Latest news with #highschool
The Independent
3 hours ago
- General
- The Independent
California track-and-field championships draw limited protest over trans student's participation
A transgender teen will compete in the California high school track-and-field finals on Saturday, one day after advancing in the competition as a protest plane circled above the meet drew national attention, including criticism from President Donald Trump. AB Hernandez — a trans student who on Friday advanced in the girls high jump, long jump and triple jump — will be in the finals Saturday, competing under a new rule change that may be the first of its kind nationally by a high school sports governing body. The new California Interscholastic Federation announced the new policy earlier this week in response to Hernandez's success. According to the policy, the CIF will let an additional student compete and medal in the events where Hernandez qualified. The two-day championship kicked off in the sweltering heat at high school near Fresno. The atmosphere was relatively quiet Friday despite critics — including parents, conservative activists and President Donald Trump — calling for Hernandez to be barred from girls competition leading up to the meet. There was some pushback Friday. A group of fewer than 10 people gathered outside the stadium ahead of the meet to protest Hernandez's participation. Some of them wore 'Save Girls' Sports' T-shirts. At one point as Hernandez was attempting a high jump, someone in the stands yelled an insult. An aircraft circled above the stadium for more than an hour during the events, carrying a banner that read, 'No Boys in Girls' Sports!' Two groups, the Independent Council on Women's Sports and Women Are Real, that oppose transgender athletes participating in women's sports took credit for flying the banner. Separately, one person was arrested outside the competition on Friday after getting in a confrontation with another protester that turned physical, according to the Clovis Police Department. The rest of the night ran smoothly for Hernandez, who finished the triple jump with a mark close to 41 feet (13 meters), nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters) ahead of her closest competitor, San Francisco Bay Area junior Kira Gant Hatcher. Hernandez also led in the long jump with a mark close to 20 feet (6 meters) to advance to the final. She advanced in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 5 inches (1.7 meters) with ease. She did not address the press. California at center of national debate The CIF rule change reflects efforts to find a middle ground in the debate over trans girls' participation in youth sports. 'The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law,' the group said in a statement after announcing its rule change. A recent AP-NORC poll found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women's sports at the high school, college or professional level. That view was shared by about 9 in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats. The federation announced the rule change after Trump threatened this week to pull federal funding from California unless it bars trans female athletes from competing on girls teams. The CIF said it decided on the change before then. The U.S. Department of Justice also said it would investigate the state federation and the district that includes Hernandez's high school to determine whether they violated federal sex discrimination law by allowing trans girls to compete in girls sports. Some California Republicans also weighed in, with several state lawmakers attending a news conference to criticize the federation for keeping Hernandez in the competition and a Republican gubernatorial candidate planning to attend Saturday's finals. California law allows trans students to compete on sex-segregated sports teams consistent with their gender identity. The federation said the rule would open the field to more 'biological female' athletes. One expert said the change may itself be discriminatory because it creates an extra spot for 'biological female' athletes but not for other trans athletes. The federation did not specify how they define 'biological female' or how they would verify whether a competitor meets that definition. Hernandez told the publication Capital & Main earlier this month that she couldn't worry about critics. 'I'm still a child, you're an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person,' she said. Another student breaks a record California's state championship stands out from that of other states because of the number of competitors athletes are up against to qualify. The state had the second-largest number of students participating in outdoor track and field in the nation during the 2023-2024 school year, behind Texas, according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Olympians Marion Jones and Tara Davis-Woodhall previously set state championship records in the long jump in 1993 and 2017, respectively, both surpassing 22 feet (6.7 meters). The boys 100-meter dash heats were also a highlight Friday. Junior Jaden Jefferson of De La Salle High School in Concord finished in 10.01 seconds, about .2 seconds faster than a meet record set in 2023. Jefferson's time won't count as a record unless he can replicate his results in the final. ___
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
73 Million People Watched This Teen's Churro Explode In Her Dad's Face — Here's What Went Wrong
This week in food news, a teen is making churros for Spanish class. I know what you're thinking: must be a slow news week. I thought so too. Until I watched the video about the classic Mexican crunchy pastry with a "surprise" center — and over 73 million TikTok views (and counting). Meet TikTok user Morgan — the high schooler who just wanted to ace her school project by making homemade churros. As the video's caption stated, it was her first time making the fried dough treat. She sat her father down to try her chocolate-dipped project, stating in American-accented Spanish: "a tiempo probar los churros." Everything was going great… until her dad took the first bite on camera. Cue: the explosion. Morgan let out a startled laugh after her dad's first bite made a sound like a gunshot and bits of churro flew out of his mouth. People's hilarious reactions to the video were probably a small consolation as Morgan and her dad cleaned up the dough shrapnel. One TikTok user commented: "girl, they said assignment, not assassinate." Another commented: "Spanish project or science project?" The comments were FLOODED with more than just reactions — people were trying to figure out what happened: And a few food science-savvy chimed in with their opinions. One user argued: "The churro exploded because steam got trapped inside the dough, and the pressure blew it up when it couldn't escape. Basically, [she] made a mini pastry bomb." And yep — they're right! Churro dough contains egg, which produces steam when fried. Another comment furthered the point: "That's why churros are a star shape with lines on them and not round." If you looked closely, you can see this Spanish project is missing a key feature of most churros: the ridged edges: Turns out those little ridges on the fritters aren't just for show. They increase the dough's surface area, allowing steam to escape, which is critical to preventing what happened to Morgan's dad. Trapped hot steam doesn't just ruin the churro, it can also be dangerous. People in the comments were seriously worried about her dad — if the steam had actually burned him — so they made sure to give us an update video. In an update video, the dad said, "I took a bite and thought my head was going to blow off.... I won't be able to taste anything for at least a year... my lips are burned, but I'm not dead." Morgan laughed in reaction to the exploding churro, which could make you think it was some sort of prank. One commenter suggested foul play, saying, "I'm convinced there's a reason you didn't go first lmao." But the father was just an unfortunate snafu. In the follow-up video, the dad said, "It was a total accident. 100%. We were both in shock... She's a good daughter." People were both wildly entertained by the update on the whole debacle and incredibly relieved. No word yet on whether Morgan's exploding churros earned her a passing grade — but if viral views count, she's got an A+ in the bag! If you're suddenly craving the cinnamon-sugary street food, but don't want to suffer the same fate as Morgan, check out our churro recipes by downloading the free Tasty app and searching "churro." Our "How To Make Perfect Churros Every Time" recipe tutorial is foolproof! Ironically, we even have a "molten churro bomb recipe" — But, if it's Morgan reading this, mayyyybe wait a few weeks before trying out this recipe with your dad.
Washington Post
17 hours ago
- General
- Washington Post
Asking Eric: Husband's ex keeps posting photos of him on social media
Dear Eric: An old high school girlfriend of my husband's (more than 40 years) creates social media posts about him and tags him, including photos of him or of the two of them together. In my husband's defense, he has always responded or reacted appropriately with only a short neutral comment or reaction.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Educating In The AI Era: The Urgent Need To Redesign Schools
In these times of extreme polarization, one area of educational consensus between those on the left and the right is that American schools—particularly high schools—need to be redesigned to meet the age that we are in. The factory model inherited from 100 years ago was not designed to provide the kind of learning demanded by the modern economy or the relationships young people need to feel safe, cared for, and engaged. Education leaders in red and blue states from Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri to California, New York, and Washington are all seeking to develop and implement new graduate profiles, transform high school graduation requirements, develop assessment approaches that measure competencies rather than seat time, and support experiential learning that develops problem-solving, collaboration, and other durable skills. These shifts reflect a growing realization that too many of our schools are not designed to educate the next generation to face the challenges of our time. In the wake of a global pandemic, it has become clear that most schools must be better able to personalize learning and create caring spaces for students to address the effects of trauma, meet their needs, and support their learning. And schools must do more than weather crises of health, safety, and climate crises; we need our young people prepared with the knowledge and skills to face the even greater challenges they will confront in the years to come. One increasingly urgent stimulus is the rapid rise of AI, which is dramatically reshaping the employment landscape and necessitating changes in how we prepare students for future careers. A 2023 study by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that by 2030 up to 30% of hours currently worked across the U.S. economy could be automated, with more routine jobs in food service, manufacturing, office support, and customer service becoming more fully automated, while nonroutine jobs in professions and STEM fields entail entirely new approaches to work. Forrester Research in 2020 projected that AI and automation technologies could eliminate 29% of jobs by 2030 while also creating new jobs for 13% of the workforce. Another summary of recent studies concluded the following: This transformation will demand a workforce with enhanced digital literacy, adaptability, and the ability to work alongside intelligent technologies. Industries that focus on developing and implementing AI solutions are expected to experience growth, creating new job opportunities in areas such as AI development, data analysis, and machine learning. To navigate the evolving job market and safeguard against potential displacement, individuals should prioritize continuous learning and upskilling. Emphasizing education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields and cultivating skills that are uniquely human, such as creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence, can enhance job security. Increasingly, schools must ensure that students develop what the leadership at Google identified as 'learning ability'—the strongest predictor of success in that environment. This includes the ability of students to find, analyze, and use resources to answer questions and design solutions; apply knowledge using judgment; evaluate and improve their own work; and effectively deploy advanced problem-solving skills, literacies, and dispositions. Analysts note that the curriculum will need to emphasize and better integrate these kinds of skills and give much more focused attention to data literacy and technology use. Assessment must similarly evolve to evaluate more complex applications of knowledge to novel situations, rather than multiple choice questions designed to measure the recall of pieces of information. Instruction needs both to incorporate AI and teach how it can be used, and it needs to focus more explicitly on the development of learning ability. In the midst of this rapid change, high schoolers in traditional settings are slogging through a curriculum that was initially defined by a small group of educators appointed by the National Education Association in 1892. The 'Committee of Ten' defined the expectations for taking courses in each subject area—long before interdisciplinary fields, computers, and big data existed—that still define high school in most states today. These subjects are often taught abstractly and in siloes, without connections to real-world concerns. A recent Yale survey of more than 25,000 high school students found that 75% had largely negative feelings about their school experience, with the most frequent adjectives being 'stressed,' 'tired,' and 'bored.' In another nationwide survey, only 29% of middle and high school students reported that they attended school in a caring environment. One of the most telling indicators of student disengagement is the alarmingly high rate of chronic absenteeism in many schools. Meanwhile, 70% of the public believe that more things about the educational system should change than stay the same. This is likely because the structure and function of schools have not evolved much over the past 100 years, even as the needs of students and the knowledge and skills demanded by the economy are dramatically different. Too many of our young people experience the factory model still prevalent in our high schools, which were designed to put young people on a conveyor belt and move them from one overloaded teacher to the next, in 45-minute increments, to be stamped with separate, disconnected lessons 7 or 8 times per day, with a hallway locker as their only stable point of contact. In such schools, students have little opportunity to become well known over a sustained period of time by adults who can consider them as whole people or as developing intellects. Those who need additional resources or personal advice may need to wait weeks to see a counselor with a caseload of 500 students. These huge warehouse institutions typically focus more on the control of behavior than the development of community. While these factory model designs may have worked for the purposes they were asked to serve 100 years ago, they do not meet most of our young people's needs today. There are redesigned high schools that engage and support students, connecting them to the world around them. Networks of schools associated with Big Picture Learning, Linked Learning Alliance, High Tech High, New Tech High, and Internationals Network high schools, among others, operate smaller schools as well as learning academies within big schools that offer engaging and challenging project-based learning that tackles real-world problems. They also feature internships in local workplaces and community organizations, as well as dual credit courses with local universities, while supporting students with advisory systems that ensure they are well known. Unlike century-old schools operating under the industrial model of schooling designed to prepare the majority of students for rote work, these redesigned high schools are developed based on a large and growing body of research from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and other developmental and learning sciences. This contemporary science of learning and development confirms that young people grow and thrive in environments designed to support individualized development and inquiry-based, hands-on learning, where they have strong, supportive relationships, and where their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs are met. Over the past 30 years, thousands of redesigned secondary schools have demonstrated that it is possible to enable much greater levels of success for young people, including those who have been historically left out and pushed out of opportunities to learn. To highlight just one example, take the case of Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in Oakland, CA, which serves 446 students in grades 6–12. In this school, 99% of students are students of color, 96% come from low-income families, and 30% are English learners. Life Academy is one of more than 600 college- and career-ready pathways that have been launched in California through the Linked Learning Alliance. These academies offer college and career preparation in high-demand industries, partnering with business and community organizations. Unlike the old 'voc-ed' tracks designed for students who were not college-bound, these pathways prepare students for both college and career options in an untracked setting where all students get the benefit of a challenging, applied curriculum and work-based learning opportunities. Opened in fall 2001, Life Academy was designed based on research about effective small learning communities and was originally housed within a large comprehensive high school. Most of Oakland's high schools—large and small—now offer Linked Learning academies in different fields, and all of them are also community schools that offer a full suite of health care, social services, and expanded learning opportunities to their students. Life Academy's mission is to create equitable opportunities for students who come from underserved communities in Oakland. Through transformative learning experiences focused on health, medicine, and bioscience, students are engaged in inquiry-based learning and inspired to acquire the skills, knowledge, and habits necessary to succeed in college and careers in the medical field. These skills are developed in part through the school's multiple performance-based exhibitions, in which students present and defend their individual and collaborative projects and research papers to faculty, industry partners, family members, and other students. All students select one of the school's three career pathways—medicine, health, or biotechnology—and take courses and complete an internship aligned with that pathway. To support these internships, the school has developed deep relationships with industry partners, including Oakland Children's Hospital, Youth Bridge programs at Alta Bates and Summit hospitals, and Highland Hospital. Besides the internships, hallmarks of the school include an emphasis on personalization, cross-disciplinary projects and collaborative group work, integration of multiple forms of technology into coursework and work-based learning, public demonstration of mastery, and a college preparatory curriculum, as well as access to dual credit that leads to certifications in health careers. The school had a 91% graduation rate in 2021–22, and 96% of its students had completed the coursework for state university admissions, well above district and state averages. The school has typically placed 100% of its students in 2- or 4-year colleges. It has had the highest acceptance rate at the University of California and California State University of any high school in Oakland, with students going to schools such as UC Berkeley and UCLA, as well as Stanford, University of San Francisco, and Smith College. When asked what high school experiences have contributed to their college readiness, more than 90% of Life Academy students list close relationships with teachers and advisors. More than 90% also list features of their deeper learning experiences, including workplace internships, opportunities to explain their thinking, testing or trying out ideas to see if they work, evaluating themselves on their class work, participating in peer reviews of their work, and having to revise their work until it meets standards of proficiency. These practices are part of a performance-based, mastery-oriented, relationship-supported approach to learning that can create success for all students. To ensure that all students have access to the kinds of powerful learning found at schools like Life Academy, policymakers must redesign the structures that shape U.S. education. This includes shifting accountability systems away from narrow test-based measures toward assessments that reflect real-world performance and deeper learning. States and districts should establish clear graduate profiles that define the skills and competencies students need for success in school, college, and career—and then align curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development to support these outcomes. Resources must be directed toward building small, personalized learning environments where strong relationships, high expectations, and integrated academic and career pathways are the norm, not the exception. At the same time, federal and state policy should create the conditions that enable these needed shifts by investing in the redesign of outdated school models and scaling up evidence-based approaches that support equitable student access and success. This includes funding for evidence-based approaches to redesign, support for college and career pathways, and incentives for partnerships between K–12 schools, higher education, and industry. Most critically, systems must center student voice and well-being in their designs, recognizing that belonging, relevance, and purpose are foundational to learning and to citizenship. The transformation of high schools is not just an educational imperative: It is a civic and economic necessity. In the post-pandemic era, we have seen clearly what does not work for the country's students—and what does. This moment is uniquely positioned for an informed and systemic shift to support the research-based approaches that work in education and the students who need them in our rapidly changing world.
Fast Company
a day ago
- Business
- Fast Company
A third of Gen Z feels ‘pressure' to become social media creators—and most say their schools encourage it
Graduating from high school is a huge rite of passage, but entering the working world, especially in uncertain economic times, can be intimidating. According to a new study, a big chunk of high school graduates say they don't exactly feel prepared for post-school challenges, especially when it comes to a few necessary life skills. And many feel pressured to lean into influencer culture as a way to make ends meet. The national survey, which was commissioned by K12, an accredited online K through 12 school, asked 300 recent high school graduates and 200 parents about how confident they were upon entering the real world. Notably, less than a third (32%) of recent grads said they felt their high school years had equipped them. Teen boys felt less prepared than girls, with 23% rating their 'real world' confidence at 3 or below on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most confident. Meanwhile, 16% of female grads said the same. Questions on where their confidence was lacking highlighted a few areas where recent grads felt most insecure, which, somewhat surprisingly, seemed to be the very rites of passage that young adults once looked forward to: 34% said they didn't feel confident about managing their own money, 27% didn't feel ready to live independently, and 26% cited communicating effectively as a concern—perhaps a display of how online communication has peaked in recent years in lieu of in-person communication. Recent grads' biggest fears echoed those insecurities, with 44% saying that they were worried about becoming financially secure. In addition to a challenging job market and an uncertain economy, those grads largely felt that their high schools didn't equip them with some key life skills—mainly, financial skills. A staggering 62% said they wish they'd learned how to do their taxes, 60% said the same of being taught about credit scores and loans, and 51% also noted that they wished they had learned how to invest. Given many high school grads don't feel quite ready for the real world, it makes sense that most teens said they plan on attending college after graduation: 90% said college is in their future. However, there was another notable trend that grads are likely to lean into after high school: becoming an influencer. More than a third, or 34% said they felt pressure from social media to become content creators or entrepreneurs, which is hardly surprising given just how common the side gig, or even full-time career, has become. But interestingly, it's not just social media that's steering teens toward content creation. According to the report, 56% said their high school actually encouraged students to 'explore alternative career paths.' Those alternatives were things like trades, gig work, and yes, content creation. Given the lives of young adults today are so broadly shaped by social media and influencer culture, the pull to dive into content creation makes perfect sense. Still, teens are rightly worried about whether or not they have the financial literacy to turn influencing into income.
