Education category, Page 46
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...
What’s that? Greensburg Salem one-room schoolhouse preserves past for students
Editor’s note: “What’s That?” is a recurring feature in the Tribune-Review’s Westmoreland Plus edition. If there’s something you’d like to see explored here, send an email to gtrcity@tribweb.com. Atop a hill, tucked behind Amos K. Hutchinson Elementary in Southwest Greensburg, a building-sized time capsule is only a few steps outside...
Pitt Chancellor-elect Joan Gabel faces array of challenges as she prepares to take helm
Once Joan Gabel arrives in July from the University of Minnesota, the success of her tenure as University of Pittsburgh chancellor might hinge on the same unforgiving metrics that were used to judge her male predecessors. Fundraising will be key among them. Even with its $5.5 billion endowment, a thriving...
Pittsburgh Public Schools files suit against social-media companies
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have filed a federal lawsuit against multiple international social media companies, accusing them of fomenting “an unprecedented mental health crisis fueled by (their) addictive and dangerous social media platforms.” The school district filed the suit April 6 against Meta Platforms (Facebook’s parent company), Meta Payments, Siculus,...
University of Pittsburgh doctor, professor sues school; alleges retaliation over his affirmative action views
A University of Pittsburgh cardiologist has filed a new civil complaint in federal court alleging retaliation and discrimination against him over affirmative action views expressed in a paper published and later retracted by the Journal of the American Heart Association. Norman C. Wang is on the faculty of Pitt’s School...
Joan Gabel to become first woman to serve as Pitt chancellor
Joan Gabel, president and chief executive of the University of Minnesota system and its Twin Cities campus, has been named as the University of Pittsburgh’s 19th and first woman chancellor. Pitt’s board of trustees voted Monday at a special meeting to make her chancellor-elect. She will succeed Patrick Gallagher, 60,...
Pitt on verge of naming new chancellor; vote expected at Monday trustees meeting
University of Pittsburgh trustees have called a special meeting for Monday and are expected to vote on a resolution to name a successor to Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. The 11 a.m. main campus meeting inside Alumni Hall’s Connolly ballroom is to be livestreamed and will include “Remarks of the Chancellor Elect,”...
Active shooter calls send panic across Western Pa. before deemed a hoax by investigators
Panic, confusion and then relief spread across the region Wednesday morning after two Pittsburgh Catholic schools received what investigators deemed were hoax active shooter threats that prompted evacuations, lockdowns and large responses from police. Families raced to Oakland Catholic and Central Catholic high schools as the news unfolded, but soon...
New source of water found in moon samples from China missionVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Scientists have discovered a new and renewable source of water on the moon for future explorers in lunar samples from a Chinese mission. Water was embedded in tiny glass beads in the lunar dirt where meteorite impacts occur. These shiny, multicolored glass beads were in samples...
Hempfield middle school redistricting plan approved
Hempfield students and their families now know what schools they will be attending next year. The Hempfield Area School Board approved a redistricting plan that consolidates the district’s three middle schools into two and defines which schools students will attend. School directors voted in February to combine the middle schools...
Hempfield middle school redistricting proposal up for vote
Hempfield families will soon have some final answers about what schools their children will attend in the wake of the board’s decision to consolidate its three middle schools into two. Directors are set to vote on a proposed redistricting plan when they meet at 7 p.m. Monday. Elementary students who...
Shapiro says tax credits for new teachers needed to address shortage in Pa. schools
Pennsylvania certified more than 20,000 teachers every year a decade ago, but those numbers have dropped dramatically, Gov. Josh Shapiro said during a Tuesday visit to Pittsburgh’s Colfax K-8 school. Shapiro said the state certified only 6,100 teachers last year. At the news conference in Squirrel Hill, Shapiro said he...
Digital literacy: Can the republic ‘survive an algorithm’?
SEATTLE — Shawn Lee, a high school social studies teacher in Seattle, wants to see lessons on the internet akin to a kind of 21st century driver’s education, an essential for modern life. Lee has tried to bring that kind of education into his classroom, with lessons about the need...
