Education

The Woodland Hills School District has ranked among the top 10 districts nationwide for elementary school suspensions. Two years ago, several district and school leaders were sued by former students for incidents of alleged abuse at the hands of a former school police officer and a former high school principal.

Pennsylvania's Senate advanced legislation on Wednesday to set up a state-administered program to take anonymous reports of dangerous activities or threats of violence in schools, as lawmakers explore improvements to school safety spurred by February's school shooting in Florida that killed 17 people.

Senators approved the bill unanimously, modeling the program on the Safe2Tell program created in Colorado after 1999's Columbine school shooting.

Pennsylvania high school students may soon be facing a new test on civics knowledge, but they won't have to pass it in order to graduate.

The House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly for a bill that mandates a locally developed test of U.S. history, government and civics.

Those who get a perfect score will qualify for a certificate developed by the state Education Department.

Schools will have to report how many students were deemed to have passed the test.

Supporters say there's an alarming lack of civics knowledge among American adults.

A group of local organizations is hoping to include a referendum on the ballot in November to increase property taxes in order to pay for early childhood education programs. 

A local immigrant inclusion initiative, All for All, is recruiting English as A Second Language teachers to participate in a year-long professional development program.

The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency is digging into its reserves to keep money flowing into a grant program for Pennsylvania college students in the coming fiscal year.

However, they’re warning this could mean little or no money for the effort the following year.

PHEAA manages hundreds of billions of dollars in federal and commercial student loans, and pumps some of the revenue from it into the grant program.

But money is tight right now, so the group had planned to cut its $100 million contribution in half.

Members of a group working to address challenges faced by black girls told the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Education that sexual harassment is a pervasive issue within the district.

A director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been chosen as the new chancellor of Pennsylvania's 14 state universities.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education announced Monday that Daniel Greenstein will assume leadership of the system on Sept. 4.

Greenstein has worked with the Gates Foundation for the past six years and was previously a top administrator in the University of California system.

It’s a Friday afternoon and a group of high school students crowd around a computer screen, watching audio levels rise and fall. Behind the window of a recording booth, another student is reading from a children’s book. But the teens aren’t reading directly to a child. They’re creating audiobooks, so blind and visually impaired children can access literature.

Beginning this fall, Carnegie Mellon University will offer an undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence, the first of its kind available in the U.S.

The expansion announced Thursday is an effort to meet the growing demand for AI experts.

Facebook recently announced it had hired two CMU professors to open a new AI lab in Pittsburgh. One of those professors will continue to teach while the other will spend most of his time with the social media company.

Next week, Nate Bashioum will make a long-awaited walk across a stage to receive his bachelor’s degree from Carlow University.

After commissioning an independent study on how to fix Pennsylvania’s higher education system, House and Senate lawmakers held a joint hearing Monday to debate which solutions are actually viable.

Fundamental differences remain.

A new study conducted by the RAND Corporation and commissioned by the Pennsylvania State Legislature suggests drastic changes to the state university system.

Graduate students at Penn State University have voted against union representation, ending a four-year battle against the school administration.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hand-tallied paper votes for hours in Harrisburg on Tuesday. Of the 3,800 graduate students eligible to vote, 950 voted for unionization and 1,438 voted against, according to a press release. 

More than 100 Pittsburgh students marched out of their school Friday and stood in Market Square for 13 minutes in memory of the people who died 19 years ago in Colorado's Columbine High School Shooting.

The Pittsburgh Public Schools board approved three employee contracts Wednesday night, more than a month after a planned teacher and support staff strike was averted.

Criminal penalties for hazing would become more severe under a bill — approved Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Senate — that was inspired by the death last year of a Penn State pledge after a night of heavy drinking.

A new contract for Pittsburgh Public Schools teachers was accepted by 90 percent of voting members Wednesday night.

Remake Learning began in Pittsburgh 10 years ago to help adults understand how the digital age has changed education and how to best prepare kids for the future.

A Pennsylvania school district has given its teachers small wooden baseball bats as a reminder to fight a school shooter with any weapon available should other options fail.

The superintendent of the Millcreek Township School District says the 16-inch bats are primarily symbolic, but the district did want to have a "consistent tool" for all teachers should they need to fight and attacker.

Several Fayette County students are in Washington D.C. this week to showcase projects they have been working on in their school’s “Fab Lab.”

A Pennsylvania school district has canceled an active-shooter training event over concerns raised about "violent, homophobic and anti-Muslim" social media posts by the company conducting it.

More than 260 parents had registered for the event planned by the North Allegheny School District.

The event was intended to show parents the type of security training staffers receive. It was canceled after some parents raised concerns about Pittsburgh-based contractor INPAX, which has worked with the district for years. The parents cited posts they called "inappropriate."

After more than two decades of renting space in in other school buildings, a nonprofit that educates children with special needs is now building a permanent space to house its schools for children with autism and who are deaf.

Officials say a Pennsylvania high school rifle team has received thousands of dollars in donations since the school board refused a grant from the National Rifle Association.

A Pennsylvania school board has decided to turn down a $4,730 grant from the National Rifle Association for new rifles for the school's rifle team.

The Pocono Record reports that the Stroudsburg School Board voted 6-2 Monday night against the NRA grant.

Board member Merlyn Clarke cited the organization's stands on some issues and asked why the board should "promote a gun culture that has nothing to do with our rifle club."

Don't bring that "a woman's place is in the kitchen" kind of stuff around Jessica Perfetto.