Education

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

Those who want to raise standards on student achievement tests have suffered an embarrassing setback in Florida. The state made its writing exam harder and results plummeted. So the state is backtracking. It's now lowering its passing score and admitting something went wrong.

Sarah Gonzalez of member station WLRN has that story.

SARAH GONZALEZ, BYLINE: About a dozen Florida school superintendents were at a conference in Orlando this week when the results of the state's new writing scores came in. The mood...

With the economic troubles of the past few years, it's no surprise that the number of people using food stamps is soaring. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that an average of 44 million people were on food assistance last year; that's up from 17 million in 2000.

What might be surprising, though, is one subgroup that's taken a particularly hard hit.

The number of people with graduate degrees — master's degrees and doctorates — who have had to apply for food stamps, unemployment or other assistance more than tripled between 2007 and 2010, according to a report in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Middle age is prime time for saving money. From your late 40s through early 60s, you're supposed to squirrel away cash to cope with health care costs in your old age.

But for millions of Americans, middle age also is the time when children are seeking help with higher-education bills, and elderly parents may be needing assistance with daily care.

Scott and Kelley Hawkins, both 46, are in that middle position. As they brace for paying rising college expenses for two daughters in school at once, they know they will have many tough financial decisions to make. "A lot of extra stuff we used to have money for, we don't have the money for" now that the hefty-tuition years are looming, Scott Hawkins said.

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. The age of eight or nine, when kids complete third grade, represents a key turning point. Up until then, children are learning to read. Afterwards, they read to learn. Many educators believe that kids who can't read should be held back, and several states use standardized tests. Kids who don't pass are automatically held back, or retained.

Critics say such a policy is counterproductive and mean-spirited. Both sides cite statistics in support. But in most places, these decisions are not automatic, and in the coming weeks, teachers and parents will face the tough decision to hold back kids who struggle with reading or not.

Philadelphia's school district plans to close a quarter of its school buildings in coming years to eliminate a huge budget hole. But parents and activists don't trust the decision-makers. Many of them suspect the plan is a ruse to force charter schools and privatization on the district.

School nurse Sherry Medrano has more than Band-Aids stored in her cabinets. She has an armory of birth control options: condoms, the pill, the patch, the ring and emergency contraception.

The teen pregnancy rate in the United States is the lowest it's been in nearly 40 years. However, in some communities, the number of young girls getting pregnant remains stubbornly high.

Planned Parenthood On Campus

Medrano is the chief nurse at Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles' predominantly Latino Boyle Heights neighborhood. The campus is in what health officials call a pregnancy "hot spot," where teen pregnancy rates are two to three times higher than in other L.A. neighborhoods.

A study indicates just half of college graduates, from 2009 to 2011, are finding work within a year. In the meantime, most grads have student loans to replay. Tim Maurer, a financial adviser in Hunt Valley, Md., talks to David Greene about the high cost of getting a college degree.

Most of the estimated 1.5 million people graduating from a four-year college this spring will soon be looking for a job.

If the experiences of other recent college grads are any guide, many will be disappointed.

A new Rutgers University survey of those who graduated from college between 2006 and 2011 finds that just half of those grads are working full time.

Settling For Part Time

"I thought I wasn't going to get a job," says Caitlin LaCour, who entered Columbia College Chicago the year the most recent recession began. By the time she graduated in 2011, she says, "I was happy to have one part-time job."

It sounds like a typical American success story: A young boy becomes an academic standout, an Eagle Scout and high school valedictorian. Later, he attends college and then law school, all on full scholarships.

But Jose Godinez-Samperio's story is not typical. He's an undocumented immigrant from Mexico — and now he's fighting to be admitted to the Florida bar.

Godinez-Samperio was just 9 years old when he came to the U.S. with his parents. They entered the country legally, but overstayed their visas and settled in the Tampa area.

They didn't have legal papers, but Godinez-Samperio says his parents soon found work and he started going to school.

Clarise McCants and Patrick Johnson, both undergraduates at Howard University, are running late — they're on their way to join students from California and Ohio who've come to Capitol Hill to deliver a message to Congress: Don't let the interest rate on federal Stafford loans double in July.

The U.S. Senate took up the issue with competing proposals Tuesday. The Democratic proposal, which would have frozen interest rates at 3.4 percent, was blocked by a 52-45 vote.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans want to be blamed for a higher rate, but lawmakers can't agree on how to pay for keeping the rate from rising for future borrowers. Now, the political stalemate has mobilized students like Johnson, who says the rate hike would be devastating.