Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has already changed the way colleges and universities are teaching students, forcing a move this spring and summer away from in-person classroom learning to remote education. Moving forward, the virus and the unknowns surrounding it have the potential to fundamentally alter the short-term and long-range future of

Millions of American schoolchildren, including tens of thousands in South Dakota, are suffering a loss of learning and reduced exposure to instructional rigor now that schools across the country have closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the best efforts of administrators, teachers and parents to engage in remote learning

The ability to quickly, regularly and accurately test for the deadly coronavirus is a key component of the ability of the medical field and the public to understand the extent of the pandemic, and of government officials’ ability to adequately respond. And yet, the testing for the presence of the

Total enrollment is on a steady decline in the public university system in South Dakota, forcing higher education officials to seek new sources of revenue, realign infrastructure and potentially cut programs or faculty positions. At South Dakota State University in Brookings — the state school with the highest enrollment — an unexpected

Legislation passed in 2017 in South Dakota opened the door to licensing of a new classification of “professional midwives,” who can become certified to perform home births with less training and education than “nurse midwives” who have been regulated in South Dakota for 40 years. While midwives with the new

A push is underway for legislation to allow creation of charter schools that would integrate Indian culture, language and history into a curriculum designed to improve academic achievement among Native American children, who have historically underperformed in South Dakota. Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free schools run independently of traditional

Editor's note: This is the first of three articles that make up Part 2 of a two-week special report in which South Dakota News Watch is examining the failure of the state’s public school system to adequately educate Native American students. Last week, News Watch examined the