Agriculture companies have lots of job openings in STEM fields, far from the farm
Agriculture companies are looking for people who are interested in science, and hiring managers are increasingly looking for people who don’t have traditional ag backgrounds. ST. LOUIS — Jobs in agriculture don’t just take place on the farm. Across the Midwest, plant science and ag companies are looking for scientists and others in STEM to […]
Pritzker expands state child care subsidy, increases reimbursement rates
SPRINGFIELD – Thousands more families in Illinois will soon be eligible for subsidized child care and child care providers will see a pay raise under a series of initiatives that Gov. JB Pritzker announced Thursday. Starting July 1, the state will invest more than $175 million in additional funding for child care and early childhood […]
Pritzker signs bills targeting wage theft, expanding HIV care options
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker has signed 401 bills sent to him this calendar year, leaving just 10 of those passed by lawmakers this year awaiting his action as of Monday. His most recent crop of signed bills from Friday, June 10, included a measure taking aim at wage theft in the construction industry and […]
‘They don’t need lectures, they need to be interactive’: new learning model re-invigorates Rockford 8th graders
ROCKFORD — Last fall, Cara Wolfe and Aubrey Barnett started their first year teaching English Language Arts (ELA) at Flinn Middle School in Rockford ready to change things up. In 2020, standardized test scores at the school were in the lowest-performing 5% of Illinois. Now add a few years of COVID disruption on top of […]
Some schools are lobbying to keep pandemic-era, universal free lunch. Universal free meals are already the reality in Urbana schools
URBANA – While schools across the country brace for the end of universal free lunches, Urbana public schools will continue to offer free meals to all students – at least until 2024. Breakfast and lunch have been free for all in Urbana public schools since 2015. “It really removes barriers,” says Urbana District 116 Chief […]
Bilingual education helped this 2nd grade classroom thrive after pandemic setbacks
Leer este reporte en español. OVERLAND, Mo. — On a recent morning in teacher Geri Ross’s classroom at Marion Elementary School, second graders sat at clusters of desks, singing songs and reading stories in Spanish. The walls were decorated with colorful posters depicting letter sounds, math concepts and vocabulary in both English and Spanish. After […]
Uvalde: Visitations, funerals and burials, one after another
UVALDE, Texas — It should have been the first day of a joyous week for Robb Elementary School students — the start of summer break. Instead on Monday, the first two of 19 children slain inside a classroom were being remembered at funeral visitations. The gathering for 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza was at Hillcrest Memorial […]
The names: 19 children, 2 teachers killed in Uvalde school
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Nineteen children were looking forward to a summer filled with Girl Scouts and soccer and video games. Two teachers were closing out a school year that they started with joy and that had held such promise. They’re the 21 people who were killed Tuesday when an 18-year-old gunman barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom at […]
Deadliest School Shootings Since 2007
This AP digital embed table shows school shootings since 2007 that killed more than four people. The massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas would mark the 11th such shooting. This table is current as of May 24, 2022 and will be updated as events warrant.
University of Illinois dining and building workers vote to allow September strike
URBANA — Service workers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are willing to strike in September after their current contract expires. Of the workers who cast their votes over the past two weeks, 91 percent authorized the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 to start preparing to strike. “Not only was it an overwhelming […]
Yankee Ridge hosts Urbana French immersion program
URBANA – Students learn in both French and English at Yankee Ridge Elementary School on the south side of Urbana. Yankee Ridge hosts Urbana School District 116’s only French dual-language program. “It’s not just beneficial to our students who are learning English,” said Yankee Ridge principal Mykah Jackson. “It’s also important for our students who […]
Newbery-winning author visits Champaign school for Asian American Heritage Month
CHAMPAIGN – Students at Kenwood Elementary had a special visitor on Tuesday. Newbery-winning author Erin Entrada Kelly — a Filipina-American children’s book author — conducted a brainstorming session via Zoom with the students. She then spun a story out of the class’ brainstorm. Trevor Nadrozny is the principal at Kenwood Elementary School in Champaign. He […]
Macon-Piatt hosts family night to dispel rumors about Social Emotional Alternative Program
DECATUR — Two Special Education programs housed at Decatur Public Schools are combining next year. Administrators worry that the change has prompted misinformation to spread. “We want our new students to feel welcome. It’s not a scary place. It’s not a jail. People have almost made those correlations,” says Social Emotional Alternative Program Principal Jessica […]
Urbana schools debate renewing police officer contracts
URBANA — Urbana School District 116 is debating whether to keep police officers in its schools for another three years. Staff and students want them to stay, according to limited survey data and anecdotes from students, teachers and administrators. Taren Nance is the principal at Urbana High School. He says students trust the officer at […]
Chicago rap duo Mother Nature brings mental health skills to Unit 4 school
CHAMPAIGN – A fourth grader takes the microphone at Booker T. Washington STEM Academy in Champaign, to cheers from his classmates. Professional hip hop artists – who go by the stage names Klevah and TRUTH – have set clear rules for the freestyling circle, or cypher, over the course of a week with the students. […]