Education category, Page 23
Western Pa. districts split on students’ cellphones as schools across the country add device policies
When backpack-clad students returned to Allegheny Valley School District classrooms, many had cellphones in hand. That did not last for long. The district that once allowed teachers to determine how to handle cellphones in class cracked down at a board meeting earlier this month, requiring students to put their devices...
Carnegie Mellon launches computer science podcast
Carnegie Mellon University has launched a new podcast to explore innovations in computer science. The first season of “Does Compute,” hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, contains 10 episodes featuring experts, alumni and students. Some of the topics addressed tackle smartphones, medical breakthroughs and the challenges of artificial...
Attack on Jewish students not a hate crime, officials say
Law enforcement has concluded that the attack on two Jewish students at the University of Pittsburgh was not a hate crime, nor was the assailant targeting a specific group, Pitt officials said. A statement from Pitt on Tuesday offered no motive for why the suspect, Jarrett Buba, 52, of Pittsburgh’s...
As students return to Columbia, the epicenter of a campus protest movement braces for disruption
NEW YORK — As Columbia University resumes classes Tuesday, students and faculty are planning, and bracing, for a resumption of the pro-Palestinian protests that convulsed the Manhattan campus at the tail end of the spring semester and touched off a wave of college demonstrations nationwide. In recent weeks, the university’s...
Rural Pa. faces widening health services gap, but state officials think loan forgiveness could help
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. BELLEFONTE — Health care professionals in rural Pennsylvania would be eligible for student debt relief under a bipartisan proposal aimed at addressing workforce gaps in...
Jewish students at Pitt attacked; suspect arrested
A man wielding a bottle attacked a group of Jewish students at the University of Pittsburgh late Friday near the Cathedral of Learning, officials said. Two students were injured and the suspect was quickly arrested. “The alleged perpetrator, who has no known Pitt affiliation, was immediately arrested by Pitt Police...
10 years after Ferguson, Black students still are kicked out of school at higher rates
Before he was suspended, Zaire Byrd was thriving. He acted in school plays, played on the football team and trained with other athletes. He had never been suspended before — he’d never even received detention. But when Byrd got involved in a fight after school one day, none of that...
Westmoreland County Community College eyes search firm to fill vice president position vacant since 2022
Amid the search for a new president, Westmoreland County Community College soon could hire a search firm to help fill a vice president position that has been vacant for two years. The board of trustees voted Wednesday to pay $39,000 for Massachusetts-based search firm Spelman Johnson to identify a vice...
State System of Higher Education recommends interim chancellor
The chair of the State System of Higher Education Board of Governors intends to recommend Christopher Fiorentino, retired president of West Chester University, as interim system chancellor while a search for Daniel Greenstein’s successor is conducted. Cynthia Shapira notified students, faculty and staff at the 10 state-owned universities in a...
IUP advances toward medical school opening, calls FAFSA mess ‘a debacle’
What would be this state’s first college of osteopathic medicine on a public university campus is advancing toward a possible fall 2027 opening, Indiana University of Pennsylvania President Michael Driscoll says. But as the 2024-25 academic year begins, a more immediate concern exists over IUP’s likely fall enrollment — uncertainty...
Carnegie Mellon restricts protests, demonstrations in updated policy
Protests, rallies and other expressive events at Carnegie Mellon University with 25 or more participants must be registered in advance or officials may prevent or disband the gathering and weigh sanctions against its organizers. The language comes from an updated policy on such demonstrations that senior leaders notified campus of...
Schools are competing with cellphones. Here’s how they think they could win
Isabella Pires first noticed what she calls the “gradual apathy pandemic” in eighth grade. Only a handful of classmates registered for service projects she helped organize at her Massachusetts school. Even fewer actually showed up. When she got to high school last fall, Isabella found the problem was even worse:...
Greater Latrobe teacher introduces junior high students to drone career options
Future graduates of Greater Latrobe School District may one day be providing an eagle eye’s view of crop fields for a farmer, real estate for a surveying firm or power lines for a utility company. “There is a high demand for drone pilots in many different disciplines,” said Greater Latrobe...
Westmoreland County recognizes paraeducator as she pursues teaching certificate in pilot program
After more than three decades working as a paraeducator in Westmoreland County, Terri Pajak’s favorite part of the job is watching her students grow. Approaching her fourth year working at Greensburg’s partial mental health hospitalization program, Pajak fills in any needs her middle and high school students may have —...
Outgoing Pa. state system chancellor Greenstein reflects on achievements and challenges
Months after becoming chancellor of Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities, Daniel Greenstein shared an ambitious goal for a system already underfunded and headed toward controversial campus mergers and spending cuts. “In a transformed system — a sharing system — every student on every campus has access to the full breadth of academic...
Dartmouth basketball players union accuses school of unfair labor practices over refusal to bargain
The union representing the Dartmouth men’s basketball team filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the Ivy League school on Wednesday because it has refused to negotiate with the players on a collective bargaining agreement. Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some other workers at the Hanover,...
GOP lawmakers praise University of Kentucky for removing Office of Institutional Diversity
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Republican lawmakers who sponsored anti-DEI bills earlier this year are praising the University of Kentucky for deciding to eliminate its Office of Institutional Diversity. The GOP-controlled state legislature this spring tried but failed to pass bills targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs — commonly referred to as...
Greensburg diocese’s Catholic schools start year with building upgrades, new programs
With air conditioning units installed, security upgrades completed and a plan in place to deepen students’ faith education, Greensburg Central Catholic High School is ready to welcome students back to its halls Wednesday. For Superintendent Nancy Rottler, there is no time like the present to be a student at Greensburg...
Pittsburghers’ English tutoring helps them connect with immigrants settling in region
When Eliane Totti’s stomach ached in her native Brazil, she’d take pineapple, collard greens, lemon and ginger from the homeopathic shop she ran four hours north of Sao Paulo and whip up a juice. The businesswoman learned more about American healthcare after immigrating to Mt. Lebanon two years ago. She’s...
Oakland bustling as Pitt, Carnegie Mellon students move in
Brand-new pillows still in their packaging, bulky room fans and other poundage piled into overburdened moving carts explained the frazzled looks on some entering dorms at the University of Pittsburgh on Monday. Then there was Devin Knause, 17, a first-year student from Tenafly, N.J., who arrived outside Litchfield Tower A...
‘History in the making’: PennWest professor sends students to political conventions
Sydney Speicher, a rising senior at Pennsylvania Western University, rode an overnight Amtrak train to Chicago so she could spend this week living a political science major’s dream. There’s no guarantee Speicher, 22, of Midway will witness a major candidate’s speech up close, just because she’s earning academic credit by...
Millions of kids are still skipping school. Could the answer be recess — and a little cash?
MEDFORD, Mass. — Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste missed so much school he had to repeat his freshman year at Medford High outside Boston. At school, “you do the same thing every day,” said Jean-Baptiste, who was absent 30 days his first year. “That gets very frustrating.” Then his principal did something...
Firm suggests closing 16 Pittsburgh Public schools, opening 2 new ones
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have received recommendations to close more than a dozen schools and potentially merge Carrick and Brashear high schools. A consultant hired by the district said, through a facility use report, that the urban school system should close 16 of its schools and open two new ones,...
Student loan repayments on pause for some as court fight continues over federal debt relief program
Millions of student borrowers facing college loan payments are getting temporary relief following court decisions this summer blocking implementation of the federal debt relief program known as SAVE. Their payments and any interest are effectively paused — at least while a court fight plays out between Republican-led states suing to...
Will Israeli-Palestinian conflict protests, encampments resurface when college resumes?
Alon Leshem, a rising senior at the University of Pittsburgh, is energized to finish his computer science degree and to take secondary field of study courses involving Israel and Palestine. But, like other Jewish students at Pitt and elsewhere, his enthusiasm is tempered by knowing fall could bring renewed pro-Palestinian...
