Our lead item in this week’s roundup is the story that made front pages across the country. Students from campuses throughout the U.S., including an untold number from Orange County, participated in Wednesday’s national school walkout to protest gun violence and support safer schools.
Local demonstrations did not result in any arrests or injuries, according to this Orange County Register report, which noted that districts strongly encouraged students to remain on campus. Many schools and districts also sent notices to parents and boosted security in advance of the planned walkouts.
Also on Wednesday, members of Santa Ana High School’s speech and debate team took part in a Skype video discussion to talk about potential solutions to gun violence with their counterparts from Nova High in Broward County, Florida.
And here are some of the other education news stories from the week ending March 16:
- Showcasing original websites, papers, documentaries, performances and exhibits, more than 450 young historians took part in the National History Day-Orange County competition this past weekend, and the OCDE Newsroom posted a slideshow of photos.
- Orange County Superintendent Al Mijares outlined the county’s efforts to promote safer schools in an op-ed for the Orange County Register.
- A new website created by OC STEM in partnership with OCDE lets users quickly browse the science, technology, engineering and math courses offered at K-12 schools throughout the county.
- Columbus Tustin Middle School students hosted a climate change summit featuring research and visual displays after spending the first part of their school year studying the impact of humans on the environment.
- Hundreds of Irvine Unified middle schoolers competed in the 15th annual Hoops Classic Basketball Tournament, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit Irvine Public School Foundation.
- The Ed-Data website now allows users to view to multi-year trends that show how different student groups are performing on the state’s standards-aligned Smarter Balanced assessments.
- The Daily Pilot posted pictures from the Destination Imagination tournament that tested students’ creativity and problem-solving skills at Thurston Middle School in Laguna Beach.
- A groundbreaking ceremony marked construction on a new $13.5 million gym at Sonora High School that will seat 1,400 and could be used to accommodate other events within the Fullerton Joint Union High School District.
- McPherson Magnet School students were encouraged to explore their personal interests for their science fair projects, some of which incorporated slime, gummy worms or M&Ms.
- Middle and high school students from Tustin will have their artwork displayed next week during the Student Art Invitational sponsored by the Tustin Area Council for Fine Arts. The Orange County Register reached out to several of the young artists and asked them to comment on their creations.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates or following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.