An in-depth exploration of education in the 21st century South.
In a six month long investigation, the Southern Education Desk conducted dozens of interviews and relied on open records requests to obtain hundreds of documents. SED found an inaccurate curricula approval process and hundreds of thousands of dollars in exclusive grants may have resulted in a payday for a for-profit abstinence education company. Results for students are yet to be seen.
An investigation by the Southern Education Desk has found that the committee appointed by the Mississippi Department of Education to evaluate sex education programs for the state’s schools made mistakes in the approval process.
This is the first year that Mississippi has mandated sex education in all of its schools, trying to bring down its worst-in-the-nation teen pregnancy rate. But 75 percent of districts are teaching programs without a proven track record and critics argue that is handicapping the state’s sex education efforts. (Part one of a three-part investigative series)
Parents, school administrators, university counselors and therapists gathered at an Adolescent Sexual Responsibility conference in Nashville to discuss sexual health among Tennessee’s teens.
The Oxford Public School Board has reversed its previous decision on teaching sex education and district schools will now teach “Abstinence Plus” rather than just “Abstinence Only.” Mississippi public schools have until Friday to submit their sex education choice to state officials.
Birmingham school board effectively taken over by the Alabama Department of Education until investigation of the board’s governance is complete; Alabama legislature limits the length of school year and allows flexibility for longer days; creation of a statewide school building authority was shot down by the Louisiana legislature.
Next school year marks the first time sex education is required to be taught in Mississippi schools. Before this mandate, only a fraction of teens received formal sex education and classroom programs varied widely both in approach and accuracy.
Mississippi lawmakers are confident the new sex ed law will reduce teen pregnancy and STD contraction, but what happens if numbers don’t change?
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