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Tag: School curricula

  • Preparing to study abroad requires knowing what might go wrong during and after the trip

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    After spending two college semesters in northern Thailand, Sarah Jongsma found herself back home in the rural Nevada town where she grew up, surrounded by everything familiar yet feeling strangely out of place.

    “It caught me off guard,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

    Only later, after a summer studying in India and while preparing to go to France for another semester abroad, did Jongsma understand what she had been feeling: reverse culture shock.

    The 22-year-old’s experience shows that studying abroad can be challenging in unexpected ways. Experts say that’s why students need to study up on not only safety precautions and cultural differences, but also the emotional shifts that may come with leaving home — and returning to it.

    Planning for low points and potential disappointments, experts say, can help students focus on making the most of a trip that is exciting, challenging and life-changing.

    “The value and purpose of studying abroad is to learn about the rest of the world as well as learn about yourself. In fact, it is the juxtaposition of having your assumptions tested that you can gain from studying abroad and helps you understand yourself even better,” said Bill Bull, vice president of risk management for the Council on International Educational Exchange, which facilitates high school, college and faculty study-abroad programs.

    Here are some tips that experts and students recommend for anyone heading off to learn in a foreign country:

    Before you travel

    Along with having an up-to-date passport and a visa, if their host country requires one, students need to be aware of potential risks and cultural expectations based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation and religion.

    Many countries do not recognize same-sex unions, so experts suggest being careful of open interactions with a partner of the same sex. Women may face cultural expectations around dress or hair, or find it hard to obtain birth control or feminine hygiene products they didn’t think to bring with them.

    “Make plans for what you will do when things go wrong, because things can go wrong and things will go wrong,” said Bull, who recommends connecting with students who studied abroad, as well as their parents, for advice they wished they’d had. “It doesn’t mean it has to be the end of your experience. It just means that you need to be ready to manage it.”

    Some study-abroad programs offer basic health coverage, but students should consider medical evacuation insurance and check whether any of their regular prescribed medications are illegal abroad. The U.S. Department of State also recommends enrolling in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, a free safety and security alert service for U.S. citizens.

    Advance research also is important for students still thinking about whether to apply for a study-abroad program.

    Financial and academic planning are equally important, as they are among the biggest barriers for students seeking to study abroad, said Phoebe Stears-Macauley, a Germany and Spain program advisor for the University Studies Abroad Consortium, which offers study-abroad programs for university students.

    “Meet with your academic advisors, talk through the classes you will take and how those will transfer back, and meet with your financial aid office,” she said.

    While a lot of the preparation and precautions are about practical needs, experts and students say it’s just as much about setting realistic expectations.

    When Jongsma left for the Thai city of Chiang Mai in 2023, it was her first time traveling internationally and being away from her parents.

    “When you’re getting ready to leave, you get really focused on your own personal goals and how you’re going to meet them,” she said. “I don’t think you realize that when you get there, you’ll miss your community a lot.”

    Homesickness may feel even sharper around holidays like Thanksgiving, especially for students who have not spent them away from family before. Jongsma suggests bringing small reminders of home with you and keeping a journal. She also packed a small portable printer for her summer studies in Bengaluru, India, in case she wanted to print out pictures of family and friends.

    While abroad

    Once students arrive at their destination, experts suggest slowing down and observing their surroundings. A common regret Stears-Macauley said she hears from returning students, especially those who studied in Europe, is that they spent every weekend traveling and not getting to know their host city.

    Bull advises students to think about why they are studying abroad in the first place and what they hope to get from the experience. Choosing to be present in the moment instead of constantly taking photos can make the time far more meaningful and yield cultural clues that help you fit in, he said.

    “Anyone can go be a tourist,” Bull said. “You want to notice what’s going on around you. You want to look at what people are wearing and what they’re not wearing. You want to see, do people stop at the red lights or do they cross anyway?”

    Programs can last anywhere from a few weeks to more than a year, and students may face mental health challenges such as loneliness, depression or language-related anxiety. Many programs offer on-site support, but experts say students should have a plan in place before those symptoms occur.

    For Dominic Motter, who spent a semester in London in 2023, familiar routines helped when homesickness struck. Like Jongsma, Motter’s trip abroad was his first time away from family and friends for an extended period of time, and he was surprised when confronted with the feeling of homesickness.

    “I’d never known that feeling before,” he said.

    An avid runner, Motter would jog in the park whenever he felt overwhelmed, a simple ritual from back home that helped him feel more grounded. He also found comfort in decorating his room, both with items from home and new souvenirs from his travels. At the end of the day, he said it helped him feel like he was “coming home.”

    “Instead of it feeling like a temporary dorm room or hotel room,” he said, it put him in the mindset that “this is now my new home.”

    Upon return

    Experts say many students returning home are going through a transition and may struggle with reverse culture shock without realizing it.

    “You’ve had this transformative experience. You’ve changed and grown so much, and you come back to the place where you were before and it’s all different because you’re so different,” Stears-Macauley said. She suggests joining local international clubs or alumni associations from the foreign school you attended to find support.

    Students can also prepare by answering the following questions, Bull said: How will you contextualize your experience? What aspects are most important to share? Which details are suitable for brief conversations, and which are better saved for deeper conversations with people who want to understand what made the experience meaningful?

    For Jongsma, it helped to create new experiences in a familiar place — even something as simple as checking out a new museum, she said. Motter, who spent his first few weeks wishing he were back in London, said it helped to talk with the friends he’d made there because they actually understood what he was feeling.

    As he put it: “It’ll eventually feel like home again.”

    ___

    Mumphrey reported from Flagstaff, Arizona. Yamat reported from Las Vegas.

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  • This New Mexico program is bringing women’s history out of the shadows

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    SANTA FE, N.M. — On a recent field trip to view historical markers in New Mexico’s capital city of Santa Fe, seventh grader Raffi Paglayan noted the range of careers and contributions made by the women featured on them.

    Paglayan’s favorite was Katherine Stinson Otero, a skywriter who was one of the first women to obtain a pilot’s license in the U.S. After Stinson Otero contracted tuberculosis while driving ambulances in World War I, she moved to New Mexico and started a second career as a renowned architect.

    “She seems pretty cool,” Paglayan said with a smile.

    Introducing New Mexicans to women from the state’s history is the goal of a decades-long program that has put up nearly 100 roadside markers featuring the significant contributions of women from or with ties to New Mexico. Now the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program is branching out to create a curriculum for schools based on its research.

    “It’s just so essential that all students, not just female students, but every student has the ability to recognize and see the significance of the people that have done so much work to create what we have,” said Lisa Nordstrum, the education director and middle school teacher who took Paglayan and her classmates on the field trip.

    The road marker efforts started decades ago. Pat French, a founding member of the International Women’s Forum – New Mexico, a leadership and networking group, noticed in the 1980s that there were hardly any women mentioned in any of the state’s historic roadside markers. In 2006, the group secured state funding to work with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to change that.

    Over the years, the group visited individual counties and Native American communities, asking for stories about important women in their history. The research compiled biographies of dozens of women from precolonial times through the Spanish and Mexican territory periods, and into the time when New Mexico became a state.

    Now those women’s stories are displayed on 6-foot signs across the state and in an online database. While some honor well-known historical figures such as American modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe and New Mexico’s first female Secretary of State Soledad Chávez de Chacón, many others feature local women whose stories have not been widely told.

    For example, Evelyn Vigil and Juanita Toledo are remembered for reviving the Pecos Pueblo style of pottery in the 1970s, after the indigenous Pecos Pueblo population was decimated by years of disease and war by the 1890s, and the pottery techniques were lost.

    “There is just a sense of justice about it,” said program director Kris Pettersen. “These women put all this effort in and made all these contributions, and they were unrecognized, and that’s just wrong.”

    Other markers are dedicated to groups of women, such as healers and the state’s female military veterans. The collection notes that the history of the state cannot be told without recognizing the conflict that came with colonialization and the wars fought over the territory.

    “They are not, however, the first women to take up arms and defend their homes and society in our region,” the veterans’ online blurb notes. “New Mexico is a state of culturally diverse people who have protected themselves over many centuries.”

    For now, the group has paused creating new markers, opting to maintain the current ones and focus on the educational mission.

    Over 10 years ago, Nordstrum had a revelation similar to French’s: There was a lack of women in the standard state history curriculum. She stumbled upon online biographies from the marker program and started teaching their stories to her seventh graders.

    In 2022, the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program secured state funding to hire Nordstrum to develop a K-12 curriculum from women’s biographies.

    “We have women that wouldn’t be in any textbook,” Nordstrum said.

    The funding was renewed in 2024 with bipartisan support. One of the legislation’s co-sponsors, Republican state Rep. Gail Armstrong, believes it’s important for New Mexico residents, young and old, to understand how the world they live in was formed.

    “History, good or bad, should not be changed. It needs to be remembered so that we don’t make the same mistakes again and so that we can celebrate the good things that have happened,” she said.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

    __

    Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan.

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  • Uncommon program helps children displaced by flooding that devastated Alaska villages

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    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Rayann Martin sat in a classroom hundreds of miles from her devastated Alaska Native village and held up 10 fingers when the teacher asked the pupils how old they were.

    “Ten — how do you say 10 in Yup’ik?” the teacher asked.

    “Qula!” the students answered in unison.

    Martin and her family were among hundreds of people airlifted to Anchorage, the state’s largest city, after the remnants of Typhoon Halong inundated their small coastal villages along the Bering Sea last month, dislodging dozens of homes and floating them away — many with people inside. The floods left nearly 700 homes destroyed or heavily damaged. One person died, two remain missing.

    As the residents grapple with uprooted lives very different from the traditional ones they left, some of the children are finding a measure of familiarity in a school-based immersion program that focuses on their Yup’ik language and culture — one of two such programs in the state.

    “I’m learning more Yup’ik,” said Martin, who added that she’s using the language to communicate with her mother, teachers and classmates. “I usually speak more Yup’ik in villages, but mostly more English in cities.”

    There are more than 100 languages spoken in the homes of Anchorage School District students. Yup’ik, which is spoken by about 10,000 people in the state, is the fifth most common. The district adopted its first language immersion program — Japanese — in 1989, and subsequently added Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, French and Russian.

    After many requests from parents, the district obtained a federal grant and added a K-12 Yup’ik immersion program about nine years ago. The students in the first class are now eighth-graders. The program is based at College Gate Elementary and Wendler Middle School.

    The principal at College Gate Elementary, Darrell Berntsen, is himself Alaska Native — Sugpiaq, from Kodiak Island, south of Anchorage. His mother was 12 years old in 1964 when the magnitude-9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake and an ensuing tsunami devastated her village of Old Harbor. He recalls her stories of joining other villagers at high ground and watching as the surge of water carried homes out to sea.

    His mother and her family evacuated to a shelter in Anchorage, but returned to Kodiak Island when Old Harbor was rebuilt. Berntsen grew up living a subsistence life — “the greatest time of my life was being able to go out duck hunting, go out deer hunting,” he said — and he understands what the evacuees from Kipnuk, Kwigillingok and other damaged villages have left behind.

    He has also long had an interest in preserving Alaska Native culture and languages. His ex-wife’s grandmother, Marie Smith Jones, was the last fluent speaker of Eyak, an indigenous language from south-central Alaska, when she died in 2008. His uncles had their hands slapped when they spoke their indigenous Alutiiq language at school.

    As the evacuees arrived in Anchorage in the days after last month’s flooding, Berntsen greeted them at an arena where the Red Cross had set up a shelter. He invited families to enroll their children in the Yup’ik immersion program. Many of the parents showed him photos of the duck, goose, moose, seal or other traditional foods they had saved for the winter — stockpiles that washed away or spoiled in the flood.

    “Listening is a big part of our culture — hearing their stories, letting them know that, ‘Hey, I live here in Anchorage, I’m running one of my schools, the Yup’ik immersion program, you guys are welcome at our school,’” Berntsen said. “Do everything we can to make them feel comfortable in the most uncomfortable situation that they’ve ever been through.”

    Some 170 evacuated children have enrolled in the Anchorage School District — 71 of them in the Yup’ik immersion program. Once the smallest immersion program in the district, it’s now “booming,” said Brandon Locke, the district’s world language director.

    At College Gate, pupils receive instruction in Yup’ik for half the day, including Yup’ik literacy and language as well as science and social studies. The other half is in English, which includes language arts and math classes.

    Among the program’s new students is Ellyne Aliralria, a 10-year-old from Kipnuk. During the surge of floodwater the weekend of Oct. 11, she and her family were in a home that floated upriver. The high water also washed away her sister’s grave, she said.

    Aliralria likes the immersion program and learning more phrases, even though the Yup’ik dialect being spoken is a bit different from the one she knows.

    “I like to do all of them, but some of them are hard,” the fifth-grader said.

    Also difficult is adjusting to living in a motel room in a city nearly 500 miles (800 km) from their village on the southwest coast.

    “We’re homesick,” she said.

    Lilly Loewen, 10, is one of many non-Yup’iks in the program. She said her parents wanted her to participate because “they thought it was really cool.”

    “It is just really amazing to get to talk to people in another language other than just what I speak mostly at home,” Loewen said.

    Berntsen is planning to help the new students acclimate by holding activities such as gym nights or Olympic-style events, featuring activities that mimic Alaska Native hunting and fishing techniques. One example: the seal hop, in which participants assume a plank position and shuffle across the floor to emulate how hunters sneak up on seals napping on the ice.

    The Yup’ik immersion program is helping undo some of the damage Western culture did to Alaska Native language and traditions, he said. It’s also bridging the gap of two lost generations: In some cases, the children’s parents or grandparents never learned Yup’ik, but the students can now speak with their great-grandparents, Locke said.

    “I took this as a great opportunity for us to give back some of what the trauma had taken from our Indigenous people,” Berntsen said.

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  • International students have returned to US colleges, fueled by a surge from India

    International students have returned to US colleges, fueled by a surge from India

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    WASHINGTON — International students attended U.S. universities in surging numbers last year, rebounding from a pandemic slump with the help of a 35% jump in students coming from India, according to a study released Monday.

    Overall, the number of international students in the U.S. grew by 12% in the 2022-23 academic year, the largest single-year increase in more than 40 years, according to findings from the State Department and the nonprofit Institute of International Education. More than 1 million students came from abroad, the most since the 2019-20 school year.

    “This reinforces that the U.S. remains the destination of choice for international students wishing to study abroad, as it has been for more than a century,” said Allan E. Goodman, CEO of the Institute of International Education.

    American colleges enrolled nearly 269,000 students from India, more than ever and second only to China. Most came for graduate programs, often in science, technology and business.

    “The U.S. maintains a strong relationship with India on education, which I think is getting even stronger and even more connected,” said Marianne Craven, the State Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary for academic exchange.

    China still accounted for the most foreign students in the U.S. with 290,000, but its numbers decreased for a third consecutive year.

    It reflects a gradual shift. After years of booming demand from China, interest has ebbed amid chilly international relations and increased competition from universities in the United Kingdom and Canada. Officials behind the new study also blame prolonged travel restrictions in Asia during the pandemic.

    At the same time, U.S. universities have focused on recruiting in India, hoping to tap a growing population that the United Nations predicted would overtake China as the world’s largest this year. Students from India now outnumber those from China in 24 U.S. states, including Illinois, Texas and Michigan, which rank among the top destinations for international students.

    For the second consecutive year, America’s graduate programs were the main attraction for international students, the study finds. Graduate enrollment grew by 21%, while undergraduate numbers ticked up 1%. It reverses a trend from the previous decade, which saw undergraduates come in larger numbers.

    Much of last year’s growth is credited to math and computer science programs, which attracted more students than any other subject and saw a 20% boost in enrollment over the previous year. Engineering and business followed behind. Taken together, those three fields account for more than half of all international students in the United States.

    The surge nearly brings international numbers back to their pre-pandemic highs, with a peak of almost 1.1 million students in 2018. Enrollment fell precipitously over the following two years as COVID-19 stifled academic exchange.

    The rebound appears to be continuing, with an 8% increase in international enrollment this fall, according to a smaller survey meant to give a snapshot of recent trends.

    Overall, international students made up just 5.6% of all college students in the 2022-23 year, but they play an outsize role in U.S. higher education. University leaders say they’re important for global exchange, and they’re also important for revenue — international students are usually charged higher tuition rates, effectively subsidizing college for U.S. students.

    Behind China and India, nations sending the most students to the U.S. were South Korea, Canada, Vietnam, Taiwan and Nigeria. Last school year saw a record number of students come from Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, India, Italy, Nepal, Pakistan and Spain.

    While more students come from abroad, many colleges are struggling to attract students at home. Total enrollment across all colleges has stayed in a slump in the wake of pandemic decreases, and freshman enrollment decreased by 3.6% in fall 2023, according to a separate study by the National Student Clearinghouse.

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Utah Republicans defend book removal law while protesting district that banned Bible

    Utah Republicans defend book removal law while protesting district that banned Bible

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    SALT LAKE CITY — Republican lawmakers rallied with more than one hundred Bible-toting parents and children at Utah’s Capitol on Wednesday to protest a suburban school district’s decision to remove the Bible from middle and elementary school libraries in the wake of a GOP-backed “sensitive materials” law passed two years ago.

    Concerned parents and children holding signs that read “The Bible is the original textbook” and “Remove porn, not the Bible,” said they were outraged after northern Utah’s Davis School District announced that a review committee concluded the Bible was too “violent or vulgar” for young children. The committee ruled that it did not qualify as obscene or pornographic under the sensitive materials law, but used its own discretion to remove it from libraries below the high school level.

    Karlee Vincent, a Davis County mother of three kids carrying children’s Bibles to the demonstration, said districts could weigh banning certain titles with controversial material, but not religious texts like the Bible.

    “We love the Bible. We love God. And we need God in our nation,” she said.

    The anonymously made challenge to the Bible appears to have been submitted as a statement to undermine the two-year-old law, noting the sacred text contains instances of incest, prostitution and rape. It derided the review procedures as a “bad faith process” and attacked groups that have pushed to remove certain titles from schools, including Parents United and its Utah-based affiliate.

    The Bible removal is the highest-profile effort to remove a book from a school in Utah since the Legislature passed a law requiring school districts to create new pathways for residents to challenge “sensitive materials” and used a statute-based definition on pornography to define them. It has presented challenges for proponents of scrutinizing materials available in school. The pushback has emboldened book-banning critics, who argue anger at banning the Bible illustrates arbitrary and political double standards and the issues inherent to removing books that have certain content.

    “If folks are outraged about the Bible being banned, they should be outraged about all the books that are being censored in our public schools,” Kasey Meehan, who directs the Freedom to Read program at the writers’ organization PEN America, said last week.

    Utah Parents United President Nichole Mason said she worried the spotlight the Bible ban turned on Utah distracted from conversations about obscene materials that remain in school libraries. Defending Utah’s sensitive materials law, Mason noted that the committee determined the Bible didn’t qualify as pornographic under state statute. She doubled down on her stance that Utah should give parents more say in what’s in their kids’ schools.

    “God Bless America that we can challenge any book out there!” Mason said.

    State Rep. Ken Ivory, the sensitive materials law’s Republican sponsor, rebuffed the idea that his law paved the way for the Bible to be banned. Though he defended the review process after the sacred text’s removal, he said on Wednesday that the Davis School District had overstepped its role by removing the Bible from middle and elementary schools because of criteria not in state law.

    He said criticism of the review process that led to the banning of the Bible didn’t relinquish the need for oversight from parents and administrators about materials in schools.

    “Should we have age appropriate limits for children in school? Almost universally anyone of good faith says ‘Yes.’ The question is then: What should those limits be?” he said.

    Ivory urged the Legislature to change the law so book removal decisions have to be overseen by elected officials at open public meetings, not the kind of committee that decided to remove the Bible from middle and elementary schools in the Davis School District.

    Utah is among a longer list of Republican-led states that have in recent years expanded residents’ ability to challenge books and curriculum in schools and libraries. Lobbied by an ascendant parents’ rights movement, lawmakers from Florida to Wyoming have increasingly scrutinized what books are available, touching off outrage about content related to race, sex and gender in particular. New state laws have given parents additional power to challenge books and opened librarians up to potential criminal charges if they provide minors content deemed “harmful.”

    Neither Ivory nor parents took issue with efforts to remove other books, including the race- and LGBTQ-related titles that account for the majority of book challenges.

    Many parents and people of faith at Utah’s Capitol on Wednesday said they had heard little of book banning efforts until news about the Bible’s removal broke last week. They defended the Bible’s role as a foundational text, saying it shouldn’t be compared to other books that parents have challenged. They said the committee’s decision affirmed long-simmering distrust against public schools and those who make decisions governing them.

    “I hope it will be part of our schools, not only to give information to our minds but character to our hearts — and the greatest character of all is Jesus Christ,” Tad Callister, the former Sunday School General President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said of the Bible and Book of Mormon as an audience applauded.

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  • Utah district bans Bible in elementary and middle schools ‘due to vulgarity or violence’

    Utah district bans Bible in elementary and middle schools ‘due to vulgarity or violence’

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    SALT LAKE CITY — The Good Book is being treated like a bad book in Utah after a parent frustrated by efforts to ban materials from schools convinced a suburban district that some Bible verses were too vulgar or violent for younger children.

    The 72,000-student Davis School District north of Salt Lake City removed the Bible from its elementary and middle schools while keeping it in high schools after a committee reviewed the scripture in response to a parental complaint. The district has removed other titles, including Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” following a 2022 state law requiring districts to include parents in decisions over what constitutes “sensitive material.”

    A district spokesperson, Chris Williams, said it doesn’t differentiate between requests to review books. The reviews are handled by a committee of made up of teachers, parents and administrators in the predominantly conservative community where most people are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The committee published its decision in an online database of review requests and did not elaborate on its reasoning or which passages of the Bible it found overly violent or vulgar.

    The decision comes as conservative parent activists, including state-based chapters of the group Parents United, descend on school boards and statehouses throughout the United States, sowing alarm about how sex and violence are talked about in schools.

    It’s unknown, however, who made the request for the Bible to be banned from Davis schools or if they are affiliated with any larger group. The district refused to provide the person’s identity, citing a school board privacy policy.

    A copy of the complaint obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune through a public records request shows that the parent noted the Bible contains instances of incest, prostitution and rape. The complaint derided a “bad faith process” and said the district was “ceding our children’s education, First Amendment Rights, and library access” to Parents United.

    “Utah Parents United left off one of the most sex-ridden books around: The Bible,” the parent’s complaint, dated Dec. 11, said. It later went on to add, “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible (under state law) has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”

    The review committee determined the Bible didn’t qualify under Utah’s definition of what’s pornographic or indecent, which is why it remains in high schools, Williams said. The committee can make its own decisions under the new 2022 state law and has applied different standards based on students’ ages in response to multiple challenges, he said.

    An unnamed party filed an appeal on Wednesday.

    Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints read the Bible along with other scriptures, including the Book of Mormon, which has not been challenged in the Davis School District.

    The Bible has long found itself on the American Library Association’s list of most challenged books and was temporarily pulled off shelves last year in school districts in Texas and Missouri.

    Concerns about new policies potentially ensnaring the Bible have routinely arisen in statehouses during debates over efforts to expand book banning procedures. That includes Arkansas — one of the states that enacted a law this year that would subject librarians to criminal penalties for providing “harmful” materials to minors, and creates a new process for the public to request materials be relocated in libraries.

    “I don’t want people to be able to say, ’I don’t want the Bible in the library,” Arkansas Democratic state Sen. Linda Chesterfield said during a hearing.

    Parents who have pushed for more say in their children’s education and the curriculum and materials available in schools have argued that they should control how their children are taught about matters like gender, sexuality and race.

    EveryLibrary, a national political action committee, told The Associated Press last month it was tracking at least 121 different proposals introduced in legislatures this year targeting libraries, librarians, educators and access to materials. The number of attempts to ban or restrict books across the U.S. last year was the highest in the 20 years, according to the American Library Association.

    “If folks are outraged about the Bible being banned, they should be outraged about all the books that are being censored in our public schools,” said Kasey Meehan, who directs the Freedom to Read program at the writers’ organization PEN America.

    ___ Associated Press reporter Andrew DeMillo contributed from Little Rock, Ark.

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  • Using ‘he/him,’ ‘she/her’ in emails got 2 dorm directors fired at small New York Christian college

    Using ‘he/him,’ ‘she/her’ in emails got 2 dorm directors fired at small New York Christian college

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    NEW YORK — Shua Wilmot and Raegan Zelaya, two former dorm directors at a small Christian university in western New York, acknowledge their names are unconventional, which explains why they attached gender identities to their work email signatures.

    Wilmot uses “he/him.” Zelaya goes by “she/her.”

    Their former employer, Houghton University, wanted them to drop the identifiers in line with a new policy for email formats implemented in September. Both refused and were fired.

    “My name is Shua. It’s an unusual name. And it ends with a vowel, ‘a,’ that is traditionally feminine in many languages,” Wilmot said in a nearly one-hour video he and Zelaya posted on YouTube shortly after they were let go last month. “If you get an email from me and you don’t know who I am, you might not know how to gender me.”

    Ongoing culture wars in the U.S. over sexual preferences, gender IDs and transgender rights have engulfed politics, school campuses and many other facets of public and private life. At least 17 Republican-led states have severely restricted gender affirming care. Debates continue to rage in some communities about school curricula mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity. And pickets have sprung up outside public libraries hosting “drag story hours.”

    Meanwhile, controversies swirl at campuses with religious affiliations. The recent firings prompted more than 700 Houghton alumni to sign a petition in protest.

    In the Northwest, 16 plaintiffs are suing Seattle Pacific University, a Christian liberal arts college, to challenge the school’s employment policy barring people in same-sex relationships from full-time jobs.

    In New York City, LGBTQ students are challenging Yeshiva University’s decision to bar their student-run club from campus.

    Paul Southwick, director of the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, a 2-year-old advocacy group for LGBTQ students at publicly funded religious colleges and universities, said actions such as these are cause for despair.

    “There’s a backlash against the rise of LGBTQ rights,” he said, and not just with “white evangelical Christianity in the South … but in places like New York and Oregon that we wouldn’t think would be experiencing this backlash.”

    Earlier this year, a federal judge in Oregon dismissed a lawsuit that LGBTQ students filed against the U.S. Department of Education claiming it didn’t protect them against discrimination at religiously affiliated universities receiving federal money.

    Houghton University, an 800-student campus 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Buffalo, says it offers a “Christ-centered education in the liberal arts and sciences.”

    In a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Saturday, the university said it could not speak publicly about personnel matters, but it “has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff email signatures.”

    The university said it had previously asked employees to remove “anything extraneous,” including Bible quotes, from email signatures.

    The university also shared with the AP an email outlining its new policy sent to staff. The memo cautioned employees against using politically divisive and inflammatory speech in communications bearing the Houghton name. It also directed them to use standardized signature styles and forbade the use of pronouns.

    Also attached to the statement was a copy of a letter university President Wayne D. Lewis Jr. sent to students.

    “I would never ask you to agree with or support every decision I make,” Lewis wrote. “But I do humbly ask that you resist the temptation to reduce Houghton’s decision making to the simple and convenient political narratives of our time.”

    Zelaya said she received an email in the fall from administrators saying the school was mandating changes in colors, fonts and other aspects of email to help the school maintain branding consistency.

    She complied, she said, but retained her pronouns on her signature, calling it a “standard industry practice” to do so.

    In the dismissal letters hand-delivered to Wilmot and Raegan Zelaya, copies of which they shared on social media, the university wrote that the firings were “a result of your refusal to remove pronouns in your email signatures in violation of institutional policy.”

    In a video posted on Facebook, Zelaya said she already has another job lined up. In their joint YouTube video, she and Wilmot urged their supporters to push for change in policies, but constructively and with civility.

    “As a result of this whole controversy, as a result of having my pronouns in my email signature,” Wilmot said, “it’s given me the opportunity to educate people on this topic.”

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  • New rule targets college programs that leave grads with low income, high debt

    New rule targets college programs that leave grads with low income, high debt

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — College programs that leave graduates underpaid or buried in loans would be cut off from federal money under a proposal issued Wednesday by the Biden administration, but the rules would apply only to for-profit colleges and a tiny fraction of programs at traditional universities.

    The Education Department is calling it a significant step toward accountability for the nation’s colleges. With more students questioning the value of a degree, the measure aims to weed out low-performing programs and assure students the cost of tuition will pay off in the long run.

    “Investing in a college degree or career certificate is supposed to pay off — instead, too many students are getting ripped off every single year,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a call with reporters.

    Opponents, however, say the scope is too narrow to help most students.

    Known as gainful employment, it revives an Obama-era policy that was dismantled by the Trump administration before it took full effect. It was enacted amid a federal crackdown on for-profit colleges that contributed to the closure of several chains accused of fraud, including Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute.

    Like the Obama rule, the new proposal would apply to all programs at for-profit colleges, but only to certificate programs at traditional universities. Opponents say it creates a double standard, with the potential to kill off hundreds of programs at for-profit colleges while leaving other programs unscathed even if they leave students buried in debt.

    “The rule unfairly targets programs at proprietary institutions and fails to account for the unique challenges facing students and communities that career-oriented programs serve,” said Jason Altmire, president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities, an industry trade group.

    The proposal could take effect no sooner than July 2024. The federal government must first collect and review public comment. It’s sure to draw outrage from Republicans in Congress, who have called the policy an attack on the entire for-profit college industry.

    The proposal would put college programs through two tests to determine whether they’re serving students well.

    The first test would check whether a program’s graduates carry heavy student debt compared to their earnings. Programs would pass if their graduates have annual loan payments averaging no more than 8% of their total income, or 20% of their discretionary income.

    A second test would check whether at least half of a program’s graduates earn more than working adults in their state with only a high school diploma.

    Programs that fail at least one test would need to warn students that they’re at risk of losing federal money. Those that fail the same test twice in any three-year period would be cut off from federal aid. That amounts to a death sentence for most programs, especially at for-profit colleges that rely heavily on students who use federal financial aid to pay for tuition.

    The Education Department says the rule would help an estimated 700,000 students who would otherwise enroll at one of nearly 1,800 low-performing colleges.

    Cardona said the agency can’t keep sending taxpayer money to programs “that cost students an arm and a leg and then leave them in a ditch, unable to climb the economic ladder. It’s not right and it’s not sustainable.”

    A separate part of the proposal would release new information showing students the true cost of programs across all types of colleges. The Education Department would publish data detailing the amount students pay for individual programs — including, tuition, fees and books — along with their student debt levels and earnings after graduation.

    “We need to equip students and families with the facts before they take on a mountain of debt,” Cardona said.

    The rule is expected to put many for-profit college programs in jeopardy. At nonprofit colleges, it would have no effect beyond certificate programs, which often focus on career training. It would not apply, for example, to bachelor’s degrees or most graduate programs.

    Supporters say the policy targets the riskiest programs. Students who attend for-profit colleges typically borrow more and default on their loans at higher rates. Student Defense, an advocacy group, called it a strong proposal that establishes “basic rules of the road” for colleges.

    The proposal comes at a time of flagging faith in higher education. Fewer young Americans have been going to college, a shift that experts attribute to rising tuition costs, a strong job market and the shortcomings of pandemic schooling.

    Hoping to restore public trust, the Education Department has been exploring how to hold colleges accountable for the outcomes of their graduates.

    The agency is separately working on a list that would identify low-value programs across all colleges. It would publicize the list as a resource for students, but without the threat of a financial penalty.

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Black history class to undergo changes, College Board says

    Black history class to undergo changes, College Board says

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    The College Board says changes will be made to its new AP African American studies course, after critics said the agency bowed to political pressure and removed several topics from the framework, including Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations and queer life.

    In a statement on Monday, the College Board said the development committee and experts charged with authoring the Advanced Placement course “will determine the details of those changes over the next few months.”

    “We are committed to providing an unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” the company said.

    It remains unclear what the changes are or when they will be made public.

    The course gained national attention this winter when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024, said he would ban the course in his state because it pushed a political agenda.

    “In the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent, but they require teaching Black history, all the important things. That’s part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis previously said. “We want education and not indoctrination.”

    But the official curriculum for the course, released after DeSantis’ administration rejected it, downplayed some components that had drawn objections from the governor and other conservatives. The College Board faced an onslaught of criticism from activists and African American scholars outraged at the notion the course changed because of political controversy.

    The course was launched in 60 schools in the U.S. and will be expanded to 800 schools and 16,000 students this upcoming school year.

    The nonprofit testing company previously said revisions to the course were substantially complete and not shaped by political influence before DeSantis shared his objections. College Board officials said developers consulted with professors from more than 200 colleges, including several historically Black institutions, and took input from teachers piloting the class.

    The company said Monday the creation of the course had prioritized access to a discipline that is not widely available to high schoolers, plus bringing that content to as many students as possible — a possible reference to students in states run by conservatives. “Regrettably,” the nonprofit testing company said, those two goals “came into conflict.”

    The College Board offers AP courses across the academic spectrum, including in math, science, social studies, foreign languages and fine arts. The courses are optional and taught at a college level. Students who score high enough on the final exam usually earn course credit at their university.

    ___

    Mumphrey reported from Phoenix.

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Alabama education director ousted over ‘woke’ training book

    Alabama education director ousted over ‘woke’ training book

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) —

    Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday announced she replaced her director of early childhood education over the use of a teacher training book, written by a nationally recognized education group, that the Republican governor denounced as teaching “woke concepts” because of language about inclusion and structural racism.

    Barbara Cooper was forced out as as head of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education after Ivey expressed concern over the distribution of the book to state-run pre-kindergartens. Ivey spokesperson Gina Maiola identified the book as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Developmentally Appropriate Practice Book, 4th edition. Maiola said she understands that the books have been removed from the state classrooms.

    “The education of Alabama’s children is my top priority as governor, and there is absolutely no room to distract or take away from this mission. Let me be crystal clear: Woke concepts that have zero to do with a proper education and that are divisive at the core have no place in Alabama classrooms at any age level, let alone with our youngest learners,” Ivey said in a statement.

    Ivey’s statement comes as conservative politicians have made a rallying cry out of decrying so-called “woke” teachings, with schools sometimes emerging as a flashpoint over diversity training and parents’ rights.

    The governor’s office said Ivey first asked Cooper to “send a memo to disavow this book and to immediately discontinue its use.” Ivey’s office did not say how Cooper responded but that the governor made the decision to replace Cooper and accepted her resignation. Cooper could not immediately be reached for comment.

    The book is a guide for early childhood educators. It is not a curriculum taught to children.

    The governor’s office, in a press release, cited two examples from the book — one discussing white privilege and that “the United States is built on systemic and structural racism” and another that Ivey’s office claimed teaches LGBTQ+ inclusion to 4-year-olds. Those sections, according to a copy of the 881-page book obtained by The Associated Press, discuss combating bias and making sure that all children feel welcome.

    “Early childhood programs also serve and welcome families that represent many compositions. Children from all families (e.g., single parent, grandparent-led, foster, LGBTQIA+) need to hear and see messages that promote equality, dignity, and worth,” the book states.

    The section on structural racism states that “systemic and structural racism … has permeated every institution and system through policies and practices that position people of color in oppressive, repressive, and menial positions. The early education system is not immune to these forces.” It says preschool is one place where children “begin to see how they are represented in society” and that the classroom should be a place of “affirmation and healing.”

    NAEYC is a national accrediting board that works to provide high-quality education materials and resources for young children. In an emailed response to The Associated Press, the group did not address Ivey’s statements but said the book is a research-based resource for educators.

    “For nearly four decades, and in partnership with hundreds of thousands of families and educators, Developmentally Appropriate Practice has served as the foundation for high-quality early childhood education across all states and communities. While not a curriculum, it is a responsive, educator-developed, educator-informed, and research-based resource that has been honed over multiple generations to support teachers in helping all children thrive and reach their full potential,” the statement read.

    Cooper is a member of the NAEYC board. In a previously published statement on the organization’s website about the latest edition of the book, Cooper said that book teaches, “applicable skills for teaching through developmentally appropriate practices that build brains during the critical first five years of life.”

    Alabama’s First Class voluntary pre-kindergarten programs operates more than 1,400 classrooms across the state. The program has won high ratings from the National Institute for Early Education Research.

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  • California weighs how to improve outcomes for Black students

    California weighs how to improve outcomes for Black students

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Legislature is weighing a proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom to set aside $300 million for low-income schools. But some education advocates say it won’t do enough to improve educational outcomes for Black students.

    Assemblymember Akilah Weber, a Democrat from San Diego, introduced a bill last year aimed at ensuring more education money reaches Black students. But she pulled the bill after conversations with Newsom, citing concerns that it could violate the state or U.S. constitution because it focused on one specific racial group, even though it didn’t mention “Black” by name. The Democratic governor’s new approach, which Weber supports, instead targets money to schools with a high concentration of students who qualify for free lunch under a federal program.

    “This proposal is exactly what our state needs to work toward repairing the longstanding harms of inequity in education and ensuring our schools are more fair and accessible for all students,” she said in a statement.

    While Newsom’s proposal is racking up support from Weber and other lawmakers, some advocates who backed Weber’s bill say California must come up with a more targeted solution to benefit Black students. They are concerned about the stark disparity between Black students’ academic performance and that of their peers. The Black in School Coalition, which backed Weber’s prior bill, led a rally of thousands of advocates and students outside the Capitol on Tuesday following a legislative hearing on the proposal.

    The coalition wants the $300 million to be targeted at schools with a large portion of students who perform poorly on at least two of the following indicators outlined by the Department of Education: academic performance, chronic absenteeism, college or career advancement, English learner progress, graduation rate, and suspension rate.

    “For 10 years, we’ve had a funding formula that has done nothing in particular for Black students, and it’s time for that to change,” said Margaret Fortune, CEO for a network of charter schools aimed at closing the achievement gap for Black students.

    Fortune was referring to what is known as the Local Control Funding Formula, which dictates how school districts are funded.

    The educator previously brought the issue to the state’s Reparations Task Force, a group studying how the state can atone for slavery and policies that discriminated against African Americans.

    About 70% of Black students failed to meet state testing standards for English Language Arts in the 2021-2022 school year, compared with less than 40% of white students, according to state data. About 84% of Black students didn’t meet math standards, compared with about 50% of white students.

    Under Newsom’s proposal, the money would go to elementary and middle schools with at least 90%, of students qualifying for free meals under the program and high schools with at least 85% of students qualifying for free meals.

    “Governor Newsom’s proposal is a monumental shift in California’s longstanding fight to close persistent achievement gaps and deliver on the promise of an equitable education for all students,” said Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson from Newsom, in a statement.

    The proposal as it was originally written gives wide latitude to schools on how to spend the money but would require them to report its use to the state.

    Less than 26% of Black students attend a school that would qualify under the plan, CalMatters reported.

    Tinsae Birhanu, a student and health ambassador for the Black Students of California United, said the state needs to do more to improve outcomes for Black students, including making sure the makeup of teachers is more diverse and combating high expulsion rates.

    “Our education system should be nothing less than what we deserve,” Birhanu said.

    At the budget subcommittee hearing, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, a Democrat representing Sacramento suburbs and the committee’s chair, expressed his support for the proposal but noted that increasing funding for schools isn’t a cure-all for ending academic disparities.

    “So much of these are outside of the classroom,” he said.

    He noted other factors that contribute to poorer performance from students, including coming from a family that has experienced intergenerational poverty and is living in an under-resourced neighborhood.

    Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat who represents the Los Angeles suburbs, questioned the Newsom administration during the hearing about how funding will be used to specifically benefit students and improve their performance in schools, such as by hiring literary coaches or tutors.

    Representatives from Newsom’s administration didn’t have clear answers. Department of Finance officials said the proposal aims to ensure transparency in how the money is spent.

    Newsom’s administration released its initial budget proposal in January. As the administration continues to testify before budget subcommittees, they can make changes to the language in the budget. They have until May to continue making changes, and the Legislature must pass a budget by June 15.

    ___

    Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

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  • Is ‘David’ porn? See for yourself, Italians ask Fla. parents

    Is ‘David’ porn? See for yourself, Italians ask Fla. parents

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    ROME — The Florence museum housing Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece the “David” invited parents and students from a Florida charter school to visit after complaints about a lesson featuring the statue forced the principal to resign.

    Florence Mayor Dario Nardella also tweeted an invitation for the principal to visit so he can personally honor her. Confusing art with pornography was “ridiculous,” Nardella said.

    The incredulous Italian response highlights how the U.S. culture wars are often perceived in Europe, where despite a rise in right-wing sentiment and governance, the Renaissance and its masterpieces, even its naked ones, are generally free of controversy.

    But the board of the Tallahassee Classical School pressured Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of the “David” was show to a sixth-grade art class. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.

    Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson including a photo of the “David,” a 5-meter tall (17 foot) nude marble sculpture dating from 1504. The work, considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, depicts the Biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.

    Carrasquilla has said two parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.

    Carrasquilla said in a phone interview Sunday that she is “very honored” by the invitations to Italy and she may accept.

    “I am totally, like, wow,” Carasquilla said. “I’ve been to Florence before and have seen the ‘David’ up close and in person, but I would love to go and be a guest of the mayor.”

    Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the “David” resides, expressed astonishment at the controversy.

    “To think that ‘David’ could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.

    She invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue.

    Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.

    About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution, which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.

    Barney Bishop, chairman of Tallahassee Classical’s school board, has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla’s ouster, it wasn’t the only factor. He has declined to elaborate, while defending the decision.

    “Parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture,” Bishop said in an interview with Slate online magazine.

    Several parents and teachers plan to protest Carrasquilla’s ouster at Monday night’s school board meeting, but Carrasquilla said she isn’t sure she would take the job back even if it were offered.

    “There’s been such controversy and such upheaval,” she said. “I would really have to consider, ‘Is this truly what is best?’”

    Marla Stone, head of humanities studies at the American Academy in Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating U.S. culture wars and questioned how the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.

    “What we have here is a moral crusade against the body, sexuality, and gender expression and an ignorance of history,” Stone said in an email. “The incident is about fear, fear of beauty, of difference, and of the possibilities embedded in art.”

    Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted the “David” between 1501-1504 after being commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the showpiece of the Accademia, and helps draw 1.7 million visitors each year to the museum.

    “It is incredibly sought-after by Americans who want to do selfies and enjoy the beauty of this statue,” Director Hollberg said.

    The museum, like many in Europe, is free for student groups. There was no indication that any trip would be subsidized by the city or museum. ___

    Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

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  • Florida school uproar leads Italy to invite viewing ‘David’

    Florida school uproar leads Italy to invite viewing ‘David’

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    ROME — A Florence museum on Sunday invited parents and students from a Florida charter school to view Michelangelo’s “David” in person after the school principal was forced to resign following parental complaints that an image of the nude Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade art class.

    Florence Mayor Dario Nardella also tweeted an invitation for the principal to visit so he can personally honor her. Confusing art with pornography was “ridiculous,” Nardella said.

    The incredulous Italian response highlights how the U.S. culture wars are often perceived in Europe, where despite a rise in right-wing sentiment and governance, the Renaissance and its masterpieces, even its naked ones, are generally free of controversy.

    The Italians are responding to the board of the Tallahassee Classical School forcing Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.

    Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson including a photo of the “David,” a 5-meter tall (17 foot) nude marble sculpture dating from 1504. The work, considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, depicts the Biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.

    Carrasquilla has said two parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.

    Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the “David” is housed, expressed astonishment at the controversy.

    “To think that ‘David’ could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.

    She invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue.

    Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.

    About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution, which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.

    Barney Bishop, chairman of Tallahassee Classical’s school board, has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla’s ouster, it wasn’t the only factor. He has declined to elaborate while defending the decision.

    “Parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture,” Bishop said in an interview with Slate online magazine.

    A message was left Sunday seeking comment from Carrasquilla about the invitations from Florence.

    In a statement last week to the Tallahassee Democrat, which first reported the story, Carrasquilla said Bishop “expressed his displeasure with my leadership when parents became upset about policies or procedures not being followed to the ‘T.’”

    Marla Stone, head of the Humanities Department at the American Academy in Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating U.S. culture wars and questioned how the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.

    “What we have here is a moral crusade against the body, sexuality, and gender expression and an ignorance of history,” Stone said in an email. “The incident is about fear, fear of beauty, of difference, and of the possibilities embedded in art.”

    Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted the “David” between 1501-1504 after being commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the showpiece of the Accademia, and helps draw 1.7 million visitors each year to the museum.

    “It is incredibly sought-after by Americans who want to do selfies and enjoy the beauty of this statue,” Director Hollberg said.

    The museum, like many in Europe, is free for student groups. There was no indication that any trip would be subsidized by the city or museum. ___

    Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

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  • Florida school uproar leads Italy to invite viewing ‘David’

    Florida school uproar leads Italy to invite viewing ‘David’

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    ROME — A Florence museum on Sunday invited parents and students from a Florida charter school to view Michelangelo’s “David” in person after the school principal was forced to resign following parental complaints that an image of the nude Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade art class.

    Florence Mayor Dario Nardella also tweeted an invitation for the principal to visit so he can personally honor her. Confusing art with pornography was “ridiculous,” Nardella said.

    The incredulous Italian response highlights how the U.S. culture wars are often perceived in Europe, where despite a rise in right-wing sentiment and governance, the Renaissance and its masterpieces, even its naked ones, are generally free of controversy.

    The Italians are responding to the board of the Tallahassee Classical School forcing Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.

    Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson including a photo of the “David,” a 5-meter tall (17 foot) nude marble sculpture dating from 1504. The work, considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, depicts the Biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.

    Carrasquilla has said two parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.

    Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the “David” is housed, expressed astonishment at the controversy.

    “To think that ‘David’ could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.

    She invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue.

    Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.

    About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution, which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.

    Barney Bishop, chairman of Tallahassee Classical’s school board, has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla’s ouster, it wasn’t the only factor. He has declined to elaborate while defending the decision.

    “Parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture,” Bishop said in an interview with Slate online magazine.

    A message was left Sunday seeking comment from Carrasquilla about the invitations from Florence.

    In a statement last week to the Tallahassee Democrat, which first reported the story, Carrasquilla said Bishop “expressed his displeasure with my leadership when parents became upset about policies or procedures not being followed to the ‘T.’”

    Marla Stone, head of the Humanities Department at the American Academy in Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating U.S. culture wars and questioned how the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.

    “What we have here is a moral crusade against the body, sexuality, and gender expression and an ignorance of history,” Stone said in an email. “The incident is about fear, fear of beauty, of difference, and of the possibilities embedded in art.”

    Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted the “David” between 1501-1504 after being commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the showpiece of the Accademia, and helps draw 1.7 million visitors each year to the museum.

    “It is incredibly sought-after by Americans who want to do selfies and enjoy the beauty of this statue,” Director Hollberg said.

    The museum, like many in Europe, is free for student groups. There was no indication that any trip would be subsidized by the city or museum. ___

    Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

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  • Oregon eyes mandate for climate change lessons in schools

    Oregon eyes mandate for climate change lessons in schools

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    SALEM, Ore. — Oregon lawmakers are aiming to make the state the second in the nation to mandate climate change lessons for K-12 public school students, further fueling U.S. culture wars in education.

    Dozens of Oregon high schoolers submitted support of the bill, saying they care about climate change deeply. Some teachers and parents say teaching climate change could help the next generation better confront it, but others want schools to focus on reading, writing and math after test scores plummeted post-pandemic.

    Schools across the U.S. have found themselves at the center of a politically charged battle over curriculum and how matters such as gender, sex education and race should be taught — or whether they should be taught at all.

    One of the bill’s chief sponsors, Democratic Sen. James Manning, said even elementary students have told him climate change is important to them.

    “We’re talking about third and fourth graders having a vision to understand how this world is changing rapidly,” he said at a Thursday state Capitol hearing in Salem.

    Connecticut has the only U.S. state law requiring climate change instruction, and it’s possibly the first time such a bill has been introduced in Oregon, according to legislative researchers. Lawmakers in California and New York are considering similar bills.

    Manning’s bill requires every Oregon school district to develop climate change curriculum within three years, addressing ecological, societal, cultural, political and mental health aspects of climate change.

    It’s unclear how Oregon would enforce the law. Manning told The Associated Press that he is going to scrap an unpopular proposal for financial penalties against districts that don’t comply, but didn’t say whether another plan was coming.

    For now, the bill doesn’t say how many hours of instruction are needed for the state’s education department to approve a district’s curriculum.

    Most states have learning standards — largely set by state education boards — that include climate change, although their extent varies by state. Twenty states and Washington, D.C., have specifically adopted what are known as the Next Generation Science Standards, which call for middle schoolers to learn about climate science and high schoolers to receive lessons on how human activity affects the climate.

    New Jersey’s education standards are believed to be the most wide-ranging. For the first time this school year, climate change is not just part of science instruction, but all subjects, like art, English and even PE.

    Several teens testified at the state Capitol in favor of the bill. No students have submitted opposition testimony.

    “In 100 years are we going to have to teach our children what trees are because there aren’t any left? It’s a thought that horrifies me,” said high school sophomore Gabriel Burke. “My generation needs to learn about climate change from a young age for our survival.”

    Some teachers testified in support of the bill. But others say they’re already struggling to address pandemic learning losses. Adding climate change on top of reading, writing, math, science and social studies is “a heavy lift that will end up coming down on the backs of teachers,” said Kyler Pace, a grade school teacher in Sherwood, Oregon.

    Recent surveys conducted by Columbia University’s Teachers College and the Yale Program on Climate Communication suggest that a majority of Americans think that climate change and global warming should be taught in school. But climate change is still seen by some as a politically divisive issue, and Pace said that mandating its instruction could inject more tension into schools.

    Nicole De Graff, a self-described parents’ rights advocate and former GOP legislative candidate, testified that her children, ages 9, 15, and 16, are “done being overwhelmed with things that are fear-based, like COVID.”

    In Pennington, New Jersey, wellness teacher Suzanne Horsley aims for age-appropriate lessons on what can be a daunting topic. In her K-2 physical education classes at Toll Gate Grammar School, she plays a game with pretend trees, using bean bags representing carbon to show students that fewer trees leads to higher levels of atmospheric carbon.

    In Horsley’s lesson plan for teens, students learn how climate change disproportionately impacts low-income communities. They look at air quality maps in areas with higher industrial activity or car traffic.

    There is a push for students to feel as though they have some ability to influence their world, Horsley said. “Whether it’s conserving water or finding ways to plant more trees or take care of the trees that already exist … they want to feel empowered.”

    ___

    Claire Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Many kids need tutoring help. Only a small fraction get it

    Many kids need tutoring help. Only a small fraction get it

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    David Daniel knows his son needs help.

    The 8-year-old spent first grade in remote learning and several weeks of second grade in quarantine. The best way to catch him up, research suggests, is to tutor him several times a week during school.

    But his Indianapolis school offers Saturday or after-school tutoring — programs that don’t work for Daniel, a single father. The upshot is his son, now in third grade, isn’t getting the tutoring he needs.

    “I want him to have the help,” Daniel said. Without it, “next year is going to be really hard on him.”

    As America’s schools confront dramatic learning setbacks caused by the pandemic, experts have held up intensive tutoring as the single best antidote. Yet even as schools wield billions of dollars in federal COVID relief, a small fraction of students have received school tutoring, according to a survey of the nation’s largest districts by the nonprofit news organization Chalkbeat and The Associated Press.

    In eight of 12 school systems that provided data, less than 10% of students received any type of district tutoring this fall. To compare, in a federal survey, school officials said half of all U.S. students started this school year behind grade level in at least one subject.

    A new tutoring corps in Chicago has served about 3% of students, officials said. The figure was less than 1% in three districts: Georgia’s Gwinnett County, Florida’s Miami-Dade County, and Philadelphia, where the district reported only about 800 students were tutored. In those three systems alone, there were more than 600,000 students who spent no time in a district tutoring program this fall.

    The startlingly low tutoring figures point to several problems. Some parents said they didn’t know tutoring was available or didn’t think their children needed it. Some school systems have struggled to hire tutors. Other school systems said the small tutoring programs were intentional, part of an effort to focus on students with the greatest needs.

    Whatever the reason, the impact is clear: At a crucial time for students’ recovery, millions of children have not received the academic equivalent of powerful medication.

    “It works, it’s effective, it gets students to improve in their learning and catch up,” said Amie Rapaport, a University of Southern California researcher who has analyzed students’ access to intensive tutoring. “So why isn’t it reaching them?”

    The Indianapolis school district last year launched two tutoring programs that connect students with certified teachers over video. One is available to all students after school, while the other is offered during the day at certain low-performing schools.

    District officials say a trial run boosted student test scores. Parents give it high marks.

    “The progress that he made in just a couple months last semester working with his tutor was kind of far beyond what he was grasping and doing at school,” said Jessica Blalack, whose 7-year-old, Phoenix, opted in to after-school tutoring.

    Still, the two programs combined served only about 3,200 students last fall, or roughly 17% of students in district-run schools. Two additional tutoring programs operate at a handful of schools.

    Only 35% of the students who registered for after-school tutoring last fall attended more than one session, according to district data.

    Indianapolis Public Schools spokesperson Marc Ransford said the district is working to improve attendance and hopes to enroll more students in tutoring next school year. It’s also trying to accelerate student learning in other ways, including with a new curriculum and summer school.

    Nationwide, schools report that about 10% of students are receiving “high-dosage” tutoring multiple days a week, according to a federal survey from December. The real number could be even lower: Just 2% of U.S. households say their children are getting that kind of intensive tutoring, according to the USC analysis of a different nationally representative survey.

    Schools trying to ramp up tutoring have run into roadblocks, including staffing and scheduling. Experts say tutoring is most effective when provided three times a week for at least 30 minutes during school hours. Offering after-school or weekend tutoring is simpler, but turnout is often low.

    Harrison Tran, a 10th grader in Savannah, Georgia, struggled to make sense of algebra during remote learning. Last year, his high school offered after-school help. But that wasn’t feasible for Harrison, who lives 30 minutes from school and couldn’t afford to miss his ride home.

    Without tutoring help, he started this school year with gaps in his learning.

    “When I got into my Algebra II class, I was entirely lost,” he said.

    Relatively low family interest has been another challenge. Though test scores plunged during the pandemic, many parents do not believe their children experienced learning loss, or simply are unaware. The disconnect makes it more important to offer tutoring during school, experts say.

    “Parents just aren’t as concerned as we need them to be,” said USC education professor Morgan Polikoff, “if we’re going to have to rely on parents opting their kids into interventions.”

    Even when students want help, some have been let down.

    In Maryland’s Montgomery County, 12th grader Talia Bradley recently sought calculus help from a virtual tutoring company hired by the district. But the problem she was struggling with also stumped the tutor. After an hour trying to sort it out, Talia walked away frustrated.

    “My daughter was no farther along,” said Leah Bradley, her mother. “Having an option for online tutoring makes sense, but it can’t be the primary option if you’re looking for good results.”

    Repeated in-person tutoring tends to be more effective than on-demand online help, but it’s also harder to manage. District rules add complexity, with safeguards like tutor background checks and vendor bidding rules slowing the process.

    In Wake County, North Carolina, the school district began planning a reading tutoring program last summer. The program did not launch until November, and district officials last month said volunteers are tutoring fewer than 140 students — far fewer than the 1,000 students the program was designed to reach.

    “We’re always looking to serve more students,” said Amy Mattingly, director of K-12 programs at Helps Education Fund, the nonprofit managing that program and another serving about 400 students. But, she added, it’s important to “see what’s working and make tweaks before trying to scale up.”

    Some districts defended their participation numbers, saying tutoring is most effective when targeted.

    In Georgia’s Fulton County, 3% of the district’s 90,000 students participated in tutoring programs this fall. Most of the tutoring was offered by paraprofessionals during the school day, with one hired to give intense support in each elementary school.

    The district says time and staffing limit how many students can get frequent, intensive tutoring.

    “We don’t want to water it down, because then you don’t get the impact that the research says is beneficial for kids,” said Cliff Jones, chief academic officer for the system.

    Others worry too few are getting the help they need even as programs continue to grow.

    This school year, about 3,500 students are getting reading tutoring from the North Carolina Education Corps. Meanwhile, in fourth grade alone, more than 41,000 students statewide scored in the bottom level on a national reading test last year.

    “Who we are serving,” said Laura Bilbro-Berry, the program’s senior director, “is just a drop in the bucket.”

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Black history class revised by College Board amid criticism

    Black history class revised by College Board amid criticism

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    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — High school senior Kahlila Bandele is used to courses that don’t address the African American experience. Then there’s her 9 a.m. class. This week, it spanned topics from Afro-Caribbean migration to jazz.

    The discussion in her Advanced Placement course on African American studies touched on figures from Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X to Jimi Hendrix and Rihanna. In her AP European History course, she said, “we’re not discussing Black people at all” — even though they were colonized by Europeans.

    Her school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is one of 60 schools around the country testing the new course, which has gained national attention since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened to ban it in his state. The rejection has stirred new political debate over how schools teach about race.

    The official curriculum for the course, released Wednesday by the College Board, downplays some components that had drawn criticism from DeSantis and other conservatives. Topics including Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations and queer life are not part of the exam. Instead, they are included only on a sample list states and school systems can choose from for student projects.

    The College Board, which oversees AP exams, said revisions to the course were substantially complete before DeSantis shared his objections.

    “The fact of the matter is that this landmark course has been shaped over years by the most eminent scholars in the field, not political influence,” the organization said in a written statement.

    The revised curriculum will guide the course’s expansion to hundreds of additional high schools in the next academic year. College Board officials said developers consulted with professors from more than 200 colleges, including several historically Black institutions, and took input from teachers piloting the class.

    The students at Baton Rouge Magnet High School were aware of the political controversy over the course. But the class on Monday was filled with discussion of the Négritude and Negrismo movements that celebrated Black culture and a painting by the Afro-Asian-Latino artist Wifredo Lam.

    Afterward, Bandele, 18, said she doesn’t understand arguments that the course would indoctrinate children.

    “I don’t feel particularly indoctrinated,” she said.

    DeSantis, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024, said he was blocking the course in Florida because it pushed a political agenda.

    “In the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent, but they require teaching Black history, all the important things. That’s part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis said at a news conference last week. “We want education and not indoctrination.”

    A spokesperson for DeSantis on Wednesday said the state education department is reviewing the revised curriculum for compliance with Florida law.

    Despite the College Board’s assurances otherwise, the notion that the course changed because of political controversy generated fresh outrage Wednesday. “To wake up on the first day of Black History Month to news of white men in positions of privilege horse trading essential and inextricably linked parts of Black History, which is American history, is infuriating,” said David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition.

    The course has been popular among students in schools where it has been introduced. In Baton Rouge, so many students were interested that Emmitt Glynn is teaching it to two classes, instead of just the one he was originally planning.

    Earlier this week, his students read selections of “The Wretched of the Earth” by Frantz Fanon, which deals with the violence inherent in colonial societies. In a lively discussion, students connected the text to what they had learned about the conflict between colonizers and Native Americans, to the war in Ukraine and to police violence in Memphis, Tennessee.

    “We’ve been covering the gamut from the shores of Africa to where we are now in the 1930s, and we will continue on through history,” Glynn said. He said he was proud to see the connections his students were making between the past and now.

    For Malina Ouyang, 17, taking the class helped fill gaps in what she has been taught. “Taking this class,” she said, “I realized how much is not said in other classes.”

    Matthew Evans, 16, said the class has educated him on a multitude of perspectives on Black history. He said the political controversy is just “a distraction.”

    “Any time you want to try to silence something, you will only make someone want to learn about it even more,” he said.

    The College Board offers AP courses across the academic spectrum, including math, science, social studies, foreign languages and fine arts. The courses are optional. Taught at a college level, students who score high enough on the final exam usually earn course credit at their university.

    In Malcolm Reed’s classroom at St. Amant High School in Louisiana, where he teaches the AP class, he tries to be mindful of how the material and discussions can affect students.

    “I give them the information and I’ve seen light bulbs go off. I ask them, ‘How does it affect you? How do you feel about learning this?’ ” he said. “It’s also new for me, and I’m just taking it in stride. We’re not just learning history, but we’re making history.”

    ___

    Mumphrey reported from Phoenix. AP journalist Stephen Smith contributed to this report.

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Former Fed chair Bernanke shares Nobel for research on banks

    Former Fed chair Bernanke shares Nobel for research on banks

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    STOCKHOLM — Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, who put his academic expertise on the Great Depression to work reviving the American economy after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, won the Nobel Prize in economic sciences along with two other U.S.-based economists for their research into the fallout from bank failures.

    Bernanke was recognized Monday along with Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig. The Nobel panel at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said the trio’s research had shown “why avoiding bank collapses is vital.”

    With their findings in the early 1980s, the laureates laid the foundations for regulating financial markets and dealing with financial crises, the panel said.

    Bernanke, 68, now with the Brookings Institution in Washington, examined the Great Depression of the 1930s, showing the danger of bank runs — when panicked savers withdraw their deposits.

    Diamond, 68, based at the University of Chicago, and Dybvig, 67, who is at Washington University in St. Louis, showed how government guarantees on deposits can prevent a spiraling of financial crises.

    “The laureates’ insights have improved our ability to avoid both serious crises and expensive bailouts,” said Tore Ellingsen, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences.

    Their research took on great real-world significance when investors sent the financial system into a panic during fall 2008.

    Bernanke, then head of the Fed, teamed up with the U.S. Treasury Department to prop up major banks and ease a shortage of credit, the lifeblood of the economy.

    He slashed short-term interest rates to zero, directed the Fed’s purchases of Treasury and mortgage investments and set up unprecedented lending programs. Collectively, those steps calmed investors and fortified big banks.

    They also pushed long-term interest rates to historic lows and led to fierce criticism of Bernanke, particularly from some 2012 Republican presidential candidates, that the Fed was hurting the value of the dollar and running the risk of igniting inflation later.

    The Fed’s actions under Bernanke extended the authority of the central bank into unprecedented territory. They weren’t able to prevent the longest and most painful recession since the 1930s. But in hindsight, the Fed’s moves were credited with rescuing the banking system and avoiding another depression.

    And Bernanke’s Fed established a precedent for the central bank to respond with speed and force to economic shocks.

    When COVID-19 slammed the U.S. economy in early 2020, the Fed, under Chair Jerome Powell, quickly cut short-term interest rates back to zero and pumped money into the financial system. The aggressive intervention — along with massive government spending — quickly ended the downturn and triggered a powerful economic recovery.

    But the quick comeback also came at a cost: Inflation began rising rapidly last year and now is close to 40-year highs, forcing the Fed to reverse course and raise rates to cool the economy. Central banks around the world also are taking the steps as inflation erodes consumers’ spending power.

    Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on Dec. 10.

    Unlike the other prizes, the economics award wasn’t established in Alfred Nobel’s will of 1895 but by the Swedish central bank in his memory. The first winner was selected in 1969.

    Last year, half of the award went to David Card for his research on how the minimum wage, immigration and education affect the labor market. The other half was shared by Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for proposing how to study issues that don’t easily fit traditional scientific methods.

    A week of Nobel Prize announcements kicked off Oct. 3 with Swedish scientist Svante Paabo receiving the award in medicine for unlocking secrets of Neanderthal DNA that provided key insights into our immune system.

    Three scientists jointly won the prize in physics Tuesday. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger had shown that tiny particles can retain a connection with each other even when separated, a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, that can be used for specialized computing and to encrypt information.

    The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to Americans Carolyn R. Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless, and Danish scientist Morten Meldal for developing a way of “snapping molecules together” that can be used to explore cells, map DNA and design drugs that can target diseases such as cancer more precisely.

    French author Annie Ernaux won this year’s Nobel Prize in literature Thursday. The panel commended her for blending fiction and autobiography in books that fearlessly mine her experiences as a working-class woman to explore life in France since the 1940s.

    The Nobel Peace Prize went to jailed Belarus human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties on Friday.

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    Jordans reported from Berlin and Wiseman from Washington.

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    Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Prizes at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes

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