There is a school at one Virginia county juvenile detention center where troubled youths work toward high school diplomas and credit their teachers with saving their lives from ruin. The jail's educational program is a little-known entity within Fairfax County Public Schools that offers the students hope for better days ahead.
More leading universities are offering free online courses through the fast-growing education platform Coursera. The new partners, including Brown, Columbia, Emory, Vanderbilt and Wesleyan universities, as well as Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of British Columbia, University of London, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, boost the number of courses offered free online to 200.
A new online education platform founded by Stanford scientists is on a mission to change the world by educating millions of people with free classes from top universities. Coursera offers Math, Science, Business and Humanities courses featuring videos, quizzes and electronic assignments created by 16 top universities from the US, Europe, and Canada. Already, a million students from 190 countries have enrolled.
When she was 15, Sarah Cronk set up her school's first inclusive cheerleading squad at Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, Iowa. Now, at 18 she is the founder of The Sparkle Effect, which helps schools around the country to include boys and first with disabilities in the dance teams and cheerleading squads. While Pleasant Valley's program is now in its 6th season and includes 21 students, Sarah's national program has raised more than $150,000 and generated 65 inclusive squads across the country.
In Tultitlán, Mexico, where the police officers are considered some of the most corrupt in Latin America, children who are victims of domestic violence, susceptible to drug sales and bullying, are being helped by cops with big smiles and red noses.
An Indiana school district had an idea of how to get students and staff to show more kindness to each other. They are jotting down on colorful sticky notes the acts of kindness experienced throughout the day. The walls of every Vigo County school now blossom with tiny colorful thank-you's -- even at the high school level.
The Pakistani child education activist who was shot in the head nine months ago by Taliban militants celebrated her 16th birthday by delivering a speech at the United Nations. Speaking to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the 500 youth and dignitaries gathered, Malala Yousafzai said that the gunmen could not silence her because knowledge and education is more powerful than their bullets.
A 6th grade boy, Gerry Orz, persuaded the California state government to declare December 12 as a Day of Silence to officially honor the victims of bullying who cannot speak for themselves. He's calling on schools and people everywhere to take 12 seconds at 12 o'clock on 12/12 to mark in silent reflection.
Perhaps no adult employed at Trinity High School has had more influence over students or changed more young lives than Charles Clark, the school's custodian. Clark has mentored countless kids in need of a father figure at the Texas high school, even housing several of them in his home over the years. In the beginning, he took the custodial position thinking he would keep it until he found something better, but 24 years later, he still hasn't found it. Now Clark, 63, has bested more than 400 teachers, administrators and school district employees from 33 states to become the LifeChanger of the Year Grand Prize Winner.
A commencement ceremony recently celebrated 39 high school students who beat the odds. All these teens thrived given free tuition from Girard College (a boarding school for kids and teens established in 1848 to serve orphans).
For the first time in California history, the high school graduation rate has surpassed 80%, mirroring a trend nationwide, officials announced Monday.
Schools in Guam say there has been a massive decline in the number of reported bullying cases in the past four years -- down by more than 80 percent.
A report in the Philadelphia Inquirer in November featured a school in Germantown that didn't have any extra money in their budget to even buy all the paper they would need. At first, readers responded by sending in reams of paper to Lingelbach Elementary. But then thousands of dollars in donations started arriving -- enough to update books in their library and provide supplies to every teacher.
The Read and Ride program at Ward began five years ago. One classroom is equipped with enough exercise bikes for a full class of students, and teachers bring students throughout the day to use them. As they ride, their reading scores improve.
No good can come from publicly shaming a six-year-old boy. That's the lesson educators at Lincoln Elementary in Grants Pass, Oregon recently learned when the community stepped up to defend a student and help a family in need.
After participating in a prevention program at school, European teenagers were about half as likely to attempt suicide or to feel suicidal, according to a new study involving 11,000 students and published in The Lancet.
Though many don't agree with his politics or love his humor, everyone is talking about Stephen Colbert's generous contribution to education in his home state.
An anonymous letter arrived at Helper Middle School in Utah last week that contained a confession. It also contained a check, 60 years in the making.
The Monarch School caters specifically to kids who are homeless, giving them access to showers, laundry, meals, and the full array of classes.
President Obama and a former astronaut have both invited a teen to science events after his electronics project frightened teachers at his school.