AR mumps outbreak, Brigham Young changes assault policy, open data, Penn State, and more: Required Readings, 11.05.16

Four of Arkansas’ largest school districts have reported students having the mumps, part of a larger outbreak being investigated by the state Department of Health with more than 500 suspected cases, with 71% of them children.

As a follow-up to a story we’ve discussed before, Brigham Young University announced last week that students reporting sexual assault would no longer face honor code violations (such as drinking alcohol) that occurred at or near the time of the assault.

Somewhat late for Open Access Week, but nonetheless relevant: Issues of open data and data sharing within the scientific research community

Most of you Required Readers have probably seen the story about the Virginia high school administrators who dressed as the presidential candidates, with one of them in prison garb, and then posted a photo on the school web site. An interesting aside to this story: This semester the Staunton City Schools discontinued a decades-long practice of release time, in which students left the campus during the instructional day to attend religious education programs. All teaching ceased during this time, with students not attending left behind to work on other assignments or hang out in the library, per this archived 2005 piece on the practice by CNN. My personal favorite quote from the story (other than the student’s surprise that Jesus was Jewish, since he was a good person): “Hinton acknowledged that the struggle to keep the Bible classes might be partly based on a desire to cling to tradition in the face of a changing community.” That describes a whole hell of a lot these days, doesn’t it?

Speaking of changing cultures, I ran across this video that addresses issues of culture and information literacy, as they relate to sources of information.

The U.S. Department of Education has fined Penn State $2.4 million for violations of the Clery Act, which mandates the reporting of crimes on college campuses. Many of the specific instances relate to the case of Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach who sexually assaulted several children over more than a decade.

Thinking about something interesting happening in education? Got news that every skeptic should be reading? Share your Required Readings with SoD via our contact form.