Education
Low-wage workers and the child-care conundrum
On July 16, KCMO City Council members are expected to vote on the issue of whether or not to raise the city’s minimum wage, potentially up to $15 per hour by 2020. It’s a highly contentious issue with the business community threatening it would trigger layoffs, and fast-food workers and others rallying and fasting in support. One key issue that supporters say a raise in the minimum wage would would address is the high cost of child care for struggling families.
Mastering the uphill climb to college
Donte Walters thought he had cruise control set for his senior year at Wyandotte High School. He had earned A’s throughout high school, ranked in the top three of his class, participated in sports, and was accepted into the University of Kansas. But in spite of all this, his principal says she panicked during last year’s…
A program that aims to get KC kids on their bikes
On a warm afternoon at Garfield Elementary school in northeast Kansas City, a class of grade schoolers charges out into the schoolyard to spend an hour riding bikes. They’re getting training from members of the nonprofit group BikeWalkKC. The program was created three years ago to teach bicycle safety skills. But BikeWalkKC’s education program manager, Maggie Priesmeyer, says she and her fellow instructors found they would often be teaching children to ride for the first time.
Taking your lunch hour to share a love of reading
Every Tuesday during her lunch hour Lynn Carlton has a standing appointment with a first grader at Wendell Phillips Elementary. In addition to her job as an urban planner at HOK in Kansas City, Missouri, Carlton is a volunteer with Lead to Read, and spends 30 minutes every week with her reading buddy Shamarian. Jean…
From the NewsHour: The Legacy of Head Start
Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson announced the creation of Head Start, the government program designed to support low-income children and families. In its latest American Graduate report, the NewsHour’s April Brown produced this story abut how the program has impacted the lives of millions of children.
The Learning Curve: Innovating education, in Kansas
A recent Kansas law allows up to 10 per cent of the state’s school districts to be designated as “Innovative,” allowing them to opt out of certain state regulations they deem unproductive or restrictive. Blue Valley and KCK, along with McPherson, Concordia and Hugoton, are the first five on board. Along with a waiver on some…
The Learning Curve: Ervin Early Learning Center
The Hickman Mills School District had a problem: Low-income kindergartners were arriving without the basics they needed to start school on the right foot. Solution? Revamp a dilapidated middle school building and provide high-quality, full day pre-K programming to every child in the district, free of charge. The first of four phases kicked off in February of…
The Learning Curve: Career Tech Education
In 2013, the PBS Newshour added Paseo Academy to its national roster of schools participating in the Student Reporting Labs project. Designed to increase teens’ understanding of today’s media landscape, the partnership also helps journalism students develop content which can be utilized for broadcast as part of the Kansas City Missouri School District’s Career Tech Education program….
Serving KC’s Homeless Students
All public schools in the U.S. are required by federal law to designate a liaison for homeless students. The McKinney-Vento Act, passed in 1987, spells out what schools are required to provide students in order to minimize barriers to education created by homelessness. Under the act, the definition of “homeless” is rather broad, and can…
1 year after GED changes: Kansas students lost in shuffle
The number of people who passed the GED exam in Kansas last year is the lowest it’s been in decades. And adult education centers, which for years have helped ensure that students are ready for the test, have been cut out of the process.