The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "adult education" ...
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Inside and Out
Three years after Illinois broke off its youth prisons from the adult system, WBEZ set off to see what changed and found very little. Libraries without proper books, a locked computer lab, abysmal vocational education, and increasing suicide attempts characterized the youth prisons.
Tags: youth prison; juvenile; prison; jail; treatment
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For Their Own Good
This story exposes juveniles, who are to serve trial as adults, are being held in isolation for over 20 hours a day. This process can last months or years while these juveniles wait for trial. The jail provides "less than the required minimum amount of education and physical activity". This story also revealed that judges and county officials weren't aware of the treatment of these juveniles. Though, state juvenile justice advocates were aware of the process, they did nothing to stop it.
Tags: Harris county; juveniles; solitary confinement; adults; judges; Texas; youth; prisons; jail; justice department; kids
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Camden Schools Investigation
Philadelphia Inquirer reporters used descriptive statistics to uncover that adult interference resulted in unusually high test scores in the Camden school district on the 2005 NJ ASK standardized test.
Tags: Standardized test; cheating; test scores; education; school district
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Hidden Dropouts
Students from high schools are being forced by school authorities to drop out of school and get a GED. This story looks at how false information on the current drop-out rate is revealed by the authorities. This investigation also finds that the dropout rates that are posted publicly for parents and recorded for policy makers are highly understated.
Tags: high schools in New York; New York schools; high schools; high school dropout; high school dropout rates; GED; adult education; parents and schools; Syracuse schools; Fowler High School
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Filling in the blanks
Washington City Paper examines the reasons for the relatively high dropout rate in D.C. The story looks at the difficulties that those who have left school face, when they try to earn adult basic education. A second, "shadow school system," which consists of adult learning centers at churches and community organizations, enrolls thousands of students per year. Few, however, succeed to pass the General Education Diploma (GED) exam. The reporter points to statistics showing that over the last decade the proportion of students graduating from high schools has been decreasing, while the proportion of those who earn their diploma through alternative means has been increasing. The very low high school graduation rate in D.C. affects the need for city services, limits the ability of private businesses to find trainable employees, and cripples the ability of young mothers and fathers to find jobs that pay a decent wage, the newspaper reports.
Tags: schools; poverty; low income; minorities; unemployment; labor; literacy; GED; adult learning; immigrants
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Out of the box
Westword tells the story of Jodi Jill, a thirty-year old woman now, who in the past has been kept by her parents for a decade in a storage unit in Loveland, Colorado. The story depicts the terrible living conditions in the shed, shared also by Jodi's parents and siblings. Although the family was not really poor, it stayed in the unit and avoided contact with other people. Children never attended school, and learned to read and write only after their parents split up and left the unit. The article describes Jodi's later extreme interest in books and reading, and efforts to help illiterate people. A major point in the story is that a lot of adults were supposedly aware of the children's situation, but failed to report it to the police.
Tags: housing; children; abuse; neglect; police; community; Pamela Gilsenan; Don Wubben; education; home schooling; living conditions; poverty
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Deadly Lessons: School Shooters Tell Why
In a two-part series, the Chicago Sun-Times reports on the results of the Secret Service analysis of 37 school shootings, "the findings of the study deserve the attention of every adult. . . In their own words, the boys who have killed in America's schools offer a simple suggestion to prevent it from happening again: Listen to us." The study suggest that there are no stereotypes of a child who kills. They come from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, incomes and family lives. Rather, the child sees this as the only option and many of the attacks were planned in advance. In addition, many of the shooters easily obtained guns and often told someone of their planned attack. "The answer, researchers believe, lies more in listening to children, dealing fairly with grievances such as bullying, improving the climate of communication in schools, keeping guns away from children, and investigating promptly and thoroughly when a student raises a concern." Bill Dedman reports more on these issues.
Tags: children; schools; violence; Secret Service; Department of Education; Center for the Prevention of School Violence; teachers; parents; police
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Death Stalks A Continent
Time reports on the troubling numbers of AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa. "An estimated 8.8% of adults in Africa are infected with HIV/AIDS." The main problem in this area is lack of communication and prevention about the disease. As more and more people contract the disease, they are afraid to get tested because they will be shunned in their communities. In addition, African men continue to sleep with other women and then sexually transmit the disease to their wife and children. People in this area continue their daily lifestyles, ignoring possible signs of AIDS and continuing to pass it along. And statistics such as "17 million Africans have died since the AIDS epidemic began in the 1970s, more than 3.7 million of them children" leave us wondering how to decrease these staggering numbers when no one seems to listen.
Tags: AIDS; HIV; sex; children; education; medication; prevention; death rates; orphans; immune deficiencies; includes pictures
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Crime and Punishment
"The incarceration of so many drug-only offenders makes no economic sense." Since the 1970s, a "prison build-up" began in the U.S. Since 1980, incarceration costs have grown from $ billion annually to $45 billion. Drug offenders make up the largest area of growth in prison populations. By comparing the social and real costs of certain crimes, it would seem that locking up drug offenders is very inefficient while programs that teach new work skills seem to show lower rates of recidivism.
Tags: prison; jail; job-training; crime; adult education; faith-based programs; vocational training; drug-treatment programs
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The First Step
"'The First Step' is about a program for at-risk students at a Denver charter school called P.S.1.; it's offered by a nonprofit organizational housed in the school called Colorado Youth at Risk. Some teachers and administrators at P.S.1. discovered that the Steps Ahead program appeared to be based on a controversial adult self-help course offered by the Landmark Education Corporation ... a 1970s-era program that many of its graduates accused of leaving them psychologically damaged. ... And yet all of the administrators denied that Steps Ahead was a kiddie version of the Landmark Forum."
Tags: school; The First Step; P.S.1.; Landmark Forum; psychology