About Public Schools

While most children can work well within the public school system, kids with special needs require additional help to succeed academically. Unfortunately, not all school districts are equipped to handle students with a wide range of needs properly, and these kids often fall through the cracks without getting the specialized help they desperately need. Fortunately, parents of these kids have legal options when the school system fails.

Failure to Identify Needs

In Wisconsin, a class-action suit is underway to examine how Milwaukee Public Schools answers the call to students with special needs, according to a report in the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. The lead plaintiff in this suit, Jamie Stokes, is a 16-year-old who reads at a second-grade level and writes at a third-grade level. The young girl has struggled in school since the age of five, but the district would not agree to test her until Stokes failed first grade for the third time. At that point, the district determined that Stokes suffered from developmental delays and required additional support.

Stokes's mother, Kina King, believes that if Stokes had received intervention services earlier, she might be on a more solid academic footing today. King told the Journal Sentinel, "If they gave her the help, she would have been better, not coloring books her sister in kindergarten is doing." Now, the MPS is facing the question of compensation for families with students who were not placed in special education in a timely manner.

The

Forget the days of "pigs-in-a-blanket" and pizza for lunch. Today's public schools continue to embrace healthier meal options, with fresh fruits and vegetables playing a larger role in school cafeterias than ever before. School salad bars, once considered an innovative idea, have become a familiar feature in many districts across the country.

One of the earliest national efforts to bring fresh produce into school cafeterias was the "Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools" initiative. The program was launched at Riverside Elementary School in Miami, Florida, making the school one of the first elementary schools in the nation to offer students regular access to a dedicated salad bar filled with fresh fruits and vegetables.

More than a decade later, the goals behind that initiative remain highly relevant. As schools continue to focus on student wellness, nutrition education, and healthier eating habits, salad bars remain an important tool for helping children make nutritious food choices.

The Choice of Riverside

Riverside Elementary was chosen as an early participant in the initiative because students had already begun growing their own garden, filled with tomatoes, eggplant, kale, and other produce. School leaders hoped the garden would eventually provide fresh ingredients that could be incorporated into lunches and snacks served through the salad bar.

The garden was grown in cement boxes because the school did not have additional land available for larger-scale planting. Even so, the project demonstrated how schools can incorporate hands-on nutrition education into everyday learning.

Many of the Riverside students were

The CDC estimates that the incidence of childhood obesity has tripled in the last three decades, which makes weight one of the primary factors in children's health today. While school lunches may not be a primary culprit in the rise in obesity numbers, few parents and educators would argue that this daily fare could stand to be improved. One solution has been to add more fresh produce to the school lunch counter – some of which is coming from gardens grown right on school grounds. However, this approach to healthier eating is not without its share of opponents.

The Prevalence of School Gardens

According to a recent report on Mother Earth News, schools around the world are tuning into the many healthy advantages of growing their own fresh produce. Students are assisting with the planting, cultivating and harvesting of crops that they eat right in their own school lunchrooms. Classrooms take turns weeding, fertilizing and coaxing crops along, until the great harvest comes along and school cafeterias get to work finding delicious, healthy ways to use the fruits, vegetables and herbs the students had been growing.

To help schools along the way, the Green School Initiative, the Healthy Schools Initiative, Farm to School and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN offer step-by-step planting guides and information about how to incorporate the growing process into the classroom. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's Guide to Federal Funding for Local and Regional

Today's students must be well-versed in much more than the three traditional "Rs" that have carried public education for the past century. In order to compete in the global marketplace, students must also know their way around the most recent technology utilized in the workplace today.

To help students and teachers achieve that goal, Google Workspace for Education continues to bring technology into the classroom in real time. Through agreements with states, districts, and schools across the country, more public schools are seeing the results of digital learning tools in the classroom.

Using Google Docs in the Classroom

According to Google for Education, Google Apps can provide a multitude of uses in today's classroom, including:

• Gmail allows students and teachers to easily communicate with one another
• Docs gives students the opportunity to turn in assignments to the teacher directly from their own computer
• Sites give students access to assignments, lesson plans, and research material at any time of the day or night
• Groups provide additional opportunities for students to interact with instructors and classmates online

The addition of Google Apps makes the entire classroom more interactive, as teachers have the ability to coach students throughout the course of their assignments, and students have easy access to ask questions and get feedback. The "anytime, anywhere" access allows students and teachers to tailor their work time around their own schedules, rather than restricting them to standard school operating hours.

Parents interested in broader digital learning trends can

Charter schools have traditionally been known for producing high test scores and academically prepared students despite facing challenges in districts that standard public schools have been unable to overcome. However, the establishment of a charter school does not guarantee improved performance all of the time. Even when plenty of money is invested, and renowned academic experts are called in, the schools may fall short occasionally.

This video explains why charter schools can succeed.

This article reports on two struggling charter schools despite an infrastructure of support.

Trouble Brewing in New Jersey Charter School

Newark's Lady Liberty Academy was a troubled school that many in public education in New Jersey hoped to revive. Situated in a low-income area of the state, those involved with the charter school adopted a new commitment a year ago to show just what the correct type of education could do for at-risk kids.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker wooed in public school superstar Glen Pinder, a high-profile principal from New York's Harlem Children's Zone. Pinder was tasked with turning over a new leaf at Lady Liberty, raising test scores and the morale of staff and students simultaneously.

Unfortunately, even the best-laid plan ran amuck at times, and Lady Liberty was not immune to its share of conflict, according to recent reports at newjerseynewsroom.com. With Pinder came an entirely new administrative team, straight from his home field of New York.