Ninety-Seven-Year-Old Grandmother Finally Graduates From High School
During the Depression, 17-year-old Ann Colagiovanni left school to go work in her dad’s grocery store. But Colagiovanni always wanted to finish her education, and now she has, in a way. Last week her Shaker Heights, Ohio high school awarded the now 97-year-old with an honorary diploma.
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President Obama has a goal that 100 percent of students should be college or career ready, and in the next decade, most jobs will require at least some post-high school education. The opportunities for high school graduates are declining and generally offer lower earning potential. But are we educating students with the right kind of post-secondary education to meet the demands of the workforce of the future?
Infographic: Educating the Workforce of the Future - Education - GOOD
Should High School Seniors Be Required to Apply to College?
Most 21st-century jobs will require some form of post-secondary education, but should school districts require high school seniors to apply to college or trade school in order to graduate? Washington D.C. council chairman Kwame Brown thinks so. Brown is proposing legislation that would mandate that the 70,000 students enrolled in the District’s public schools fill out at least one application and take the SAT or ACT in order to earn a diploma.
Starting a New Tradition: Georgia Students Hold School’s First-Ever Integrated Prom
- Liz Dwyer wrote in Education, Race and Georgia
A group of high school seniors at Wilcox County High School in rural south Georgia made history this past weekend by bucking their community’s longstanding tradition of racially segregated proms—yes, one prom for white teens and one for black teens. Indeed, thanks to the inspiring students behind the Integrated Prom movement, for the first time ever, black and white students in the community dressed up and danced the night away together.
How does a community get around having a prom that’s open to everyone without violating any civil rights laws? Easy. You just don’t let the school sponsor it. After the courts integrated the schools in the area, proms became private, invite-only events. White parents began raising funds for an all-white senior prom, leaving black families with no choice but to follow suit and host proms for their children.
Yes, this still goes on on 2013, and not just in this town, either. And yes, some white Wilcox students still attended the all-white only prom. But as you can see from the video above, what happens when students say they’ve had enough and take action is truly inspiring.
Women Make Less Than Men at Every Education Level
Among Americans with some form of post-high school education—a vocational, associate’s, bachelor’s, or advanced degree—men make more than $800 above women’s pay every month. And the gap widens as men and women climb educational ranks. In short, education is valuable, but it’s most lucrative if you’re male.
Freshman year of high school. My mother refused to send it to relatives because my Raekwon shirt said “hell” on it. I miss that shirt.
Young Cord is young. Sick ‘stache though.
Best of 2012: The Five Most Extraordinary Things to Happen in Education
- Nikhil Goyal wrote in Education
It’s been quite an incredible year in the education space. While we’ve witnessed a surge in the number of politicians with no education experience make decisions on how schools should run and a wider adoption of nonsensical ideas like the “flipped classroom” and value-added teacher evaluations, there have been some memorable, equation-changing events and initiatives that have emerged.
So, let’s highlight five of the most extraordinary things that happened in education in 2012:
- The Students Speak Out
- Alternatives to Higher Education
- Caine’s Arcade
- Chicago Teachers Strike
- Massively Open Online Courses—MOOCs
Illustration by Corinna Loo
Latest Job Numbers Show a College Degree Is Still Worth it
According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data only 3.9 percent of college graduates over the age of 25 are unemployed. In comparison, only 7.9 percent of Americans with an associate’s degree or only a few college courses under their belt are unemployed. For Americans with just a high school diploma the number jumps to 8.1 percent. Unsurprisingly, the highest unemployment numbers are for high school dropouts—13 percent are jobless
Learn more about the changing nature of college degrees at GOOD.is
Interactive Infographic: The Occupational Outlook
This content was produced by GOOD and Hyperakt, with the support of Apollo Group
Economists are making predictions of possible economic recovery by 2015, and with that will come a shift in the jobs available. While some students enter the workforce after high school, others pursue a Master’s degree or beyond. Take a look at this infographic and see how these differing paths of education affect opportunities and careers.
That $4 Billion George Lucas Is Getting From Disney? He’s Giving it to Education - by Liz Dwyer
With the news that George Lucas is selling Lucasfilm to Disney for a reported $4.05 billion, there’s been plenty of speculation over who will write and direct Star Wars: Episode VII and what Lucas, who owns 100 percent of Lucasfilm, will do with all that cash. Will Jar Jar Binks return? No plans for the film have been shared, but a spokesperson for Lucasfilm told The Hollywood Reporterthat most of the money will go toward an education foundation.
Lucas’ commitment to education is nothing new. Over 20 years ago Lucas established the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which is “dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by documenting, disseminating, and advocating for innovative, replicable, and evidence-based strategies that prepare students to thrive in their future education, careers, and adult lives.” In part, the foundation runs the nonprofit website Edutopia, which produces the excellent profiles of innovative, effective schools in their “Schools That Work” series.
And in 2010 Lucas also signed on to Warren Buffet and Bill Gates Giving Pledge, which asks extraordinarily wealthy individuals to give the bulk of their money to philanthropic causes. At the time Lucas released a statement saying he was “dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education,” because “it is the key to the survival of the human race.” Lucas continued, “we have to plan for our collective future—and the first step begins with the social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children.”
Whether Lucas will pour more resources into GLEF and Edutopia, or fund other initiatives around the country—similar to how the Gates Foundation has become a major player in the education space—is anyone’s guess. But with Lucas’ interest in whole child-based, innovative education practices and the integration of the arts in schools, it’s pretty exciting to imagine what kind of shifts in our education system could result.
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