Education
Suspect e-mailed Columbine principal
A teenager accused of killing his father and opening fire outside his former high school was obsessed with school massacres and sent e-mail to the principal of Columbine High School in Colorado warning of his attack, authorities said Thursday.
Feds targeted campus terror
For five years an office in the Education Department has scanned its databases of millions of students' federal financial aid and college enrollment records in search of terrorist names supplied by the FBI.
Gnocchi, sea bass, dessert -- all for sake of education
Among the hordes of students returning to school this fall are thousands of culinary trainees ready to test their skills on you. In exchange, you get to dine in semi-fine spots for, theoretically, less money than you would usually pay.
Optimism in Gary teacher talks
Gary public school officials expect to resolve a contract dispute with teachers and have students back in school after the Labor Day holiday, district officials told parents Thursday night.
$115 million in upgrades urged for 2 high schools
DuPage High School District 88 this week formally backed a $115 million modernization plan for its two campuses, but stopped short of placing a property-tax question on the April ballot to pay for the work.
Ex-janitor sentenced for molesting student
A former West Chicago High School janitor, who tried to hug and kiss a 16-year-old student, has been sentenced to 180 days in jail, placed on 3 years' probation and ordered to register for the rest of his life as a sex offender.
Colleague of teacher testifies
A former Prospect High School choir instructor on trial for sexual abuse of a female student told a colleague that he wanted to have sex with the student, a witness testified Thursday.
Charter school going online
In a tense and dramatic meeting, the Illinois State Board of Education gave approval for the state's first virtual public elementary school to open its cyberspace doors this fall.
Trips abroad inspire new lessons
Gloria Moyer rediscovered her passion for teaching this summer in a French village called Coupvray, fingering some of Louis Braille's reading slate in the home where he invented his literacy code for the blind.
Jammed school ignites parents and teachers
The firing of a popular high school principal triggered protests Thursday by parents and teachers on Chicago's Southwest Side, who demanded relief from persistent overcrowding.
Learning how to teach boys
A Wilmette study that shows boys consistently lag behind girls academically and are disciplined more often in elementary school comes as no surprise to 15-year-old Quinn Pinaire.
Teacher retirement fund consultant facing lawsuit
A former top consultant to the state's teacher retirement fund took in millions of dollars in fees from money managers, including managers that the consultant later recommended for lucrative state work, a retired school official alleges in a lawsuit.
Parents warned of abduction try
Administrators at Oakhill Elementary School in Streamwood sent pupils home with a note Wednesday outlining an incident police were calling an attempted child abduction.
Ex-student: Teacher touched girls' chests
A Prospect High School choir instructor touched female students' chests when measuring them for costumes for school chorus groups, a prosecution witness testified Wednesday.
Teacher talks resume in Gary strike
Union negotiators and Gary school officials resumed contract talks Wednesday, a day before the deadline striking teachers were given for either returning to their classrooms or possibly being fired.
Searching for salmon with Door County's `fish doctor'
Where: About a mile and a half east of Bailey's Harbor, Wis., off the Door County peninsula in Lake Michigan. In a 28-foot Bertram yacht called "The Fish Doctor." Early August. Calm water. Full moon.
Medicaid cuts could sap schools
School districts nationwide could be squeezed even harder on their special-education expenses under federal proposals that threaten to wipe out Medicaid funds for disabled low-income students.
Work slated to begin on new Gilberts school
School officials at a Carpentersville-based district say they will break ground in September on an elementary school in Gilberts and hope it will open by August 2007.
Texting is focus of teacher's trial
Text messages containing explicit sexual references--among hundreds allegedly exchanged between a Prospect High School choir instructor and a female student--figured prominently Tuesday as the former teacher went on trial on charges of criminal sexual abuse.
Warning mailed out to teachers
Gary public schoolteachers said Tuesday that they won't return to classrooms until they have a new contract, despite warnings from school officials that the teachers could lose their jobs and health benefits if the strike continues.
2 teenagers acquitted of hate crime
Attributing their behavior to stupidity, a DuPage judge Tuesday acquitted two teens of hate crime charges, convicting them instead of vandalism for scrawling swastikas and obscene artwork on Hinsdale Central High School property.
School is sued in girl's death
The family of a 1st-grader who died at her Lincolnwood school filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that teachers and administrators underestimated the 7-year-old's symptoms and delayed getting her adequate treatment for half an hour before her heart stopped.
SAT scores notch 1st drop in years
Scores on the SAT college entrance exam dropped sharply this year, with the 2006 graduating class posting the most dramatic decline in test scores in more than three decades, according to data released Tuesday.
Teens go on trial in hate crime case
Attorneys for a current and a former Hinsdale Central High School student, charged with a hate crime for allegedly drawing anti-Semitic graffiti and writing an epithet in February near the school's football field, on Monday denied that the boys harbor animosity toward Jews.
Trial starts for teacher charged with sex abuse
Opening arguments are expected Tuesday in the trial of a former Prospect High School choir instructor charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse after several female students said he touched them inappropriately.
High schools say grant's cons outweigh pros
Township High School District 214 officials last week decided, for the second year in a row, to decline a federal Title I grant that they say costs more than it is worth and offers academic assistance to only a fraction of the district's 12,500 students.
Superintendent hunt starts soon
A national search for a new superintendent to oversee Oak Park-River Forest High School District 200 will begin Wednesday when the school board interviews four firms, officials said.
Teachers in Detroit decide to strike
Teachers overwhelmingly rejected a two-year contract proposal by the city public school district on Sunday and decided to strike.
Incorporated owners earn more, are better educated, study finds
Incorporated small-business owners have incomes that are 36 percent higher than the general population, according to Experian, a financial-information company that last week released a report examining the characteristics of small-business owners.
Charter high school to be built in Auburn Gresham
The Chicago Plan Commission has approved a proposal to allow the Chicago Charter School Foundation to build a 600-student high school in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.
Examine costs, benefits of an MBA
If you've been thinking about going to business school for an MBA, you're not alone. After years of lagging interest, especially at full-time programs, a stronger labor market is driving up the number of applications to graduate business schools.
Clinic opens its lesson plan on school phobia
There are some days when even the best students don't want to go to class. That can mean not getting out of bed, whining to Mom or Dad or moping through breakfast.
Scholarships get future pilots off ground
Blair Wilson of Tuscola and Chris Gingerich of rural Arthur are two of seven Decatur-area teens whose lives have been changed by the efforts of local aviation enthusiasts.
HOW TO: TALK TO YOUR CHILD'S TEACHER
Ideally, the relationship between a child's parent and teacher is "positive and constructive," says Eva Patrikakou, professor of education at DePaul University and mother of a 5-year-old. But in the real world this relationship tends to be adversarial and accusatory.
A teaching moment for troubled youths
At Illinois' largest maximum-security youth prison, metal grids obstruct window views of basketball courts surrounded by coiled razor-wire fences.
In good hands
So many artists in the past 10 years have used the teapot as a canvas for every sort of inventive interpretation. How and why this common household item has morphed into an art object has always intrigued me.
Negotiations break off in teachers strike
Gary school officials broke off contract talks Friday with teachers who have been on strike for five days, saying the work stoppage was illegal.
N.C. county offering teachers a place to live
Money, in the form of pay raises, salary supplements or signing bonuses, has been the customary enticement state and county governments have used to attract teachers and keep them in the profession.
