Education category, Page 37

This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. STATE COLLEGE — For years, thousands of Penn State students have participated in a grueling...

Trustees at Carnegie Mellon University have reappointed Farnam Jahanian to a second five-year term as president. The board of trustees acted Thursday on the unanimous recommendation of a presidential review committee of six faculty members and six trustees. The panel’s recommendation followed interviews with about 70 people and other input...

A year ago, the nation’s college and university endowments shook off a pandemic-driven market slump to score impressive growth to support their schools’ academic missions. This time, in fiscal year 2022, the story was the same, say two organizations that closely monitor those funds — only the order was reversed,...

The chairwoman of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education on Thursday condemned a racist social media post made earlier this month by a former Indiana University of Pennsylvania student. The student posted the racist message in response to a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before a men’s basketball...

Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson, founding president of Pennsylvania Western University, also known as PennWest, is leaving her position. She announced Tuesday she is transitioning to a new role with the State System of Higher Education as President-in-Residence and CEO for PennWest Investment. She is to begin the transition immediately and will assume...

Leaders of Penn State University expressed shock and sympathy over Monday night’s mass shooting at a sister Big Ten institution and assured their own campuses across the Commonwealth that safety and counseling services are available. The shooting that left three Michigan State University students dead and five critically wounded traumatized...

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Under the fluorescent lights of a fifth grade classroom in Lexington, Kentucky, Donnie Piercey instructed his 23 students to try and outwit the “robot” that was churning out writing assignments. The robot was the new artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, which can generate everything from essays and haikus...

High school students applying for undergraduate spots at Penn State University through fall 2025 won’t have to take the SAT or ACT for admission, as the state’s flagship public institution is extending its test-optional policy once again. Penn State introduced the program in 2020 as a one-year pilot during the...

School districts from across the region and beyond are chipping in to help raise money to ensure Elizabeth Forward High School’s musical production goes on after a massive fire destroyed the auditorium, band and choir rooms. James Benedek Jr., the school’s musical director, on Monday said the school’s production of...

Funding Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts was never going to be an easy equation to solve. The diverse nature of the state — rural and urban, wealthy and poor — coupled with funding decisions enacted by Pennsylvania lawmakers resulted in a lawsuit being filed eight years ago, claiming bias in the...

When Jacinda Floyd first heard about the “College Now” program at Westmoreland County Community College during her freshman year at Franklin Regional Senior High School, she said she “kind of overlooked it.” “I was thinking, ‘I’m a freshman and have a lot of time to go before college,’” Floyd said....

The Pittsburgh Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute has been approved as the city’s first Black-owned, state-certified pre-apprentice program for the skilled trades. The APRI’s “Breaking the Chains of Poverty” program is designed to help people build the skills necessary to earn a career in the building and construction...

Leon Ford wheeled himself in front of a group of high school students on Friday and told them his story. “I was pulled over by the police. I was shot multiple times. I’m paralyzed. I was 19.” A Pittsburgh police officer shot Ford during a 2012 traffic stop in Highland...

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump has called for parents to elect and fire school principals. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. And Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who is expected to announce her White House...

The University of Pittsburgh said Friday it will withdraw from participating in the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, joining a revolt now spreading nationally among public and private schools over the rankings’ methodology. The U.S. News Best Law Schools ranking system “is systematically flawed and harmful to...

Haider Ala Hamoudi has been named interim dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law following Amy Wildermuth’s resignation on Jan. 23. Employed at the school since 2007, Hamoudi had been overseeing daily operations as acting dean while an interim dean was put in place, Provost Ann Cudd said....

Seton Hill University has a new chief financial officer. Brent Jackson begins his duties effective immediately, according to Seton Hill President Mary Finger. In addition to CFO, Jackson also will be the university’s vice president for finance and administration. Jackson has held the job on an interim basis since April...

She’d be a senior right now, preparing for graduation in a few months, probably leading her school’s modern dance troupe and taking art classes. Instead, Kailani Taylor-Cribb hasn’t taken a single class in what used to be her high school since the height of the coronavirus pandemic. She vanished from...

Penn State University’s two law schools are withdrawing from participating in future U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, joining more than 40 peers who say the news organization’s methodology is seriously flawed. Yale and Harvard universities announced they were withdrawing from participating in the rankings in November and...

Until two months ago, Penn-Trafford School District nurse Rhaeann Shepler had never performed CPR on a real person. Her first shot at it saved not one life but two. A little before 9 a.m. on a chilly Dec. 12 morning, Shepler sprang into action along with six of her co-workers...

HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania judge ruled Tuesday that the state’s system of funding public schools falls woefully short and violates students’ constitutional rights, siding with poorer districts in a lawsuit launched nearly a decade ago in pursuit of billions of dollars in additional annual aid. Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn...

On top of the fallout Penn State University experienced after a tumultuous Proud Boys appearance on campus last fall, now an individual rights group is labeling the university weak on free speech. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) placed Penn State on its latest national “10 Worst Colleges...

The high school basketball gym had been packed for a game that took three overtimes to decide. After passing through a handshake line, the visiting South Fayette and the home Mars Area boys varsity teams headed downstairs to their locker rooms. It had been an near-ideal Friday night high school...

Rathin Shah, who grew up in India, had never been to a professional hockey game until the Pittsburgh Penguins invited him and four other graduate student researchers to PPG Paints Arena for an unlikely reason. There was plenty of fast-paced action in the game between the Penguins and Florida Panthers...

From marbles to movie tributes, Westmoreland County students made all the right moves when it came to creating a Rube Goldberg-style machine for the annual Westinghouse Chain Reaction Contraption contest. Teams from Hempfield Area and Franklin Regional high schools took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, in the...