Author: Reporter

Critics say the College Board removed key topics from AP Black History class due to rightwing pressure

The College Board says changes will be made to its new AP African American studies course, after critics said the agency bowed to political pressure and removed several topics from the framework, including Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations, and queer life. In a statement released in late April, the College Board said the development committee and experts charged with authoring the Advanced Placement course “will determine the details of those changes over the next few months.” “We are committed to providing an unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” the company said. It...

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Poll by Pew Research Center finds Catholicism is still the largest faith among Latinos

Catholics remain the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, but the number of Latinos who identify as religiously unaffiliated continues to grow. Those are among the key findings in a comprehensive report released April by the Pew Research Center that surveyed 7,647 U.S. adults in Aug. 1-14 of last year. The report, which uses the terms Latino and Hispanic interchangeably, found that Catholicism remains the largest faith among Latinos in the U.S., even as the number of Latino adults who identify as Catholic steadily declined over the past decade. The number went from 67% in 2010...

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Coming of age during a pandemic: Why more American youth choose to skip the crippling debt of college

When he looked to the future, Grayson Hart always saw a college degree. He was a good student at a good high school. He wanted to be an actor, or maybe a teacher. Growing up, he believed college was the only route to a good job, stability and a happy life. The pandemic changed his mind. A year after high school, Hart is directing a youth theater program in Jackson, Tennessee. He got into every college he applied to but turned them all down. Cost was a big factor, but a year of remote learning also gave him the...

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Why universities often reject class credits of students transferring from community colleges

First came the good news. After taking classes at a community college, Ricki Korba was admitted to California State University, Bakersfield, as a transfer student. But when she logged on to her student account, she got a gut punch: Most of her previous classes would not count. The university rejected most of her science classes, she was told, because they were deemed less rigorous than those at Bakersfield — even though some used the same textbooks. Several other courses were rejected because Korba exceeded a cap on how many credits can be transferred. Now Korba, a chemistry and music...

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Trade school programs are booming while traditional four-year degrees see continued decline

It is almost 4:00 p.m. at the Nashville branch of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology, and the students in the auto collision repair night class are just starting their school day. One is sanding the seal off the bed of his 1989 Ford F-350. Another is patiently hammering out a banged-up fender. A third, Cheven Jones, is taking a break from working on his 2003 Lexus IS 300 to chat with some classmates. While almost every sector of higher education has fewer students registering for classes, many trade programs are thriving. Jones and his classmates, seeking certificates and...

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Pandemic learning losses: Classrooms across the country race to catch up on students’ reading levels

Having missed most of first grade, the foundational year for learning to read, Michael Crowder stood nervously at the front of his third grade classroom holding a book. “Give us some vowels,” said his teacher, La’Neeka Gilbert-Jackson. His eyes search a chart that lists vowels, consonant pairs and word endings, but he does not land on an answer. “Let’s help him out.” “A-E-I-O-U,” she and the students said in unison. It was the first fall of the pandemic, and for months Atlanta only offered school online. Michael’s mom had just had a baby, and there was no quiet place...

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