Schools still feel the effects of post-recession budget cuts eight years after the economic crisis reached its zenith. A study by the Center on Budget and Policy Studies showed that 25 states in 2014 were spending less per student than before the recession, adjusted for inflation. Budget cuts in seven states exceeded 10 percent, according […]
Educators in Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools intend to remove the obstacles that prevent students who have severe social anxiety from attending school, a phenomenon known as "school refusal behavior." The initiative, called Aspire, is housed at Quander Road School, a small district-run-and-funded therapeutic day program designed as an alternative setting for high school students […]
An $84 million renovation that includes a pedestrian walkway and greater security at Fayetteville High School in Arkansas is one of many projects recognized by the American Institute of Architects. Three architectural firms—Hight Jackson Associates, DLR Group and Marlon Blackwell Architects—gave the school's multiple buildings a unified design that better facilitates pedestrian flow while also […]
Facing a ballooning teacher shortage in recent years, Clark County School District in Nevada launched a social media and email recruiting strategy, sending messages to self-identified school teachers over LinkedIn and reaching more than 2.5 million on Facebook. "When you have a staffing crisis, you have to come up with something different to do" says […]
Alaska recently graduated its first class of Russian dual-language students who began the program in kindergarten. That's just one example of the growing diversity of language-immersion programs in U.S. schools. While Spanish remains a constant, there is an increased demand nationally for dual-language programs in Portuguese, German, French and Mandarin, says Pete Swanson, president of […]
As teaching has evolved with the increase of educational technology, so has the classroom space itself. Many schools are creating more comfortable, coffee shop-like collaborative environments with a new breed of desks, chairs and work tables. The latest trends in classroom furniture also reflect the need to better support technology. Charging stations abound, and traditional […]
New teaching techniques and learning technology top the agenda at this fall's conference of the National Council for the Social Studies. Technology is quickly becoming a popular tool in social studies classrooms as teachers find ways to make history come alive for their students, who simultaneously learn about content and improve their technology skills, says […]
Jay County—a rural district in Indiana—has the highest child poverty rate (35 percent) in the state. We've suffered like most of the rural areas. While our unemployment rate is just a little over 4 percent, there aren't a lot of high-paying jobs. Many of them are low-level manufacturing and agriculture jobs, so people are leaving […]
Atlanta's film industry has in recent years boomed to third place behind Los Angeles and New York City, and incoming studios noted a major skills gap when looking for videographers, scene constructors, prop creators and costume designers. Leaders of Fulton County Schools in Georgia responded. Three years ago, administrators met with studio executives to develop […]
