A gunman identified as Steve Kazmierczak killed five and wounded 16 before turning the gun on himself during a geology lecture at Northern Illinois University last Thursday. The gunman arrived in all black, wielding a shotgun and two pistols. Witnesses say he did not appear to be targeting specific students, according to NBC News. University Police Chief Donald Grady described Kazmierczak as a "fairly normal guy," according to the Melbourne Herald Sun. Kazmierczak was a former graduate student at the University, but had transferred to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007 to pursue his master's degree in sociology. He had been an exemplary student while studying at Northern Illinois, the Herald Sun reported, receiving the sociology department's top honor in 2006. Those close to him claim his behavior became unpredictable after he stopped taking his anti-anxiety medication two weeks prior to the attack. The attack comes less than a year after the Virginia Tech massacre, and is the fifth school shooting to occur in less than a week. Among the dead were sophomores Daniel Parmenter, Catalina Garcia, Ryanne Mace and Gayle Dubowski, along with 32-year-old assistant professor Julianne Gehant.
More students than ever before are passing Advanced Placement exams, according to a report issued by the College Board last week, The New York Times reported. The exams test student performance in year-long Advanced Placement courses and are graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with a score of 3 counting as a passing grade. More than 15 percent of public high school students graduating last year received a passing grade on at least one AP exam, up from 11.7 percent of students graduating in 2002. While the percentage of passing grades has increased, the national mean has lowered slightly. The report dismissed this decrease as statistically insignificant, because the mean scores in each subject fluctuate each year. Participation in the AP exams has consistently increased over the past five years.
