Sarah Gonzalez
Sarah Gonzalez is the multimedia education reporter for WLRN's StateImpact Florida project. She comes from NPR in D.C. where she was a national desk reporter, web and show producer as an NPR Kroc Fellow. The San Diego native has worked as a reporter and producer for KPBS in San Diego and KALW in San Francisco, covering under-reported issues like youth violence, food insecurity and public education. Her work has been awarded an SPJ Sigma Delta Chi and regional Edward R. Murrow awards. She graduated from Mills College in 2009 with a bachelorâ
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As the East Coast sweats its way through another heat wave, not everyone has the luxury of air conditioning. In the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, the mostly Dominican population has moved their lives outside, where the city has kept the parks open and turned on water sprinklers.
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Old shoes can tell a story. A mother in New Jersey is hoping her exhibit of old shoes will help young people avoid violence. She's trying to collect a pair of shoes connected to every young person killed by gun violence in the U.S. in 1998 — the year her son was shot to death.
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Janitors suffer some of the highest rates of injury on the job. That costs employers millions of dollars in compensation and lost work time. A Florida school district decided to address the issue by instituting a fitness test for prospective custodians. But the test is so tough the district is having a hard time filling positions.
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Some of the positions vacated over summer break still haven't been filled permanently, and this isn't the first time that's happened. Part of the problem is last-minute resignations, leaving school districts in a lurch. -
The school year has begun for most Florida students, but some are still trying to finish summer school. After years of budget cuts, many districts have eliminated or cut back summer school classes, leaving online school as the only option for students trying to make up courses they failed. Many have struggled with the online format and are entering the new school year still behind.
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The Florida Board of Education has voted to temporarily lower the passing grade for its state writing test after a dramatic drop in scores on this year's exam. The state had made the test more difficult and raised the passing grade in an attempt to upgrade standards. But education officials were stunned when preliminary results showed the passing rate for 4th graders this year had plummeted from 80 percent to less than 30 percent.
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In parts of Florida and around the country, paddling kids who misbehave is considered traditional discipline — and schools are the only public institution where that's allowed. But parents don't always get a say in whether their kids can be disciplined with spankings. -
A StateImpact Florida/Miami Herald investigation shows that despite state and federal laws requiring charter schools to give equal access to students with severe disabilities, most charter schools in Florida have few of these students on their roster.
