Darnell Little

As the name suggests, the No Child Left Behind school reforms were intended to reach past the mainstream and lift up the disadvantaged, the disabled and children who might otherwise...

Last year at Otis Elementary, a public school in Chicago's West Town neighborhood, only 16 percent of the bilingual pupils passed state reading exams. That helped send the school onto...

The number of Illinois schools meeting standards rose this year, but not necessarily because students performed better, according to statewide test data being released Wednesday. While students made modest gains...

Before the flash and burst of heat spiraling up toward him, Robert "B.J." Jackson was behind the wheel of a Humvee on a boiling hot August day in Baghdad. He...

Illinois' crime rate took another big drop in 2003, bringing the numbers close to what they were before crime took off in the 1970s. The sweeping drop in 2003, twice...

Fifty years after a landmark court decision brought the promise of better schooling for black students, most of Illinois' black children are still relegated to segregated and inferior schools, a...

Minority students at Oak Park and River Forest High School whose test scores suggest they could handle a more challenging course load are being moved into honors classes and given...

The streets surrounding the 3500 block of West Belden Avenue look safe enough. Families walk the streets, the restaurants and shops are busy, there aren't any boarded up houses, hardly...