Ed News

Education News for 01-23-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • Mobile technology brings challenges to schools (News-Sun)

    • Schools are opting for new technology like laptops and tablets over the traditional stationary computer labs. The new technology has many benefits in education but presents problems such as funding new purchases, managing the equipment and supervising student use. At the start of this school year, Springfield City School District purchased 720 iPads at a cost of $473,000, including warranties and protective cases for each device, said Stacy Parr, the district’s technology director. Read More…

  • Law now lets public schools donate excess food (News-Herald)

    • U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette is encouraging public schools throughout Northeast Ohio to donate excess unused food to local food banks and pantries. A recent change in the law gives public schools the same protections as restaurants and caterers that donate to food banks under the Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. The food donation measure, which became law in 1996, protects donors to food banks from all liability — criminal and civil — yet did not provide public schools that same protection, said LaTourette, R-Bainbridge Township. Read More…

  • How much homework is too much? (Dispatch)

    • In the four years since Upper Arlington High School reduced homework loads, students have achieved more, in some respects. The rate of students who take at least one advanced course has doubled, to 84 percent. The past two years, scores on college entrance exams have been the highest ever at the high school. Principal Kip Greenhill sees a connection between the students’ success and the school’s target of no more than 21/2 hours of homework a night. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Parents shop for school options (Beacon Journal)

    • North Hill parent Gina Lang shopped for schools for her three children Sunday at an informational fair at the Akron-Summit County Public Library that brought area school districts, charter schools and private schools under one roof. She and her husband, Tony, were looking for an alternative to Akron Public Schools for their three children, who attend or will attend Harris elementary school and eventually, Jennings Middle School. Read More…

  • For some, school tax rates rise after home values fall (Newark Advocate)

    • NEWARK - Some Licking County taxpayers will pay more in taxes this year despite a decrease in home values. Because of overall decreases in values, tax rates for six school districts, including the Career and Technology Education Centers of Licking County, rose between .02 and .73 mills. Licking Heights residents will see their school taxes rise by 6.1 mills because of a combination of a replacement levy this past May and plummeting home values among the district's Franklin County residents. Read More…

  • What has Liberty ‘Learn’ed? (Vindicator)

    • It's no secret that the Liberty Local School District has been in financial turmoil for the better part of a decade. Voters have rejected five levies from 2001 to 2010. Not even the board of education members knew just how bad the district’s finances were when the state began to probe its books in 2011. Last February, the state announced the financial records were such a mess that an audit on the 2010 budget was impossible. Read More…

  • Bullying is a life and death issue, local educators say (Journal-News)

    • A Middletown teenager ingested household chemicals. A Ross senior posted a video on YouTube where she described cutting and burning her skin with cigarettes. A Talawanda student attempted to break his legs. The students gave authorities the same reason for their desperate acts — bullying. They were bullied by students at school to the point they thought they couldn’t escape it. Read More…

Editorial

  • Set the limits (Dispatch)

    • School officials throughout the U.S. will be very glad if the U.S. Supreme Court opts to hear arguments on an issue that plagues most of them: What they can and should do when students harass teachers, administrators or each other online. Like any form of bullying, cyber-bullying disrupts schools and can cause emotional harm to its victims. But the vast reach of the Internet greatly magnifies the damage when, say, a student creates a fake MySpace profile characterizing the principal as a pervert, or another creates a website portraying a classmate as promiscuous and diseased. Read More…

  • For Kasich, a State of the State road trip (Plain Dealer)

    • A State of the State speech is both a message -- and "a message." So it's notable that Republican Gov. John Kasich will give his 2012 address Feb. 7 not at the Statehouse, but at a high-performing public school in Steubenville -- a Democratic city hard by the Ohio River, and hard-hit by the economy. The constitution requires only that a governor "shall communicate at every session, by message, to the General Assembly, the condition of the state." Read More…

Education News for 01-20-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • Parents, Schools Work Around Growing Food Allergies (ONN)

    • MARENGO - Doug Eckelbarger is a Social Studies teacher who has a daughter with a potential fatal peanut allergy. "It was pretty scary, hives from head down to the torso," said Eckelbarger. Eckelbarger's daughter has had close calls before which is why it is so important to monitor what she eats at home and school, ONN's Stephanie Mennecke reported. At Highland Local Schools, they do the best they can to watch 2,000 students. Food allergies and medical conditions for each student are kept electronically. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Westerville Schools Discuss Services That Could Return If Levy Is Passed (WBNS 10 CBS)

    • WESTERVILLE - The Westerville City School Board met Wednesday to discuss the possibility of reviving programs if its proposed levy passes. Superintendent Dr. J. Daniel Good, warned students and parents that while programs could come back they may not be the same as before, 10TV's Jason Frazer reported. The district is proposing a levy in March. Administrators said approval of that levy could bring back non-athletic after-school programs, gift intervention services and reading intervention teachers. Read More…

  • Monroe schools to cut 19 employees (Middletown Journal)

    • MONROE — Monroe Local Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said Thursday 19 positions will be eliminated next school year as a part of the district’s plan to cut $2.2 million from its budget. Among the cuts will be three art and three music teaching positions as a result of general music classes in grades K-6 being eliminated along with art classes in grades K-8. Those subjects will be taught by regular classroom teachers, Lolli said. Thirteen teachers, three classified staff and three administrators are expected to be eliminated. Read More…

  • School, Student Responded Right Way To Alleged Luring (WBNS 10 CBS)

    • CIRCLEVILLE - Sheriff's officials said on Thursday that both the Logan Elm Local School District and a boy who allegedly was approached by a stranger responded the right way in a difficult situation. Police said that John Guisinger, 62, approached a 12-year-old boy at a bus stop on Wednesday and attempted to lure the boy to his car. According to investigators, the boy ran and told his family. "He was very smart. Very smart kid. Took off running, got a hold of his mom and his grandma right away, and they called the proper authorizes," said Pickaway County sheriff's Detective John Strawser. Read More…

Editorial

  • Drawing the line: What happens at home is not school business (Post-Gazette)

    • It's one thing for Pink Floyd to sing: "Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!" It's another that the U.S. Supreme Court should implicitly endorse that sentiment by not agreeing to take two cases from Pennsylvania and one from West Virginia concerning free speech and school discipline. Juvenile parodies and criticism were at issue in the cases. One was about a then-Hickory High School senior in Mercer County suspended for creating a mocking Web profile of his principal. Another involved an eighth-grader suspended in the Blue Mountain School for producing a profanity-laced profile of her principal that suggested he was a pedophile. The West Virginia case was about a teen who disparaged a fellow student online. Read More…

Education News for 01-19-2012

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State Education News

  • Superintendent excited to host State of the State address – WTOV 9 Steubenville

    • In an unprecedented move, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has decided to take his annual state of the state address on the road, to Steubenville. It marks one of the first times the address has been given somewhere other than the State House. Read More…

  • Ohio Senate OKs bill targeting cyber-bullying – Youngstown Vindicator

    • The Ohio Senate over-whelmingly approved legislation Wednesday aimed at combating cyber-bullying among school-children. House Bill 116 passed by a vote of 31-1 and heads to the Ohio House for concurrence on Senate amendments. The legislation was titled the Jessica Logan Act, in memory of a teen from the Cincinnati area who committed suicide in July 2008 after being subjected to in-school and online bullying after a nude photo of her was circulated at her school. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Westerville Schools Talks Which Cuts May Be Restored If Levy Approved – NBC 4 Columbus

    • It's one of the largest school districts in central Ohio and Wednesday night, leaders of Westerville City Schools had the difficult task of deciding which programs are more important than others. If voters approve a levy in a couple months, some programs and jobs that are as good as gone now - may be restored. Read More…

  • Plans for new Madison school buildings are catching attention of builders – News Herald

    • The Madison School District’s plans to build two schools are catching the curiosity of a lot of builders. The district held a pre-bid meeting Tuesday afternoon at which potential contractors could look at the construction documents and ask questions about the project, Superintendent Roger Goudy said at that evening’s school board meeting. Read More…

  • Newark High School students offer advice for ACT prep – Newark Advocate

    • A group of Newark High School seniors dispensed test-taking advice to juniors Wednesday during an ACT Brown Bag Lunch discussion hosted by A Call to College. The college-preparation group hosts ACT workshops and information sessions annually for juniors who will take their first test in the spring. This year, 203 students have signed up for the sessions or said they are interested in taking the test, said Lynn Straker, director of the junior program. Read More…

  • Canton McKinley football coach controversy – 19 News, WOIO

    • Anger is brewing in Canton after the Board of Education fired Canton McKinley Head Football Coach, Ron Johnson. Wednesday January 18th, community members gathered at 4pm to form rally groups to be deployed all over the City of Canton protesting the BOE's move. Read More…

  • Refinancing by TPS saves taxpayers over $6M – Toledo Blade

    • Toledo Public Schools' recent refinancing of construction bonds saved taxpayers more than $6 million, treasury officials said. The district refunded earlier this month more than $52 million in voter approved bonds that helped finance Building for Success, a decade-long program that involved more than $600 million in renovation, rebuilding, and demolition of buildings. The move let the district reduce debt owed by taxpayers on the project from about $218.8 million to $212.7 million, according to data provided by Paul Overman, TPS treasury management director. Read More…

  • Willoughby-Eastlake School District to cut 90 jobs (with video) – News Herald

    • Because of a failed levy in November, the Willoughby-Eastlake School District announced plans to balance the budget with layoffs and other measures at a public meeting Wednesday night. Hundreds of students, parents and city residents packed the South High School gym to listen to Superintendent Steve Thompson detail the effects of the levy failure, which will include cutting 50 teachers and almost 90 positions total. Read More…

  • Rocky River City Schools' 5.9-mill levy will appear on March 6 ballot – Sun News

    • Voters will have their say on Issue 13, the school district's 5.9-mill continuing operating levy, when it appears on the March 6 ballot. The proposed levy amounts to approximately $4.3 million in additional revenue for the district. For voters, that equates to an additional $15 per month per $100,000 of home valuation, or $180 per year. Read More…

  • Four Copley wrestlers disciplined over “horseplay” – Akron Beacon Journal

    • Four Copley High School wrestlers have been disciplined and four coaches are being investigated following what police call “horseplay” that ensued during an overnighter at the school. The incident took place at an annual wrestling team overnight event supervised by coaches at the high school. Read More…

Education News for 01-18-2012

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State Education News

  • School funding formula likely coming in 2013 – AP (Dayton Daily News)

    • A key state legislative leader predicted Tuesday that a new approach to paying for Ohio’s public schools will not be complete until 2013, leaving school districts across the state to grapple with their budgets in the absence of a predictable school funding formula. Lawmakers scrapped the existing “evidence-based model” of school funding advanced by former Gov. Ted Strickland in the two-year state operating budget passed in June. The formula was sweeping but lacked the funding to be carried out. Read More…

  • Ohio official: State, schools to raise bar for students – Zanesville Times Recorder

    • The minimum is not going to cut it as students embark on the real world. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner wants to help raise the bar and set new standards for Ohio's public school children to meet in the next few school years. Beginning with the 2014-15 school year, some changes include new learning standards and course content in the areas of English, math, science and social studies; and new tests to be performed online and not with pencil and paper. Read More…

  • New Ohio School Funding Formula Likely Delayed Until 2013 – State Impact Ohio

    • Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, flanked by members of the House GOP caucus, previews the party’s 2012 agenda at a Jan. 17 statehouse press conference. Ohio schools should not expect any signifcant changes in their state funding for at least another year. Schools faced major state funding cuts for the current and next school year under a funding model Ohio lawmakers enacted in June. That funding model was supposed to be temporary. But on Tuesday House Republicans announced that they plan to hold a year of hearings on the topic. Read More…

  • Ohio education czar leaving post – Columbus Dispatch

    • Gov. John Kasich’s education czar is leaving the administration to return to the private sector. Robert D. Sommers’ last day on the $109,990-a-year job will be Jan. 31. He plans to open an education-consulting business. Shortly after taking office last January, Kasich named Sommers as director of the Governor’s Office of 21st Century Education. A few months later, Sommers was one of three finalists for the state superintendent’s post but withdrew, saying he had been advised that Ohio’s ethics laws prevented him from taking the job. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Some lament Beavercreek school district’s reduced bus service – Dayton Daily News

    • The Beavercreek school district’s reduced busing services went into effect Tuesday, leaving some parents and students to lament the lost convenience. “There’s just more traffic,” said Cierra Young, a sophomore who rode the bus to and from school each day. “It’s taking everyone about 15 to 20 minutes longer.” Read More…

  • Schools combat childhood obesity – WTOV-9

    • Childhood obesity is a concern all across the nation, but especially in the valley, with studies placing Ohio and West Virginia in the top 15 for childhood obesity. With this week being National Healthy Weight Awareness week, NEWS9 visited one local school to see how they try and combat the problem. Read More…

  • Buses roll, Little Miami Schools can hire again – Cincinnati Enquirer

    • After years of no service for hundreds of students, buses will roll again Monday at Little Miami Schools, state officials overseeing the insolvent district said Tuesday evening. And for the first time in three years, the district will be allowed to rehire a part-time curriculum director as it enters the state testing period this spring. Read More…

  • Columbus schools tax-advisory panel mostly corporate executives – Columbus Dispatch

    • A CEO-studded group of business leaders dominates the list of people who will recommend whether, when and by how much Columbus City Schools residents’ taxes could go up. Superintendent Gene Harris delivered eight names to the Board of Education last night. Six of those are business leaders. Read More…

  • Therapy dogs give young readers patient, nonjudgmental audience at libraries – Columbus Dispatch

    • Clutching the pages of Baby Max and Ruby, 5-year-old Maariya Imtiyaz was focused, stumbling only on words new to her: wiggly, giggly and blackberry.

    With each new page, she raised her head to make sure that her audience — a 165-pound, 4-year-old English mastiff named Moose — was still with her. With each page, her cautious smile grew into a confident grin. Read More…

  • Garfield Heights Shortens School Day, Parents Blame Voters – Fox 8 Cleveland

    • Parents, staff and children in the Garfield Heights School District are getting a hard lesson in economics.
    "I don't think it's good for the children," one parent said as she picked up her son from school.
    As of Tuesday, programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone and libraries are closed. Read More…

Education News for 01-17-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • Getting students ready for college is shared goal of Ohio Board of Regents, Department of Education (Plain Dealer)

    • COLUMBUS - A marriage between Ohio's K-12 and higher education systems isn't imminent, but the two are preparing to move in together. The Ohio Board of Regents, which oversees the state's public colleges and universities, plans to move its offices less than half a mile to the Ohio Department of Education's building this spring, said higher education Chancellor Jim Petro. Petro told the regents at a meeting last week that he and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner have developed a significant partnership that had not existed in the past between the two agencies. Read More…

  • What are state rules on school inspections? (WKYC 3 NBC)

    • OHIO - A Cleveland school was recently closed when concerns arose over the structural integrity of the 100-year old school. So we wondered, what are the rules for inspections? Local health departments are required to inspect schools twice a year, mainly focusing on sanitary conditions but some are more thorough. Fire departments also need to make sure alarms are working and exits are open. As far as structural integrity, school custodians are expected to look for any changes in the building and report any problems. Read More…

  • Kids can't learn if they're not in class (Repository)

    • CANTON — With her six children at home, Crystal Brownfield wasn’t expecting company Friday. But a knock on the door came from Canton City Schools Superintendent Michele Evans. Evans, along with Tim Henderson, Compton Learning Center principal, was one of 20 teams of educators and Family Court employees who staged a friendly blitzkrieg of visits to homes where school attendance is an issue. The district has noticed a sharp increase in the number of truancies at the kindergarten and first-grade levels — a trend that both has puzzled and surprised school officials who typically see the problem with older students. Read More…

  • Fiscal emergency may solve Niles schools’ financial woes (Vindicator)

    • Not only is the Niles City School District facing a major financial crisis, but the teachers’ union has rejected the board’s “last, best and final” contract offer. To describe the situation as dire is to state the obvious. What is not so obvious is a solution that at first glance may seem counter intuitive: State imposed fiscal emergency. Such a declaration by state Auditor David Yost would trigger the appointment of a state fiscal oversight commission. The entity would the take control of the school system’s finances, and would also have the power to set aside all labor contracts. Read More…

  • Parents Concerned About Cyber Bullying (WBNS 10 CBS)

    • CHILLICOTHE - A mother said on Monday that she is concerned that online anonymous attacks could lead to problems. According to Melissa Tyler, a mother of two, Ross County middle and high school students are using a website called Topix to create discussion threads about people in town. “These are damaging things to kids,” Tyler said. “If you’re called something for so long, you’re going to believe that you are.” Tyler and other parents alerted Chillicothe City School District officials, who blocked the site from inside school buildings, 10TV’s Ashleigh Barry reported. Read More…

  • State wants London to let charter keep profit (Dispatch)

    • The London school district is certain it’s right: It can funnel the $700,000 profit from an affiliated charter school into the district’s general fund. The state is certain that London is wrong: That money is supposed to benefit the at-risk kids at London Academy, an online high school that is both sponsored and run by the district. Since 2010, the Ohio Department of Education repeatedly has told London City Schools to stop taking the money and to start letting the online high school make its own decisions. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Columbus school board may raise time for public to speak (Dispatch)

    • Three minutes is too little. Five? Too much. But four minutes to say your piece at a Columbus City Schools board meeting might be just right, according to a proposal being considered tonight. The Columbus Board of Education is considering adding a minute to its per-speaker allotment during the public-comment portion of each meeting. It’s currently capped at three minutes, which speakers have complained isn’t enough time to make their point, said board member Mike Wiles. Read More…

  • More city kids ready for rigors of school (Enquirer)

    • More youngsters came to Cincinnati Public Schools ready for kindergarten this fall than in prior school years, a report on kindergarten readiness scores shows. About six in 10 students who enrolled in CPS’ 42 elementary kindergarten classes scored 19 or better on the state-issued Kindergarten Readiness Assessment-Literacy, often called KRAL. The average score for CPS’ newest kindergartners was 19.3, making this the first year the average score exceeds the 19-point benchmark. Read More…

  • Districts work to keep student-athletes eligible (Journal-News)

    • Just as high school basketball season entered its second half, many school districts also began their second semester. This marks the close of a grading period and the release of grades that could determine a student athlete’s eligibility for the rest of the season. A JournalNews analysis of the minimum academic requirements across Butler County’s public school districts found a wide range of standards. Data shows the minimum grade-point average requirement for eligibility at each of the high schools range from 2.0 to 1.0. Read More…

  • Elgin consolidation puts future of LaRue after-school program in question (Marion Star)

    • LARUE - Children gathered around the table, their puddings and juice approaching the end. Their energy? Not so much. That's part of the excitement for a free after-school program that aims to give students a safe place while extending learning beyond the end of the school day. Community members launched the LaRue After School Area Program, a state-licensed child care program, more than a decade ago. Administrator Becky Kibler said, at the time, a state inspector told her it would never last because parents weren't asked to pay. Read More…

  • Vasquez reflects on two tough TPS years (Blade)

    • Bob Vasquez has faced life-and-death emergencies in his work as a child-abuse investigator. But he says nothing else he has done caused him as much stress as his service over the past two years as president of the Toledo Board of Education. "Everything was fast-moving, intense, high-pressure decision making," Mr. Vasquez told me last week. Citing the district's troubled finances, he added: "I would go to bed every night thinking, when is the state going to take over?" Read More…

  • Twitter, Facebook helped students at Westerville North (Dispatch)

    • The day after Spanish teacher Leroy Gilkey was killed, Westerville North High School was in mourning. Teachers fought tears as they gave lessons. Hallways were silent. Grief counselors were stationed in the auditorium and near Gilkey’s classroom. Many students were glued to their cellphones, plugging into Twitter and Facebook to write what they couldn’t bear to say out loud. Read More…

Editorial

  • Open the evaluation (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • When parents decide their neighborhood public school is not the best fit for their child, they have an option: They can apply for enrollment in some other public school in their home district, or they can seek enrollment outside the district. All districts are required to have policies permitting within-district, or intra-district, open enrollment. But they have a choice whether or not to take students from another district, inter-district enrollment, the tuition per pupil transferred from state aid to the home district. Read More…

  • Education reform proposals, including charters, could improve Washington state (Seattle Times)

    • A SLEW of education reforms proposed to the state Legislature signal a chance to get real work done this session. Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, and Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, provide a bipartisan and bicameral approach for smart reforms. Their proposals would allow charter schools, establish a process to intervene when schools fail and continue strengthening principal and teacher performance reviews. Expect contentious debate. In particular, the teachers union sees charter schools as a threat. Read More…

Education News for 01-13-2012

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State Education News

  • Ohio education in top 10 nationally despite a so-so grade – (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohio’s grade on a national report card this year slipped to a C-plus, down from a B-minus, but the state inched up to the 10th best school system in the nation. Ohio was 11th in last year’s report. For the fourth year, Maryland was the top-ranked state, earning the highest grade, a B-plus. The nation as a whole got a C, the same as last year’s report. Read More…

  • Vice President Talks Education Cost – (Ohio News Network)

    • Vice President Joe Biden brought the administrations message of affordable education to students and faculty at Gahanna's Lincoln High School. "There was a bargain in place for the last 50 years that if you worked hard, played by the rules, you helped increase productivity in America, you got a piece of the action," Biden said. Read More…

Local Issues

  • TPS eyeing Head Start management – (Fox-Toledo)

    • Toledo Public Schools are looking to get involved in a child's life even before they're enrolled in the district. Wednesday evening district board members gave the go ahead to Dr. Jerome Pecko to start researching whether the district would be able to assume management of the program. If all works out, Dr. Pecko says it will major, positive impact on kids before they ever start school. Read More…

  • Publishing Co. sues TPS over copyright – (Toledo Blade)

    • A Worthington, Ohio-based publishing company has sued Toledo Public Schools in federal court, claiming the district "engaged in massive infringement" of its copyrighted work. Align, Assess, Achieve entered into a copyright license agreement with TPS for company books and materials that provide teacher guidance in meeting the Common Core education standards, a voluntary multistate effort to have uniform curriculum standards in schools. The company claims in its lawsuit, which it filed Jan. 6 in Columbus, that the agreement specified TPS could only use the works to prepare pacing guides for the teachers for whom the district had bought the company's book. Read More…

  • Big cuts are coming to schools in Lorain City Schools – (WOIO-Cleveland)

    • Board of Education members in Lorain have approved close to $5 million in layoffs and program cuts. School officials are trying to reduce more than $10 million deficit for next year. In fact by the end of the year they will cut 150 more staff from Lorain City Schools and kindergarten will go to half days. The sports department will see big cuts as well. Read More…

  • Cleveland schools encouraging students to seek financial aid for college – (Plain Dealer)

    • Filling out a college financial aid application can be intimidating, so the Cleveland schools are nudging students along gently - offering much more counseling than ever before. Read More…

  • Defunct Legacy Academy $376K in arrears, audit says – (Vindicator)

    • The latest audit of a now-closed community school says the school owes more than $376,000 in taxes and Medicare costs. State Auditor Dave Yost’s office released on Thursday the audit of Legacy Academy for Leaders and the Arts, covering fiscal years 2006 through 2010. The school, which operated inside Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church on Oak Hill Avenue, closed last June, citing declining enrollment. Read More…

  • Richmond Heights school officials finish investigation into Superintendent Linda Hardwick – (News Herald)

    • The Richmond Heights investigation of Superintendent Linda T. Hardwick has come to a close, although information is not ready to be released. Former board President Joshua Kaye — replaced by Linda Pliodzinskas this week — sent Hardwick a letter in December to inform her that discussion of her termination would soon take place. Read More…

Editorial

  • First exam – (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Ohio was one of 11 states and the District of Columbia that made big promises to win competitive grants in 2010 to reform their school systems. A full year of the four-year grants has been completed, which offers time enough to assess how well the states are delivering. Read More…

  • Only time will tell who wins the $4 billion Race to the Top – (Vindicator)

    • After the first year, a Washing- ton assessment of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant program gives Ohio high marks on its participation. States and individual school districts had to compete for extra federal funding aimed at improving student achievement, closing achievement gaps, improving high school graduation rates and better preparing students for success in college and careers. Read More…