Mississippi
Alabama Has Second-Highest Infant Mortality Rate in U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a major report on infant mortality today. Alabama did not fare well. After Mississippi, it had the highest rate of infant death in the nation.
Priming the Pipeline for STEM in the South: A Look Across the Region
Over the next ten years, the number of jobs in science, technology, engineering and math fields are expected to outpace other industries by about five to ten percent. That’s according to the group Change the Equation, an organization that pushes for greater STEM education in schools. Yet, throughout the South, particularly in rural and high poverty communities, administrators have trouble attracting educators qualified to teach STEM.
Teaching Tough Topics: Teaching Civil War History In Mississippi As Symbols Fall
In Mississippi, the Civil War still stirs emotions. It’s not so much that teachers disagree on how it should be taught, but that ongoing attempts by the University of Mississippi and several cities across the South to shed Confederate symbols have called up old ghosts. Sandra Knispel reports for the Southern Education Desk.
Study Centers and Counselors Give Student-Athletes Academic Support
Football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics. College sports are a way of life in the South. Fans pack into stadiums or glue themselves to TV's to watch their favorite teams battle it out. But the pressure on a young person to succeed on the field or court is only half the battle. College athletes are also expected to succeed in the classroom.
First Charter Schools Open In Mississippi; Alabama Charters Could Come Soon
States across the U-S have increasingly been turning to charter schools in an effort to bolster struggling public school systems. Two of the most recent states to adopt the controversial form of education are Mississippi and Alabama. As part of a Southern Education Desk series examining charter schools in the South, we turn to Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Paul Boger for a report on how those states are adopting to the alternative form of public education.
Segregated Schools Fact of Life
New research shows southern schools are increasingly resegregating. In one town in Mississippi the black students attend one high school and the white students attend another. It was a conscious decision that's spurred a lot of debate about the concept of separate but equal.
