Education category, Page 19
New year, new focus on performing arts at Point Park, president says
Point Park University is revamping its performing arts department, it announced Monday. The School of Dance and the School of Theatre, Film and Animation will be the two parts of Point Park’s Conservatory of Performing Arts. “With having these two new focused schools, we’re really positioning Point Park and Downtown...
Elon Musk’s preschool is next step in his anti-woke education dreams
Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s money manager and the head of his family office, is listed as the chief executive officer. Jehn Balajadia, a longtime Musk aide who has worked at SpaceX and the Boring Co., is named as an official contact. But they’re not connected to Musk’s new technology venture,...
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe aims to fly closer to the sun like never before
NEW YORK — A NASA spacecraft aims to fly closer to the sun than any object sent before. The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun. Since then, it has flown straight through the sun’s corona: the outer atmosphere visible during a...
White House starts scrapping pending regulations on transgender athletes and student debt
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is abandoning his efforts to provide some protections for transgender student athletes and cancel student loans for more than 38 million Americans, the first steps in an administration-wide plan to jettison pending regulations to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from retooling them to achieve his own...
International students urged to return to U.S. campuses before Trump inauguration
CONCORD, N.H. — A growing number of U.S. colleges and universities are advising international students to return to campus before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, over concerns that he might impose travel bans like he did during his first administration. More than a dozen schools have issued advisories, even though...
Sarah Heinz House event empowers young girls to break barriers in STEM
Women make up 35 percent of STEM positions across the world, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering. During the Reimagining Opportunities to Achieve and Rise (ROAR) event at the Sarah Heinz House on the North Side on Wednesday, young girls were given the chance to see firsthand...
Plum High School students attend Junior Achievement of Western Pa. Stock Market Challenge
Plum High School student Eli Pollak has a financial strategy. “The earlier you start, like at our age, investing, the more money you will make,” said Pollak, who attended the Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania Stock Market Challenge presented by Citizens on Thursday, Dec. 12 at Stage AE on Pittsburgh’s...
Junior Achievement of Western Pa. hosts high school students for stock market competition
In the volatile world of the stock market, the difference between finishing on top and, say, 98th place is about three minutes. At least that’s one of the lessons learned by budding Deer Lakes School District investors. “The stock market is unpredictable,” said Sam Guthrie, a Deer Lakes senior and...
Hempfield Area police chief set to retire, former Jeannette police chief to take his place
After a decade serving as police chief for Hempfield Area School District, Len Lander will retire from his post. Former Jeannette police Chief Shannon Binda will take the reins in the new year, following a vote by the school board Monday. Lander was a state police trooper from 1991 to...
Hempfield Area to tackle 1 of 3 roof replacements, test pool ahead of high school renovation
As Hempfield Area moves forward with a nearly $281,000 roof repair at Fort Allen Elementary, the district also plans to address projected million dollar roof projects at two of its other schools next summer. The school board voted Monday to hire Garland Company Inc. to replace the roof covering Fort...
‘Polarization’ is Merriam-Webster’s 2024 word of the year
The results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country and sent shockwaves across the world — or were cause for celebration, depending on who you ask. Is it any surprise then that the Merriam-Webster word of the year is “polarization”? “Polarization means division, but it’s a very specific...
Westinghouse Academy students celebrated for academic achievements, resilience
On a recent bitter cold Friday, the Westinghouse Academy in Homewood was full of warmth. An assembly, All Lives Matter to Do the Right Thing, presented by Help the Needy Not the Greedy and The Youth Project Inc., honored students for their academic accomplishments and added sparkle to their holiday...
Penn State trustees pass almost 85% of measures without a single dissenting vote
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter of local stories that dig deep, events, and more from north-central PA, at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown. When...
Greensburg Salem approves $68K contract to upgrade sound systems in high school gym, auditorium
Greensburg Salem will spend nearly $68,000 to upgrade sound systems in the high school gym and auditorium. The current systems are antiquated and unreliable, Superintendent Ken Bissell said. “There are times where kids onstage are singing or saying their lines and it cuts out,” Bissell said of the auditorium system....
Botched FAFSA rollout, state upgrades mean college students are still waiting for critical grant money
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — The money for the fall semester normally arrives in September. By the last week of November, with the end of the semester in...
Inauguration set for Jon Anderson as 2nd PennWest University president
Jon Anderson will be formally installed as Pennsylvania Western University’s second president in a Dec. 6 ceremony on the university’s California campus. The inauguration ceremony is set for 2 p.m. in Steele Hall’s Mainstage Theatre. The event will be livestreamed at pennwest.edu/inauguration, with watch parties planned in the Gemmell Student...
Quaker Valley joins Pennsylvania Harvest of the Month program to provide students special meals with local produce
Quaker Valley School District students this school year are getting a special meal made from scratch each month as part of a program designed to promote local agriculture and educate young folks about what they eat. The district has joined in the Pennsylvania Harvest of the Month program. It was...
Pitt graduate workers unionize in landslide vote
Graduate student workers at the University of Pittsburgh have voted in a landslide to unionize with the United Steelworkers after years of organizing and rising pro-labor sentiment in academia. More than 97% of eligible voters went for a union just over a year after organizers kicked off their card campaign....
Sewickley Academy student nurtures campus greenhouse after growing hiatus
Emma Ehan of Sewickley is using her green thumb to dig into an ongoing horticultural project at Sewickley Academy. Ehan, a junior, loves to garden and tend to plants and now she’s using her skills to manage and tend to the dozens of plants growing inside the campus greenhouse. “My...
Penn State trustees rarely discuss key issues in public before voting
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter of local stories that dig deep, events, and more from north-central PA, at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown. When...
Texas education board approves optional Bible-infused curriculum for elementary schools
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ education board voted Friday to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools under optional new curriculum that could test boundaries between religion and public classrooms in the U.S. The material adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, passed in a...
Pitt chancellor visits Johnstown campus, meets with students, faculty, local leaders
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel visited the university’s Johnstown campus Tuesday for the first time since she stepped into the role about a year and a half ago. The 19th chancellor in Pitt’s 237-year history, Gabel oversees more than 34,000 students and 16,000 faculty and staff members across five...
Trump has called for dismantling the Education Department. Here’s what that would mean
WASHINGTON — Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump heaped scorn on the federal Department of Education, describing it as being infiltrated by ”radicals, zealots and Marxists.” He has picked Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, to lead the department. But like many conservative politicians before him, Trump has called for...
Need for English as Second Language education growing in Westmoreland schools
Westmoreland County’s ever-diversifying population is having an impact in public schools, where a growing number of students do not speak English as a native language and educators are facing increased demands as they to try to help bridge the language gap. “The number of English Learners (students whose native language...
Trump wants to end ‘wokeness’ in education. He has vowed to use federal money as leverage
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s vision for education revolves around a single goal: to rid America’s schools of perceived ” wokeness ” and “left-wing indoctrination.” The president-elect wants to keep transgender athletes out of girls’ sports. He wants to forbid classroom lessons on gender identity and structural racism. He wants to...
