Youth athletes increasingly complain about unruly fans, overbearing coaches, and pressures from elite travel teams. In Maine, at least, their concerns have been heard. Superintendents, sports officials, and parents in Maine are rallying behind a major initiative billed as a national model for creating more positive athletic experiences for young…

Slam poetry was born in the Green Mill Tavern, a one-time Chicago speakeasy where Al Capone imbibed, when a construction worker and poet named Marc Smith revolutionized poetry readings with an Uptown Poetry Slam in 1986. Slam borrows heavily from the rhythms and wordplay of rap and hip-hop, as well as the stream of consciousness and metaphysical…

For the past 16 years, the blue-collar city of Huntington, West Virginia, has rolled out the red carpet to welcome young wrestlers and their families as old friends. They have come to town chasing the same dream for a spot in what many of them call "The Show". For three days, under the lights of an arena packed with 5,000 fans, the…

An increasing number of urban districts are scrapping traditional high school grade structures, changing their retention policies, and devising more flexible routes toward graduation to address high dropout rates. Educators in Baltimore, Boston, Houston and Rochester, New York say they are particularly focused on the 9th grade, a year when many…

A growing number of high school athletic programs have taken on the trappings of university-level sports. A trend that greatly affects school athletics and academic performance, and are now becoming more frequent at the high school and even the middle school level. A report released by the National Association of State Boards of Education warns…