Education

El Paso Schools Cheating Scandal: Who's Accountable?

2:29pm April 11, 2013

by Claudio Sanchez

The former superintendent of the Texas school district was sentenced to three years in prison for rigging standardized test scores. Other employees could still face charges for helping him carry out his scheme. Now, local and state education officials are blaming each other for letting it go on so long.

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Students at Tenth Street Elementary out on the playground.

L.A. Schools Hire Security Aides To Watch For Threats

7:20am April 10, 2013

by Kirk Siegler

Amid deep budget cuts and layoffs, the nation's second-largest school district is spending $4.5 million to hire 1,000 new aides this year. The superintendent says he'd rather use the money to hire back teachers, but the shootings in Newtown, Conn., led to a change in priorities.

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College loan debt isn't easing up, and students are struggling to navigate a plethora of obligations.

Loan Education Becomes Prerequisite As Student Debt Balloons

4:55pm April 06, 2013

by NPR Staff

Americans hold about $1 trillion in student loans, and the debt burden is only getting heavier. One financial aid counselor says students are starting to smarten up and asking questions he'd never considered himself before the recession hit.

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A Letter On Finding A Husband Before Graduation Spurs Debate

10:12am April 04, 2013

by Jeff Brady

A Princeton University alumna advised young women studying at her alma mater to find husbands now and not wait. Susan Patton's letter set off a heated discussion, but she stands by her words.

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Stockton Unified School District Police Officer Myra Franco and Chief Jim West patrol 50 schools in California's Central Valley region. One of the campuses was the site of a 1989 shooting massacre.

How To Be The Good Guy With A Gun At School

9:30am March 27, 2013

by Richard Gonzales

In the aftermath of the Newtown school shooting, there's a raging public debate over placing armed guards in schools. Some say it's impractical, but about a third of American schools already have some kind of armed security. One school police officer in Stockton, Calif., finds the job is part protector, part mentor.

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News Corp. Education Tablet: For The Love Of Learning?

1:32pm March 18, 2013

by David Folkenflik

The Amplify tablet is specially designed for K-12 classroom interaction. While the company touts the ability to improve teaching and learning, critics have questioned News Corp.'s motives.

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Op-Ed: We Need More Aaron Swartz-Style Hacktivism

3:58pm March 11, 2013

When Internet activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide, he faced federal charges for illegally downloading and releasing articles from JSTOR, the digital library of academic journals. Northwestern University professor Peter Ludlow says Swartz was right to fight for public access to scholarship.

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Federal Probe Targets Uneven Discipline At Seattle Schools

6:13pm March 07, 2013

by Ann Dornfeld

Students of color have long been punished in far higher numbers than white students in Seattle. The Education Department is looking at whether black students are disciplined more frequently and more harshly than white students for the same behavior.

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Manslaughter Charges Upgraded In Florida A&M Hazing Case

6:20pm March 05, 2013

by Kathy Lohr

Twelve former members of the Florida A&M marching band are charged in the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion. The charges have now been upgraded to manslaughter. Champion's parents said Tuesday that they are encouraged by the stiffer charges.

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Skipping Out On College And 'Hacking Your Education'

5:18am March 05, 2013

by NPR Staff

Dale Stephens says many students would be better off ditching college and finding alternate ways to complete their educations. His new book, Hacking Your Education, explores that idea. "When you think about education as an investment, you have to think about what the return is going to be," he says.

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