Kai Humphrey, 9, has been learning from home for more than a year. He badly misses his Washington, D.C., elementary school, along with his friends and the bustle of the classroom. “I will be the first person ever to have every single person in the world as my friend,” he said on a recent Zoom…
DANVILLE – Brennon Hightower says Black history is lacking in the education her two sons receive at their public school in Danville, a city in east-central Illinois. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hightower decided to homeschool her sons — aged 10 and 15 — using curricula she found and liked. But even that material included very…
CHAMPAIGN – School districts in Illinois will receive $7 billion in federal funding over three years for kindergarten through high school education. The influx of cash comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, the latest federal COVID-19 stimulus package, which Congress passed earlier this year. This funding is in addition other monies provided by the…
Editor’s note: This story was reported by University of Illinois journalism student Gwyn Skiles, with coverage coordinated by College Of Media journalism professor Chris Evans and professional journalists at Illinois Public Media. URBANA – University of Illinois community members gathered outside of the Beckman Institute for a vigil honoring the victims of the Atlanta Spa…
SPRINGFIELD – Beginning this fall, all 12 of Illinois’ public universities will begin using the Common App, a single online application used by hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. Only three of the state’s public universities, including the University of Illinois’ Chicago campus, use the Common App — in addition to 32 private…
SPRINGFIELD – Fewer Illinois families have applied for college financial aid this year using the FAFSA — the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — and a campaign is underway to get more families in the state to complete the form. According to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, overall FAFSA completion is down nearly 5%…
CHAMPAIGN – Champaign Unit 4 teacher Dominique McCotter is one of 32 pre-K through third grade finalists for the Illinois Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching this year. McCotter is a Kindergarten teacher at Dr. Howard Elementary School. The statewide award honors teachers for their impact on student growth and learning. Recipients of the…
NORMAL – Tracy Freeman heard from a former student earlier this year. Freeman, who teaches social studies at Normal West Community High School in central Illinois, says the student had traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the Trump rally on January 6. The former student said they didn’t go into the U. S. Capitol…
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois and other states across the country recently called on the federal government to waive requirements for federally-mandated standardized testing this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in a letter published late last month, the Biden administration’s Department of Education wrote that schools must administer the exams, though they won’t be held…
URBANA – The University of Illinois’ COVID-19 testing process has received Emergency Use Authorization from the federal Food and Drug Administration. Authorization was granted in a February 24 letter to the university from FDA Chief Scientist, Rear Admiral Denise M. Hinton. Ben Taylor, spokesman for Shield Illinois, the U of I’s program for marketing…
TONIGHT at 7pm: Join WILL & Illinois Public Media’s Lee V. Gaines for the second virtual town hall following her investigative series on campus policing. A world without campus police: What would that look like? What does it mean to defund and abolish university cops? What are the alternatives to campus police? Join us as…
CHAMPAIGN – Earlier this month, 1,291 teachers and other staff members at Champaign Unit 4 Schools received their first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. This week, they return for a second dose. Dozens of staff members and some members of the community filed in and out of Centennial High School on Monday. They…
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker outlined a proposed budget for the next fiscal year this week that keeps state spending on both K-12 and higher education mostly flat. If approved by state lawmakers, this would be the second year in a row that Illinois hasn’t invested in its school funding formula. The formula, passed…
The University of Illinois has backed down from an initial decision to dismiss a graduate student for a full year for not getting regular COVID-19 tests during the fall semester. Late last month, Yidong “Ivor” Chen, a fourth year physics PhD student from China, faced a disciplinary committee made up of students, faculty and staff…
URBANA – At a panel hosted by Illinois Newsroom this week, University of Illinois police, administrators, professors and students discussed the role of the campus police — and why some want the department abolished and their funding invested in other services. The discussion follows an Illinois Newsroom series by education reporter Lee Gaines about the growing…