Education

Kao Ly Ilean Her, leader and advocate in Minnesota’s Hmong community and the first Hmong person to serve on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, has died. She was 52.

On Thursday, Pillsbury United Communities announced its final decision to shutter Cedar Riverside Community School. Termination letter cites “cultural deficiencies” and “long term dysfunction” in school governance.

Struggling to keep up with a COVID-19 surge in Michigan, overwhelmed local health departments turned to schools, and recruited principals and teachers as supplemental contact tracers.

Children of color in Minnesota face some of the worst education disparities in the U.S. In this rebroadcast of an event in MPR News’ In Focus series, host Angela Davis spoke with community leaders about how to close the gaps, the obstacles we need to overcome and the reforms we need to realize.

A year after the pandemic canceled most proms, school districts around the country are considering whether they can once again hold the formal dance for seniors. Striking a balance between safety and fun, districts are requiring masks and booking outdoor venues like baseball stadiums or setting up tents.

Middle schoolers across Minnesota are already signing up for COVID-19 vaccine appointments, anticipating that by the end of this week, they’ll be newly eligible to take their first big step toward life as they used to know it.

With the first COVID-19 vaccine now authorized for adolescents, ages 12 and up, a big question looms: Will students be required to get the vaccine before returning to their classrooms in the fall?

U.S. educators are doing everything they can to track down high school students who stopped showing up to classes and to help them get the credits needed to graduate. Their efforts, including relaxing graduation requirements, come amid an anticipated surge in the country's dropout rate during the coronavirus pandemic.

Host Angela Davis talked with two mothers about what it’s been like over the past year for moms as many juggled work and taking care of children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The teacher whose class had the discussion described the lesson as a constructive one that helped students make sense of current events. But many parents who clicked on a partial recording later interpreted the conversation differently. In between those two accounts lies a fault line that confronts educators — especially Black educators — when they try to discuss race in the classroom.