Bob CollinsSomething different accompanies the start of the school year this year. For the first time in modern U.S. history, whites will be the minority. Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent, CBS News reports. But the National Center for Education Statistics Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Education
Is it too early to start debating whether schools should close during snow storms? No? Good, because Duluth schools could change the way winter operates around here. The Duluth News Tribune reports that administrators are considering a philosophical shift away from closing schools for the entire day when there’s a storm — they lost 8 Read more →
If there is such a thing as a “magical parenting formula,” perhaps Kou Moua and Zaaj Thao know it. The Pioneer Press profiles the couple, who came here years ago unable to even speak English, have the two most recent valedictorians at Saint Paul’s Johnson High School, and two younger children are in the running Read more →
Ten percent of teachers surveyed spend more than $1,000 of their own money each year on their classroom. Read more →
The great Steve Hartman’s piece this week on a teacher in a dirt-poor Texas town, who overcame her own poverty in the Philippines and was almost deported here, forces us to examine why some people “make it” and others don’t. A young student says he’s learned to never give up. “You can do anything you Read more →
A New York student refused to participate in his commencement ceremony unless his twin brother, who has Down syndrome, was allowed to walk on stage with him. Read more →
A judge’s decision in Los Angeles today will spark a renewed debate over teacher tenure. Judge Rolf M. Treu struck down California’s teacher tenure law, agreeing with plaintiffs who said it makes it impossible to get rid of low-performing and incompetent teachers. The decision acknowledged that the worst teachers get assigned to the worst schools, Read more →
In Texas, the limits of protection are being explored by a school system near San Antonio that banned a child from using sunscreen on a recent field trip because it’s “typically toxic”. The child’s mother, Christy Riggs, is upset because skin cancer runs in her family; her father recently died because of it, KEYE TV Read more →
High schools in Minnesota are in a difficult spot when it comes to the suicide of students. As we’ve written many times, they’re concerned that if they acknowledge that students kill themselves, it will lead other students to take their own lives, too. But if they don’t say anything, they mute a very real health threat to our children.
The effect on the families of the students is painful; they often made to feel as if their children never existed if their deaths cannot be noted. Read more →
At one time, La Crosse was the center of the clown universe. Read more →
Congratulations to Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, who share the championship of the Scripps spelling bee.
They were confident and rarely flustered, which is why a few hours from now, we’ll forget who they were. Read more →
Ties, jackets, and only one button allowed to be unbuttoned on blouses. That’s the way we used to do it, kids. Read more →
It was the Great Depression and your family needed you to go to work. So you dropped out of school. But you’ve always thought about going back to school or taking night classes to get the high school degree. Instead, you married, raised three children, divorced, then married again. When you were 93, a Council Read more →
What would it take for the overconnected generation to give up their cellphones?
In Kimball, Minnesota, a teacher is finding out by keeping their cellphones 24/7 in exchange for allowing the students to skip the finals in her class. Read more →
Despite the best efforts of his students to keep him around, the Rochester teacher who swore in class is resigning. Read more →