current events

Seven school children were among the dead in the Oklahoma City area after a mile-wide tornado with up to 200 mph winds destroyed blocks of homes, businesses and two elementary schools.

The Chicago Teachers Union's decision to go to court to try to stop the city from closing 53 elementary schools, while not unexpected, makes clear that the Board of Education's vote on the proposal next week will not put an end to the controversy.

A reward was being offered as the investigation continued Thursday into racist graffiti targeting African-American students at Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, Calif.

The recent 65-count cheating indictment against 35 Atlanta school officials, including the superintendent, has reignited an intense national debate on the use of standardized test scores as a key feature in teacher evaluations.

Police officers showed up at Columbus high schools on Thursday morning and into the afternoon to seize records the state auditor is seeking in his investigation of the district’s handling of data.

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg donated $350,000 to the Los Angeles school board campaign this week, records show. Bloomberg's contribution, which was filed Tuesday, will enlarge the already sizable war chest of the Coalition for School Reform, a political action committee led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Words like fine and routine punctuated descriptions of a day that was anything but at Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester, where two seats sat empty on the first day of classes since last week’s fatal bombings.

Intensive work is being done across the district to remediate children affected by allegations of forged test scores as well as those who have simply fallen behind.

The American Civil Liberties Union has warned a southwest Kansas school district against holding mandatory student assemblies that feature a creationist group. Hugoton Public Schools invited Creation Truth Foundation’s founder Dr. G. Thomas Sharp to teach the “Truth about Dinosaurs” at two assemblies next week. At least one of the assemblies will be mandatory for all students and teachers.