Education

Oct 20 2011

Program to raise parents’ awareness of learning challenges facing children

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Tavis Smiley Foundation announced today it will host a series of parent education seminars nationwide to give parents tools and information on how they can ensure their child’s success in learning.

The Too Important to Fail Parent Education Summits will kick off in Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 29 with six other cities scheduled throughout spring 2012. These include: Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Houston, and Montgomery, Alabama.

Oct 11 2011

Only if funds are available

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Less than two weeks after a 17-year-old girl was fatally stabbed at school, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education today approved a resolution calling on schools to provide programs raising awareness of teen dating violence.

Sep 30 2011

Thirty-five states receive an ‘F’

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Though the Civil Rights Movement is one of the defining events of U.S. history, most states fail when it comes to teaching the movement to students, a first-of-its-kind study released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has found.

Sep 28 2011

Seven percent Black

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The incoming freshman class at the University of Southern California is the most diverse in the university’s history, the school reported today.

Of 2,931 entering undergraduates, 25 percent are Asian, 12 percent Hispanic, 7 percent Black and 2 percent Native American or Pacific Islander, according to USC.

The university also reported that the entering class is the most upwardly mobile of any it has accepted. About 14 percent of incoming freshman are the first in their families to attend a university.

Sep 23 2011

Chosen from 75,000 teachers

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Ten women and six men were recognized today as the “best of the best” among Los Angeles County’s nearly 75,000 K-12 public school educators.

Three Los Angeles Unified School District teachers made the cut. The others teach in Arcadia, Azusa, Bellflower, Burbank, Castaic, Palmdale, East Whittier, Manhattan Beach, Norwalk, San Marino and Torrance.

The winners span all grade levels and school subjects, and their experience levels vary widely.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.