The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "inner city schools" ...
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Toxic Neighbors
Industrial plants with toxic chemicals were located blocks from homes, apartment complexes and schools. Some were found across the street from residences. The staff mapped where hazardous material sites were located in relation to densely-populated areas.
Tags: housing; toxins; poison; factory; zoning; subdivision; inner city; EPA; health; chlorine;
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The F-School Bomb
"F-School Bomb" tells the story of English teacher Erika Selig's attempts to address a serious lack of discipline at Allapattah Middle School where she taught. Through Selig's eyes, readers were able to get a first-hand look into the daunting problems facing children, teachers and administrators inside a title 1 school. From racially charged fights between Hispanic and black students to the pressures of teaching students to pass Florida's standardized tests, Allapattah Middle School exemplified everything that is wrong with inner-city failing schools.
Tags: inner-city schools; education; standardized tests; race; public schools; juvenile delinquents; teaching
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Broken Promises
Tax-exempt deals that provided $7 billion in bonds for low-income housing or inner-city schools turned out to be another way for banks and advisers to make money. Bloomberg investigates situations such as a deal in which JPMorgan Chase and Co. and American International Group "pocketed fees, along with their advisers, totaling $12 million." AIG and CDR of Beverly Hills actually had a deal "in which the financial firms made more money and faced less risk if none of the $220 million in bond funds was used by the public. None of it was." There were 70 other such deals across the country in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. The investigation also includes similar situations of schools being neglected while insurance companies, banks and advisers profit.
Tags: school bonds; Wall Street; JPMorgan Chase and Co.; American International Group; Bank of America; housing bonds
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Lessons in Waste
This investigation took a hard look at New Jersey's early education program. The authors found that the state-subsidized program for inner-city preschoolers was rife with abuse and fraud. Millions of state dollars earmarked for the program was intercepted by preschool owners who spent the money on luxuries for themselves instead of resources for the children.
Tags: education; public records; school; preschool; state government
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Washington Park School
The I-Team investigated Cincinnati School Board decisions related to the relocation of one inner city public school. The story provides insight into how CPS is managing a billion dollars of new school construction. It revealed problems of student safety, economics, Board incompetence and conflicts of interest. The school board deviated from standard property appraisal procedures, overpaid for the school, located it in Cincinnati's most dangerous area and could have renovated a nearby school for far less money.
Tags: school board; school construction; inner city schools; conflicts of interest; student safety
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"Paterson school buildings: Playing with fire"
The Paterson Public Schools, a state-operated, inner city school district in Northern New Jersey, opened five schools illegally in September 2002. The buildings had faulty fire alarms, missing fire escapes and other safety hazards. For these reasons, they had failed safety inspections. The investigation led to the firing of the head of the district's facilities department and a complete restructuring of the department.
Tags: safety; schools; fire alarm; Paterson; safety inspections
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Degrees of Deceit; An 'A' in Fraud
LA Weekly reports on how an inner-city L.A. high school, Manual Arts, masked its dropout rate by keeping "ghost" students on its enrollment list. The fraud gave the school "a breather from chronic overcrowding" and allowed it to keep its funding. The problem is that the state of California "does not conform to widely accepted standards for counting dropouts honestly and accurately."
Tags: graduation rates; schools; students; ineligible graduates; grade tampering
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The College Connection
Education Week reports on how minority students have taken advantage of their high-schools' partnerships with colleges. A two-story package reveals that the ties between colleges and K-12 schools bring positive influence in the lives of students most of whom are at the same time facing family and economic problems. Most students in these high-schools aspire to get college education, after they graduate. The report features two specific examples of such successful partnerships - between Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem and Ithaca College in upstate New York, and between Syracuse University and High School for Leadership and Public Service in the so-called Spanish Harlem in Manhattan.
Tags: secondary; postsecondary institutions; universities; college-application process; academy; inner-city students; poverty; minorities; low income; teaching; learning
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Defining Adequacy Up
The Nation looks at new court decisions that define public school standards, so as to guard the principles of equity and adequacy. The report reveals that, according to the judges' voluminous opinions, "failing public schools violate state constitutions." The author concludes that "the adequacy argument doesn't always lead to the reform of blatantly inferior rural or inner-city schools" and that "adequacy can mean a lot of things."
Tags: courts; law; minority; poverty; education; judges; students
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On Assignment: Remodeling Suburbia
In this installment of On Assignment Richard examines Fayette and Dekalb counties outside of Atlanta and investigates the lure of better communities and schools that is causing a migration of families from the inner city to the suburbs, often creating an a sprawl in the new suburb communities and a economic decline in areas left behind; the article discusses some of the obstacles communities are dealing with along lines of ethnicity and income level and the struggle to keep these new suburbs prosperous and attractive.