An in-depth exploration of education in the 21st century South.
The New Orleans teaching force changed dramatically after Hurricane Katrina, when all public school teachers were laid off. They were mostly black, veteran educators from the area. Now, teachers are more likely to be young, white and to have grown up outside New Orleans.
Given thousands of related job openings but only hundreds of computer science college graduates, Alabama is trying to ramp up its computer science education. That includes a new policy allowing those classes to count toward core math graduation requirements. WBHM’s Dan Carsen concludes our series with a visit to a Birmingham-area class that’s leading the way.
Alabama’s State Board of Education is set to vote tomorrow on new K-12 science standards that would go into effect next school year. Most science teachers in the state say the new standards are better than the current decade-old ones. We wanted a national perspective too, so our Alabama reporter caught up with Dr. Minda Berbeco, Programs and Policy Director for the National Center for Science Education. He asks if she’s surprised there hasn’t been much controversy on standards dealing with evolution, climate change, and more.
Medical education is always evolving. One way it’s changed in recent years is that residents are not allowed to work the long, judgment-impairing shifts they used to. Most agree that’s good. But how do you make up for all that lost teaching time? Some University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers think they have an answer: video games. They created a competitive educational game called “Kaizen-Internal Medicine,” or just “Kaizen-IM,” and a small but promising study showed that busy young doctors learned from it in their off hours. UAB’s James Willig sat down with our Alabama reporter Dan Carsen to explain. Willig starts with the downside of limiting residents’ work hours.
In the middle of urban Birmingham, there’s a farm. Jones Valley Teaching Farm is an education center offering students and families gardening, nutrition courses, fresh food, and much more. With Earth Day and Arbor Day coming up, our Alabama reporter Dan Carsen sat down with its Executive Director, Grant Brigham. Dan starts off by asking Brigham if he sees the farm playing a part in Birmingham’s long-term sustainability.
Most people know Birmingham, Alabama was a Civil Rights Movement battleground. But how is that complicated history taught in schools today? And are there differences between white and black districts? The Southern Education Desk’s Dan Carsen went to class in urban Birmingham and a nearby suburb — one of the wealthiest in the nation — to find out.
Practicum, apprenticeship, student teaching. Whatever you call it, I’m about to embark on the scariest part of my education as a future teacher. So far, I’ve had the training wheels on. Now, they come off.
I believe in the ability of knowledge and learning to empower and free students, even those who will have an uphill battle most of their lives. Being a teacher allows me to indulge my love for learning while equipping the next generation to achieve.
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