current events

A Florida school district has released video that appears to show a bus driver kicking an autistic student down the stairs. Wilkerson was fired after the Sept. 28, 2012, incident, which Tampa police say resulted in a broken ankle for the young girl, reported NBC affiliate WFLA.com. Wilkerson now faces aggravated child abuse charges, the station said.

About 35 sixth-graders at DSST Stapleton learned some hard lessons about cheating last month. The students were caught worming their way into an online instant assessment program in science and English (called “mastery checks”) and changing answers so their teachers would believe they had mastered subjects.

Two Ohio high school football players have been found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that roiled a small city and stirred reaction from activists online. Judge Thomas Lipps ruled Sunday in juvenile court that Steubenville High School students Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond are guilty of attacking the girl after an alcohol-fueled party last August.

The Boston School Committee, in a momentous vote Wednesday, scrapped a school assignment plan developed under court-ordered desegregation almost a quarter-century ago and embraced a new system that seeks to allow more students to attend schools closer to home.

Thousands of New York parents have emailed state and city education officials in recent weeks protesting this plan to share student data with private companies — yet no parent has gotten any response. The most sensitive confidential data is being shared, including children’s names, emails, phone numbers, and photos, which will be stored along with grades, test scores, health conditions, disabilities and detailed disciplinary records.

Now that P.S. 64 Pura Belpre school in Mount Eden is set to phase out in three years, parents are concerned that children in the school are condemned. The kindergarten through fifth grade school is beset with feckless teachers, bullying, large classes and a lack of textbooks and homework, parents charged.

Teresa Armstrong is steamed. The Virginia mother of four has spent the last few weeks watching, reading and listening to politicians argue about the country's finances but fail to reach a deal to prevent impending across-the-board cuts to federal spending. She doesn't understand how they can bicker endlessly while the consequences for her daughter, Angela, hang in the balance.

Districts are bracing themselves for the impact of the major education cuts set to occur with the March 1 sequestration as they plan their budget and staffing choices for the fall, said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a statement. If congressional lawmakers are unable to compromise on another plan to trim the national budget, Department of Education funding will be scaled back 9 percent just this year alone, according to the national Center on Budget & Policy Priorities.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is getting called out for claiming -- erroneously -- that teachers are "getting pink slips" as the sequester looms. Duncan made the claim on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. Discussing the looming spending cuts that begin to kick in Friday, he said: "There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can't come back this fall."

In his ongoing effort to make New York City a technological powerhouse, Mayor Michael Bloomberg today revealed the 20 middle and high schools selected for the city’s new Software Engineering Pilot (SEP) program. As part of the program, the schools will get “comprehensive computer science and software engineering curriculum” for around 1,000 students. The program will launch this September and is expected to grow to 3,500 students by 2016.