Some of the younger grade-schoolers yawned and fidgeted as the 93-year-old man with the thick white mustache and a cane walked stiffly toward the microphone inside the Orozco Community Academy gym Thursday afternoon. The children were perhaps a little too young to realize they were looking at a piece of living history -- the man believed to be the last surviving child of Mexican revolutionary leader and folk hero Pancho Villa.
Facing dwindling enrollment, officials of Chicago's Choir Academy Charter School announced Thursday they will close their doors at the end of the school year.
A Humboldt Park minister charged Wednesday that top designers of a gay-friendly high school reneged on a "deal'' with clergymen to strip the gay focus from the school's mission and said "hundreds of ministers'' would oppose restoring the original plan, as some gay activists now demand.
Fifty years ago next month, 92 children and three nuns from Our Lady of the Angels School died in a fire so deadly, Chicago's fire code was rewritten to prevent a tragic repeat. Like Sept. 11 and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., every living Chicagoan remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the breathtaking news.
A plan that could double the number of entry seats at elite Skinner Classical on the Near West Side by using shuttered Sojourner Truth School in Cabrini-Green as a second campus was given the green light Wednesday by Chicago School Board members.
Designers of a plan to create the city's first gay-friendly high school pulled the plug on a watered-down version of the plan Tuesday but vowed to resurrect the idea next year. Some lead members of the design team had felt the latest version of the proposal had been the best way to garner support for the new school.
The mission assigned to Daniel Everett after he graduated from Chicago's Moody Bible Institute was to change the lives of members of a tiny tribe in the Amazonian rain forest. It was, however, Everett who was changed. Everett, along with his wife and three children, were met in the rain forest by the Piraha people of central Brazil.
Planners of Pride Campus never shied away from touting their proposed high school as a haven for gay youth seeking refuge from sometimes hostile traditional classrooms. But under mounting pressure from ministers and gay activists alike, the name has changed and the focus broadened to create a school that would be one of the nation's largest to serve any students victimized by bullying and harassment.
For 22 sixth-graders from Bellwood, it's the chance -- and challenge -- of a lifetime: If they can get all A's and B's throughout middle school and high school, stay out of trouble and graduate, they'll earn a college scholarship worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to Concordia University in River Forest. Fifth Third Bank is sponsoring the program, which includes free tuition, room, board and books at Concordia, where tuition is nearly $30,000.
The Chicago Public Schools Children First Fund has offered $1,500 each to help cover funeral arrangements for three North Lawndale College Prep Charter High School students who drowned Friday during a retreat at Camp Algonquin, CPS officials said Monday.
No serious injuries were reported Tuesday afternoon when an SUV struck a school bus in south suburban Orland Park.
Twelve-year-old Jocelynn Morales had often asked her parents: "Am I going to college?"
For DePaul junior Bobby Schrock, a 22-year-old political science major, joining a fraternity at the country's largest Catholic university has been a "very rewarding experience." But Schrock is not your typical Greek. He is gay and one of a growing population on university campuses: gay members of a fraternity or sorority.
COLUMBUS, Ohio---- Chinese students are enrolling in U.S. universities in record numbers, encouraged by aggressive recruiting combined with China's booming economy and growing middle class.
A day after her teenage son drowned in a boating accident during a school trip, Sharon Gowdy lashed out at Chicago Public Schools for failing to send any officials to her West Side home to inform her of her son's death, offer condolences or explain what happened. Jimmy Avant, 18, and two classmates, Adrian Jones, 16, and Melvin Choice III, 17, were among 31 high-achieving students from North Lawndale College Prep attending a retreat in McHenry County.
At a young age, Ofelia Gomez's son Julian Cruz can personally testify to the impact of an ailing economy on the newspaper industry.
Do kids know best? More than 50 kids from 15 high schools think so. Concerned about a 55 percent high school graduation rate, Chicago Public School kids spent 1˝ years trying to figure out what to do about it, including visiting 12 standout high schools nationwide. "It turned my life around,'' said Roosevelt High junior Edwin Medina, who was toying with dropping out until he joined Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, or VOYCE, and visited five top-rated schools in Texas.
Four days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 15-year-old Cameron Clapp encountered his own personal tragedy. After an evening of drinking at various parties, Clapp - now 22 - sat on the railroad tracks near his parents' house and passed out. He was hit by a passing train.
They say the best way to learn is simply by doing. And that is precisely what area high school students Mallory Yerkovich, Melissa Cikauskas and Catie Stein are doing every day. The girls are part of a class of 15 area juniors and seniors participating in a new hospitality program offered by the Indian Valley Vocational Center in Sandwich.
A science experiment gone wrong prompted the evacuation of a high school in south suburban Crete Wednesday afternoon.
Nearly one in five college seniors and 25 percent of freshmen say they frequently come to class without completing readings or assignments, a new national survey shows.
BOSTON---- Harvard University is considering spending cuts because the economic slowdown may reduce federal grants and the school's substantial endowment, President Drew Faust said Monday.
When Principal Kim Sims of Chicago's Bouchet Math and Science Academy used to talk to kids about misbehavior, one favorite line was, "How would your parents feel about this?'' But these days, Sims is using another approach.
Kids at Bouchet Math and Science Academy have some ideas on what should top Obama's agenda. Here's the advice:
The group of five students at Daley College intensely dissects a question about the chances someone with a box full of 10 computer disks would randomly grab the only two that are defective. After some discussion and debate, the group -- including a would-be lawyer, nurses in training and a mother of four -- figure out there is a one in 45 chance of that happening.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- It's 11 a.m. Saturday, and whiskey is flowing at the big houses on fraternity row at the University of Alabama. Guys in ties and baseball caps are laughing and dancing with sorority girls in bright dresses as a band blares away just around the corner.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in his first public speech after the election of President-elect Barack Obama, stuck to noncontroversial topics Friday as he addressed 1,200 Northwestern University students as well as members of his congregation at Northwestern University in Evanston.
Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth didn't even need to speak before the 800-some students at Ira Jones Middle School gave her a standing ovation. All she had to do was enter the gym.
When David Booth came to the University of Chicago nearly 40 years ago, he figured he'd get a doctorate then head back to his Kansas home to teach. But after he took his first course -- taught by finance professor Eugene Fama -- Booth changed his plan.
For the 18th time, producers of the "Late Show with David Letterman" have again asked Naperville Central High School science teacher Jaci Gentile and retired Naperville North High School science teacher Lee Marek to round up a batch of local students to appear in the "Kid Scientist" segment of the show.
Matt Barra was excited. He was about to head to Ohio for a final interview for a job at a financial services firm that would start after he graduates from the University of Notre Dame next May. Barra, a 21-year-old finance major, had done well in two initial interviews. But last week, he got a call: The interview was canceled.
It's eighth period at Fremd High School in Palatine, and an airy, computer-packed tutoring center is humming with the conversation of teachers and students helping other students.
Saying he still has work to do to improve New Orleans schools, Paul Vallas said Sunday he won't run for governor of Illinois in 2010.
School report cards special report: At Pleasantdale Middle in Burr Ridge, Principal Meg Pokorny has presided over rising Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores by, basically, not paying much attention to them.
School report cards special report: When Linda Moore took over as principal at Chicago’s Burnham Math and Science Academy four years ago, half the kids were on the A or B honor roll but the whole school was on academic probation for low test scores.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Former astronaut Neil Armstrong has agreed to donate personal papers dating from the start of his flight career to his alma mater, Purdue University.
How'd your school measure up? Sun-Times analysis ranks schools based on statewide 2008 test scores released today: Chicago dominates the top and the bottom of the charts. And Hinsdale District 181 manages a clean sweep. Where does your school rank?
Only 3 percent of Chicago students who just barely pass the state’s eighth-grade math test go on to hit at least a 20 on the ACT — a score that could open the door to several state universities, a new University of Chicago study released today found.
Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan on Thursday disclosed plans to more than double the number of "turnaround" schools.
The Chicago Sun-Times’ annual school rankings are based on average scores on 2008 state reading and math tests, not the percent passing state standards.
Mayor Daley is gung-ho about Barack Obama, but apparently there's a limit to the mayor's support. His name is Arne Duncan. If Obama wants Duncan to end his seven-year run as Chicago Public Schools CEO and become either U.S. education secretary or a top deputy, he won't get a recommendation from Daley.
CONWAY, Ark. — A shooting that left two students dead at the University of Central Arkansas did not appear to be random, authorities said Monday as the school’s president pronounced the campus secure.
Scott Macartney was racing downhill at 90 mph and hitting his final ski jump at a World Cup event when he landed sideways and slammed his head unconscious, knocking off his helmet and causing him to skid face-first over the finish line. "But I'm doing great, and you can hardly tell," the two-time Olympic alpine skier joked.
Ryanne Mace's name will be forever linked to Northern Illinois University not only because of the tragic shooting that took her young life but because of the scholarship bearing her name -- a scholarship that has helped her parents cope with losing their only child. The 19-year-old was among 5 students killed in the Feb. 14 shootings inside Cole Hall, on the DeKalb college campus.
Mayor Daley on Thursday put the brakes on the Chicago Board of Education's controversial plan to open the city's first high school serving gay and lesbian students. One day after his handpicked school board put off a vote on the School for Social Justice Pride Campus, Daley explained why -- by expressing his misgivings.
Share your thoughts | Gay-friendly high school idea proposed | Mark Brown: School where gay students could feel safe
Mayor Daley’s goal of making science fun for Chicago Public School students — and improving historically dismal science test scores — got a $5 million shot in the arm Thursday.
Sue, Chicago's iconic T. rex, likely saw some pretty wild stuff 67 million years ago, but a Northwestern University grad school party at her Field Museum home was a real fright, too. Students of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management reportedly got drunk, vomited on the floor, spit at people, passed out and threw things at Sue herself. Field Museum spokeswoman Nancy O'Shea denied any objects were thrown at Sue during the after-hours party.
The Chicago Board of Education approved 13 new schools Wednesday and put off voting on five others -- including a school serving lesbian and gay students that ignited the most controversy at its monthly meeting.
The family of a boy who died after suffering a seizure in gym class is suing Chicago Public Schools and the Board of Education Thursday claiming the boy was not supposed to be participating in gym class in the first place.
Chicago's public schools do as badly as schools in some Third World nations in math, a first-of-its kind study released Wednesday has found.
New data released by the Illinois Board of Education Tuesday shows an increase in the number of Illinois schools and districts unable to meet No Child Left Behind targets. It's unknown whether Chicago Public Schools raised dismal improvement statistics -- 58 percent of its schools failed to meet national standards last year -- as ISBE won't be releasing the 2008 State Report Card until Oct. 31.
