Education
Manatee’s The Prep Academy’s financial woes surface again
“For the second time in only two years, teachers at a Manatee school run by Lamprecht say they are not getting paid. The Prep Academy has employed about a dozen teachers with an enrollment of about 50 students, the Bradenton Herald reports.”
Read MoreF in attendance for city schools
A Chicago Tribune investigation analyzed internal student-level attendance data from the Chicago Public Schools and found that nearly 32,000 K-8 grade students — or roughly 1 in 8 — missed four weeks or more of class during the 2010-11 year, while the cash-strapped district does little to stem a devastating problem. To assess the total…
Read MoreHundreds of reports from students trapped in elevators at UT-Arlington
“According to open records obtained by The Shorthorn’s Krista Torralva the University of Texas-Arlington has spent more than one million dollars on elevator upgrades yet students are still getting trapped.” “It has also been found that the campus is in violation of Texas law, which requires certificates of compliance to be posted either inside each…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: War veterans, inmate risks, betrayals of trust and more
Welcome to IRE’s roundup of the weekend’s many enterprise stories from around the country. We’ll highlight the document digging, field work and data analysis that made their way into centerpieces in print, broadcast and online from coast to coast. Did we miss some? Let us know. Send us an email at web@ire.org or tweet to @IRE_NICAR. We’ll add…
Read MoreInvestigations lax in cheating cases
The next installment in the Journal-Constitution’s coverage of school cheating shows that many states and school districts handle cases of cheating on high-stakes achievement tests in a “haphazard manner.” Delving through 130 cases from school districts in Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis and other places where they identified possible cheating, the Journal-Constitution uncovered evidence of “a…
Read MoreOSU president expenses in the millions
Daily News reporter Laura A. Bischoff fought a year-long FOIA battle to get hold of Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee’s expense reports, which ultimately revealed that the unviersity spends $7.7 million on Gee’s expenses — almost has much as his $8.6 million salary. The expenses include travel, parties and $64,000 on the president’s signature…
Read MoreUsing grade data to show trends in universities
“Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press higher education reporter Brian McVicar used a decade’s worth of electronic grade reports to examine what classes at Grand Valley State University students struggle with the most, what academic areas students perform well in, and how grading at the university has changed over time.” “McVicar, an IRE CAR boot camp alum,…
Read MoreTaking a look at how foreign-trained doctors impact a community
In a three-part series The Bakersfield Californian examines Kern County, California’s high number of foreign-trained doctors and the impact it has on patient care. Using the training she learned at an IRE Boot Camp, Christine Bedell, along with her colleague Kellie Schmitt, were able to make their own database to look at how many foreign-trained…
Read MoreColumbus schools caught ‘fixing’ attendance data
“The Columbus Dispatch has been told by four former district data analysts that a team of data-processing workers inflated Columbus schools’ attendance figures by routinely and purposely removing large numbers of absent students from the rolls.” “At the same time, district administrators summoned school principals to the Kingswood Data Center. There, they were schooled in…
Read MoreCharter school leader claims Ph.D from unaccredited online university
“A News Journal reporter uncovered that the head of a local charter school lied about her credentials, claiming a Ph.D. from an “online university” that doesn’t exist, after following a news tip. The story evolved into the damaging effects of diploma mills such as the online service the school leader used to purchase her fake…
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