Education

At 2 p.m., it's crunchtime for students who write for The Harbinger Online, the award-winning, student news site at Shawnee Mission East High just outside Kansas City, Kan. They've been investigating an initiative to develop common curriculum and test guidelines for states.

The young reporters have pored over countless documents about the Common Core State Standards and talked to Kansas state legislators who pushed for their adoption, trying to understand why they're necessary.

When  most of us think of a debate, presidential debates between two individuals come to mind. But the sport of argument and articulation is as radically different from this scenario as you can imagine. The world of college debate includes lightening fast speech arguments developed on the fly. The best team that encompasses these can be found at Emporia State University. Ryan Wash and Elijah Smith, two members of the ESU debate team recently won both the National Debate Tournament and the Cross Examination Debate Association championship tournament. 

From birth, the care and upbringing of a child is a stressful and demanding process. Tough questions that all parents face include who can I leave my child with when I go to work? Am I doing enough to help my child get on track with learning? And for some families, how can I get my child a good meal today? On this Central Standard we are exploring the challenges of childcare and early education for all parents, including the cost of childcare, how the government affects a child's early education and we highlight some local programs that help families in need.

Think back to your middle school yearbook picture – do you cringe a little bit?  Do you remember a hormone-filled, socially awkward period of your life where your mind has developed faster than your body... or maybe the other way around.  Ages 11 to 14 can also be a time of intellectual and emotional awakening for young people – when they discover their talents and interests and meet lifelong friends.

Over the past few weeks, Kansas City Public Schools held community forums to discuss the reorganization of the district’s middle grades, and possibly returning to the concept of stand-alone middle schools.  The district’s tweens have been bounced around quite a bit over the past few years.