Education

What Makes The 'Smartest Kids In The World'?

10:06am September 01, 2013

Compared to the rest of the world, American schools don't stack up like they used to. But what's the best way to educate children? Author Amanda Ripley followed students and teachers across the globe to find out for her new book, The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way.

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Thousands Of Striking Teachers Disrupt Mexico City

5:17am August 27, 2013

by Carrie Kahn

The teachers are protesting education changes that would institute evaluations and reduce the power of unions in hiring educators. It's common practice for teachers in Mexico to buy and sell tenured positions. The protests in Mexico City have caused traffic mayhem, and at one point blocked access to the international airport.

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Obama Campaigns For College Affordability Plan

11:39am August 24, 2013

by Scott Horsley

The president returned from vacation to take to the road, touring college towns in New York and Pennsylvania to talk about higher education. He's proposing a system that would rank colleges' affordability, which could then be tied to federal aid — but in Washington, a budget battle is waiting.

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Obama Takes To The Road To Push College Affordability Plan

7:25am August 23, 2013

by Scott Horsley

Day 2 of President Obama's education-themed bus tour rolls into Binghamton, N.Y., and then travels to Pennsylvania for a stop in Scranton. On Friday, the president will have more praise for colleges that work hard to keep costs down and degree production up.

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Dunbar High School has a notable list of graduates, including the first black presidential Cabinet member, the first black general in the Army and several of the lawyers who argued the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

In Nation's First Black Public High School, A Blueprint For Reform

2:26pm August 22, 2013

by NPR Staff

Journalist Alison Stewart chronicles the history of Dunbar High School in her new book, First Class. She says the Washington, D.C., school — which has graduated Army generals, Cabinet members and musicians — can serve as a model for urban schools today.

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Thousands of GCS Students, Teachers Go Digital

10:50am August 22, 2013

Guilford County's middle school students and teachers will have a new tool this year.

Carving Out an International Presence

3:21am August 21, 2013

Pushing the Piedmont further onto the world's economic stage.

What's Behind The Turnaround At Miami Public Schools?

5:22pm August 20, 2013

by Claudio Sanchez

Alberto Carvalho runs the nation's fourth largest school district — Miami Dade Public Schools. Since he took over four years ago, the district's turnaround has been nothing short of "miraculous", or so his supporters say. During his tenure the dropout rate has plummeted. The high school graduation rate has climbed to record levels and test scores for all students are way up. How did Carvalho do it?

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The San Francisco Public Library has been digitizing its historical document collections for years, including the scrapbooks of famed homicide detective Theodore Kytka. The SFPL is among scores of libraries and archives adding their digital collections to

Education

Combining The Nation's Digitized Libraries, All In One Place

6:58pm August 19, 2013

by Laura Sydell

Libraries have been digitizing their collections for years, but the materials can be hard to find. Enter the Digital Public Library of America. Worried that Google has an outsized hand in digitizing books, the DPLA is combining, on one site, the digital collections of libraries nationwide — free.

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Reggie Shaw killed two men while he was texting on a Utah highway. He now speaks to groups about the dangers of texting and driving.

Herzog Plumbs Guilt And Loss Wrought By Texting And Driving

4:31pm August 16, 2013

by NPR Staff

Werner Herzog's latest project is a slight departure for the acclaimed filmmaker: a 35-minute public service announcement on the dangers of texting and driving. Yes, it's long, he says, but the "inner landscape" of great suffering such accidents can cause "can only be shown if you have more time."

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