What's New

scores of teachers leave classroom

SEABROOK, MD. - About 70,000 of America's public school teachers will not return to work after summer vacation. In addition, about one-third of the country's 2.7 million teachers have been on the job at least 20 years and are close to qualifying for retirement. The US Department of Education predicts that during the next decade nearly 1 million teachers will retire and about 2.2 million teachers will be needed to replace baby-boom teachers. The average US teacher has 16 years experience, five years more than in 1978, but new hires are not staying as long. School districts in California, Florida, Nevada, and Texas are among those facing teacher shortages.

Shopping for an education? Try the mall

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The nation's first public high school within a shopping mall is scheduled to open here in September. The Providence Place Academy will combine practical job training with high school education. The curriculum calls for 11th-graders to have unpaid internships that focus on all aspects of the retail industry, from store management to security. The mall school, surrounded by a 16-screen cinema and 150 restaurants and stores, will have 25 students each in Grades 9 through 11. The program will expand to 12th grade in September 2000.

'Click here' for your college degree

BOSTON - Harcourt General Inc., a textbook-publishing company, is launching an online university that it hopes to open by fall 2000. All communication with professors and fellow students will be over the Web and by e-mail. Associate's, bachelor's, master's, and perhaps even some doctoral degrees will be offered. Harcourt is targeting older, nontraditional students who will attend college for the first time or need training in a new field.

Teachers Interested in writing for us?

We are always on the look out for 600-word columns written by kindergarten teachers on up to college professors. To submit a "Class Act" column, e-mail Amelia Newcomb at: newcomba@csps.com or write to The Christian Science Monitor, One Norway Street, Boston, MA, 02115.