Report Cards

Remember the last time you got a B in a class? Maybe a B was OK, a hard-earned accomplishment in a difficult, GPA-sinking course. Or perhaps a B just wasn't good enough — a subpar finish that left you mentally shaking a fist at other classmates....

In rankings of all 140 General Assembly membersreleased this week by the conservative, pro-life Family Foundation Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, received the lowest score of any senator and Del. Brenda Pogge, R-James City County, as the only local...

Rabies prevention The Department of Health offers information on how to prevent the spread of rabies and what to do in the event of exposure. Rabies is most often seen in raccoons, bats, foxes and skunks. Information: 410-222-7168 or visit aahealth.org....

Edward L. "Mac" McDill, former chairman of the Johns Hopkins University's sociology department who was also the founding director of the Hopkins Center for Social Organization of Schools, died April 25 of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in...

     The U.S. is an overall D+; Florida, a C-, a smidgen better but nothing great.   That's the bad news from the apolitical "Report Card on America's Infrastructure," issued every four years by the objective, well-meaning American Society of Civil...

Although expenditures are expected to exceed revenues for the current school year, Palatine-based Community Consolidated School District 15 is on firm financial ground, according to a newly released report card. Completed yearly by the district, the...

Community Unit School District 201 school officials recently signed off on a new tuition-based, full-day kindergarten program that is designed to give kids a head start in academics before entering the first grade. School officials said tuition will...

Your middle-schooler just got her first D. What's an appropriate response? Parent advice Try not to overreact and then try to find out the reason by calmly discussing it. If the reason is vague, request a conference with the teacher as soon as...

Palm Beach County earned high marks in a corruption reform "report card" released Friday by a state grand jury, along with a warning of "unfinished work" still needed to protect the public. While praising the scandal-ridden County Commission for enacting...

If Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center is to survive, let alone thrive, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors needs to get out of the way. That's an opinion shared by most of the two dozen healthcare experts The Times asked for solutions...

Getting in can be grueling. Students may be asked to submit a 15-page typed research paper, an original short story, or a handwritten essay on the historical figure they would most like to meet. There are interviews. Exams. And pages of questions for...

Five families from across the San Fernando Valley set up camp for three nights by the front door of Wilbur Avenue Elementary School in 2009, intent on getting a spot for their children in one of the best-regarded schools in Los Angeles. Others hired...