This article reports how hundreds of fresh recruits, many of them new to K-12 teaching, were filling public school classrooms across New Orleans in Katrina's aftermath. The state-led Recovery School District (RSD), which now operates 34 New Orleans public schools, dramatically increased its teacher workforce for this academic year, having hired…

Many children have struggled to cope with the traumatic experiences brought about by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This article recounts how the authors intervened in the lives of children and families after the storms. (Contains 3 figures.)

"Alabama Education News" is published monthly except for June, July, and December by the Alabama Department of Education. This publication, authorized by Section 16-2-4 of the "Code of Alabama", as recompiled in 1975, is a public service of the Alabama Department of Education designed to inform citizens and educators about…

Earthquakes are low-probability, high-consequence events. Though they may occur only once in the life of a school, they can have devastating, irreversible consequences. Moderate earthquakes can cause serious damage to building contents and non-structural building systems, serious injury to students and staff, and disruption of building operations.…

Shortly after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina became clear, NBC televised "A Concert for Hurricane Relief," a star-studded event watched by more than fourteen million Americans. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the evening had little to do with charity. Hip-hop artist Kanye West went "off-script" during a live segment…

The "right to education" proclaimed by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires access to learning as well as the support systems. Since access can be interrupted by various circumstances, the possibility of providing continuity despite external dangers by using online distance education, offers an intriguing and valuable…

The Earthquake Machine (EML), a mechanical model of stick-slip fault systems, can increase student engagement and facilitate opportunities to participate in the scientific process. This article introduces the EML model and an activity that challenges ninth-grade students' misconceptions about earthquakes. The activity emphasizes the role of models…

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it caused a devastating impact on the Crescent City's public education system. The devastating storm and its aftermath completely wiped out the educational infrastructure of the New Orleans Public Schools, making one of the country's largest metropolitan school districts virtually disappear. Two…

The U.S. Department of Education in early January of 2006 sent out the first installment--more than $250 million--in education aid to states affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, just days after President Bush signed the measure into law. The $1.6 billion relief package has drawn fire from some education groups because it provides aid not just…

Nearly four months after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to their hometown, Jonathan and Shelley Midura are packing up the family's van and heading back from this Washington suburb to New Orleans. They just have to figure out where their three children will go to school. In this article the family shares their thoughts and feelings on changing…

Experts have long suggested that re-establishing routines, particularly school routines, can be therapeutic for children who have experienced upheaval in their home lives. This article briefly describes an 8th grader's experience with this, after losing her home to Hurricane Katrina and having her life moved to suburban Washington.

As students have returned to Alice M. Harte Elementary School, they have found their old school far from the way they left it on the last school day before Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the city. The building may look much the same as it did on August 26, 2006 but half the faces here are new--from principals to teachers to students. The…

As federal aid for students uprooted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita begins making its way to cash-strapped school districts, many educators are worried that the money Congress allocated will fall well short of their costs. Since the hurricanes damaged hundreds of schools in the Gulf Coast region and initially dispersed nearly 375,000 students,…

The greater New Orleans area has yet to fully recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005. One issue of concern in the recovery is the availability of mental health services for children. It is estimated that in 2008 about 187,000 children were living in the greater New Orleans area. Many children in the…

The authors describe their individual and collective experiences reconstructing their New Orleans-based university composition program in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They emphasize how the concept of "floating foundations" helps account for changes in their students' interests, and they suggest that this idea is applicable to the…