Education
For Deerfield Community School, Some Pandemic Changes Are Here to Stay
A year ago, New Hampshire schools shut down for what many thought would just be three weeks. Now, schools across the state are reopening fully. NHPR’s Sarah Gibson visited Deerfield Community School, where teachers and students have been spending a lot of the pandemic outside. And as they return, many are hoping that doesn’t change.…
Read MoreAn Accidental Experiment: An Emergency Teacher License Gives An Unexpected Boost To Teacher Diversity
Teaching is Carmen Rios’ passion, especially kindergarteners. “I love to work with them because they are so kind,” she said. “I like that I can give them that first experience in school and be creative and motivate them to love school.” Rios spent 14 years teaching kindergarten in Puerto Rico. When she moved to Massachusetts…
Read MoreWhat It’s Like To Go Back To School In 2021
Bridget Donovan has spent most of her senior year alone in her room, staring at a computer screen. Every school day for the past year, she logged into Zoom classes and struggled to pay attention. She missed her friends, her teachers, and the tech booth in the Framingham High School auditorium, where Bridget used to…
Read MoreFor English Language Learners, School Ties Are Key To Overcoming Pandemic Challenges
On Tuesday, the Manchester, New Hampshire School District announced tentative plans to expand in-person classes from two days a week to four, starting in May. And at Manchester West High School in Manchester, that experiment is well underway. For over a month, staff there have been encouraging students who are learning English as a second…
Read MoreYoung Adults Are Struggling With Mental Illness. This New Center In Newport Wants To Intervene Earlier.
Jamie Lehane’s son was 18 years old and had just gone off to college, when Lehane’s phone rang unexpectedly. “I got the call from the campus police that, ‘Your son is being rushed to a local community hospital, and that he’s had a serious mental breakdown,’” Lehane said. It turned out to be a psychotic…
Read MoreGrowing Frustration On Campus Over How Hate And Harassment Incidents Are Handled
Young Black and brown women living in a multicultural dorm at Boston College said they were startled awake in the middle of the night earlier this month as two white students ran through their hall, banging on doors and trashing the place. There’s growing frustration over how that and other incidents have been handled on…
Read MoreIn Essex County, A Small School District Looks To Merge Across State Lines
Since Act 46 was passed by the Legislature in 2015, small school districts across the state have had to make difficult decisions about whether to merge rural schools. In some parts of the state, geography creates some challenging decisions about how to do so. The Northeast Kingdom town of Canaan is too isolated to benefit…
Read MoreA Third Of Maine Student Loan Borrowers Could Have Their Debt Eliminated Under Plan Floated By Biden
A significant number of Mainers with outstanding student loans could see some major relief under a proposal that newly inaugurated President Joe Biden will reportedly make to cancel thousands in federal student loan debt for each person, among other efforts. In addition to planning an executive order to “pause” federal student loan collection through September,…
Read MoreOne Challenge To Reopening Schools: Finding Enough Teachers
Just after Thanksgiving, Falmouth High School Principal Mary Gans got a call: the school had a positive case. Twelve of her staff members were considered “close contacts” and had to quarantine immediately. “I just [did] not have the ability to cover all of their classes, even for the rest of the day,” Gans said. “There just weren’t the…
Read More‘As Scary As A Virus In Some Ways’: Mental Health Concerns Grow As Remote Schooling Continues
Across the country, there are middle and high school teachers begging their students to turn on their Zoom cameras. You can read their angst-ridden posts on Twitter and Facebook. I can hear their pleas coming from the laptop in my 14-year-old son’s bedroom (he rarely turns on his camera, by the way). The frustration and…
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