Paul Katula
Staff & Reporter Archive

Paul Katula

4040 Published Stories • news.schoolsdo.org

Paul Katula is the executive editor of the Voxitatis Research Foundation, which publishes this blog. For more information, see the About page.

Stories by Paul Katula

Compromise reached on longer school day in Chicago

By Paul Katula •
The Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Rahm Emanuel appear to be working toward ironing out differences in order to avoid a strike. There's still a long way to go if a strike is to be avoided, but so far, things don't look terrible. The issue of a longer day, which was part of recent compromises, will keep coming up, though, so this is a preview of things to come.

An explanation of our box-and-whiskers plots for football

By Paul Katula •
Our football stats are new and improved this year, but you might need a math teacher to explain how they work and what they show. (I hope so.) The box-and-whisker plots contain lots of information, just for fun.

Oklahoma denies diploma to student who failed exit exams

By Paul Katula •
When the Oklahoma State Board of Education denied a diploma Friday to a student who was unable to pass the state's high school exit exam, it reminded me of just how different laws are in different states, districts, and territories. Illinois has no such requirement, while Maryland students have to pass exams in biology, English, and algebra in order to graduate from high school

Summary of early responses in our Illinois marching band state championship survey

By Paul Katula •
Very few people have responded so far to a survey created by us and Illinois Marching Online, but we report that about half the band directors in Illinois would not like to see a state championship series sponsored by the IHSA, and the other half aren't sure IHSA should run it. Not enough responses yet to reach any conclusions, so we're keeping the survey open for a while longer.

Kansas board candidates scrutinized about evolution

By Paul Katula •
In Kansas, where the whole creationism-evolution debate for our public schools began more than a decade ago, candidates for seats on the State Board of Education are being questioned about their beliefs and how they feel about changing the state's biology curriculum for the sixth time since 1997.

New federal grants help cover AP testing costs

By Paul Katula •
The US Department of Education announced Wednesday that it will give more than $21.5 million to 43 states in order to assist low-income students with fees for Advanced Placement testing this school year.

How Americans think schools can save money

By Paul Katula •
The Fordham Institute issued a report yesterday, detailing the results of a survey about how Americans think schools could save money. We comment on a few questions in that survey.

What Voxitatis plans to do on the new Illinois varsity football pages

By Paul Katula •
We have added "History for seniors" to the season-at-a-glance table for each Illinois varsity football team, showing any games played between the teams on the current schedule since the 2009 season, when current seniors were freshmen. And, we're adding graphics to compare stats from this year to those from last year.