Elissa Nadworny, Jon Marcus, Maria Paz GutierrezNPR
So poor was the education she received at her public high school,
Pilar Vega Martinez had to take an extra year to study for
the Prueba de Selección Universitaria — the Chilean
version of the SAT.
The work paid off. Her score on the exam was good enough to get
her into the top-rated University of Chile. Vega is now in her
third year, studying to be a nurse. And thanks to an important
change in government policy, life got easier after that: She
didn’t have to pay.
Three hundred middle and high schoolers filed into their school
auditorium recently in the small, southeast Kansas town of
Neodesha, uncertain why they’d been called there.
They left cheering and hugging. Some of the older students were
teary-eyed.
When Austin school officials applied for a $1.5 million federal
grant to embark on a school integration initiative, they were
blunt.
The city and school district had a long history of intentionally
segregating black and Latino families and students, they said,
and recent attempts to desegregate schools had failed.
In August, McDonogh 35 again gained notoriety when it
became the last New Orleans public campus here to
become a charter school, making this the first American
city to fully embrace a publicly funded but privately
operated school system.
Erica L. Green and Eliza ShapiroThe New York Times
At issue is the delicate politics of race and education. For more
than two decades, Democrats have largely backed public charter
schools as part of a compromise to deliver black and Latino
families a way out of failing district schools. Charters were
embraced as an alternative to the taxpayer-funded vouchers for
private-school tuition supported by Republicans, who were using
the issue to woo minority voters.
Pursuing equity—however it’s defined—has become a rallying cry
for K-12 educators and advocates alike. More than half of
America’s 50 million students today are nonwhite, and a growing
number of them are English-language learners or students with
special needs. There are widespread and well-documented
disparities between the educational needs of these student groups
and their classroom peers.
The family engagement room at Belleaire Elementary School in the
suburbs of Omaha is bustling on a late October morning.
Kindergarten teacher Kelsea Heesacker comes in to chat with the
school counselor and to grab a winter coat for a little girl who
came to school without one. Meghan McCormack, whose job is to
visit families in their homes, pulls on her own coat as she
hurries outside to meet a mom whose kids aren’t old enough for
school yet.
Higher education is the great equalizer. Correction: a bachelor’s
degree is the great equalizer. Graduate and professional degrees?
Not so much, according to a forthcoming study in Social
Science Research that seeks to explain why intergenerational
mobility is high for college graduates but lower among advanced
degree holders.
More college students are turning to their schools for help with
anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and many
must wait weeks for treatment or find help elsewhere as campus
clinics struggle to meet demand, an Associated Press review of
more than three dozen public universities found.
Saying he wants to recognize “really great teachers,” Gov. Ron
DeSantis on Thursday unveiled a $300 million bonus program to
replace the “Best and Brightest” bonus he deemed confusing.
In all, he said, it would affect nearly 80 percent of the state’s
public school teachers, with some seeing their compensation
increase as much as 15 percent.
The plan, as outlined by education commissioner Richard Corcoran,
would pay bonuses to teachers and principals in schools based on
their growth in the state’s A-F school grading system.
In a recent study, a high school counselor offered this
honest description of the uncertainty of her job: “Maybe later,
I’ll start to see kids come back and they’ll be like, oh this
helped or that helped,” she said. Still, “Sometimes I leave and
I’m like, I’ve done nothing.”
Now, new research captures exactly how much of a
difference a counselor like her can make — and it’s substantial,
particularly for low-income students.
The state’s education commissioner has notified the Houston
Independent School District he’s moving to strip the nine-member
board of its elected powers, a move that was widely expected but
still marks an unprecedented takeover of the state’s largest
school district.
First, he cited the special investigation into board
misconduct that found multiple board members violated state
rules and intervened in vendor contracts.
Nearly five decades ago, this town on Jackson’s outskirts decided
to send students to schools organized by grade level, rather than
geography.
So all of the kindergartners and first-graders would go to one
school, all of the children in second and third grades would be
at another, and so forth, all the way through 12th grade. The
approach in Clinton was rolled out in 1971 to little fanfare.
Kashif Haynes sits shotgun in the idling Honda Civic, wide awake
and waiting. His mother, behind the wheel but still in pajamas,
not so much.
The Childs Park intersection feels lonely until bus No. 881
appears out of the darkness at 5 a.m., the earliest morning bus
pick up in all of Tampa Bay.
Growing up poor outside Detroit in Dearborn Heights, Tanner
Bonner worked at a sandwich shop part-time during the school year
and full-time during the summer to help support his family.
His mom is unemployed, while his dad has been on disability since
hurting his back cleaning carpets.
His senior year of high school, Bonner earned a perfect score on
the ACT and won a national scholarship for students whose
families earn, on average, less than $13,000 each year. He was
accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and started
classes there last fall.
If there’s one thing more frustrating than trying to get into the
right college, it might be paying for the degree. That’s what
thousands of parents discover daily while discussing how to foot
the bill.
In online communities like Facebook and Reddit, some parents
share standard suggestions like saving more money or choosing a
less-expensive state school.
JOAQUIN PALOMINO and JILL TUCKERSan Francisco Chronicle
Probation chiefs and other officials in many counties across
California say juvenile halls, which stand mostly empty following
years of steep declines in youth crime, primarily hold the most
serious and violent criminals. But a Chronicle investigation
found that is not true: Thousands of teens like Marie are held
for minor offenses.
Black girls are being pushed out of school and into jails at
alarming rates. But this issue often is overlooked because youth
incarceration reform focuses so much on boys. Reporter Ko Bragg
explains how the cycle begins and what researchers hope will
break it.
Arika Herron and MJ Slaby of The Indianapolis Star cover the Red for Ed Action Day in Indiana, where teachers gathered to seek more spending on public schools.
ICYMI: Thousands of teachers marched on the Indiana Statehouse yesterday to demand a greater investment in public education #tellEWAhttps://t.co/9BsNyeyE2B via @indystar
For EdSurge, Stephen Noonoo breaks down the pressures that have led many teachers to feel demoralized.
Teachers are facing incredible systemic pressures from testing and reform efforts. They're demoralized but they're fighting back. I was lucky to speak with some. https://t.co/eY7OHtaWbn#edchat#tellewa
The number of school-age children in New York City who live in
shelters or “doubled up” in apartments with family or friends has
swelled by 70 percent over the past decade — a crisis without
precedent in the city’s history.
By day, New York’s 114,085 homeless students live in plain sight:
They study on the subway and sprint through playgrounds. At
night, these children sometimes sleep in squalid, unsafe rooms,
often for just a few months until they move again. School is the
only stable place they know.
The goal was to foster an open discussion about what has become
an elephant in the room for higher education: Which financially
stressed colleges are likely to shut down, and what can be done
to protect students and taxpayers from abrupt closures?
A survey of about 2,000 current international students and recent
graduates of American colleges by World Education Services, a
nonprofit international-education research company, found that
nearly two in five are worried about gun violence. This spring,
the Chinese government even warned students and other travelers
about the risks of going to the United States.
More than 15,000 people are expected to flood downtown
Indianapolis on Tuesday for what could be the largest Indiana
Statehouse rally in more than 20 years.
The Red for Ed Action Day, organized by the Indiana State
Teachers Association and other labor groups, will see educators
from every corner of the state showing up as lawmakers return to
kick off the 2020 legislative session.
They could have chosen “this for that.” Or possibly even “tit for
tat.” But instead, Democrats and Republicans alike decided to go
with “quid pro quo” as the defining term for the central
accusation of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
They disagree, of course, on whether an illegal quid pro quo
occurred, but have embraced the alliterative Latin phrase as the
lingua franca for the debate. Now all that remains is the
ultimate political thumbs up or thumbs down decision.
This question was on an online exam given recently to more
than 3,000 American high school students. I think it exposes a
threat to both our education system and our national security.
The foreign undergraduate head count in U.S. colleges and
universities fell about 2 percent in the last school year,
the first annual decline on that measure in more than a decade,
according to a study.
The report from the Institute of International Education, funded
by the State Department and made public Monday, suggests
challenges for the United States as it seeks to maintain
dominance in global higher education.
On the first day of sixth grade, at his new school in a new
neighborhood, Angel Angon Quiroz, 11, sat by himself in the
corner of the cafeteria, wondering if he had made a mistake.
Students at Angel’s old elementary school overwhelmingly come
from poor and Hispanic families. Now, a new integration plan in
Brooklyn had placed him at a middle school called the Math &
Science Exploratory School. It was popular with affluent
families, but would he fit in?
Last week brought the first early decision deadlines for high
school seniors applying to college — and also a lot of
potential questions: Just what is early decision and how does it
differ from early action? Have college admissions changed since
the “Varsity Blues” scandal broke earlier this year? How do
college admissions officers view Vermont’s new proficiency-based
grading systems? What are the admissions options at Vermont
colleges and universities?
But still, despite excelling in her other classes, Marqell
McClendon has struggled in the remedial math class she’s taking
during her first semester at Michigan State University.
It’s an unfamiliar scene for McClendon, the valedictorian of her
graduating class at Detroit’s Cody High School who’s used to
students coming to her for help. Now, the tables are turned. She
describes it as “bittersweet.”
The U.S. Department of Education agreed to hand over department
records late Thursday to Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the Democratic
chairman of the U.S. House education committee, just hours before
Scott was set to subpoena Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for the
records.
The information relates to the Education Department’s
unwillingness to fully forgive the federal student loans of
borrowers who say they were defrauded by for-profit colleges,
including the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges.
Half of Indiana’s public school students will be out of
classrooms Tuesday while thousands of teachers from across the
state rally at the Statehouse to demand better pay.
It’s an unprecedented move from Indiana’s teachers, who have
spent the last several years watching their counterparts in other
states and cities striking, walking out and marching their
way toward higher salaries and better working and learning
conditions.
The high-profile I Promise School in Akron announces plans to offer transitional housing for students’ families, reports Jennifer Pignolet for Akron Beacon Journal.
A University of Illinois policy requiring NPR member station
reporters to disclose information about sources who say they were
sexually harassed or assaulted is coming under fire from media
organizations and free-speech advocates, who say the rule will
have a chilling effect on reporting about sexual misconduct.
COLLIN BINKLEY and HANNAH FINGERHUTThe Associated Press
Although most young Americans believe in the value of higher
education, many still consider a high school diploma alone to be
enough for success, according to a survey of teens and young
adults by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research.
Immigrants who have lived in the U.S. illegally since childhood
have been at the center of a political tug-of-war for years. But
now, the Supreme Court could decide their fate.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg unveiled a plan
Friday to make tuition at four-year public colleges free for
families earning up to $100,000. The move is part of a package of
new economic policies aimed at boosting the fortunes of middle-
and working-class Americans and positioning Buttigieg as a clear
alternative to more liberal candidates.
Like nearly all teachers in America, Becky Cranson spends her own
money to buy supplies for her students. Working in a rural school
district in Michigan, where 70 percent of her middle school
students come from low-income families, she shells out at least
$1,000 a year for pencils, books, journals, glue sticks, tissues
and much more.
But opening her wallet without reimbursement is only a small part
of what she — and many others in America’s corps of 3.2 million
teachers — do to secure classroom supplies they can’t get from
their schools or from students’ families.
When Steve Thorsett crunched the numbers, things looked
grim.
Mr. Thorsett is the president of Willamette
University, part of a higher education sector grappling with
a sharp decline in enrollment and financial challenges that cry
out not for incremental change, but for radical solutions.
Colleges and universities that fail to adapt risk joining the
average of 11 per year that the bond-rating firm Moody’s says
have shut down in the last three years.
When they marched on the statehouse in Frankfort, Ky., in the
midst of a spring snowstorm and a political firestorm last year,
teachers warned the governor: “We’ll remember in November.”
Nearly 20 months later, they appeared to have delivered on that
promise, helping Democrat Andy Beshear receive about 5,100 more
votes than Republican incumbent Matt Bevin in the Kentucky
governor’s race. It is a state President Trump carried by 30
points in 2016.
Five years after Michigan switched Flint’s water supply to
the contaminated Flint River from Lake Huron, the city’s lead
crisis has migrated from its homes to its schools, where
neurological and behavioral problems — real or feared —
among students are threatening to overwhelm the
education system.
District leaders propose a facilities bond to cover the cost of generators and backup batteries, reports Diana Lambert for EdSource. The goal? Avoid more school closures in California.
Colleges rise in national rankings and reputation when they show
data suggesting they are more selective. They can do that by
rejecting more applicants, whether or not those candidates ever
stood a chance. Some applicants, in effect, become unknowing
pawns.
Feeding this dynamic is the College Board, the New York nonprofit
that owns the SAT, a test designed to level the
college-admissions playing field.
The board is using the SAT as the foundation for another
business: selling test-takers’ names and personal information to
universities.
Cable news might still be fixated on the 2020 primaries, but a
good number of ballots are about to be cast across the country
this week in an “off-year election” with major implications for
classrooms and education policy.
The auditorium at the College of New Jersey was filled with
hundreds of fraternity and sorority members, on a night during
Greek Week. The event had sounded all too familiar to many: Go
hear some adults tell you about the dangers of hazing. Again.
But their chatter had died away and their phones were in their
pockets as Evelyn and Jim Piazza showed them photos of their
tall, grinning son and told them how, after a gantlet of drinks
and a headfirst fall down a flight of stairs at his Pennsylvania
State University fraternity house, Tim Piazza was put in an
ambulance, alone.
Parents and students trickled into the Muhlenberg County High
School gym on a hot Saturday night as the sounds of cheers and a
referee’s whistle carried from an athletic field nearby. Inside
the “Home of the Mustangs,” Friends of NRA was raffling off guns:
semiautomatic rifles and handguns, guns with high-capacity
magazines and pump-action shotguns.
In part 3 of a series, EWA Reporting Fellow Cory McCoy of the Tyler Morning Telegraph highlights the financial burdens students face other than tuition and fees.
Promise programs are a step in the right direction toward making college affordable, but they aren’t the solution. For most students, they’ll only cover 1/4 of costs at best. The final article of my fellow project, with a video explainer coming.#TellEWAhttps://t.co/GRyZybLkEZ
For The 74, Laura Mckenna reports on the lack of funds to address many aging school buildings in the U.S. and the potential effects on student achievement.
My latest... Schools Have Lost $16B in Capital Funds Since the Great Recession. Those Buildings Are in Trouble — & That Means Problems for Students @The74https://t.co/bCcNq0M4uH#tellewa
The average eighth-grade reading score on a nationally
representative test declined among public school students in more
than half of the states, according to data released Wednesday by
the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of
the Education Department.
The dismal results were part of the release of the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “nation’s report
card.” The test assesses a sample of fourth- and eighth-grade
students — more than 290,000 in each subject in 2019 — every
other year.
Free College In Chile: What The U.S. Can Learn
So poor was the education she received at her public high school, Pilar Vega Martinez had to take an extra year to study for the Prueba de Selección Universitaria — the Chilean version of the SAT.
The work paid off. Her score on the exam was good enough to get her into the top-rated University of Chile. Vega is now in her third year, studying to be a nurse. And thanks to an important change in government policy, life got easier after that: She didn’t have to pay.
Wealthy Donor Promises College Tuition to Help Spur Growth in Kansas Hometown
Three hundred middle and high schoolers filed into their school auditorium recently in the small, southeast Kansas town of Neodesha, uncertain why they’d been called there.
They left cheering and hugging. Some of the older students were teary-eyed.
Dozens of School Districts Applied to An Obama-Era Integration Program Before Trump Officials Axed It. Since Then, Many Plans Have Gone Nowhere.
When Austin school officials applied for a $1.5 million federal grant to embark on a school integration initiative, they were blunt.
The city and school district had a long history of intentionally segregating black and Latino families and students, they said, and recent attempts to desegregate schools had failed.
New Orleans Public Education Goes to An All-Charter School System
In August, McDonogh 35 again gained notoriety when it became the last New Orleans public campus here to become a charter school, making this the first American city to fully embrace a publicly funded but privately operated school system.
Minority Voters Chafe as Democratic Candidates Abandon Charter Schools
At issue is the delicate politics of race and education. For more than two decades, Democrats have largely backed public charter schools as part of a compromise to deliver black and Latino families a way out of failing district schools. Charters were embraced as an alternative to the taxpayer-funded vouchers for private-school tuition supported by Republicans, who were using the issue to woo minority voters.
Everybody Supports ‘Equity,’ But How Do They Define It?
Pursuing equity—however it’s defined—has become a rallying cry for K-12 educators and advocates alike. More than half of America’s 50 million students today are nonwhite, and a growing number of them are English-language learners or students with special needs. There are widespread and well-documented disparities between the educational needs of these student groups and their classroom peers.
These Nebraska School Districts Look to Serve Children Beginning at Birth
The family engagement room at Belleaire Elementary School in the suburbs of Omaha is bustling on a late October morning. Kindergarten teacher Kelsea Heesacker comes in to chat with the school counselor and to grab a winter coat for a little girl who came to school without one. Meghan McCormack, whose job is to visit families in their homes, pulls on her own coat as she hurries outside to meet a mom whose kids aren’t old enough for school yet.
New Paper Examines Why Intergenerational Immobility Resurfaces When Looking at Advanced Degree Holders
Higher education is the great equalizer. Correction: a bachelor’s degree is the great equalizer. Graduate and professional degrees? Not so much, according to a forthcoming study in Social Science Research that seeks to explain why intergenerational mobility is high for college graduates but lower among advanced degree holders.
More College Students Look for Mental Health Help on Campus
More college students are turning to their schools for help with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and many must wait weeks for treatment or find help elsewhere as campus clinics struggle to meet demand, an Associated Press review of more than three dozen public universities found.
Florida Gov. DeSantis Rolls Out New Teacher Bonus Proposal
Saying he wants to recognize “really great teachers,” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday unveiled a $300 million bonus program to replace the “Best and Brightest” bonus he deemed confusing.
In all, he said, it would affect nearly 80 percent of the state’s public school teachers, with some seeing their compensation increase as much as 15 percent.
The plan, as outlined by education commissioner Richard Corcoran, would pay bonuses to teachers and principals in schools based on their growth in the state’s A-F school grading system.
It’s Not Just Teachers: How Counselor Diversity Matters for Students of Color
In a recent study, a high school counselor offered this honest description of the uncertainty of her job: “Maybe later, I’ll start to see kids come back and they’ll be like, oh this helped or that helped,” she said. Still, “Sometimes I leave and I’m like, I’ve done nothing.”
Now, new research captures exactly how much of a difference a counselor like her can make — and it’s substantial, particularly for low-income students.
Texas State Education Commissioner Moves to Take Over Houston Independent School District, Replace Entire Elected School Board
The state’s education commissioner has notified the Houston Independent School District he’s moving to strip the nine-member board of its elected powers, a move that was widely expected but still marks an unprecedented takeover of the state’s largest school district.
First, he cited the special investigation into board misconduct that found multiple board members violated state rules and intervened in vendor contracts.
In Mississippi, an Unlikely Model for School Desegregation
Nearly five decades ago, this town on Jackson’s outskirts decided to send students to schools organized by grade level, rather than geography.
So all of the kindergartners and first-graders would go to one school, all of the children in second and third grades would be at another, and so forth, all the way through 12th grade. The approach in Clinton was rolled out in 1971 to little fanfare.
He Wakes Up at 4:10 A.M. to Go to High School. Is It Worth It?
Kashif Haynes sits shotgun in the idling Honda Civic, wide awake and waiting. His mother, behind the wheel but still in pajamas, not so much.
The Childs Park intersection feels lonely until bus No. 881 appears out of the darkness at 5 a.m., the earliest morning bus pick up in all of Tampa Bay.
Struggling With Perceived Isolation, Many First-Gen College Students Face Mental Health Problems
Growing up poor outside Detroit in Dearborn Heights, Tanner Bonner worked at a sandwich shop part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer to help support his family.
His mom is unemployed, while his dad has been on disability since hurting his back cleaning carpets.
His senior year of high school, Bonner earned a perfect score on the ACT and won a national scholarship for students whose families earn, on average, less than $13,000 each year. He was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and started classes there last fall.
Divorce? Marry Off Your Kid? As Financial Aid Confusion Grows, Parents Consider Drastic Measures
If there’s one thing more frustrating than trying to get into the right college, it might be paying for the degree. That’s what thousands of parents discover daily while discussing how to foot the bill.
In online communities like Facebook and Reddit, some parents share standard suggestions like saving more money or choosing a less-expensive state school.
Others are proposing more drastic measures.
California’s Juvenile Halls Are Supposed To Hold Just The Worst Young Offenders. The Truth Is A Different Story
Probation chiefs and other officials in many counties across California say juvenile halls, which stand mostly empty following years of steep declines in youth crime, primarily hold the most serious and violent criminals. But a Chronicle investigation found that is not true: Thousands of teens like Marie are held for minor offenses.
Pushed Out
Black girls are being pushed out of school and into jails at alarming rates. But this issue often is overlooked because youth incarceration reform focuses so much on boys. Reporter Ko Bragg explains how the cycle begins and what researchers hope will break it.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Nov. 15 – 21)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
Arika Herron and MJ Slaby of The Indianapolis Star cover the Red for Ed Action Day in Indiana, where teachers gathered to seek more spending on public schools.
For EdSurge, Stephen Noonoo breaks down the pressures that have led many teachers to feel demoralized.
114,000 Students in N.Y.C. Are Homeless. These Two Let Us Into Their Lives.
The number of school-age children in New York City who live in shelters or “doubled up” in apartments with family or friends has swelled by 70 percent over the past decade — a crisis without precedent in the city’s history.
By day, New York’s 114,085 homeless students live in plain sight: They study on the subway and sprint through playgrounds. At night, these children sometimes sleep in squalid, unsafe rooms, often for just a few months until they move again. School is the only stable place they know.
Private Colleges Convinced Company to Scuttle Release of List of Projected College Closures
The goal was to foster an open discussion about what has become an elephant in the room for higher education: Which financially stressed colleges are likely to shut down, and what can be done to protect students and taxpayers from abrupt closures?
America Draws Students From Around the World. Its Gun Culture Is Pushing Them Away.
A survey of about 2,000 current international students and recent graduates of American colleges by World Education Services, a nonprofit international-education research company, found that nearly two in five are worried about gun violence. This spring, the Chinese government even warned students and other travelers about the risks of going to the United States.
Red For Ed Action Day: Indiana Teachers March, Public Schools Close
More than 15,000 people are expected to flood downtown Indianapolis on Tuesday for what could be the largest Indiana Statehouse rally in more than 20 years.
The Red for Ed Action Day, organized by the Indiana State Teachers Association and other labor groups, will see educators from every corner of the state showing up as lawmakers return to kick off the 2020 legislative session.
For Classicists, ‘Quid Pro Quo’ is Music to the Ears
They could have chosen “this for that.” Or possibly even “tit for tat.” But instead, Democrats and Republicans alike decided to go with “quid pro quo” as the defining term for the central accusation of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
They disagree, of course, on whether an illegal quid pro quo occurred, but have embraced the alliterative Latin phrase as the lingua franca for the debate. Now all that remains is the ultimate political thumbs up or thumbs down decision.
You Can’t Believe Everything You Read Online. Many Students Don’t Seem To Know That.
This question was on an online exam given recently to more than 3,000 American high school students. I think it exposes a threat to both our education system and our national security.
Study Finds Fewer Foreign Undergraduates in U.S. Colleges — The First Drop In 13 Years
The foreign undergraduate head count in U.S. colleges and universities fell about 2 percent in the last school year, the first annual decline on that measure in more than a decade, according to a study.
The report from the Institute of International Education, funded by the State Department and made public Monday, suggests challenges for the United States as it seeks to maintain dominance in global higher education.
How Brooklyn is Trying to Integrate its Middle Schools
On the first day of sixth grade, at his new school in a new neighborhood, Angel Angon Quiroz, 11, sat by himself in the corner of the cafeteria, wondering if he had made a mistake.
Students at Angel’s old elementary school overwhelmingly come from poor and Hispanic families. Now, a new integration plan in Brooklyn had placed him at a middle school called the Math & Science Exploratory School. It was popular with affluent families, but would he fit in?
Early Action? Early Decision? An Explanation of Looming College Admission Deadlines
Last week brought the first early decision deadlines for high school seniors applying to college — and also a lot of potential questions: Just what is early decision and how does it differ from early action? Have college admissions changed since the “Varsity Blues” scandal broke earlier this year? How do college admissions officers view Vermont’s new proficiency-based grading systems? What are the admissions options at Vermont colleges and universities?
As Detroit Students Settle Into Their First Semester of College, ‘Bridge’ Programs Provide Needed Support
But still, despite excelling in her other classes, Marqell McClendon has struggled in the remedial math class she’s taking during her first semester at Michigan State University.
It’s an unfamiliar scene for McClendon, the valedictorian of her graduating class at Detroit’s Cody High School who’s used to students coming to her for help. Now, the tables are turned. She describes it as “bittersweet.”
Student Debt Battle Pits DeVos With Key House Democrat
The U.S. Department of Education agreed to hand over department records late Thursday to Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the Democratic chairman of the U.S. House education committee, just hours before Scott was set to subpoena Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for the records.
The information relates to the Education Department’s unwillingness to fully forgive the federal student loans of borrowers who say they were defrauded by for-profit colleges, including the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges.
Thousands Expected for Red for Ed Action Day at the Indiana Statehouse. Here’s Why They’re Marching.
Half of Indiana’s public school students will be out of classrooms Tuesday while thousands of teachers from across the state rally at the Statehouse to demand better pay.
It’s an unprecedented move from Indiana’s teachers, who have spent the last several years watching their counterparts in other states and cities striking, walking out and marching their way toward higher salaries and better working and learning conditions.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Nov. 8 – 14)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
For The New York Times, Dana Goldstein covers how a recent proposal to desegregate schools in a Maryland suburb has turned bitter.
The high-profile I Promise School in Akron announces plans to offer transitional housing for students’ families, reports Jennifer Pignolet for Akron Beacon Journal.
University of Illinois Is Stifling NPR Reporting on Sexual Misconduct, Critics Say
A University of Illinois policy requiring NPR member station reporters to disclose information about sources who say they were sexually harassed or assaulted is coming under fire from media organizations and free-speech advocates, who say the rule will have a chilling effect on reporting about sexual misconduct.
Poll: Many Youths Say High School Diploma Is Enough
Although most young Americans believe in the value of higher education, many still consider a high school diploma alone to be enough for success, according to a survey of teens and young adults by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
A Reckoning for DACA: With Possible Deportation of Dreamers in the Balance Tuesday at the Supreme Court, Education Groups Urge Justices to Protect Students and Teachers
Immigrants who have lived in the U.S. illegally since childhood have been at the center of a political tug-of-war for years. But now, the Supreme Court could decide their fate.
Pete Buttigieg Proposes Free College for Americans Earning Under $100,000 in His New Economic Plan
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg unveiled a plan Friday to make tuition at four-year public colleges free for families earning up to $100,000. The move is part of a package of new economic policies aimed at boosting the fortunes of middle- and working-class Americans and positioning Buttigieg as a clear alternative to more liberal candidates.
‘I Am a Scavenger’: The Desperate Things Teachers Do to Get the Classroom Supplies They Need
Like nearly all teachers in America, Becky Cranson spends her own money to buy supplies for her students. Working in a rural school district in Michigan, where 70 percent of her middle school students come from low-income families, she shells out at least $1,000 a year for pencils, books, journals, glue sticks, tissues and much more.
But opening her wallet without reimbursement is only a small part of what she — and many others in America’s corps of 3.2 million teachers — do to secure classroom supplies they can’t get from their schools or from students’ families.
Radical Survival Strategies for Struggling Colleges
When Steve Thorsett crunched the numbers, things looked grim.
Mr. Thorsett is the president of Willamette University, part of a higher education sector grappling with a sharp decline in enrollment and financial challenges that cry out not for incremental change, but for radical solutions. Colleges and universities that fail to adapt risk joining the average of 11 per year that the bond-rating firm Moody’s says have shut down in the last three years.
In a Kentucky Election, Aggrieved Teachers Flex Their Muscles
When they marched on the statehouse in Frankfort, Ky., in the midst of a spring snowstorm and a political firestorm last year, teachers warned the governor: “We’ll remember in November.”
Nearly 20 months later, they appeared to have delivered on that promise, helping Democrat Andy Beshear receive about 5,100 more votes than Republican incumbent Matt Bevin in the Kentucky governor’s race. It is a state President Trump carried by 30 points in 2016.
Flint’s Children Suffer in Class After Years of Drinking the Lead-Poisoned Water
Five years after Michigan switched Flint’s water supply to the contaminated Flint River from Lake Huron, the city’s lead crisis has migrated from its homes to its schools, where neurological and behavioral problems — real or feared — among students are threatening to overwhelm the education system.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Nov. 1 – 7)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
District leaders propose a facilities bond to cover the cost of generators and backup batteries, reports Diana Lambert for EdSource. The goal? Avoid more school closures in California.
The 74’s Taylor Swaak covers how a Manhattan school is using The New York Time’s 1619 Project to reframe how slavery is taught.
For Sale: SAT-Takers’ Names. Colleges Buy Student Data and Boost Exclusivity
Colleges rise in national rankings and reputation when they show data suggesting they are more selective. They can do that by rejecting more applicants, whether or not those candidates ever stood a chance. Some applicants, in effect, become unknowing pawns.
Feeding this dynamic is the College Board, the New York nonprofit that owns the SAT, a test designed to level the college-admissions playing field.
The board is using the SAT as the foundation for another business: selling test-takers’ names and personal information to universities.
2019 Election Preview: 5 Big ‘Off-Year’ Races to Watch With Major Implications for Schools, Students and Education Policy
The 74
Cable news might still be fixated on the 2020 primaries, but a good number of ballots are about to be cast across the country this week in an “off-year election” with major implications for classrooms and education policy.
‘Hit them in their heart’: These Parents Lost Kids to Hazing. They’re Trying to Make Sure it Doesn’t Happen Again.
Susan Svrluga
The auditorium at the College of New Jersey was filled with hundreds of fraternity and sorority members, on a night during Greek Week. The event had sounded all too familiar to many: Go hear some adults tell you about the dangers of hazing. Again.
But their chatter had died away and their phones were in their pockets as Evelyn and Jim Piazza showed them photos of their tall, grinning son and told them how, after a gantlet of drinks and a headfirst fall down a flight of stairs at his Pennsylvania State University fraternity house, Tim Piazza was put in an ambulance, alone.
The NRA Foundation is Raising Money by Auctioning Off Guns in Schools — to the Dismay of Some Parents
Beth Reinhard and Neena Satija
Parents and students trickled into the Muhlenberg County High School gym on a hot Saturday night as the sounds of cheers and a referee’s whistle carried from an athletic field nearby. Inside the “Home of the Mustangs,” Friends of NRA was raffling off guns: semiautomatic rifles and handguns, guns with high-capacity magazines and pump-action shotguns.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Oct. 25 – 31)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
In part 3 of a series, EWA Reporting Fellow Cory McCoy of the Tyler Morning Telegraph highlights the financial burdens students face other than tuition and fees.
For The 74, Laura Mckenna reports on the lack of funds to address many aging school buildings in the U.S. and the potential effects on student achievement.
‘No Progress’ Seen in Reading or Math on Nation’s Report Card
The latest results of the tests known as the Nation’s Report Card offer a mostly grim view of academic progress in U.S. schools.
Reading Scores on National Exam Decline in Half the States
The average eighth-grade reading score on a nationally representative test declined among public school students in more than half of the states, according to data released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the Education Department.
The dismal results were part of the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “nation’s report card.” The test assesses a sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students — more than 290,000 in each subject in 2019 — every other year.