A long-standing Texas law that has sent about 100,000 students a year to criminal court — and some to jail — for missing school is off the books, though a Justice Department investigation into one county’s truancy courts continues. Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a measure to decriminalize unexcused absences and require school … Continue reading
Prominent alumnae of Sweet Briar College are rejoicing over a mediated settlement to keep the 114-year-old Virginia women’s college open, a rescue deal that caps frantic monthslong efforts to stave off a planned August closure. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced the settlement Saturday, saying $12 million raised by determined alumnae to keep the women’s … Continue reading
When four Eastern View High School students learned about the recurring flooding of Mountain Run throughout Yowell Meadow Park at the intersection of Sperryville Pike and Blue Ridge Avenue, ideas to fix the problem began to flow. With the guidance of Stephanie DeNicola-Turner, education/information coordinator for the Culpeper Soil & Water Conservation District, the team’s … Continue reading
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — For years, education groups have warned that lagging pay for teachers in Virginia and other states could lead to fewer people entering the field. Now they have evidence to back up their fears. Between 2010 and 2014, the number of ACT-tested high school graduates who said they were interested in education … Continue reading
The Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind has named Pat Trice as superintendent. Trice had served as interim superintendent since longtime superintendent Nancy Armstrong retired last summer. The News Leader (http://bit.ly/1eAN6od ) reports that the school’s Board of Visitors unanimously approved Trice’s appointment on Friday. The board has been discussing the school’s direction to … Continue reading
A black drinking buddy of the white man accused of killing nine people at a Charleston church says the suspect told him a week earlier that he planned to shoot up a college campus in the city. The friend, Christon Scriven, told The Associated Press on Friday that he thought Dylann Roof’s statements were just … Continue reading
Four years after taking union rights away from teachers and other public workers in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker now wants to strip job protections for University of Wisconsin professors in a move he likens to the 2011 law that made him a national figure and set up his expected presidential run. Eliminating tenure in state … Continue reading
The Kenyan government announced a goal to get 100,000 Somali refugees to return home voluntarily by the end of the year, a government official said Thursday as funding shortages have forced the U.N to reduce food rations for the displaced. Government officials have blamed refugee camps in Kenya for the rise in extremism in the … Continue reading
Venezuela has already lost many of its brightest young professionals to better-paying jobs abroad, and now the South American country is also losing the professors who trained them. College professors in this socialist country plagued by a cash crunch, shortages and spiraling inflation are abandoning their jobs in droves, unable or unwilling to survive on … Continue reading
A northern Virginia teen has pleaded guilty to providing material support to a foreign terrorist group. Seventeen-year-old Ali Shukri Amin entered the plea Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, appearing in a blue jump suit from Northern Neck Regional Jail. He faces up to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors said the crime involved helping another … Continue reading
High school students in northwest Washington grieved two classmates who were killed when an SUV jumped a curb and plowed into a group of teens on a walk during gym class. About 30 students from Windward High School in Ferndale, about 13 miles south of the Canadian border, were walking with a teacher Wednesday afternoon … Continue reading
The president of the University of Mary Washington says claims the school failed to act on sexual and violent cyber threats are “irresponsible allegations.” President Richard V. Hurley responded in a lengthy statement Monday to a Title IX complaint filed one month ago by student members of Feminists United on Campus. The group said members … Continue reading
A former teacher who travels the country to document the final resting places of poets is looking forward to calling attention to African-American poets on a tour of the South and elsewhere. Black poets have been writing about injustice and hardship since the days of slavery, and the theme rings true today, given the recent … Continue reading
A federal judge erased three suspensions from the school record of an Everett student who preached and handed out Christian booklets. Cascade High School senior Michael Leal filed a lawsuit against Everett Public Schools last November, saying his constitutional right of free speech was being infringed. School officials said he was suspended for being disruptive, … Continue reading
Forget pricey imported oil paints and exorbitant blocks of marble. Art students at a Brazilian university have taken advantage of one material they have in endless and free supply — trash — to create an exhibition that aims to draw attention to the fetid state of Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, where Olympic sailing events … Continue reading
Police have arrested four teenagers they say abducted a high school student at gunpoint. Multiple news outlets report an 18-year-old male from Wilson Memorial High School in Fisherville was taken by five people late Friday night and released early Saturday morning. Police said the victim’s abductors were wearing black hoods and he was tied up with … Continue reading
Brothers Molham and Mohammad Kayali spray-painted anti-government graffiti around Aleppo University in northern Syria in early 2012 and held up flags in protest against President Bashar al Assad’s government. Worried that their lives were in danger, they gave up on school and fled to Turkey in September 2012. They were reunited last year with their … Continue reading
Olivia Ortiz was elated when the U.S. Department of Education contacted her in June of 2013 to tell her it was opening an investigation into her complaint that the University of Chicago had mishandled her sexual assault case. A junior at the time, she had run out of options on campus after a dean decided … Continue reading
The nonprofit organization behind the SAT college entrance exam has teamed up with a Silicon Valley pioneer in online education to make test preparation materials available for free starting Tuesday, a move aimed at making the college admissions race less stressful and more fair. The College Board gave unprecedented access to the revamped SAT it … Continue reading
More than two-thirds of American adults with disabilities are “striving to work,” according to a national employment survey being released just before the landmark legislation protecting their rights turns 25. In contrast to census data on how many people with disabilities hold jobs, the survey being released Wednesday by the Kessler Foundation goes further by … Continue reading
The teeming plant world could become a virtual mystery in the coming decades as college students increasingly shy away from studying botany and universities across the U.S. shutter their long-standing herbaria. Since 1988, the number of research universities offering botany degrees has dropped by half, according to National Science Foundation research funding statistics. And the … Continue reading
The battle to keep Sweet Briar College open is headed to the Supreme Court of Virginia amid a spirited campaign to reverse the decision to close the women’s college. Justices are scheduled to hear an appeal Thursday of a failed bid to block the small private college from shuttering its picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains campus … Continue reading
As the last Louisa County High School senior crossed the graduation stage at The Jungle on May 22, the county closed another chapter of earthquake history. The 317 seniors who compose Louisa’s Class of 2015 haven’t had a brick-and-mortar school of their own since August 2011_and that lasted only about a week. On Tuesday, Aug. … Continue reading
On a recent bright spring morning, students admitted to the Barnard College Class of 2019 gathered on campus. As blue-and-white balloons fluttered in the breeze, the prospective freshmen attended panels and lunched on the lawn, chatting animatedly with current students. There were, of course, young women from a variety of backgrounds, but at least one … Continue reading
LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — The parents of an elementary school student they say was attacked on her school bus in Prince George’s County have filed a lawsuit against the county and the public school system. The suit, filed Wednesday, accuses the parties of negligence and asks for $10 million in compensation after the girl’s parents … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 