One of the oldest districts in the nation recently completed its first construction project in 15 years by rebuilding a school to accommodate STEM learning for grades 6 through 12.

Carnegie Mellon University's free, online curriculum for high school students helps instructors teach programming skills using graphics and animations. Now being piloted in 40 schools, the Computer Science Academy's CS1 will be available for general use this fall, free of charge.

Educators in the second-largest school district in the nation say they're making a last stand against more than two generations of state defunding of public schools, understaffing of nurses and janitors and an onslaught of what they call the privatization of public education — charter schools.

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova said the district is offering approximately 10 percent raises to teachers this year, putting educators on a track to make as much as $100,000 annually.