Center for Investigative Reporting

August 26th, 2011

When kids feel connected and have a strong sense of belonging to the school community, they do better in school. They persist in school at higher rates and achieve at higher rates. … It’s pretty promising that engaging in social networking sites could help them to develop and deepen their bonds over time.

Professor Christine Greenhow of the University of Maryland. Greenhow’s new research has found that students build important bonds when they connect with school friends on social networking sites. Read more.

July 13th, 2011

Gay student’s suicide triggers wrongful-death lawsuit

The mother of a deceased 13-year-old middle school student has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Tehachapi Unified School District in California after federal authorities concluded school officials didn’t adequately respond to the gay teen’s complaints of attacks and harassment.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Kern County, accuses school district Superintendent Richard Swanson, Jacobsen Middle School Principal Susan Ortega and several teachers of violating Seth Walsh’s federal civil rights.

In September, Walsh, an eighth-grader at Jacobsen, hanged himself moments after being taunted and attacked by classmates. The suit argues that Walsh’s death resulted from continual public taunting and assaults from classmates that were ignored by school officials.

Walsh’s story sparked outrage and a national dialogue about the harassment of gay and lesbian students in public schools.

July 6th, 2011

America's biggest teacher and principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta

csmonitor:

At least 178 teachers and principals in Atlanta Public Schools cheated to raise student scores on high-stakes standardized tests, according to a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.

Reblogged from The Christian Science Monitor

June 14th, 2011

World News: American Students Don't Know American History: Only 2% of high school seniors could identify what Brown V. Board of...

NYT

American students are less proficient in their nation’s history than in any other subject, according to results of a nationwide test released on Tuesday, with most fourth graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify China as the North Korean ally that fought American troops during the Korean War.

Over all, 20 percent of fourth graders, 17 percent of eighth graders and 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency on the exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Federal officials said they were encouraged by a slight increase in eighth-grade scores since the last administration of the history test, in 2006. But even those gains offered little to celebrate, because, for example, fewer than a third of eighth graders could answer even a “seemingly easy question” asking them to identify an important advantage American forces had over the British during the Revolution, the government’s statement on the results said.

Reblogged from World News

June 3rd, 2011

Spending far from equal among California school districts, analysis finds

California state lawmakers have struggled for decades to bring equality to how school districts are funded, yet some districts receive thousands more per student than others, a California Watch analysis has found. And the data shows spending more provides no assurance of academic success.

Last year, California schools spent an average of $8,452 to educate each student, a figure that includes money from local, state, and federal sources, including one-time stimulus funds.

Do you live in California? Check out how much your district spends per student in an online database. Bigger expenditures didn’t assure higher scores on the state’s Academic Performance Index, which is based on student test scores and other academic measures. You can download the raw data for this analysis here.

Photo by Casey Christie/Bakersfield Californian

May 16th, 2011

When I had first arrived at SQU in October, students told me about another bus accident that had killed 12 girls. No, seven. Actually it was 15. No, it was 20. No, someone else insisted. Only four died. How can you not know the number, I implored my students. And then I’d go on to describe how we’d often arrive at a body count when covering a suicide bombing in Iraq, where I had been a reporter for the Washington Post in 2004 and 2005. “You check with the U.S. military because they often send soldiers to secure the scene,” I explained. “And then you call the health ministry in Baghdad because they coordinate with the hospitals. Of course you talk to witnesses, but they’re often emotional and not always objective. You can go to the hospitals yourselves, although if it’s a large bombing, you may have to go to four or five, and the streets might be barricaded. But if you really want to know, you go to the morgue and you count the bodies.

Jackie Spinner, a former Washington Post staff writer, reflects in College Media Matters on her efforts to launch an independent student newspaper called Al Mir’ah in Oman. She has also launched student newspapers in Iraq.

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Founded in 1977, the Center for Investigative Reporting is the nation's oldest nonprofit investigative news organization, producing multimedia reporting that has impact and is relevant to people's lives. Building on our long track record of award-winning print, broadcast and web reporting, CIR is now seeking to help lead the way in transforming journalism for the 21st century.

Center for Investigative Reporting

Gay student’s suicide triggers wrongful-death lawsuit

Spending far from equal among California school districts, analysis finds

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