TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Department of Education says overall scores by K-12 students on standardized math and reading tests have slipped this year. The department also reported Tuesday that 59 percent of the state’s public and accredited private elementary and secondary schools failed to show progress this year in improving students’ overall scores. Students took the tests in the spring. But Deputy Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander said some of the declines can be attributed to changes in academic standards since 2010. He said the tests are not fully aligned to what’s being taught. The department reported that 84.7 percent…
Author: KMAN Staff
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A northeast Kansas couple has sued authorities after a SWAT-style raid of their home came up empty-handed for marijuana. Adlynn and Robert Harte of Leawood filed suit in federal court Tuesday against the Johnson County board of commissioners, Sheriff Frank Denning and several deputies for the April 2012 raid. The sheriff’s office referred questions to its attorney, who did not immediately return a call. The lawsuit contends the raid was prompted by the Hartes’ purchase a few months earlier of hydroponic growing equipment for an indoor vegetable garden. Authorities obtained a search warrant after misidentifying wet…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A northeast Kansas man has been sentenced to 10 years for his role in a carjacking that led to a chase at up to 112 miles per hour. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Terry Tillman, 26, of Kansas City, Kan., was sentenced Tuesday in federal court. Tillman pleaded guilty in August to one count of carjacking. The crime took place May 26 at a gas station in Kansas City, Kan. Tillman admitted he and another man robbed a minivan driver of a wallet and keys while a third co-defendant held the driver at gunpoint. The men…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Four young Wichita children are in protective custody after a neighbor found a 4-year-old wandering down the street in the middle of the night. KWCH-TV reports the children had been alone in their home for more than 10 hours when the neighbor called police around 3:30 a.m. Saturday. No arrests have been made, and police were still looking for the children’s 24-year-old mother Tuesday. Officers responding to the neighbor’s call went to the home in northeast Wichita and found three other children a 6-month-old and two 1-year-olds. Police said the mother left the home around 5 p.m.…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Lawrence schools will not join an International Baccalaureate Diploma program, which offers advanced courses to high school students. The board decided Monday the cost of the program was too high. But board members said they will continue to look for other advanced-studies programs to benefit college-bound students. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the IB program is similar to the better-known Advanced Placement, or AP program, offered by many schools. But the IB program focuses on humanities and liberal arts, and it requires students to complete an entire curriculum, while the AP program allows students to take specific classes.…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Lawrence schools will not join an International Baccalaureate Diploma program, which offers advanced courses to high school students. The board decided Monday the cost of the program was too high. But board members said they will continue to look for other advanced-studies programs to benefit college-bound students. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the IB program is similar to the better-known Advanced Placement, or AP program, offered by many schools. But the IB program focuses on humanities and liberal arts, and it requires students to complete an entire curriculum, while the AP program allows students to take specific classes.…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Another study is finding that the financial crisis is having a lasting effect on young people. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Terri Friedline of the University of Kansas co-authored a study mapping the patterns in household net worth from 1999 to 2009. The study found that children in households where net worth declined grew up to have only about $300 in savings. That’s 10 times less than the amount of children raised in fiscally stable households. Friedline noted that $300 in savings isn’t enough to rent a first apartment. He says the findings emphasize the importance of…
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) An Overland Park woman was forced out of her apartment after as much of 10 pounds of mercury spilled from an antique clock. Fire department spokesman Jason Rhodes says the liquid apparently spilled weeks ago on a back porch of the woman’s apartment but she wasn’t aware it was dangerous mercury until a relative saw the spill Monday. Overland Park Fire Department spokesman Jason Rhodes says in a news release that the mercury spilled out of tubes that were counterweights for an old grandfather’s clock. The Environmental Protection Agency is advising on cleanup. The woman’s apartment…
PRATT, Kan. (AP) For the first time ever, Pratt County is sending inmates to other counties because of overcrowding at its jail. Sheriff Vernon Chinn says he sent four inmates to Ford County recently because the jail was over its capacity of 30 beds. Chinn says the jail has seen a big increase in population this year, ranging from a low of 22 to a high of 38. Chinn attributes the increase to cases taking longer to go to trial and inmates serving their sentences in the county jail, rather than being sent to prisons. KAKE-TV reports the county plans…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) An industry report shows that sales of farm tractors and combines fell in October from the same month a year ago. But Monday’s report from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers also says that U.S. sales of the items in the first 10 months of the year still remain ahead of last year’s pace. Sales of farm tractors totaled about 19,600 in October, down 3.4 percent from October 2012. Farmers bought 1,153 combines in October, a drop of nearly 35 percent from the same month last year. During the first 10 months of this year, farmers bought nearly…