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Unfamiliar territory: Wyoming educator learns to lead Idaho’s largest online school
In his return to the Gem State, Jon Abrams finds himself in charge of Idaho’s fastest growing school district — an online school that has added thousands of students in recent years. Oneida School District trustees selected Abrams to replace outgoing superintendent Rich Moore this school year. Abrams has worked as superintendent of the Pine Bluffs, Wyo.-based Laramie County School District since 2015. He’s an experienced educator, but admits the district’s heavy online emphasis is unfamiliar territory. “Connecting through the virtual world is very different,” he said. “But it’s another opportunity to grow.” Oneida’s Idaho Home Learning Academy, now the state’s largest virtual school, has increased its enrollment at an unprecedented…
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Making education easier for Utah prisoners would make the community safer |Opinion
Alongside a wonderful team, we direct the University of Utah Prison Education project. We provide on-site coursework and programming to incarcerated adults at the Utah State Prison in Draper and work closely with faculty and student volunteers from a diverse range of institutions in our state, including Brigham Young University, Salt Lake Community College, Snow College, Southern Utah University, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, Weber State University, and Westminster College. We are an all-volunteer initiative, and we are currently unable to meet demand. In fact, the unmet need in our state is tremendous. There are over 200 youth incarcerated in 11 detention facilities in Utah and over 13,000 adults…
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Lions vs. Colts preview: 11 jobs up for grabs in the Detroit’s preseason finale
Earlier this week, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell told the media that about 80 percent of the Lions’ 53-man roster has already been decided. So if you do the math, that means there are around 10 or 11 spots still to be determined this weekend. Friday night’s game against the Indianapolis Colts will be the final opportunity for these bubble players to make an impression on the coaching staff and Detroit’s front office. Ball out at Ford Field, and some of these players could lock up not only a roster spot, but a contributing role. Struggle against the Colts and it could mean landing in a new city, slipping…
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More Americans Are Finally Coming Around to Accepting The Science of Evolution
More Americans are coming to accept Charles Darwin’s “dangerous idea” of evolution, according to thirty years’ worth of national surveys. Researchers have found that public acceptance of biological evolution has increased substantially in the last decade alone, following twenty years of relative stagnancy. Between 1985 and 2010, roughly 40 percent of surveyed adults in the US agreed that “human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals”. Taking into account the small number of fence-sitters, this suggests much of the nation was evenly divided on the theory. By 2016, that percentage had, at last, become a majority, reaching 54 percent. As it turns out, education…
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Homeschooling Is Surging Across America. Homeschoolers Told Us Why
The last year and a half hasn’t been easy on American school children. Between COVID-19 restrictions and fierce battles over curriculum, schools have become embroiled in political conflict as the future of education has been thrust into uncertainty. It should come as no surprise that homeschooling has dramatically spiked since the onset of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed. Census data reveals that by the fall of the 2020-2021 school year, 11.1 percent of households with school-aged children reported homeschooling, double the amount of the previous year. Then, by May 2021, the percentage was 19.5. While some reasons for this sudden uptick are self-evident, The Federalist reached out to homeschooling…
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Exchange Students in Need of Host Families | KWKT
WACO, Texas – COVID-19 kept many foreign exchange students with plans to visit America for the last school year at home. Now they hope 2021 will be different. “It’s created a little bit of an influx,” says Ayusa community representative Christin Sherburne. “Now we have more students this year than we ever have had before that are needing a home.” The Ayusa exchange program is working to place those students as quickly as they can so they can start school in time. “They become a part of the family and build these lasting connections,” says host dad Brett Boyd. One Central Texas man started hosting students four years ago, and…
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St. Paul schools eyeing online option for all students
Online learning will be an option again this fall for all students in St. Paul schools. The school board agreed Tuesday to immediately expand a new online school initially being designed for high schoolers to include students from kindergarten through grade 12. The district has cited increasing demand in a shifting landscape that has seen coronavirus cases rising and the state Department of Education loosening requirements for districts and charters to continue offering distance learning. “Many feel it’s not safe to come back with COVID-19,” Superintendent Joe Gothard told board members. The school board also signed off Tuesday on a plan outlined a week ago calling for students, staff members…
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