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Tri-Cities online school enrollment surges with COVID rates
Pasco, WA While enrollment at Tri-City schools are slowly returning to normal, online schools are seeing a surge of new students choosing to learn remotely. Along with the rise in the COVID delta variant in the Tri-Cities, enrollment in online courses more than doubled in the space of a month. And overall enrollment in Tri-Cities schools — both online and in person — is slowly rebounding after hundreds of students disappeared from the rolls of public schools last year. Leaders of Pasco’s new virtual school, Pasco Innovative Experiences in e-Learning or PIXeL, were surprised by the rush for their program this year. They initially had 80 students in the new…
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Opting out of advanced math education alters adolescents’ neural development, study finds
A brain imaging study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found evidence that missing out on math education can alter neural development. Young adults who had chosen not to pursue advanced math had lower levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) within the middle frontal gyrus when compared to students who were continuing their math education. Importantly, these changes were not evident prior to students’ decision to continue math or not. While the disadvantages of a lack of education have been well established, the impact of missing out on a specific type of learning is less clear. Study authors George Zacharopoulos and his team proposed that…
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With only 194,000 jobs added, September’s jobs report disappoints
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ September jobs report, released last week, showed a decrease of 0.4 percentage points in the U.S. unemployment rate, from 5.2% in August to 4.8% in September. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 194,000 in September, compared to a monthly average of 561,000, and the number of unemployed people fell by 710,000. The number of marginally attached workers increased by 167,000 and the number of discouraged workers increased by 58,000. The uptick in marginally attached and discouraged workers suggests that the official unemployment rate understates how many workers are currently having trouble finding jobs. Given this difficulty, it is not surprising that the labor force participation rate…
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Misconceptions about science fuel pandemic debates and controversies, says Neil deGrasse Tyson
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson says some of the bitter arguments about medicine and science during the COVID-19 pandemic can be blamed on a fundamental misunderstanding of science. “People were unwittingly witnessing science at its very best.… [They said,] ‘You told me not to wear a mask a month ago and now you tell me [to] wear it.… You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Yes, we do,” the American astrophysicist and author told The Sunday Magazine host Piya Chattopadhyay. “Science is a means of querying nature. And when we have enough experiments and enough observations, only then can we say: This is how nature behaves, whether you like it or not. And that…
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Foreign exchange students settling in Huntsville | News
Huntsville High School teacher Heather Schroeder conducted the Foreign Exchange and Friends club’s first meeting last week. The event covered the introduction of new foreign students who, in addition to being warmly welcomed by some H students, were also encouraged to exchange social media while enjoying a delicious snack. As a teacher, Schroeder wants to be a contact point on the Huntsville High campus for every foreign exchange student, in case they ever need anything or have questions. She also grants that the Foreign Exchange and Friends Club is all about networking. “I started the club, because I always have a close relationship with my exchange students, and I always…
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Video circulating online shows classroom assault at Oscar Smith High School; police investigating
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A teacher’s assistant was assaulted by a student in a classroom Tuesday at Oscar Smith High School and WAVY News 10 has obtained video that shows the incident. In a voice message to families Tuesday, Oscar Smith Principal Paul Joseph said first responders reported to OSHS earlier in the day for a “medical emergency involving the assault of a staff member.” The principal said students have been circulating a video of the incident online. 10 On Your Side tracked down that video and received permission to use it in our coverage. We have muted the video and blurred the faces of everyone seen in the classroom.…
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Our System of Higher Education Doesn’t Make Any Sense
Do you ever take a look at our system of postsecondary education and just think how it doesn’t make any sense? My first personal experience with this sensation came in my first semester as a graduate instructor at McNeese State University, fall 1994, when I was assigned to a section of English 090 — developmental English. McNeese was essentially open admission, and English 090 was a remedial course for those who scored below a particular mark on the ACT. Passing English 090 conveyed no credit toward graduation, but passing allowed students to start taking the required gen ed English sequence. If your goal is to try to move as many…
Skillful education crafters
