Education category, Page 5
Tull Family Foundation awards over $2M to boost high school athletics
Augustine Hanover spent last season with the Obama Academy boys soccer team practicing on a beat-up baseball field pocked with holes. “We have 10-year-old jerseys and not enough soccer balls,” said Hanover, a Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy student. On Friday, the 16-year-old joined dozens of student-athletes in the school’s...
Education leaders applaud state budget that adds $900M in new funding for school districts
Education is the centerpiece of Pennsylvania’s 2025-26 budget. At least that’s what Laura Boyce took away from the funding plan for the state’s 500 K-12 public schools, approved last week after a 4½-month impasse. “There were a lot of hard decisions that had to be made as the governor’s original...
Pitt, Penn State get flat state funding but optimistic toward future
The state budget passed last week signals flat appropriations to the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State, but officials at those colleges are encouraged by an approved plan that establishes and outlines the state’s first performance-based funding formula. General support funding for Penn State holds at $242.1 million — the...
The Ten Commandments are up in Texas schools. They’re also being taken down
DALLAS — When it became clear to high school theater teacher Gigi Cervantes that she couldn’t ignore a new state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in her Texas classroom, she felt she had no choice. She resigned from the job she loved. “I just was not going...
Highlands comes to tentative ‘early bird’ contract with its teachers
The Highlands School Board is moving to ensure labor peace with the district’s teachers union for the rest of the decade. The board has unanimously approved a tentative “early bird” contract with the Highlands Education Association, the district’s teachers union. “We are thrilled that this early bird has an agreement,”...
David Dausey, provost, named Duquesne University’s next president
The next president of Duquesne University credits the grit of his upbringing, the privilege of his education and the global perspective of his professional life for his readiness to fill the position come July 1. Provost David Dausey was named the school’s 14th president, succeeding Ken Gormley, school officials announced...
Point Park to acquire vacant YWCA building in Downtown Pittsburgh
In a few years, the former YWCA building along Wood Street in Downtown Pittsburgh will be a hub of activity for both the Point Park University and Downtown communities, university officials say. Point Park announced Tuesday it is moving forward with plans to acquire the vacant YWCA property, 305 Wood...
The Education Department is dismantling. Here’s what that means
WASHINGTON — The Education Department is breaking off several of its main offices and giving their responsibilities to other federal agencies, an early look at how President Donald Trump could fulfill his campaign pledge to close the department entirely. Offices that serve the nation’s schools and colleges would go to...
Local news festival Newsapalooza set to return this week
Newsapalooza, a two-day local news festival in Pittsburgh, will return for another year on Thursday and Friday. The event will take place at Point Park University and its Pittsburgh Playhouse theater. Presented by Point Park’s Center for Media Innovation, Newsapalooza saw its first edition last year. Attendees can expect numerous...
Foreign enrollment at U.S. colleges holds steady, for now, despite Trump’s visa crackdown
WASHINGTON — Foreign students enrolled at U.S. colleges in strong numbers this fall despite fears that a Trump administration crackdown would trigger a nosedive, yet there are signs of turbulence as fewer new, first-time students arrived from other countries, according to a new report. Overall, U.S. campuses saw a 1%...
Bethel Park’s William Penn ranks 9th among Pa. elementary schools
Bethel Park’s William Penn Elementary School is going out in style. A U.S. News World Report ranking of the best public elementary schools in Pennsylvania has Penn coming in at No. 9. Researchers with the media company compiled data from the U.S. Department of Education focusing on state assessments of...
Shaler Area program offers educational experience for preschoolers, older students
Editor’s note: The following story was submitted for the Shaler Area Student Section, a collaboration between TribLive and The Oracle, the student newspaper of Shaler Area High School. The preschool program at Shaler Area High School is a unique experience. High school students act as the instructors alongside child development...
U.S. students studying housing, health outcomes and sustainability win 2026 Rhodes scholarships
Five students at U.S. military academies and three each from Yale University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among the 32 American winners named Sunday as 2026 Rhodes scholars. The group includes students focused on housing, health outcomes, sustainability and prison reentry programs. They include: Alice L....
$30 million gift to bolster Pitt’s honors college
A $30 million gift from a University of Pittsburgh alumnus will help bolster a scholars program. Pitt officials announced Friday the donation, from 1997 graduate Michael Rees, will create an endowed fund that will expand the number of students who are part of the David C. Frederick Honors College receiving...
Penn State schedules meeting on Commonwealth Campus progress
Penn State administration will hold a virtual meeting Dec. 9 to provide updates on the seven Commonwealth Campuses that will close in two years, and also the 13 campuses that will remain open. Fotis Sotiropoulos, Penn State’s executive vice president and provost, and Renata Engel, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses...
$5 million gift to Slippery Rock, largest in university history, names business school
A $5 million gift to Slippery Rock University — the largest in its 136-year-history — will fund scholarships, faculty research and add opportunities in Slippery Rock’s business program, officials say. Slippery Rock officials announced Thursday the university had received the donation from Rhonda and Elliott Haverlack, of Estero, Fla. Elliott...
Former Duquesne journalism professor Maggie Patterson dies
Maggie Jones Patterson, a revered journalism professor who mentored generations of student reporters at Duquesne University, returned to campus in October to help celebrate the student newspaper’s 100th anniversary. Just weeks later, the longtime educator and advocate for young journalists died Monday of a heart attack following surgery, leaving behind...
Colleges grapple with lukewarm perception of their importance
Joel Bauman has been involved in college admissions for 30 years, and he can’t remember a more challenging time than what he faces today. “It has become more cynical,” said Bauman, senior vice president for enrollment management at Duquesne University, “but you can’t blame families, given the financial situation.” Colleges...
Western Pennsylvania teachers get creative with classrooms in learning
Jessica Pilyih rarely sits at her desk. And her students don’t sit at theirs, either. “I am not a desk person,” Pilyih said as she sat at one of the semi-circular round tables inside her fifth-grade classroom at Holiday Park Intermediate School in the Plum Borough School District. “I have...
Schools starting to feel the pinch of state budget impasse
Art students at St. Joseph High School in Harrison spent a recent class learning the techniques of charcoal drawing — again. They were scheduled to be learning to use paints, but with government funding largely cut off because of the state’s ongoing budget impasse, the school doesn’t have money to...
Cornell University research funds to be restored in deal with Trump administration
Cornell University’s $250 million in federal grants were restored under a deal with President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Friday, the fifth such agreement to be struck amid a conservative crackdown on institutions. The agreement requires the university, known for its agricultural programs, to pay the government $30 million and...
Quaker Valley High School offering students new manufacturing, fabricating opportunities
A new hands-on course with recently acquired machines will soon begin at Quaker Valley High School. Pre-engineering and technology teacher Mike Santucci is gearing up to launch his manufacturing and fabrication course this month. It starts his second 12-week program this school year. Students are finishing up construction and home...
Pitt lab launches $42M project to merge latest in wheelchair, robotic arm tech
A laboratory in Pittsburgh’s Bakery Square is poised to make the next breakthrough in wheelchairs, a mostly stagnant industry with huge quality of life implications for millions of disabled Americans. Researchers at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Department of Veterans...
Point Park to help Ohio students hit by university program cuts
Students at public universities across Ohio are seeing their majors and programs disappear amid state-mandated restructuring and budget cuts. In response, Point Park University in Pittsburgh is stepping in to help. A new transfer scholarship, the Buckeye Fresh Start Scholarship, will support displaced Ohio students through additional funds and academic...
Carnegie Mellon president launches advisory board to review student mental health, well-being
A new advisory board at Carnegie Mellon University will evaluate students’ mental well-being and their academic experience. President Farnam Jahanian announced the university will roll out a President’s Advisory Board on Student Well-Being, Mental Health and the Academic Experience. Jahanian, in a letter to campus, said the board will review...
