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Listen to the article 4 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Lessons that introduce young learners to different types of bugs and insects can be one way to stimulate their interest in science and get them in contact with nature, provided teachers tamp down any “ickiness” factor students — or they themselves — might feel. “On the playground, we’ve found worms, and we pick them up,” said Michelle Durange, kindergarten teacher at Alloway Creek Elementary School in Littlestown, Pennsylvania. “We try not to be scared of it, so they’re not scared of it.”…

The Kaplan Languages Group also has more than 100 university and college partners in the United States. A British investment group has acquired Kaplan’s language-learning platform, Kaplan Languages Group.  According to a news release from Inspirit Capital, all the conditions for the sale have been met, and the deal is expected to be finalized May 1. The private companies did not disclose the value of the sale. Founded in 1938, Kaplan Inc. provides education services to students, professionals, universities and businesses, including test preparation, online learning and language training. Since 2006, KLG—which is composed of Kaplan International Languages, Alpadia Language…

Listen to the article 4 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. To teach or not to teach Shakespeare? That is the question — not at the high school level, where it’s an easy “yes,” but for upper elementary and middle school classes, where educators differ as to how well the Bard translates. Among those who say Shakespeare can be integrated in earlier grades is Jon Wargo, associate professor at the University of Michigan Marsal Family School of Education, who has undertaken research on the Shakespeare in Detroit summer STEAM program aimed at youth.…

An investigative report released by Ohio State University Tuesday found that former president Ted Carter inappropriately used his position for two years to benefit a “close personal associate.” Carter resigned in March after admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a woman later identified as Krisanthe Vlachos, who wanted to use public resources to benefit her personal business. While the nature of that relationship was not clear when Carter stepped down, the new report sheds light on how he sought to steer university resources to Vlachos. And while he was not found to have broken any laws, the report determined that…

Samuel J. Abrams, RCEd The closing of Hampshire College was not a surprise. It was a long time coming, and its demise reflects a broader shift in what families now expect from higher education.

Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, handing a significant legal victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into classrooms.The 9-8 decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the law, delivering a boost to backers of similar laws in Arkansas and Louisiana. Opponents have argued that posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms amounts to government endorsement of religion and risks pressuring students, while supporters say the displays reflect the nation’s historical foundations.Writing for the majority opinion, the conservative-leaning appeals…

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The 74 is proud to partner with Next City for a conversation about how developers are transforming closed schools for community use. As public school enrollment continues to decline, more schools are closing, raising questions about what to do with abandoned buildings that often become sources of neighborhood blight. Some are converted into housing. Others become offices or creative community spaces. The 74’s Linda Jacobson will moderate the event that will include developer Stan Sugarman, documentary filmmaker Paola Aguirre Serrano and designer Lindsey Scannapieco. RSVP…

A curi­ous thing hap­pened at the end of the 19th cen­tu­ry and the dawn­ing of the 20th. As Euro­pean and Amer­i­can indus­tries became increas­ing­ly con­fi­dent in their meth­ods of inven­tion and pro­duc­tion, sci­en­tists made dis­cov­ery after dis­cov­ery that shook their under­stand­ing of the phys­i­cal world to the core. “Researchers in the 19th cen­tu­ry had thought they would soon describe all known phys­i­cal process­es using the equa­tions of Isaac New­ton and James Clerk Maxwell,” Adam Mann writes at Wired. But “the new and unex­pect­ed obser­va­tions were destroy­ing this rosy out­look.” These obser­va­tions includ­ed X‑rays, the pho­to­elec­tric effect, nuclear radi­a­tion and elec­trons;…

Increasingly colleges and universities—especially less wealthy private nonprofit institutions—are using merit aid to attract students who could already afford to attend their institution. New research reveals just how much the practice has grown in the last 10 years and how much grant funding goes to wealthier students. A study conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling shows that the proportion of students who received merit aid from their college or university grew faster than those who received need-based aid in the first 20 years of the century. While the percentage of students who received merit aid rose 19 and…

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter If you hand teenagers a spreadsheet and ask them to track their expenses, they will quit in five minutes. If you hand them a smartphone game where they have to manage resources to survive a zombie apocalypse, they will obsess over it for hours. The cognitive load is identical: budgeting, resource allocation and risk management. The difference is the delivery mechanism. And that difference is costly. The United States has a financial literacy problem that decades of classroom instruction have failed to solve. Fewer than…