at-risk

The federal government's push for drastic reforms at chronically low-achieving schools has led to takeovers by charter operators, overhauls of staff and curriculum, and even school shutdowns across the country.

The on-time graduation rate for Oregon high school students in the class of 2012 is up, but barely. The Oregonian reported that state figures showed the rate rose by less than a percentage point and remains at 68 percent. Gov. John Kitzhaber and his chief education officer, Rudy Crew, call 68 percent unacceptably low.

Louisiana public education is plagued with problems. Students aren’t graduating from high school, students who can’t read are being asked to write book reports, teachers either don’t care or are underpaid—you get the picture.

As district budgets are cut and school psychologists retire, their difficult and crucial role working with troubled students may be endangered.

Amabilia Villeda received a surprising phone call from her daughter's teacher one day — the sixth-grader could barely read. "How did this happen?" Villeda said. "Now she's in eighth grade and reads at third-grade level."

At two previous sessions, PTA president Mary Harris requested increased access to computers and infrastructure improvements. This time, she thanked the board and county officials for listening.

Utah educators will begin to use the same strategy at all schools, looking for ways to prevent the growing number of teen suicides.

Youth internet addiction has reached a desperate and concerning level — so much so that it's resulting in legal action. Most recently, two California teens were charged with "conspiracy and willfully mingling a pharmaceutical with food" after one of them drugged her parents' milkshakes to bypass a 10 p.m. internet curfew. When children begin drugging their own parents for extra minutes on the web, the issue has gone from comical to dangerous, and something needs to change.