Exam

The True/False Film Fest wrapped up last week, bringing filmgoers from around the world to celebrate the year’s newest documentaries. The festival, which is in its 12th year, brings the intimate and harsh truths of storytelling to life. Although the festival mainly focuses on the films and their directors, local high school students were given the opportunity to dive into one of Columbia's richest traditions. KBIA's Marissanne Lewis-Thompson spoke with the festivals education director Polina Malikin about the importance of the film festival for students. 

Newly hired University of Missouri Provost Garnett Stokes comes to her new position with many plans to improve the university’s academic programs.  Stokes led as provost and executive vice president at Florida State University and handled many situations involving Title IX regulations, teacher salaries, and research achievement.  As KBIA’s Andy Humphrey tells us, Stokes believes that she can use her prior experience to help solve various issues at MU.

Nine high school students from Columbia, Jefferson City, Boonville and Osage Beach competed in this year’s central Missouri regional Poetry Out Loud competition at the Daniel Boone Regional Library last week.

Hickman High School student Shakira Cross recited the poem “Grief” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning as she gestures freely with her hands and arms.

   Nine high school students from Columbia, Jefferson City, Boonville and Osage Beach competed in this year’s central missouri regional Poetry Out Loud competition at the Daniel Boone Regional Library last week. KBIA’s Hope Kirwan talked with the students, their teachers and parents about why this competition is about more than just reciting verse.

In October, University of Missouri Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin sent out a mass email to students, faculty and staff explaining faculty and staff are mandatory reporters of any form of discrimination under new Title IX policies.

For many of these new mandatory reporters, their new responsibilities have caused some confusion and concern. An online training program was launched a few months after the initial announcement to try to help clear the air. But, the training has caused its own confusion and headaches as well.

For the past ten years, Columbia Public Schools has continued to see an increase in total enrollment, adding about 150 students every year. Despite this growth, the school district has tried to maintain the same class size, turning to trailers to add more classrooms. KBIA’s Kyle Norris tells us how the school district hopes to move away from this temporary fix by creating a more permanent space for growing classes.

  By the year 2021, every student in the Columbia Public Schools (CPS) district from fifth grade on will have a personal electronic device.

“This year we started one to one in all of our fifth grade classes with iPad minis. So, our fifth grade kids and students are learning to kind of digitize their curriculum and next year they will be sixth graders, and so we’ll give another group of fifth graders iPads and it’ll continue on their way up,” CPS Coordinator of Instructional Technology Julie Nichols said.

  We conclude our three part series called A Teachable Moment, which looks at how events in Ferguson are being talked about in St. Louis-area classrooms and schools. Later on in the show, we’ll hear how small grants awarded to teachers in Columbia Public Schools can make a big difference in the classroom.

This week, we continue our series called A Teachable Moment, which looks at how issues related to Ferguson are being discussed in area classrooms. Later on in the show, we’ll hear how Missouri’s Common Core rewrite may not produce education standards that are very different from the current standards.

  Since September, parents, educators and business leaders have been working to try to rewrite the Common Core standards. Missouri first adopted Common Core in 2010 and is one of 45 states using the national standards for grades K-12.

So far, the committees in charge of rewriting Common Core have had meetings full of heated arguments and lots of confusion as they try to prepare a recommendation for the Board of Education by October 2015.

I spoke with Dr. Barbara Reys, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum at MU, about why these committees may not be able to make the best decisions about education in Missouri.

  It’s harvest time in Mid-Missouri and students at some Columbia Public Schools are getting the opportunity to learn about the science behind their favorite foods. These new lessons are thanks to a partnership with the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture.

  Title IX and the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses have been national concerns over the past year. We'll take a look at what inspired lawmakers and school administrators take action against sexual assault on campus and hear how their efforts may not be what's best for students.

Scott Dalrymple began serving as the president of Columbia College last May. KBIA’s Liying Qian caught up with Dalrymple after a presentation he gave last month, to discuss his first few months as president.

  Since his arrival at the University of Missouri last February, Chancellor Bowen Loftin has inspired several changes. He recently announced a voluntary separation program that could serve as an incentive for retirement for tenured faculty members. KBIA’s Ashley Reese talked with several MU professors about why this program might encourage some of the university’s best professors to leave.

Morgan County R-2 School District has finalized plans for a new auditorium that will double as a safe room for tornadoes. KBIA’s Marissanne Lewis-Thompson tells us the district will use a grant from the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to help finance the project.

Foreign languages classes are highly encouraged for high school students in Missouri, and many colleges require them for admission. French, German, Spanish, Latin, Japanese and Chinese are all offered to students at Columbia Public Schools. KBIA’s Heather Adams explores how students pick the language they're going to learn.

The University of Missouri System Board of Curators held a press conference Friday aftern­oon to discuss a report investigating MU's handling of the Sasha Menu Courey case. 

The Minority Achievement Committee, or MAC Scholars, is a national program that supports academic achievement and community involvement for minority students. The nine programs in the Columbia Public School District encourage students to look to positive role models, whether they're in the community or another continent. KBIA’s Hope Kirwan caught up with the scholars at Lange Middle School at their recent tribute to Nelson Mandela, the former South African President and activist.

We often think of the business world as a world that belongs to adults—adults in suits moving money with the shake of a hand and the dash of a signature on a contract. But this week, we're taking a look at some unexpected ways kids are becoming entrepreneurs.

First, KBIA's Hope Kirwan takes us to a classroom in Jefferson City for a new kind of parent-teacher conference—these are led by the students. The classic parent-teacher conference is a good way to evaluate a student’s progress, but 4th graders at Jefferson City’s South Elementary get to take the lead and tell their parents what they've learned.

Documentary film has been very prominent in Columbia in the past few weeks. The 11th True/False Film Festival ended Sunday, and a new documentary film program was recently added to the Missouri School of Journalism. This edition focuses on documentary film and its presence in education and students’ lives.

Former University of Missouri football player Michael Sam came out as gay earlier this month. He came out to his teammates last August—that season, he also became the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and helped lead the Tigers to a 12-2 record. Now, Sam could be the first openly gay player in the NFL.