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School district officials defend ‘slave letter writing’ assignment at Mississippi school
Officials at a Mississippi school district have addressed the public about a controversial assignment called the “slavery letter writing activity.” Lamar County School District Superintendent Steven Hampton confirmed this week that the activity was doled out during an eighth-grade history class at Purvis Middle School, according to local news station WLOX-TV. The assignment was intended to show students the “atrocities and negatives of slavery,” according to Hampton’s interview with the news station. An image of the writing assignment was shared and discussed heavily online, with several comme...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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‘It’s patchwork’: Rural teachers struggle to connect in pandemic
CLARKSDALE, Miss. — Kayden Rosebur’s first year of high school didn’t go as she expected. Instead of meeting new friends and dashing through the hallways between bells, the 15-year-old joins her classmates remotely from her house in the rural Mississippi Delta. Her unstable internet service keeps her disconnected. She has met her teachers in person only twice — to take exams. She doesn’t feel comfortable in class because no one turns on their cameras or makes conversation. She frequently turns her assignments in late because a computer program malfunctions or her connection drops. To get aroun...
Stateline.org
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‘It’s patchwork’: Rural teachers struggle to connect in pandemic
CLARKSDALE, Miss. — Kayden Rosebur’s first year of high school didn’t go as she expected. Instead of meeting new friends and dashing through the hallways between bells, the 15-year-old joins her classmates remotely from her house in the rural Mississippi Delta. Her unstable internet service keeps her disconnected. She has met her teachers in person only twice — to take exams. She doesn’t feel comfortable in class because no one turns on their cameras or makes conversation. She frequently turns her assignments in late because a computer program malfunctions or her connection drops. To get aroun...
Stateline.org
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South Carolina bill banning trans girls from women's sports takes first steps in the state House
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bill that would effectively ban transgender girls from participating in high school and middle school women's sports took its first steps in the South Carolina House on Wednesday. The bill was approved by a panel of lawmakers in a House Judiciary subcommittee by a vote of 3-1 after hearing testimony from dozens of residents. Lawmakers voted to move the bill forward after South Carolina Superintendent Molly Spearman and other critics of the legislation called on lawmakers to vote against the initiative. "My responsibility as state superintendent is to make sure every child fe...
The State (Columbia, S.C.)
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Pipe bomb and loaded gun found at Sacramento elementary school, deputies say
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Authorities on Tuesday found a pipe bomb and a loaded homemade gun near the front office of Baker Elementary School in south Sacramento, sheriff's officials said. The pipe bomb and the homemade gun, also known as a "zip gun," were found on the sidewalk just outside the front office Tuesday morning, before children students arrived on campus, said Sgt. Rodney Grassmann, a Sacramento County sheriff's spokesman. "It was a real bomb and a real zip gun," Grassmann said. "They were both loaded and ready to go." He said the metal pipe with a fuse was found with metal shrapnel, ga...
The Sacramento Bee
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Students at John Hancock College Prep in Chicago say school should be renamed because Hancock owned slaves
CHICAGO — John Hancock is best remembered for his sweeping self-confidence and outsize signature, but there’s more to the story of the wealthy Boston merchant who risked his life for American independence. The great champion of freedom from Britain owned two or three slaves, according to the 1980 biography “The Baron of Beacon Hill.” That little-known fact is at the center of a battle brewing at Chicago’s John Hancock College Prep High School, where students are highlighting Hancock’s history as a slave owner in their drive for a new school name. Members of the school’s Social Justice Club pub...
Chicago Tribune
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Mac Engel: Texas high schools are losing thousands of coaches. How some are tackling the crisis.
Coaches are leaving Texas high schools at a rate of about 6,000 per year. With the state’s population of nearly 30 million and counting, that number may not look that bad, but ... “We are at a crisis point,” said Joe Martin, the executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association. “That 6,000 (obtained from the Texas Education Agency) was from 2017. We know now those numbers are even bigger today. “The pandemic is going to push this even bigger because of the struggles all coaches and teachers are facing. We think the attrition rate is closer to 20 percent.” This is not just a Texa...
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Chicago schools reopen after yearlong COVID-19 shutdown
CHICAGO — After multiple delays and a battle with the teachers union, Chicago Public Schools opened its doors Monday to tens of thousands of kindergarten through fifth graders — most of whom haven’t seen the inside of a CPS classroom in nearly a year. At Hawthorne Scholastic Academy in the Lake View area, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson greeted returning students, the mayor could hardly contain her joy over the reopening. On the drive to the school, Lightfoot said she saw young kids “skipping ahead” of their parents with excitement. In the building, Lightfoot said a secon...
Chicago Tribune
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Some worry a drop in financial aid applications means fewer low-income students are considering college
Colleen McCaffrey, a senior at Northeast High in Philadelphia, spends much of her time trying to persuade her classmates to fill out federal college financial-aid forms. It’s a tougher sell this year. ”The hardest thing is just getting to people,” said McCaffrey, who’s part of Peer Forward, a program that trains teenagers to help their peers prepare for college. “In the past, we had assemblies. We could go into homerooms and talk to people in person. You can’t do that this year.” At Northeast, the city’s largest high school, about 46% of the 833 seniors have completed their Free Application fo...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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New standards for Illinois teachers in training are latest flashpoint in culture wars
CHICAGO — As dean of Illinois’ largest teacher preparation program, Jim Wolfinger works to cultivate socially aware educators who can inspire students in any setting — whether that’s an urban neighborhood with racially diverse families or a small farming community. “The literature for a long time has told us: If we think of teaching as simply delivering the content, then you’re going to struggle with many of the kids in the classroom, because it’s not connected to their personal lives,” said Wolfinger, who leads the College of Education at Illinois State University. But in recent weeks, a poli...
Chicago Tribune
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