Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said that half of Chicago teachers were "illiterate" in a 2011 email, recently released to a city newspaper.

Marc Tucker's most-read blog posts in 2017.

The Albert L. Evans Jr. Honorary Scholarship is a tribute to Bert Evans and his example of generous philanthropy.

Penn State Schuylkill hosted two online celebrations for its Honors Program students, outstanding student scholars and tutors the week of April 20, 2020.

With their spring season canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic, three senior student-athletes reflect on their time as Penn State Schuylkill Nittany Lions.

Few students become more engaged in clubs, academics and student life activities than Raquele Amato. A prominent figure on Penn State Schuylkill’s campus, Amato has served as an officer in more than half a dozen student organizations, swept spring awards ceremonies, worked as a resident assistant, and helped her family run their pizza shop in Frackville, Pennsylvania, all while maintaining a full-time course load. Before she closes the book on her time at Penn State Schuylkill, Amato reflected on her time at the campus and considered what’s next.

On Wednesday, the third annual UEFA Grassroots Day will be celebrated across Europe with grassroots-based activities and events arranged to take place in Munich and beyond.

UEFA Grassroots Day has been marked in Munich and all over Europe with a series of especially arranged activities promoting the message that football is open to everyone.

Three teams of youngsters from the United States were given the chance to impress at the UEFA Champions Festival with a series of special exhibition matches in Munich.

Spain forward and UEFA ambassador Verónica Boquete was on hand at the women's Under-16 development tournament in Zagreb to support Croatia's promotion of the female game.

OM Japan Tsunami April Update

Since it was announced publicly that OM Japan were ready to receive volunteers, many people wrote to express interest and requested for more information. This past week (23 - 27 May), OM Japan took their first volunteer group, consisting of 3 foreigners and 4 Japanese to Miyagi prefecture to help with clearing up rubble and bringing encouragement.

OM Japan feels honoured to have played a small part in helping bring hope and relief to tsunami survivors.

Source: Public News Service - Economists warn that the costs of climate change in the U.S. – including from the health impacts of air pollution and natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires – could top $350 billion annually in the next 10 years.

Source: The Weather Channel - A majority of Americans say they believe climate change contributed to the severity of the hurricanes that devastated Florida, Texas and parts of the Caribbean over the past six weeks, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Source: The Irish Times - Harold Kingston, who runs a dairy farm in Courtmacsharry, Co Cork, with 160 cattle, is typical of the new generation of smart farmers, who have adjusted how they work in response to climate change.

Source: El Periódico - Las políticas climáticas que se centran en la agricultura y los bosques podrían llevar al aumento de los precios de los alimentos, pero reducir la deforestación e incrementar la captura de carbono en la agricultura podría reducir significativamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, evitando riesgos para la seguridad alimentaria, según un nuevo estudio publicado en 'Environmental Research Letters'.

Source: Reuters - Wind and solar power are growing as sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, but storing renewable energy through the night, when the sun isn’t shining, or when no wind is rotating the turbines, remains a hurdle.

The new school year is guaranteed to intensify the already contentious debate about ways to narrow the achievement gap between the nation's second largest ethnic group and its white counterparts. I'm referring to the performance of Hispanics, whose numbers have grown dramatically over the past four

While foreign language requirements have long been a core requirement for high school graduation--second language classes at an earlier age would improve overall fluency for most students.

Dozens of states offer the seal of biliteracy, but more than 80 percent of students who earn the honor are concentrated in just five states, a new report reveals.

Nearly 20 years after voting to restrict bilingual education in a state with more than 1 million schoolchildren who don't speak English as their first language, California voters appear poised to reverse that ban.

Californians are expected to reinstate bilingual education. The vote is likely to be a milestone in the rise of Latino voting power. Bad news for Donald Trump; worse news for the GOP.

The ballot measure essentially repeals Proposition 227, the 1998 law that made it tougher for districts to offer bilingual education.

In California, nearly 1 in every 4 children don't speak English fluently. On Election Day, the state's voters will decide whether to overturn a longstanding policy of teaching these children in English-only classrooms, or whether to embrace bilingual forms of teaching.

After nearly two decades of restrictions, educators say it will take time for schools to create new programs and hire bilingual teachers.

Teaching via combined languages is important, as multiple races and immigrants from different countries live in the United States.

The new law overturns a nearly 15-year-old law that had eliminated bilingual education in most of the state's public schools.

Dual-language-immersion students in Portland, Ore., outperformed their peers in English-reading skills by a full school year's worth of learning by the end of middle school.

More than 30 states and the District of Columbia have reported shortages of bilingual, dual-immersion, and English-as-a-second-language teachers, finds a new report by New America's Dual Language Learners National Work Group.

Education Week catches you up on the week gone by with a thoughtful look at recent news in K-12 education.

In 24 states and the District of Columbia, dual-language learners comprise more than 20 percent of children ages 8 and younger.

Arizona is expected to repeal its longstanding ban on bilingual education, following similar moves in California and Massachusetts in recent years.

The recent wave of teacher strikes reflects a broader phenomenon, blurring the boundaries between national and local school politics, write three education professors.

While the number of principals running for office has been dwarfed by teachers, school leaders are hoping to change policies in statehouses and in Washington that they say impact their students and families.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s recent remarks on his willingness to work with segregationists resurrected his long-ago efforts to oppose school busing. Will it hurt his campaign?

This year's November elections—a preview to next year's nationwide showdowns—cast their own spotlight on education, a dynamic that played out most prominently in the Kentucky governor's race, where teachers organized to unseat a combative incumbent who'd sparred with them.

There are five key values to consider when separating campaign rhetoric from how a candidate would actually govern, writes Robert Feirsen.

Docosahexaenoic acid is important for fetal brain development and visual acuity in infants. Infants born prematurely are at particular risk for docosahexaenoic acid insufficiency because they may not have benefited from a full trimester of the mother's lipid stores.

This is the first study in which the administration of fish-oil lipid emulsion in very low birth weight infants from the first day of life is described. The influence of fish-oil lipid emulsion on the regression of retinopathy seems to be worthy of further investigation. (Read the full article)

A number of studies have examined the early impact of the varicella vaccination program on varicella-related hospitalizations and have found evidence of decline after vaccine implementation.

This study further documents the continued decline in varicella-related hospitalizations during the 1-dose varicella vaccination era and demonstrates statistically significant declines of >65% in all age groups. These data suggest that varicella vaccination prevented ~50 000 hospitalizations from 2000 to 2006. (Read the full article)

The extent to which young adults' laboratory-confirmed sexually transmitted disease results and self-reported sexual behaviors are consistent has not been assessed in a nationally representative sample.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether young adults' reports of recent sexual behavior (presence of penile/vaginal sex in the previous 12 months) correspond with the presence of laboratory-confirmed nonviral STDs assessed by nucleic acid amplification testing. (Read the full article)

Little is known about the pharmacokinetics and required dosage of metronidazole in preterm neonates.

In this study the pharmacokinetics of metronidazole in preterm neonates was investigated by measurement of the drug in dried blood-spot samples. A dosage regimen is proposed that should result in more appropriate, less frequent dosing in the most preterm neonates. (Read the full article)

Febrile neutropenia is a common complication in children with cancer. Traditionally, even low-risk episodes have been managed entirely in an inpatient setting, and discharge of the patients has been delayed until resolution of fever and sustainable hematopoietic recovery.

The results of this decision-analytic model evaluating low-risk febrile neutropenia episodes suggest that the substantially higher costs of inpatient management cannot be justified on the basis of safety and efficacy considerations or patient/parent preferences. Uncertainty remains whether intravenous or oral treatment might be the preferable route of drug administration in an ambulatory setting. (Read the full article)

Autism has been associated with pregnancy and birth complications that may indicate a suboptimal prenatal environment. Although the interpregnancy interval (IPI) may affect the prenatal environment, the association between the IPI and risk for autism is not known.

Using full-sibling pairs from a large population, the authors examined the association between autism and IPIs. Second-born children conceived after an IPI of <12 months had more than threefold increased odds of autism relative to those with IPIs of ≥36 months. (Read the full article)

The current standard of care includes informing women about prenatal testing and newborn screening for cystic fibrosis and providing genetic counseling to parents whose child is referred for sweat-testing. Despite counseling, early data identified some persistent confusion about residual risk.

Prenatal discussions about carrier testing and newborn screening for cystic fibrosis are not routine. Parental anxiety about abnormal results from a screen is decreased after speaking to a genetic counselor when scheduling the sweat test. Despite counseling, residual risk continues to be poorly understood. (Read the full article)

Few epidemiological studies, which included varied exposure assessment, have investigated the relation between drinking-water–disinfection byproducts such as trihalomethanes and hypospadias, and their results have been inconclusive.

Little evidence was found for an association between trihalomethanes and hypospadias, but a novel association between water consumption and hypospadias was found. Factors that influence maternal water consumption, or other contaminants in tap or bottled water, might explain this finding. (Read the full article)

Several correlational studies documented that participants who would be classified as "pathological" video gamers demonstrate a pattern of correlations with other variables that are comorbid (eg, depression) or occur with (eg, poorer grades and increased hostility) other addictions.

Following a large sample across 2 years, this study provides needed data on risk factors for becoming a pathological gamer, how long pathological gaming lasts, outcomes, and whether it is a primary problem or is a symptom of comorbid problems. (Read the full article)

The use of steroids as a treatment for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy results in a slower progression in weakness. Bisphosphonates often are used in conjunction with steroid therapy to enhance bone health.

The combination of steroids and bisphosphonates seems to be associated with significantly improved survival rates compared with treatment with steroids alone. (Read the full article)

Intussusception is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in young children. To date, there have been no prospective studies that have been able to develop a reliable clinical prediction model to determine which patients are at low risk for intussusception.

This study is the largest prospective cohort study to date to evaluate children with possible intussusception. It includes both univariate and multivariate analyses to develop clinical prediction models for patients at low risk for intussusception. (Read the full article)