U-Wire DC Bureau

Teach For America member shares story

by Marcus MrowkaBureau Chief

Posted 11:44pm May 9 "There are times when you feel that the class is in charge of you and you just want to run, other days you sit back and say, 'Wow, I did something great'," says Casey Fullerton, a fourth grade teacher at Simon Elementary School in Washington, D.C. Simon Elementary School is located in Southeast Washington, an area that is far removed from the white marbled buildings that make up the federal government and the ornate monuments that christen the mall area. Students who pass through the walls of Simon will end up at Ballou High School, a school in the news this past year because of a major shooting and other violence. Casey says Simon is rough, but not dangerous.

No Child Left Behind downsizes curriculum extras

by Nell McGarity

Posted 1:15pm May 3 Curriculums that do not fall under the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind stand as the next victims to be cut in an effort to fund the program, which emphasizes increasing learning achievement and equity through testing children on reading and math. The program, which has been one of the main points of President Bush's domestic agenda, seeks to eliminate the disparity of learning achievement of students of varying backgrounds. The program emphasizes basic math and reading comprehension and skills, and is not completely funded under Title I, which it is a component of.

Woodward book says Bush intent on going to war

by Aaron Huertas

Posted April 24 8:05pm Washington Post writer Bob Woodward is no stranger to Presidential politics. Along with fellow Post writer Carl Bernstein, he helped break the Watergate story that eventually led to Richard Nixon's resignation. With such a start in the world of Presidential reporting, it's almost surprising that he has been allowed unprecedented access into several administrations. Woodward's latest book, "Plan of Attack," chronicles the buildup to the war in Iraq. The book is a product of interviews with 75 people and reviews of documents surrounding the decision to go to Iraq. The Washington Post has been running excerpts from the book for the past several days. Overall, Woodward says he feels President Bush is absolutely convinced that going into Iraq was the right thing to do. Woodward says Bush asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to draft plans for a war in Iraq on Nov. 21, 2001. While Bush went to the United Nations to try to get the rest of the world on board, Rumsfeld was meeting with generals and commanders to get a handle on the operations.

March for Womens Lives draws record numbers

Posted 11am April 29 The March for Women's Lives drew more than a million people from all over the nation on April 25 according to organizers who marked it as the largest march in U.S. history. Organizers stressed the importance of voting, hoping to translate the strength in numbers before them into votes in the upcoming election. "If all we do is march today that will not change the direction this country is heading under this administration," said Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., one of the guest speakers. The last large abortion rights march on Washington gathered on April 1992, shortly before Bill Clinton, a pro-choice president, was elected. Sunday's march began around noon and by 3:30 p.m. the long stream of people was still winding along Pennsylvania Avenue and emptying into the Mall.

Organization introduces innovative education for D.C. adults

by Vanessa Maltin

Posted 11:59pm Mustafaa Madyun works for kids, but he does it through working with adults. He works with coaches, teachers, community leaders and anyone else who interacts with children to help them better understand the youth of tomorrow and lead them to develop into productive members of society. Beginning in the fall of 1999, the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work began offering the Advancing Youth Development courses to D.C. youth workers called DC BEST (Build Exemplary Systems for Training), based on a curriculum developed by the Academy for Educational Development. Different from most mentorship programs that support childhood growth, DC BEST works to educate adults on how to better interact with youth in the workplace -- by teaching adults to better identify what a child needs to advance his or her own development.