Education category, Page 80
Hampton School District gets creative with plans to honor graduating seniors
Faced with orders to keep schools closed for the remainder of the year, Hampton School District officials have come up with a plan to celebrate graduating seniors. Seniors and their families will receive a letter this week from high school principal Marguerite Imbarlina outlining the variety of activities planned. “I...
Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact financial health of colleges, universities
Less than a month into a shutdown that forced colleges and universities across the country to transition to online classes, covid-19 is exposing new fractures in higher education. When students were forced to leave campus months before the end of the spring semester, residential campuses had to come up with...
College students cope with shortcomings of online learning during coronavirus
Ironic and goofy humor fills this Facebook page. There’s a picture of a tombstone that reads “Here lies my motivation to do online college classes.” There are GIFs and memes repurposing lines from “Parks and Recreation” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Each post is a lighthearted joke, and each one has received...
Carnegie Science Center offers resources for online classes
Now that the covid-19 crisis has forced Pennsylvania schools to turn to online instruction for the remainder of the academic year, Carnegie Science Center is offering to help educators. The resources being offered include educational activities, videos and lesson plans on Carnegie Science Center’s new Online Educator Resources page. The...
Franklin Regional senior earns 4 digital media awardsVideo
When Ryan Lucht and fellow Franklin Regional media student Tim Quinn made a short horror film, they never expected that it would lead to meeting horror industry icons such as Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero. Then again, given the success that the school’s media students have had in recent years...
Gov. Wolf closes Pennsylvania schools for rest of academic year
Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday announced that all schools will stay closed for the rest of the academic year. “We must continue our efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus during this national crisis,” Wolf said in a statement. “This was not an easy decision, but closing schools until...
New head of Shady Side Academy Senior School named
The leader of a Princeton day school has been appointed the new head of Shady Side Academy Senior School. Trixie Sabundayo is scheduled to take the helm of the Fox Chapel-based campus on July 1, saying she is overjoyed to have found an institution that values the minds and hearts...
Pittsburgh Tech companies help pay for laptops for 7,000 city students
Pittsburgh’s technology sector is pulling together to provide computers for more than 7,000 city schoolchildren who need them for virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic. The Pittsburgh Technology Council organized a teleconference and group chat on Tuesday where Gerardo Interiano, who heads government relations for Pittsburgh-based self-driving vehicle company Aurora,...
Woodland Hills High School hands out laptops for online learning
Woodland Hills High School handed out laptops to students in need Friday as it gears up for online classes. Many of the laptops were paid through by donations. from people and companies in and around the community Principal Philip Woods said earlier this week that he was seeking to buy...
North Hills school districts close buildings, fields; switch to remote learning
School districts in the North Hills are taking various steps to implement the governor’s decision to close all schools indefinitely to help reduce the spread of coronavirus. All the districts have posted detailed information on their websites about how the closures are being handled. In addition to implementing distance learning...
Alicia Santi: Charter schools under attack
My son, like many children in Pennsylvania, is a student with special needs — specifically, developmental disorders requiring him to receive individual tutoring. Like the experiences of many others who have found that the public cyber school option works best for their child, my son would easily get distracted by...
Winchester Thurston closing North Campus, merging to Shadyside
Operations at Winchester Thurston’s Allison Park campus will merge this fall with the school’s sister facility in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. The board of directors voted to unite the two campuses to provide a more integrated learning experience for its 715 students, according to Scott D. Fech, head of school. “A...
2 Laurel Highlands school employees test positive for covid-19
Two Laurel Highlands School District employees tested positive for covid-19, according to a letter posted on the district website by Superintendent Jesse Wallace. Neither employee has been inside a school district building in the last couple of weeks, he said. Both employees are assigned to Hutchinson Elementary School. The employees...
Match Day becomes day of giving for Pitt medical students during coronavirus pandemic
Match Day is an occasion University of Pittsburgh medical students eagerly await each spring. It’s a national event during which the majority of medical students across the country receive their residency assignments. The aspiring doctors usually gather together to simultaneously open letters that announce their residency training location — a...
Adapting: The ‘second first day of school’
Editor’s note: Adapting is a regular series spotlighting the ways the global coronavirus pandemic is changing the everyday lives of people in Western Pennsylvania. On Monday, students in many areas across Pennsylvania had their “second first day of school,” in the form of school districts’ online learning plan going into...
Woodland Hills School District seeking donations to provide laptops to all students
A high school principal has set out to buy 700 laptops, which could cost around $171,500, for his students so they can begin mandatory online instruction in April. Since launching a fundraising effort March 27, the Woodland Hills School District has received around $30,000 in donations from the community, according...
Greater Latrobe changes meal schedule, grading system during coronavirus closure
Greater Latrobe School District has changed its student meal distribution schedule and grading process as the statewide coronavirus-driven closure of schools continues indefinitely. The district consolidated distribution of Grab-and-Go meals for students from every weekday to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while schools remain closed. Multiple meals will be provided from...
Reports of Schoology crash as school districts transition to online learning
Connectivity is a top priority for students, as many school districts began official distance learning on Monday. Amid the transition, one learning management system, Schoology, experienced server issues, kicking students out of online classrooms and producing load errors. “We are aware some users are experiencing degraded service when accessing Schoology....
Feds call temporary halt to collection on defaults on federal student debt
Borrowers in default on federal student loans are getting a 60-day reprieve on collections and wage garnishments. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on Wednesday announced that the move that will affect about 830,000 borrowers nationwide will last “at least 60 days from March 13, 2020,” as the U.S. battles...
At a glance: Distance learning in your school district; when classes could resume
Many school districts are conducting or have plans to begin distance learning for students while schools are closed. Below is information released by districts about when distance learning will begin and when, eventually, students might return to classrooms. This list will be updated and school districts added as information becomes...
Pennsylvania Secretary of Education says on time graduation for high school seniors a priority
Ensuring that high school seniors graduate on time is among his top priorities as Pennsylvania grapples with the prospect of an extended school shutdown because of covid-19 fears, Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera said Wednesday, stressing that the school year cannot be extended beyond June 30. “We’ve put a full...
Local officials criticize Liberty University as students return
RICHMOND, Va. — Officials in Lynchburg, Va., said Tuesday they were fielding complaints about the hundreds of students who have returned from their spring break to Liberty University, where President Jerry Falwell Jr. has welcomed them back amid the coronavirus pandemic. “We could not be more disappointed in the action...
Western Pa. teachers posting motivational, inspirational selfies for studentsVideo
Teachers in the region have taken to self-portraiture to let their students – or “kids” – know they care for them through the coronavirus pandemic. The teachers’ selfies have appeared in compilation videos made by staff at Deer Lakes and Mars Area school districts, and Penn Hills School District is...
Pitt allows students to convert classes to pass/fail grading
The University of Pittsburgh is allowing students to convert their courses to pass/fail grading when classes resume online next week. In a letter to faculty members, Provost Ann Cudd said all undergraduate and graduate students can convert any of their courses to pass/fail grading after the semester ends. Passing grades...
All Pennsylvania standardized testing canceled amid coronavirus pandemic
All Pennsylvania System of State Assessment (PSSA), Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) and Keystone exams have been canceled for the 2019-2020 school year amid the covid-19 pandemic, the state Department of Education announced Friday. “Our school communities are operating within unprecedented conditions,” said Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera. “Schools...
