Tagged: schools

Public school officials in Springfield, Massachusetts will be mailing letters and making telephone calls to the parents and guardians of thousands of middle and school students to let them know about the district’s new condom availability policy.

Starting September 1, condoms will be available to students from school nurses. parents and guardians who do not want their children to have access to condoms can opt-out of the policy, but at least one school committee member has called idea that condoms could be given out in school to 12-year-olds, “unnerving.”

The second largest public school system in Massachusetts will make condoms available to students as young as 12 with the start of the new school year next week. The  condom availability in the Springfield schools is part of a comprehensive effort to combat high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.   WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

    The Massachusetts State Treasurer during a visit to Springfield Wednesday committed to fund the rebuilding of two tornado damaged schools.  Special action by state officials means city taxpayers should be off the hook for any expenses.   WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

The Vermont Department of Education says 73 percent of Vermont schools have not met increased targets under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The 2012 results were released Monday.

Officials say the increase was caused by a rise in standards, which go up every three years with the goal of 100 percent of students being proficient in math, reading and science by 2014. The final target increase was in 2011.

  A new superintendent has been selected to lead the second largest public school system in Massachusetts.   The next  superintendent of schools in Springfield Massachusetts is a home grown product,  as we hear from WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill.

        Daniel Warwick, who started his career in education in 1976  as a teacher in the Springfield Public Schools, became a principal, a special education  supervisor, and eventually deputy superintendent, has been picked to be the  troubled urban school districts new chief administrator.

It's a big week for New York State's elementary school students and their teachers, as we hear in this report from WAMC's Dave Lucas…

For three days beginning today, students in grades 3 to 8 will hunker down with No. 2 pencils to take the state standardized tests in English Language Arts.

Next week, they'll tackle standardized math assessments.

Under a new state law, student performance on the tests will now account for as much as 40 percent of annual reviews for certain teachers.