.co/Qt9y45Xmbv#TellEWA Listen on @EducatePodcast
At a time of federal “zero tolerance” policies on immigration, students from immigrant families in the Washington, D.C., area are struggling to stay focused on their academics, reports Jenny Abamu of WAMU.
The National Education Association is hoping a crash course in campaigning will help educators running for public office, reports Education Week’s Sarah Schwartz.
The nation's largest teachers' union held a two-day training for teachers who are running for political office. They practiced cold-calling for donations and learned other campaign strategies. @s_e_schwartz reports from the ground: https://t.co/ExK3VGidQo#tellEWA
To address chronic absenteeism, schools are experimenting with punishments and rewards, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Tawnell Hobbs.
With the number of chronically-absent students at 8 million, schools are finding ways to get them to class — from installing laundry rooms to raffling TVs to fining parents. This school year, some states will consider truant kids in school ratings https://t.co/xB4NmTFGXA#tellewa
As The Oregonian’s Bethany Barnes reports, the reopening of a historic middle school is shedding light on Portland’s complicated history of educating black children.
A look at the revival of Portland's Harriet Tubman Middle School, through the eyes of a parent who is counting on the school to do right by her daughter:
For the Associated Press, Sally Ho examines Bill Gates’ investments in education reform, new and old.
Covering philanthropy strategy in education, casual readers often ask me why there's such tension over @BillGates' money in schools reform. Here's a quick-hit overview about the evolution of Gates' major programs, his motivations & the outcomes/ fallout: https://t.co/4dmz7JMv0w
As a new school year begins, The Oklahoman’s Ben Felder explores the impact of teacher walkouts and where Oklahoma schools go from here.
It's the first new school year since the state’s public education system was rocked by a two-week teacher walkout. #oklaed You can find all four stories from the After the Walkout series right here: https://t.co/flZqs68pO5pic.twitter.com/1Q5JqqiUVY
Chalkbeat’s Caroline Bauman examines whether Tennessee has delivered on a promise to turn around its lowest-performing schools.
Tennessee's @TN_ASD serves some of the state's most vulnerable students. In a deep dive, we look at the first six schools taken over by the state in 2012. Six years later, all of those schools continue to struggle academically. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/GJ42FJQFdO
The mid-June clouds stark white and heavy with impending rain, Darby Dugay listened for the splatter of falling drops, noting that the foul weather might delay her basketball practice.
Nearly a year after Hurricane Harvey submerged coastal Port Arthur, the rain still brings the 17-year-old’s heart rate up, especially when water overflows the long-neglected drainage ditches lining the neighborhood’s sidewalks.
Huge contributions from tech titans, a STEM-packed curriculum, gadgets everywhere: Willie Brown Middle School was supposed to set the bar. Then it opened.
David Jackson, Jennifer Smith Richards, Gary Marx and Juan Perez Jr.Chicago Tribune
They were top athletes and honor-roll students, children struggling to read and teenagers seeking guidance.
But then they became prey, among the many students raped or sexually abused during the last decade by trusted adults working in the Chicago Public Schools as district officials repeated obvious child-protection mistakes.
Their lives were upended, their futures clouded and their pain unacknowledged as a districtwide problem was kept under wraps. A Tribune analysis indicates that hundreds of students were harmed.
Education journalists from across the nation gathered here this week with a focus on diversity in their profession, recent activism by teachers, and the scourge of school violence, among other topics.
The Education Writers Association’s top award for education reporting went to John Woodrow Cox of The Washington Post for a compelling three-part series on children and gun violence, which was published last June.
He thought he’d be safe backstage, out of the spotlight, away from the shadows that prowled the edges of his vision when his guard was down.
Crowds spooked him now. It was seven weeks since he had locked eyes with a black-masked gunman taking aim at him in the midst of the worst school shooting in Florida’s history. Seven weeks since he’d made the split-second decision that saved his life but left a softball-sized hole in his leg. Seven weeks since he’d seen bullets lodging in the wall around him as he ran past bodies of his classmates in a wild panic to survive.
Barbara Laker, Wendy Ruderman, and Dylan PurcellThe Philadelphia Inquirer
Every school day in Philadelphia, children are exposed to a stew of environmental hazards, both visible and invisible, that can rob them of a healthy place to learn and thrive. Too often, the district knows of the perils but downplays them to parents.
As part of its “Toxic City” series, the Inquirer and Daily News investigated the physical conditions at district-run schools. Reporters examined five years of internal maintenance logs and building records, and interviewed 120 teachers, nurses, parents, students, and experts.
When 13-year-old André Cordeiro moved from rural Portugal to Toronto, the only English words he knew were, “hi,” “bye,” and “hot dog.” Four years later, he speaks English “way better” and credits the English-learner class he attends every morning at Islington Junior Middle School.
Juan Perez Jr. and Jennifer Smith RichardsChicago Tribune
In Chicago, where funding follows students, Tilden is one of more than a dozen shrinking neighborhood high schools that has been starved of resources, leaving students like Averett to prepare for their futures in largely empty buildings that can make dreaming big a daily struggle.
“Why should we go without because of our student body?” asked Averett, who dreams of attending college and pursuing a career in law enforcement. “I feel like it’s unfair. We should get the high school treatment too. But, you know, it is what it is.”
How well are America’s public school buildings and other facilities holding up? How much is the nation spending to build and maintain them? Is it enough? And just who’s bearing the costs?
Here’s some data to fuel that discussion gleaned from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, and a 2016 joint report from the 21st Century School Fund, the National Council on School Facilities, and the Center for Green Schools.
On a chilly winter morning in a tiny pocket of Silicon Valley known as North Fair Oaks, Everest Public High School is buzzing with energy. Out front, a tall, skinny teen jumps out of a black Porsche SUV; moments later, three young women in matching black hoodies stream out of the front seat of a Toyota pickup that’s filled with trowels, buckets, and a ladder.
Leslie Postal, Beth Kassab and Annie MartinOrlando Sentinel
Private schools in Florida will collect nearly $1 billion in state-backed scholarships this year through a system so weakly regulated that some schools hire teachers without college degrees, hold classes in aging strip malls and falsify fire-safety and health records.
This was supposed to be a banner year for Furr High School. It moved into a brand new building and was using a ten million dollar grant to reinvent high school. Even though Hurricane Harvey delayed the school year by two weeks, things seemed to be back to normal.
Longtime principal Bertie Simmons met with a mom who was trying to get her daughter into Furr.
In a corner of a classroom at Science Leadership Academy Middle School is a bookcase with green shelves and a plaque on top, where several students wrote their names in marker.
Having worked on its design, they claimed the bookcase as their own. Visible around the school are other bookcases, some festooned with polka dots, stripes, handprints, and words, all built by creative 5th graders.
Once it was the biggest school district in the state. Now Minneapolis Public Schools is the biggest loser in Minnesota’s robust school-choice environment, surrendering more kids to charter schools and other public school options than any other district.
And unlike most other school districts in the state, most of the defections in Minneapolis are occurring among black families. The 9,000 departing black students make up more than half of the districtwide total, according to a Star Tribune analysis of state enrollment data.
DeVos Says Student Loans Have Created a Crisis. Hold On, Researchers Say.
At a training conference on Tuesday focused on the weeds of financial-aid policy, the U.S. education secretary, Betsy DeVos, spoke in broad and bombastic terms about what she called the “crisis in higher education.” What’s that emergency?
The nation’s $1.5 trillion in federal student-loan debt held by roughly 45 million borrowers.
DeVos Says Student Loans Have Created a Crisis. Hold On, Researchers Say.
At a training conference on Tuesday focused on the weeds of financial-aid policy, the U.S. education secretary, Betsy DeVos, spoke in broad and bombastic terms about what she called the “crisis in higher education.” What’s that emergency?
The nation’s $1.5 trillion in federal student-loan debt held by roughly 45 million borrowers.
Nov. 21 – Nov. 28
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
In rethinking school discipline policies, administrators must find a balance between holding students accountable and earning their trust, reports Matt McKinney for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
For The New Yorker, Casey Parks profiles a woman’s long path to a college degree and explores what her journey reveals about historically black universities.
How Election Results Will Shake Up State Education Policy
There will be a new cast of characters overseeing state education policy in 2019—and many of them will be looking to shake things up to deliver on the many promises they made on the campaign trail in this year’s midterm elections.
New governors—many of them Democrats—are expected to propose ambitious budgets with new ways of funding their K-12 systems. The fresh crop of governors and state board members is likely to lead to big turnover of state schools superintendents in places where they’re appointed.
Students Learn to Put the ‘Civil’ in Civil Discourse
Inside this high school at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, teenagers are immersed in a project with the potential to temper the divisiveness that is consuming U.S. politics. They’re learning to have calm, balanced conversations about controversial issues.
In two very ordinary classrooms here, students are aware that they’re trying to do something extraordinary, something many adults around them seem unable to do: study a problem, understand the arguments on all sides, and discuss it together to see what solutions might work best for the country.
Hidden in L.A. suburbia, wrenching poverty preys on children and destroys dreams – Los Angeles Times
School had been in session less than two months when Brenda Salgado and her kids packed and moved. It was mid-September and they’d already been in three places. First a motel, then a two-bedroom apartment stuffed with more than two dozen people, then one of the many discount lodges on a dreary stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills.
A College Degree from an H.B.C.U., More than Fifteen Years in the Making
Dorian Ford preferred to do her homework in the bathtub. Most nights, she cooked dinner and then retreated to the bathroom of her mother’s cluttered house, where she and her two sons had been living for two years. Every time she tried to work anywhere else, her boys begged her to entertain them before bedtime. To carve out space to think, she had to pretend to take a bath.
Success Academy 1: The Problem
Eva Moskowitz wants to fix a really big problem. There are over a million kids in New York City’s public schools. Most can’t read or do math at grade level. Many won’t graduate on time. And it’s largely poor, black and brown kids who are stuck in the lowest performing schools. Eva’s the founder and CEO of Success Academy, the subject of this season of StartUp. And she’s actually making progress.
In Increasingly Partisan Times, States Turn to Civics Education
Two days after the midterm election, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts signed into law a bill that encourages civics education in public schools.
What Title IX Plan Would Mean for Misconduct Off Campus
Colleges are likely to continue investigating off-campus sexual misconduct with implications for classroom environment despite changes advanced in proposed Title IX rule, higher ed lawyers say. But questions remain.
Betsy Devos to the Rescue: For-profit Colleges See a Savior in Secretary
The rejection letter was harsh.
Page after page, an accrediting agency ticked off all the problems at Virginia College, a large chain of for-profit schools with dwindling enrollment. There would be no seal of approval, the accreditor declared, no imprimatur necessary to participate in the federal student loan program that is the lifeblood of most colleges and universities.
But it turned out that Virginia College — and other for-profit schools — had a friend in high places.
Hitting the ‘60 Percent Goal’ Won’t Just Take Work. It Requires a Transformation.
In order to meet its top educational goal, Idaho will need to reinvent itself. And rethink success.
State leaders want more high school graduates to continue their education — to prepare young adults for a changing labor market, and to help Idaho compete economically. This ambitious aim runs headway into hard realities.
A Little Finland, a Little Canada, a Lot of Moxie: Why One Indianapolis Teachers College Is Betting It Can Train More Successful Educators After a Radical Reboot
On a recent Friday, Kenith Britt joined a group of Marian University faculty members who were courting a student athlete over lunch. A young African-American man with a GPA of 3.99, the prospective student wanted to study engineering, like his father.
Britt gave his standard pitch for Marian’s brand-new Klipsch Educators College, the Indianapolis program where he is dean. “You can become a teacher, or you can become a teacher,” he joked at the end. “Those are your choices.”
Nationwide Data: Illinois Public Universities Cost More, Graduate Fewer
College in Illinois is becoming more expensive on average, and fewer students are graduating from the state’s large public universities. That’s according to a decade’s-worth of federal education data.
Peter D’Amato of education news outlet The Hechinger Report helped put the data together for an online tool called Tuition Tracker. Among other things, the tool tracked the net price of schools across the country since 2009. Since then, average student costs to attend some of Illinois’ largest public universities have gone up.
Bloomberg to Donate Historic $1.8 Billion to Hopkins for Low-Income Scholarships
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will give $1.8 billion in scholarship money to the Johns Hopkins University, the largest gift to any academic institution in U.S. history.
Nov. 9 – Nov. 15
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
Educators in North Carolina are claiming victory after last week’s midterm elections loosened Republicans’ grip on the state legislature, reports T. Keung Hui of The News & Observer.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Marlon Walker examines how a massive backlog of maintenance requests is endangering students and educators.
Nov. 2 – Nov. 8
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
Education reporters were busy covering midterm elections this week. For The Chronicle of Higher Education, Eric Kelderman examines the consequences of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s ouster.
With a new governor soon to take the helm in Tennessee, the Commercial Appeal’s Jennifer Pignolet explores what’s next for education.
Oct. 26 – Nov. 1
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
With midterm elections just days away, Eva-Marie Ayala of The Dallas Morning News explores how teachers in Texas are channeling their anger into action.
In Wisconsin, the Appleton Post-Crescent’s Devi Shastri spends a day with an emergency-licensed teacher and examines what’s driving people away from the classroom.
Oct. 19 – Oct. 25
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
At a time of intense political polarization in the U.S., Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuck looks for answers in high school history classes.
For The Hechinger Report, Kaitlin Gillespie explores how a small town’s high school is helping reverse the pattern of “rural brain drain.”
Oct. 12 – Oct. 18
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
Erica Green of The New York Times and ProPublica’s Annie Waldman team up for a data-driven analysis of how the history of segregation in Charlottesville, Virginia contributes to persistent achievement gaps that are among the nation’s worst.
A team of 30 journalists from the USA TODAY Network spent a day with teachers across the country and chronicled their common concerns beyond money: feeling misunderstood, unheard and disrespected.
Teachers in America: No Matter Where They Work, They Feel Disrespect
It’s shortly after dawn when Edward Lawson, one of America’s 3.2 million public school teachers, pulls his car into the parking lot of Thomas Elementary in Racine, Wisconsin. He cuts the engine, pulls out his cell phone and calls his principal. They begin to pray.
Lawson is a full-time substitute based at a school with full-time problems: only 1 in 10 students is proficient in reading and math.
Louisville Elementary School Student Suspensions Are Soaring
The littlest learners in Jefferson County Public Schools were suspended more than 7,600 days last year — the equivalent of 21 years — as the district’s use of its harshest punishment on elementary students skyrocketed.
JCPS is doling out suspensions at a higher rate — in one case, at roughly five times the rate — than its peer districts across the country, a Courier Journal investigation has found.
Oct. 5 – Oct. 11
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
For a growing number of students and teachers, the weekend starts on Thursday, reports Tawnell Hobbs of The Wall Street Journal.
What happens when a school’s student body is constantly changing? Erin Richards dives into the issue of student mobility for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Why Suburban Districts Need Public Charter Schools Too – Progressive Policy Institute
On November 8, 2016, while the rest of the world anxiously awaited the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, a subset of voters with a keen interest in education had their eyes on Massachusetts. This was the day Bay Staters would vote on Ballot Question 2, a proposal to raise the state’s cap on public charter schools by up to 12 new schools per year.
Sept. 28 – Oct. 4
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
With allegations against Brett Kavanaugh dominating headlines, graduates of elite institutions are grappling with their own memories, reports Lindsay Ellis of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In the first of a four-part special report, Texas Public Radio’s Bekah McNeel examines the challenges first-generation college students face on campuses far from home.
Far From Home: Issues Facing First-Gen College Students
Every year, first-generation students across the country step onto college and university campuses that are different from their hometown in every way. Even for those financially and academically prepared, social and emotional challenges can influence their ability to stay and graduate.
This is the first of a four-part special report, “Far From Home.”
Sept. 21 – 27
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
In The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv describes how Georgia’s education system isolates and neglects students with disabilities.
A new focus on suicide prevention in some schools is showing positive results, reports Marlon Walker for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Sept. 14 – 20
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
One year after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, students and educators are still grappling with the physical and emotional damage left by the storm, reports Education Week’s Andrew Ujifusa.
In Memphis, a decision to halt an investigation into improper grade changing is raising questions about whether anyone will be held accountable, writes Chalkbeat’s Laura Faith Kebede.
Sept. 7 – 13
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
In a new radio documentary, APM Reports’ Emily Hanford looks at why teaching reading has become so controversial — and ineffective — in many U.S. classrooms.
At a time of federal “zero tolerance” policies on immigration, students from immigrant families in the Washington, D.C., area are struggling to stay focused on their academics, reports Jenny Abamu of WAMU.
August 31 – September 6
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
The National Education Association is hoping a crash course in campaigning will help educators running for public office, reports Education Week’s Sarah Schwartz.
For the Tampa Bay Times, Claire McNeill examines why some students of color feel isolated at Florida’s flagship university.
In Washington state, Katie Gillespie of The Columbian asks teachers on the picket lines what keeps them going despite frustrations with the job.
August 24 – August 30
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
To address chronic absenteeism, schools are experimenting with punishments and rewards, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Tawnell Hobbs.
As The Oregonian’s Bethany Barnes reports, the reopening of a historic middle school is shedding light on Portland’s complicated history of educating black children.
For the Associated Press, Sally Ho examines Bill Gates’ investments in education reform, new and old.
August 17 – August 23
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
As a new school year begins, The Oklahoman’s Ben Felder explores the impact of teacher walkouts and where Oklahoma schools go from here.
In Puerto Rico, students recently returned to schools where the effects of Hurricane Maria are still evident, reports Education Week’s Andrew Ujifusa.
Chalkbeat’s Caroline Bauman examines whether Tennessee has delivered on a promise to turn around its lowest-performing schools.
Trauma Lingers for Harvey Survivors Returning to School in Port Arthur
The mid-June clouds stark white and heavy with impending rain, Darby Dugay listened for the splatter of falling drops, noting that the foul weather might delay her basketball practice.
Nearly a year after Hurricane Harvey submerged coastal Port Arthur, the rain still brings the 17-year-old’s heart rate up, especially when water overflows the long-neglected drainage ditches lining the neighborhood’s sidewalks.
How the Startup Mentality Failed Kids in San Francisco
Huge contributions from tech titans, a STEM-packed curriculum, gadgets everywhere: Willie Brown Middle School was supposed to set the bar. Then it opened.
Betrayed: Chicago Schools Fail To Protect Students From Sexual Abuse
They were top athletes and honor-roll students, children struggling to read and teenagers seeking guidance.
But then they became prey, among the many students raped or sexually abused during the last decade by trusted adults working in the Chicago Public Schools as district officials repeated obvious child-protection mistakes.
Their lives were upended, their futures clouded and their pain unacknowledged as a districtwide problem was kept under wraps. A Tribune analysis indicates that hundreds of students were harmed.
Education Writers’ Conference Weighs School Violence, Teacher Unrest
Education journalists from across the nation gathered here this week with a focus on diversity in their profession, recent activism by teachers, and the scourge of school violence, among other topics.
The Education Writers Association’s top award for education reporting went to John Woodrow Cox of The Washington Post for a compelling three-part series on children and gun violence, which was published last June.
Parkland Shooting: Survivor Kyle Laman’s Journey to Recovery
He thought he’d be safe backstage, out of the spotlight, away from the shadows that prowled the edges of his vision when his guard was down.
Crowds spooked him now. It was seven weeks since he had locked eyes with a black-masked gunman taking aim at him in the midst of the worst school shooting in Florida’s history. Seven weeks since he’d made the split-second decision that saved his life but left a softball-sized hole in his leg. Seven weeks since he’d seen bullets lodging in the wall around him as he ran past bodies of his classmates in a wild panic to survive.
Children Face Potential Poisoning From Lead, Mold, Asbestos in Philadelphia Schools, Investigation Shows
Every school day in Philadelphia, children are exposed to a stew of environmental hazards, both visible and invisible, that can rob them of a healthy place to learn and thrive. Too often, the district knows of the perils but downplays them to parents.
As part of its “Toxic City” series, the Inquirer and Daily News investigated the physical conditions at district-run schools. Reporters examined five years of internal maintenance logs and building records, and interviewed 120 teachers, nurses, parents, students, and experts.
In Canada’s Public Schools, Immigrant Students Are Thriving
When 13-year-old André Cordeiro moved from rural Portugal to Toronto, the only English words he knew were, “hi,” “bye,” and “hot dog.” Four years later, he speaks English “way better” and credits the English-learner class he attends every morning at Islington Junior Middle School.
Special Report: Getting and Keeping Good Teachers
From offering child care to building tiny homes, districts are trying out a variety of ways to recruit teachers and keep them around.
Can These Chicago High Schools Survive?
In Chicago, where funding follows students, Tilden is one of more than a dozen shrinking neighborhood high schools that has been starved of resources, leaving students like Averett to prepare for their futures in largely empty buildings that can make dreaming big a daily struggle.
“Why should we go without because of our student body?” asked Averett, who dreams of attending college and pursuing a career in law enforcement. “I feel like it’s unfair. We should get the high school treatment too. But, you know, it is what it is.”
Data: U.S. School Buildings: Age, Condition, and Spending
How well are America’s public school buildings and other facilities holding up? How much is the nation spending to build and maintain them? Is it enough? And just who’s bearing the costs?
Here’s some data to fuel that discussion gleaned from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, and a 2016 joint report from the 21st Century School Fund, the National Council on School Facilities, and the Center for Green Schools.
At What Age Should Kids Start School?
In France, school can start at age 2. Is that too young?
Inside Silicon Valley’s Big-Money Push to Remake American Education
On a chilly winter morning in a tiny pocket of Silicon Valley known as North Fair Oaks, Everest Public High School is buzzing with energy. Out front, a tall, skinny teen jumps out of a black Porsche SUV; moments later, three young women in matching black hoodies stream out of the front seat of a Toyota pickup that’s filled with trowels, buckets, and a ladder.
Florida Private Schools Get Nearly $1 Billion in State Scholarships With Little Oversight, Sentinel Finds
Private schools in Florida will collect nearly $1 billion in state-backed scholarships this year through a system so weakly regulated that some schools hire teachers without college degrees, hold classes in aging strip malls and falsify fire-safety and health records.
Without Its Storied Principal, What’s the Future of Furr High?
This was supposed to be a banner year for Furr High School. It moved into a brand new building and was using a ten million dollar grant to reinvent high school. Even though Hurricane Harvey delayed the school year by two weeks, things seemed to be back to normal.
Longtime principal Bertie Simmons met with a mom who was trying to get her daughter into Furr.
Science Learning Academy Takes Its Learning Approach to the Masses
In a corner of a classroom at Science Leadership Academy Middle School is a bookcase with green shelves and a plaque on top, where several students wrote their names in marker.
Having worked on its design, they claimed the bookcase as their own. Visible around the school are other bookcases, some festooned with polka dots, stripes, handprints, and words, all built by creative 5th graders.
Minneapolis’ Black Families Lead Way in Fleeing to Other Schools
Once it was the biggest school district in the state. Now Minneapolis Public Schools is the biggest loser in Minnesota’s robust school-choice environment, surrendering more kids to charter schools and other public school options than any other district.
And unlike most other school districts in the state, most of the defections in Minneapolis are occurring among black families. The 9,000 departing black students make up more than half of the districtwide total, according to a Star Tribune analysis of state enrollment data.