Shrinking prison budgets eliminate educational opportunities

Jun. 7, 2012
Marvin Marshall was 17 when he first went to prison for assault and battery. He dropped out of high school in junior year, made some bad choices and was arrested and imprisoned a few times.“It was pretty boring,” Marshall said about prison.

How immigrants learn English in rural America

Jun. 5, 2012
Immigrants have long turned to rural America as a source of work, but often struggle because they lack English language skills. That’s a little different in Beardstown, Ill., a town about an hour west of Springfield.

Re-writing the GED test

Jun. 4, 2012
Ericka Coleman remembers seeing a sign about General Educational Development (GED) classes at the library near her house in St. Paul, Minn.The 21-year-old dropped out of high school in one year shy of graduation to take care of her family.

From student to teacher: Teaching ESL in Mich.

Jun. 4, 2012
Before we turn our attention to the ways low-literacy impacts adults in the workforce, we’re exploring the immigrant experience of learning to read, write and speak in English.

How learning English transforms immigrant kids

Jun. 4, 2012
When I landed in Hawaii, I didn’t speak a word of English. I went from being a rowdy tomboy to being an introverted loner.I can’t remember my first day of school in Honolulu.

Getting a 'Jumpstart' on literacy

Jun. 1, 2012
Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon around 3 p.m., a group of Northwestern University students in red Jumpstart T-shirts trickle into the Howard Area Community Center. Once inside, the Jumpstart members follow a carefully crafted pre-

A high school confronts its reading struggles head on

Jun. 1, 2012
Poverty and safety are some of Fenger High School's major concerns. Reading is another.

The death of cursive writing

May. 31, 2012
New Common Core standards require students to become proficient with a keyboard. Forty-five states have adopted this comprehensive change to K-12 curricula. Now educators must decide whether they want to make time to teach cursive writing – even if there’s not a grade for it on report cards.

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