NewsTrust - High School - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

FBI probes white powder in letters sent to DC schools

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - May. 06 (News) - The FBI on Friday is investigating more than three dozen suspicious letters containing a white powdery substance sent to schools in the capital area, leading authorities to race across the city to check for possible threats.

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More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Trip Gabriel - Apr. 09 (News Report) - Jack London was the subject in Daterrius Hamilton’s online English 3 course. In a high school classroom packed with computers, he read a brief biography of London with single-paragraph excerpts from the author’s works. But the curriculum did not require him, as it had generations of English students, to wade through a tattered copy of “Call of the Wild” or “To Build a Fire.”

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White House memo notes shortage of applicants for contest to have Obama to speak at high school graduation

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

CBS News - By Peter Maer - Mar. 08 (News Report) - The White House is ramping up an effort to promote a nationwide competition to decide which high school wins a commencement speech by President Obama. An internal White House memo indicates that the White House is facing a shortage of applications less than a week before the deadline.

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Cancer bracelets' 'boobies' tough call for schools

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Bob Moen - Oct. 15 (News) - A $4 rubber bracelet meant to raise breast cancer awareness has done that and more: Students nationwide are wearing the "I (heart) boobies" wristbands, and running afoul of school administrators.

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NC teen: Nose ring more than fashion, it's faith

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Tom Breen - Sep. 16 (News) - A soft-spoken 14-year-old's nose piercing has landed her a suspension from school and forced her into the middle of a fight over her First Amendment right to exercise her religion.

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Schoolgirls and teachers sick from poison gas in Afghanistan

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - Aug. 25 (News) - Dozens of schoolgirls and teachers were sickened Wednesday by poison gas in Afghanistan, medical and government officials said.

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A drift back into segregation

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Stephanie McCrummen - Apr. 20 (News Report) - School system practices across nation contribute to a present-day version that is no less insidious.

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Obama Offers Compromise on D.C. Tuition Vouchers

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Bill Turque, Shailagh Murray - May. 07 (News Report) - President Obama will propose setting aside enough money for all 1,716 students in the District's voucher program to continue receiving grants for private school tuition until they graduate from high school, but he would allow no new students to join the program, administration officials said yesterday.

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Obama seeks to keep vouchers, for now

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

USA Today - By Greg Toppo - May. 07 (News Report) - President Obama will ask Congress to temporarily extend the school voucher program in the District of Columbia until students now attending private high schools with taxpayer dollars graduate, an administration official said Wednesday.

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College-School Partnerships Offer Head Start on Higher Education

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Maria Glod - May. 06 (Special Report) - Mayra Avila is looking forward to her high school prom. She's also a college student taking government and English composition courses.

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Firing teachers can be a costly and tortuous task

Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Jason Song - May. 03 (Investigative Report) - A Times investigation finds the process so arduous that many principals don't even try, except in the very worst cases. Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can't teach is rare.

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A Radical Fix for Schools?

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NOW on PBS - By David Brancaccio - May. 01 (Special Report) - How is Secretary of Education Arne Duncan going to spend $100 billion in stimulus money—almost twice the education budget—to fix our nation's schools? During his seven years running Chicago's public schools, Duncan went head to head with the teacher's union and skeptical parents by closing down low-performing schools, getting rid of all the teachers, principals, even the janitors, and reopening them with new staffs as "turnaround schools." It's a drastic step, but the results have been promising. This week, NOW travels to Chicago to investigate the collateral damage of a top-to-bottom school makeover, and to get a glimpse of what the future of education might look like for the rest of the country. "We have to be willing to experience a little bit of pain and discomfort, but our children desperately need it and deserve it," Secretary Duncan tells NOW. "Just as we have to do it, unions have to change, principals have to change, teachers have to change, parents have to step up... business as usual is not going to get us there."

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Early High Shool Departures Continue to Increase, Study Says

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jennifer Medina - May. 01 (Special Report) - Almost six years after a lawsuit forced the city to pledge to keep better track of students who leave public schools without graduating, the number leaving high schools has continued to climb, according to a report to be released Thursday by the public advocate’s office.

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Many Teachers in Advanced Placement Voice Concern at Its Rapid Growth

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jacques Steinberg - Apr. 29 (News Report) - A survey of more than 1,000 teachers of Advanced Placement courses in American high schools has found that more than half are concerned that the program’s effectiveness is being threatened as districts loosen restrictions on who can take such rigorous courses and as students flock to them to polish their résumés.

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School newspapers: High school newspapers chart new course in tumbling economy

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Chicago Tribune - By Tara Malone - Apr. 22 (Special Report) - As newspapers reinvent themselves, high school newsrooms are locked in their own transition amid the economic tumult that has jolted the industry. Several school newspapers in Illinois now publish online only, while others are turning to the Internet to post stories edged out of a shrinking newspaper. These days, the pressures of tighter budgets, thinner papers and slumping ad sales are as central to the lessons of journalism as beat reporting and editing, educators said. "If we want to make it as real world as we can make it, you've got to be able to pay for the pages [through advertising]. If you can't pay for the pages, you figure out another way to do things," said Michael Gordy, adviser to Antioch Community High School's paper, The Tom Tom.

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Large Urban-Suburban Gap Seen in Graduation Rates

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Sam Dillon - Apr. 22 (News Report) - It is no surprise that more students drop out of high school in big cities than elsewhere. Now, however, a nationwide study shows the magnitude of the gap: the average high school graduation rate in the nation’s 50 largest cities was 53 percent, compared with 71 percent in the suburbs.

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High schools rife with hazing, Maine study finds

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By David Sharp - Apr. 17 (Special Report) - Authors of an ambitious survey of hazing in colleges and universities have turned their attention to high schools and discovered that many freshmen arrive on campus with experience — with 47 percent reporting getting hazed in high school. As in college, high school hazing pervaded groups from sports teams to the yearbook staff and performing arts, according to professors Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden of the University of Maine's College of Education and Human Development. The hazing included activities from silly stunts to drinking games, with 8 percent of the students drinking to the point of getting sick or passing out, they said.

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High school journos take all-platform plunge

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Margaret Stafford - Mar. 13 (News Report) - Media advocates worry that those factors — budget problems, advertising declines and the migration to Internet-based news delivery — are reaching into high school, leaving print publications especially vulnerable.

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Houston dropout rate vexes outgoing schools chief

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Houston Chronicle - By Jennifer Radcliffe - Feb. 08 (News Report) - The embarrassing high school dropout problem that HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra inherited and that he fought to rectify will almost certainly be passed along to his successor, the outgoing schools chief acknowledges. In a one-on-one interview after last week’s surprise announcement that he will step down by spring 2010, Saavedra claimed significant victories in raising test scores, narrowing the achievement gap and installing an aggressive performance pay system for teachers. But Saavedra also acknowledged that his inability to stem Houston’s dropout problem after nearly five years on the job is his biggest disappointment.

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New African-American history course stretches student minds

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - By Joe Smydo - Feb. 06 (News Report) - Pittsburgh Oliver High School teacher Ken Smith doesn't want students to take history; he wants them "doing history." And so the Pittsburgh Public Schools' new African-American history course is designed to stretch students' research, writing and thinking skills while taking them far behind the scenes of a people's struggle for freedom. The district yesterday kicked off Black History Month by gathering civic leaders and school supporters at the Senator John Heinz History Center to introduce the course and a program bringing black artists into three schools. The initiatives are intended to promote achievement among black students who, as a group, trail white students academically. "We have to connect with the kids. We have to be relevant to them," history center President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Masich said.

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Miami-Dade schools chief unveils budget plans

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - By Kathleen McGrory - Feb. 05 (News Report) - Miami-Dade Schools Chief Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday unveiled a plan to save the district $56 million -- and balance the budget -- before the fiscal year ends in June. The proposal, discussed at a meeting with The Miami Herald's editorial board, includes $21 million in cuts to nonschool spending and $8 million in cuts to schools. Carvalho also said he would ask employees to defer payment for an unspecified number of work days until the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. The overall savings to this year's budget from the deferred payments would be $27 million. ''We believe we've found a solution that protects educational programs and the workforce and provides financial viability for the school system,'' Carvalho said. But the plan may meet resistance from the teachers union, United Teachers of Dade President Karen Aronowitz said.

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Giant Manhattan School to Be Broken Up to Further Smaller-Is-Better Policy

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Javier C. Hernandez, Mathew R. Warren - Feb. 04 (News Report) - Louis D. Brandeis High School, an Upper West Side behemoth that takes in some of the city’s most disadvantaged students and has struggled year after year to bump up test scores and graduation rates, will be closed and replaced by three new small schools, the Department of Education announced on Tuesday. Brandeis, with 2,251 students, is an increasingly endangered species of school — a large general-curriculum institution rich in course offerings but short on personal interaction. These big high schools, once staples of the city’s educational map, have been overhauled by the Bloomberg administration, and other urban education reformers who promote more intimate learning environments as an antidote to poor performance.

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HISD plan could pay best teachers $100,000 a year | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Houston Chronicle - By Erica Mellon - Feb. 03 (News Report) - “It all sounds great, but it all hinges on the accuracy of the value-added data,” Fuller said. “I really like the part about trying to lure teachers into the lowest-performing schools. I think that’s necessary.”

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High school athletes reconsider fast route out of Texas

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Houston Chronicle - By Sam Khan Jr - Feb. 03 (Special Report) - “Recruiting is like real estate, it’s all about location, location, location,” Crabtree said. “Sometimes, when recruits realize that a school isn’t as glamorous as they experienced on their official visit and there aren’t sorority girls around you all the time or you’re not being fed every night and not partying every night and your position coach is yelling at you, home sounds like a great idea to get back to.”

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Student's Free Speech Case May Lead To Legislation

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Hartford Courant - By Arielle Levin Becker - Feb. 02 (News Report) - In his ruling on a pioneering Internet free speech case last month, U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz offered something of a plea to higher courts: Revisit the boundaries of free speech for students. Kravitz was siding with Burlington school administrators accused of violating the First Amendment rights of a student they disciplined for a blog post she wrote off school grounds. And he offered an argument for why, in the Internet age, the old boundaries of what schools can regulate might not apply. "Off-campus speech can become on-campus speech with the click of a mouse," he wrote.

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