Education category, Page 46
Penn State University trustees to weigh spending $70 million for first phase of Beaver Stadium renovation
Penn State University appears poised to move forward with the first phase of renovating Beaver Stadium, a closely watched project to extend the life of one of the nation’s largest and most familiar college football venues. University trustees, due to meet Friday, May 5 at University Park, are expected to...
Commencement season gets underway
A friend asked Katy Nesbitt what’s more stressful: Being second-guessed by thousands of screaming World Cup soccer fans in a gigantic stadium or giving the commencement speech at her alma mater. The first American woman to referee at a men’s World Cup, Nesbitt laughed at the thought, knowing she will...
Woodland Hills district makes historic effort to cut property taxes
Homeowners in the Woodland Hills School District will get a break on their property taxes under a preliminary budget approved on Wednesday. The school board voted 8-1 to approve a 0.5 mil reduction on their tax bill for the 2023-2024 school year. Woodland Hills says its the first tax cut...
Hempfield book acquisition, challenge regulations advance for future vote
Parents in Hempfield Area School District remain divided over whether books that some deem objectionable should be taught in the classroom or available in the library. The school board this week advanced a policy that has been in the works for about a year that could be adopted in June....
Pitt names next dean of university’s School of Arts and Sciences
A nationwide search to find a new dean for the University of Pittsburgh’s largest school has led to an educator already working on campus. Adam K. Leibovich, described by Pitt officials as a prolific scholar and accomplished teacher, will become dean of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and...
Decision on Hempfield middle school redistricting postponed until May
Parents of Hempfield Area middle school students will have to wait a little longer to get concrete answers on where their students will attend classes next year, as the school board postponed its vote this week on an updated redistricting plan until May 8. Under the first proposal approved in...
Tuition discounting by private colleges and universities reaches new high
Sticker prices at private colleges may be sky high, but what many students actually pay has been lower as those schools aggressively compete by dangling deep tuition discounts. Now, a new study finds that for the first time, entering and returning undergraduates at those schools, on average, are paying less...
Affordability remains top issue for Pa.’s state-related universities during budget process
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities are asking the legislature for a long-awaited budget increase,...
As Pitt imposes ticket limit on graduation ceremony, some worry that family will be left out
The April 19 message sent to University of Pittsburgh students readying for graduation Sunday began routinely enough: “We are very excited that so many graduates will be joining us at the universitywide commencement ceremony on April 30, ” it read. Then came the next sentence, posted in bold: “Due to...
New Hempfield book challenge, acquisition rules up for vote
After more than a year of debate, Hempfield Area School Board is set to vote on new book selection and challenge regulations for the district’s libraries. The draft regulations, which were discussed by board members in January, would set guidelines for preventing sexually explicit content from entering or staying in...
No ‘au revoir’ just yet: Penn-Trafford to keep French program, for now
French language courses at Penn-Trafford School District won’t be going away anytime soon. After previously announcing the program would be phased out because of a lack of enrollment and the retirement of the district’s longtime high school French teacher, the Penn-Trafford School Board decided last week to continue the program,...
Hempfield seventh graders celebrate ‘Day of Service’
Students at Hempfield Area School District’s Wendover Middle School got to take a break from classwork to spend time helping those in need through a “Day of Service” event organized by seventh grade teachers. During their school day, 120 students across five homerooms replaced their usual classes with three service...
An end to the reading wars? More U.S. schools embrace phonics
Move over “Dick and Jane.” A different approach to teaching kids how to read is on the rise. For decades, two schools of thought have clashed on how to best teach children to read, with passionate backers on each side of the so-called reading wars. The battle has reached into...
‘Too much to learn’: Schools race to catch up kids’ reading
ATLANTA — Michael Crowder stands nervously at the front of his third grade classroom, his mustard-yellow polo shirt buttoned to the top. “Give us some vowels,” says his teacher, La’Neeka Gilbert-Jackson. His eyes search a chart that lists vowels, consonant pairs and word endings, but he doesn’t land on an...
Hempfield approaches 50-year anniversary of civics education class
At the start of the school year, during the first few minutes of Hempfield Area teacher Ken Stough’s classes, students are asked to imagine their typical day. Stough and the students write down activities they do on a day-to-day basis in detail, and then return to each item with a...
Free speech or hate speech? Pitt students reflect on trans rights protest, emergency alerts
Macaiah Thaxton, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, supports rights for transgender people but also understands why Pitt did not stop conservative guest speaker Michael Knowles from debating about the topic during a protest-provoking event on campus. “Do I think that Michael Knowles is someone who I would like...
Uvalde families plead for languishing Texas gun bills
AUSTIN, Texas — Parents whose children were killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre made sobbing pleads for stricter gun laws before legislators early Wednesday on languishing proposals that appeared headed to stall in the face of a Republican majority. The emotional late-night hearing — which started Tuesday morning and...
Tennessee moves to shield gun firms after school shooting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In the wake of a deadly school shooting last month, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee awarded final passage Tuesday to a proposal that would further protect gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits. The Senate’s 19-9 vote sends the bill to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, despite...
Pitt students hold ‘die-in’ to protest university’s delay in notifying campus of threat hoax
About 100 University of Pittsburgh students laid down outside the Cathedral of Learning on Friday afternoon to stage a “die-in” to protest the university’s delay in notifying campus about active shooter threats Monday night. The incident reported at Hillman Library proved to be a hoax. But students who laid down...
PennWest says move to consolidate academic colleges will save $2M
PennWest University will consolidate its six academic colleges into three and rename them as the year-old university — itself created through a merger — seeks to cut costs while reversing enrollment losses. The university’s Council of Trustees approved the measure Thursday. Officials gave few details afterward about the reorganization, but...
Pitt official says more faculty need active killer training sessions
Not enough of the University of Pittsburgh’s 5,800 faculty have opted to take a campus police course that could save their lives if someone with a gun, knife or other weapon invades campus, a top official said. Fallout from Monday night’s active shooter hoaxes and a nearly 90-minute delay by...
Westmoreland Intermediate Unit will host first education fair in Youngwood
Belle Vernon Area School District Superintendent Kenneth Williams is looking for a few good men and women interested in education. And he is hardly alone. “School districts have been struggling with finding high-caliber candidates to fill positions for quite some time,” Williams said. With that in mind, the Westmoreland Intermediate...
Pitt student, others describe chaotic scene of gunman hoax; chancellor says, ‘We must do better’
Jullian Lorenzo awoke in his dorm room at the University of Pittsburgh late Monday night to the sound of sirens, nonstop coming from outdoors and 10 stories down. Peering from his window inside Bruce Hall, diagonally across Forbes Avenue from Hillman Library, he saw a chaotic scene, the start of...
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor-elect Joan Gabel talks top priorities
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor-elect Joan Gabel said in a wide-ranging interview Monday that her top priorities after taking office figure to include identifying the school’s next provost, initiating a capital campaign and dealing with tuition and labor issues. But Gabel said her first 100 days and beyond “will also include...
Award-winning mental health services at Penn-Trafford look to uncertain future
Penn-Trafford School District psychologist Dr. Wendy Westwood still remembers the calls and emails she and others received from students at the beginning of the pandemic. “Coming back from covid, we noticed a huge increase in mental health concerns, across the board from elementary to high school,” she said. “We had...
