Illinois Families, Kids With Disabilities Suffer Without Childcare
Michelle McAnarney said she realized her daughter Darby was different than other children soon after she was born. “She was always a little delayed…
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What Will It Take To Fix Illinois’s Teacher Shortage?
There were more than 2,000 teaching, administrative, support staff and other positions across the state that went unfilled during the 2016-17 school year, according to a report from the Illinois State Board of Education.
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Community Works Towards Solutions For Traumatized Students
How many people would come to discuss the topic of students and trauma? No guests had been confirmed, but social media activity suggested high turnout for Illinois Newsroom’s first event News & Brews: How Schools Can Better Help Kids Cope. Now it was a question of capacity. The tap room in Riggs Beer Company in…
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U Of I Students Design Virtual Reality For Incarcerated People
Simple, everyday tasks – like ordering coffee, crossing the street, or getting gas – can be an obstacle, or an intimidating challenge for people recently released from prison. This is especially true for people who have spent many years behind bars.
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Trauma Hurts Kids, But Educators Can Help
Children who experience trauma often face behavioral, health and academic challenges, according to decades of research . Kristine Argue, instructional…
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How Schools Can Help Kids Traumatized By Gun Violence
Last month, about a dozen people gathered in the basement of a church in Champaign, Ill. to learn how traumatic experiences affect the lives of children and young adults, and what they can do to mitigate its effects.
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Listening About Guns
What I heard at both events: safety concerns, frustration with legislators and calls for action around gun laws. Hope for children, love for community and citizens flexing their civic muscles. In my role as Illinois Newsroom Engagement Strategist, I attended two events related to the debate over guns. At March 24th’s “March for Our Lives”…
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Feedback: Noble Charter Schools Story Hit A Nerve
Earlier this month, we posted a story about discipline practices inside Noble Network of Charter Schools , which educates approximately one out of 10…
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Illinois Prison System Spent Less Than $300 On Books Last Year
Every Sunday, a group of women meets in the basement of a church in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood to sort and package boxes of books. The boxes are sent to women
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Culture Shock: Teachers Call Noble Charters ‘Dehumanizing’
The trend toward school choice has educators across the country looking at Chicago’s Noble Charter Schools — an award-winning network of mostly high schools that specializes in helping inner-city kids achieve the kind of SAT scores that propel them into four-year universities. But despite its prestigious reputation, Noble has a peculiarly high teacher turnover rate….
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Students Across Illinois March Against Gun Violence
Thousands of students, teachers, parents and victims carried signs and marched across Illinois in the cold, snow and sleet on Saturday as part of the nationwide March for Our Lives against gun violence. The marches were largely led by students, many of them moved to action after last month’s high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
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U of I Graduate Workers Strike Hinges On Tuition Waivers
Hundreds of classes have been canceled and dozens more relocated as a strike by graduate employees at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign continues into a second week. On Tuesday night, graduate workers occupied the office of university president Tim Killeen. Strikers have a variety of demands, but one of the most contentious points focuses on the future of…
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Lawsuit Alleges Illinois Prisons Improperly Censored Criminal Justice Newsletter
The publisher of a newsletter about the criminal justice system filed a lawsuit this week against the Illinois Department of Corrections alleging that multiple state prisons barred inmates from receiving all or part of several publications.
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Schools Are Using Poverty Simulations To Build Empathy. But Do They Work?
About 100 teachers and school support staff spent the better part of three hours inside a junior high school gymnasium in rural, east central Illinois in early January. They were role playing people living in poverty.
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Education Board Calls For Swift Action On School Funding
If you’ve seen Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign commercials , you might think the school funding issue was settled last summer. But as often happens with…
