A Chicago private school defends LGBTQ sex ed after right-wing viral video
CHICAGO – An elite Chicago private school tightened security and disabled its Twitter and Facebook accounts after a video of its dean of students secretly recorded by a conservative group went viral on Wednesday. The video captures the dean talking last week about a visit to Francis W. Parker School by an LGBTQ health organization to […]
Urbana decide mantener las clases bilingües de español en las escuelas primarias Leal y Dr. Preston Williams
El consejo escolar de Urbana ha decidido no combinar sus dos programas bilingües de español en una sola escuela: Leal Elementary. El cambio hubiera movido a unos 170 estudiantes de las clases monolingües de inglés de la escuela primaria Leal a la escuela primaria Dr. Preston L. Williams Jr. y a otras escuelas cercanas. Aproximadamente […]
Urbana decides to keep Spanish dual language classes at both Leal, Dr. Preston Williams elementary schools
The Urbana school board has decided not to merge its two Spanish, dual language programs into one school – Leal Elementary. The change would have moved about 170 students in Leal Elementary School’s monolingual English classes to Dr. Preston L. Williams Jr. Elementary School and other nearby schools. About 160 dual language students from DPW […]
Next Parkland College President Pamela Lau focuses on access to college
CHAMPAIGN — Parkland Executive Vice President Pamela Lau will become the president of the Champaign community college in January. The succession has been planned since 2019, when current president Tom Ramage first announced his retirement. Ramage started his presidency fifteen years ago and will retire at the end of this year. Lau began her career […]
Formerly incarcerated students can now Zoom back into prison to finish their degrees
At around noon on a recent Monday, Maria Garza logged on to Zoom. She set her laptop on her kitchen stove and placed several plastic cups on the counter. One by one, she filled them up with things like baking soda and ammonia ahead of a chemistry experiment. Then, a classroom popped up on her […]
Illinois program urges students to “Seek Help Before Harm”
https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s653/audio/2022/11/safe2help.mp3 Students who feel they have no place to turn can use a program that allows them to provide information confidentially. With Safe2Help, details will be relayed to local school officials and a 9-1-1 call center, depending on the nature of what’s shared. Samantha Kanish, Safe2Help’s School Safety and Policy Advisor, said the program encourages […]
Police arrest teenager suspected of threatening Urbana High School
Police have arrested one of the people suspected of threatening violence against Urbana High School. The arrest of a 16-year-old girl took place on Tuesday in Chicago. Urbana Police say the teenager is one of the people who threatened on Nov. 7 to bomb and shoot students at the high school. The Urbana school district […]
Update: Urbana HS to hold e-learning day on Thursday
URBANA – Urbana High School will hold an e-learning day on Thursday. The decision comes after the school went into lockdown for much of Wednesday after someone sent threats of violence. No one was hurt in yesterday’s incident. The FBI and Urbana police are investigating the threats but so far there are no arrests. Urbana High […]
Update: Police finish sweep of Urbana schools after closure
URBANA – Updated Monday, Nov. 7 at 4:50 PM: Police finished their sweep of Urbana High School and Urbana Middle School after the schools received gun and bomb threats on Monday morning. According to Urbana Criminal Investigations Division Commander Mike Cervantes, police did not find anything suspicious on school premises. Cervantes expects schools to reopen […]
Actualización: La policía termina el registro de las escuelas de Urbana después del cierre
URBANA – Actualizado el lunes 7 de noviembre a la 1:35 PM: La policía ha finalizado su búsqueda en la Urbana High School y en la Urbana Middle School después de que las escuelas recibieran amenazas de armas y bombas el lunes por la mañana. Según el Comandante de la División de Investigaciones Criminales de […]
University of Illinois organizations educate peers on immigrant communities
When immigrants arrive in Urbana-Champaign, local organizations ensure those without resources receive beds, baby clothes and diapers. The Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha, Inc. and I-CAUSE, a student organization that supports DACA students, hosted an event on November 2nd to educate peers about the immigrant community outside of campus. Visitors at the event were able […]
Only 1 in 3 Illinois 4th graders is a proficient reader. Why are we struggling to teach kids to read
DEKALB — Only one of every three 4th-graders in Illinois is a proficient reader, and that puts the state in the middle of the pack. Reading is not natural. That’s one thing David Paige says a lot of people don’t really understand. He’s a literacy professor and director of the Jerry Johns Literacy Clinic at […]
Savoy asks Unit 4 school district to reinstate neighborhood schools
SAVOY — The Savoy Village Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to recommend the Champaign Unit 4 School District reinstate neighborhood schools. The Savoy Board of Trustees said they were reflecting concerns Savoy parents had brought to them. “I believe what you’re all saying is that you want to promote neighborhood schools with a goal of […]
Schools, students still recovering from pandemic learning loss, state report card shows
SPRINGFIELD – Student test scores continued to fall last year but new data shows Illinois’ students are on the path to recovering from the learning loss that occurred during the pandemic. Numbers from standardized tests administered last spring show steep declines in the percentage of students who met or exceeded state standards in English language […]
Illinois student test scores are in. They remain far below pre-pandemic levels in reading and math
CHICAGO — Illinois students continue to perform far below pre-pandemic levels on state reading and math exams for a second year, test results released Thursday show, offering another sign of the ongoing toll of COVID-19 and remote learning. Students performed at roughly the same level as last year, which is well below the last round […]
