Word: districting
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Soon after starting his job as superintendent of the Memphis, Tenn., public schools in 2008, Kriner Cash ordered an assessment of his new district's 104,000 students. The findings were grim: nearly a third had been held back at least one academic year. The high school graduation rate had fallen to 67%. One in five dropped out. But what most concerned him was that the number of students considered "highly mobile," meaning they had moved at least once during the school year, had ballooned to 34,000, partly because of the home-foreclosure crisis. At least 1,500 students...
Burdette's arguments swayed school officials in Anderson District 3. With the help of friends, she raised $40,000 to hire a recent Clemson University graduate to be the district's dedicated sex-education teacher...
...comprehensive sex-education model used in District 3 is sometimes referred to as "abstinence first" or "abstinence plus" because it combines factual information about birth control and STIs with a strong message that kids should wait to have sex. From what Jordan and her colleagues have seen, it best fits the reality of most teenagers' lives. Most students won't wait until they get married to have sex, so they need to be told more than "Just say no." But with 66% of teenagers nationally saying they wish they had waited longer before having sex, they're also looking...
Jordan's approach seems to be working. During her first three years, teen birthrates in the district stayed steady, with 19 births to girls ages 10 to 19 in 2006. But in 2007 that number dropped to four and then last year dropped again, to two. School officials have been so pleased that they've talked about adding a sex-education requirement in 11th grade (most students take health during their freshman year). Other school districts in Anderson County that initially balked at the comprehensive approach now want Impact to go into their schools and replicate the program. The only...
...schools are increasingly putting their support behind the comprehensive approach. In a 2004 Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 95% of parents of middle-school students said contraceptive methods were "appropriate topics" for school health classes. The Pittsburgh, Pa., school board voted 8 to 1 in February to replace the district's abstinence-only curriculum with a comprehensive program after parents raised concerns about rising teen-pregnancy rates...