Education News from NY Times

This is our final post in this feature for the school year. If you’ve used it with your classes, write in and let us know!    

What has the Smithsonian Institution recently acquired for the National Museum of African-American History and Culture?    

What role does nostalgia play in your life?    

Can you calculate the year in which a certain two broods of cicadas will both hatch in the United States?    

See what you know about the news of the day.    

This word has appeared in 116 New York Times articles in the past year.    

An officer’s decision to enter a home in Uniondale, N.Y., and open fire, killing a gunman and a student being held hostage, may have eliminated the opportunity to negotiate with the gunman, some experts said.    

Parents and testing skeptics say that field-test results, which have no consequences for students or teachers, turn classrooms into focus groups and add more stress to an anxiety-filled process.    

Concern among international students and their parents about U.S. campus safety long predates the Boston Marathon bombings. Still, American schools seem to be more popular than ever.    

A 21-year-old student who was killed in a home invasion on Friday was mistakenly shot in the head by an officer firing at an armed suspect holding her hostage, the police said.    

Dennis M. Walcott suggested on Saturday that the school system was at risk of falling into disarray in the hands of a new mayor.    

Dennis M. Walcott, in a speech to administrators, will defend Michael R. Bloomberg’s record on issues like charter schools against harsh campaign criticism from Democrats.    

Young writers show an appetite for risk in college application essays about money, class and the economy, submitted at a columnist’s invitation.    

The announcement by the basketball star Brittney Griner that she is a lesbian has altered an awkward relationship between Baylor University and its gay students.    

I, for one, do not believe that a roommate profile is the proper place to demonstrate one’s self-restraint. Or it could be that my profile is utterly repugnant … I am wearing Minnie Mouse ears in the photo.    

The students in the New Jersey humanities classes with whom we collaborate for this feature start each day reading and writing about The Times. To date, they have written more than 120 essays each based on Times articles and have, their teachers say, shown “astounding gains.”    

What are some of the scandals and failures that are weighing down on Mr. Obama’s second term, according to the article?    

What would it look like on the outside? How would you decorate it?    

Where does the colon in these sentences belong?    

See what you know about the news of the day.