Tagged: Education

New Hampshire is among some forty states to adopt this more rigorous set of standards for math and language arts in public schools. But just as this bi-partisan effort becomes reality, the system is facing some backlash from both the right and left. We’ll find out more about Common Core and the challenges it faces getting off the ground.

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Professionals who dream of changing careers and becoming teachers have been doing so with the help of the Upper Valley Educators Institute since 1969.

Junior high school can be an awkward, unsettling experience for anyone. Especially for teachers; imagine having survived it once, then witnesses cavorting teens finding their way over and over again. Jessica Lahey is an English, Latin, and Writing teacher at Crossroads Academy in Lyme, New Hampshire. She also writes about education and parenting for the New York Times and other publications, and on her blog, Coming of Age in the Middle. Her article, “A Dress-Code Enforcer’s Struggle for the Soul of the Middle-School Girl” was recently published in The Atlantic and she joins us to discuss the worry over dress codes and the chaotic middle years.

According to the Department of Education, the number of kids being homeschooled nearly doubled between 1999 and 2007. A large a majority of parents who choose this route, say they do it for religious or moral reasons. Now, the first generation to age out of the Christian homeschooling movement that first took root in the 1980’s are speaking out about their experiences. On the website Homeschoolers Anonymous, former homeschoolers blog about traumas suffered upon them by radical homeschooling. Michelle Goldberg, senior contributing writer for Newsweek and the Daily Beast, wrote about the topic earlier this month.

In 2009, Governor Lynch signed a law making it illegal to drop out before the age of eighteen. Last month, state officials touted a report ranking the state among those with the lowest dropout rates. But all is not rosy. There are certain areas where that number is a lot higher, especially in Manchester. We’ll look at what’s working and what’s not for our dropout rate.

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More people are going to college than ever before, but a lot of them aren't finishing. Low-income students, in particular, struggle to get to graduation. Only 9 percent complete a bachelor's degree by age 24. Why are so many students quitting, and what leads a few to beat the odds and make it through? In this documentary, American RadioWorks correspondent Emily Hanford introduces us to young people trying to break into the middle class, teachers trying to increase their chances and researchers investigating the nature of persistence.

Although long an unfortunate part of childhood, many feel it’s become more serious and more complicated, given expanded opportunities through the internet and social media.  But there’s also more scrutiny, tougher policies, and anti-bullying campaigns out in force.  We’ll get the latest from Granite Staters involved in this issue.

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