The following piece was written by Eddie LaMeire. Eddie has been featured in our Admissions Expert series and has previously worked in admissions at Loyola University and University of California at San Diego. He is also the founder of LaMeire College Consulting.   Last year, NPR ran an April Fools’ story on the so-called “Porsafillo Preschool Academy,” a fictional school taking drastic measures to ensure the “quality” of the students they admitted. What was so interesting about the piece, entitled, “N.Y. Preschool Starts DNA Testing for Admission,” was that it resembled a real NPR rep... Read More About How to Choose Extracurricular Activities in Middle School

The National Association for College Admission Counseling, in November of 2012, published a press release summarizing recent trends in college admissions. This was the 10th year of the NACAC's State of College Admission, and the current edition can be highlighted by this quote from Joyce Smith, CEO of the NACAC: "While the college admissions process has become less predictable in the past decade, one thing is clear – students, parents, admissions officials, and policymakers all need good information on which to base their decisions." The report states that more students are applying to more schools, leading to increased ... Read More About Trends in College Admissions

The following piece was written by Ben Gubar. Ben is a New Jersey tutor for Varsity Tutors as well as a professor for Richard Stockton College. Mark Twain once said: “The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.” In my opinion, this is the bane of every instructor’s existence. When I first started teaching at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, I would hear variations of this quote from my students. My biggest job was not to impart the knowledge to the students, which is what every professor must do, but rather to impart it in such a way that students wouldn’t become confused. One could say that i... Read More About Reflections of an Anatomy Instructor

The following piece was written by Eddie LaMeire. Eddie has been featured in our Admissions Expert series and has previously worked in admissions at Loyola University and University of California at San Diego. He is also the founder of LaMeire College Consulting.  There are not many people who need to be told that the past 20 years have seen college admissions become alarmingly selective. Even as recently as the early 1990’s, admissions were conducted largely on the basis of grades and test scores. Back then, to provide a reference point, Stanford University had a freshman acceptance rate of over 20 percent.  Stanfo... Read More About How to Choose Your Extracurricular Activities

When it comes to financial aid, few people will be able to point you in right direction as well as national expert Mark Kantrowitz can. As the publisher of the very resourceful FinAid and Fastweb websites and the author of the bestseller Secrets to Winning a Scholarship, Mark has developed quite a name for himself as the go-to source for all financial aid inquiries. He has been featured in numerous prestigious publications and media outlets such as The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, and much more. Read on for the incredibly valuable insights and advice Mark shares on financial aid options and the future of higher education. VT: Wha... Read More About Ask a Financial Aid Expert: Mark Kantrowitz

It’s the day before your big test.  You’ve vigorously read through all the material, flipped over every flashcard, and memorized every fact.  If you prepared adequately, you’ve been doing this for weeks (or months, depending on the test) and not just in the last 24 hours.  Procrastination is not a method of choice for a task this huge – that task being studying for an important exam.  Assuming you did not leave it all to the last minute, the final day before you actually face the exam can be a little strange.  You’ll have those first-day-of-school butterflies and be unsure of how exactly y... Read More About How to Mentally Prepare for Test Day

More often than they should, students decide to go to grad school simply to avoid the doomed job market.  Others choose to go because they flat out miss being in school.  Neither of these are logical reasons and in the end, they usually won’t leave the student feeling fulfilled. Graduate school is a very serious and big commitment that should only be undergone if a graduate degree is definitely what you want and/or need.  There are several aspects of being a graduate student that may not be hitting you just yet as you scour admissions pages for application requirements and deadlines.  There are a few key questions yo... Read More About Is Grad School the Right Option for You?

Students who participated in after-school activities for two or more years during high school were almost twice as likely to complete college than those who did not.  This finding comes from professors at Columbia University, who also found correlations between participation in extracurriculars and increased high school GPAs. The key is not simply joining a club, but being involved for an extended period of time.  The determining factor is persistence, or "grit".  If you can develop persistence and passion for an activity, that mindset is likely to carry over to your academic pursuits.  In contrast to the extrinsic motiv... Read More About Why Extracurriculars Boost College Success

Are you one to take notes meticulously during lectures?  Or study one section of a textbook for a whole hour?  Or always go to the same room to study? Contemporary research on brain psychology and memory retrieval suggests that those may not be the best methods when it comes to learning.  Instead, researchers recommend the following tips: Interleaving learning: rather than drilling 50 algebra questions, you should solve a few algebra questions, a few graphing questions, and word problems.  The key is to identify related skills sets to alternate.  In the sports world, using basketball as an example, rather tha... Read More About Learning About Learning

The government recently mandated that all colleges must include a net price calculator on their websites. However, many colleges easily found ways to hide theirs from students, according to an article in the US News & World Report.  An accurate net price calculator is designed to give students and exact figure on what they will pay to attend (tuition plus room and board/additional fees subtracted by scholarships and financial aid).  The government mandated these because many colleges were tricking prospective students into believing their schools were much more affordable than they actually were. Some colleges keep tuition... Read More About How To Calculate Net Price Of College

Stanford is putting its name behind an online high school, the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY).  EPGY has been in existence for many years now, but Stanford will now lend its name to the high school diplomas its students recieve. More than 275,000 students across the country are currently enrolled in online high schools.  Some of them soley take online classes, while others use online classes to supplement the education they receive at their local school.  Many take online classes to fit their busy schedules as aspiring actors or world-class athletes.  For some, an online high school is a much better alternative ... Read More About Why Students Are Choosing Online High Schools

The best way to prepare for college-level classes is to take the hardest classes you possibly can…every student, every teacher and every professor knows that. But, how to make classes more rigorous for all students has been the challenge, according to an article in the District Administration. Some schools just grade stricter and give students more homework. But, others actually restructure much of their curriculum. President Obama has vowed to increase the overall quality of education to help American students catch up with foreign students, who have recently outpaced them. In Obama’s education reform initiative, “Race to... Read More About How To Prepare For College Classes

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM programs) have historically been the toughest majors, with science and engineering leading the way, according to an article in the New York Times. However, the STEM fields also have the largest potential to boost America’s economy, and that is why President Obama is placing a major emphasis on these programs. But, it’s not going to be easy. Politicians and educators have been trying to improve students’ test scores in the STEM fields for years, and they are running out of ideas. Currently, American students trail behind many foreign countries in STEM fields, and Washington is ... Read More About How To Succeed In Science And Engineering

If you’re not proficient in algebra, then you’ll stand just about no chance with Calculus, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics or any other high school math class. Students must learn algebra first, and that’s why many educators believe it is the most important math class. For years, algebra was a high school freshman level class, and very few students took it before their freshman year. But, administrators eventually began pushing heavily for students to start algebra classes in the 8th grade or sooner, according to an article in the District Administration. And now administrators are pushing even harder for students to tak... Read More About Why Algebra Skills Are Important

Computers, tablets, smartphones, social media, smart boards have been all the rage in education the past few years. Some schools are adopting these practices seemingly because everyone else is doing it. But one school, the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Silicon Valley, is refusing to join the trend, according to an article in the New York Times. The school just uses the traditional pens and paper without computes. In fact, the school does not allow any screens at all, and it even frowns upon students using them at home. The Silicon Valley school is one of about 160 Waldorf schools in the country that have all adopted a teaching philosoph... Read More About Why One School Is Rejecting Technology

Gone are the days of having to carry around eight textbooks in your backpack, or to rush to your locker to grab that American History textbook for your next class.  One school district in Indiana has completely ditched textbooks in favor of online curricula that students access via laptops.   According to an article in the New York Times, all math and science textbooks in the Munster, Indiana, school district have been replaced with digital editions.  The change impacts all students in grades 5-12, and cost over $1 million to implement.  Some of the biggest differences are obvious.  With a laptop, the digital cu... Read More About Why School Districts Are Abandoning Textbooks

Do well on an Advanced Placement exam, and receive $100. That’s exactly what South High Community School in New York does for its students, according to an article in the New York Times. Teachers whose students do well also receive bonuses. The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) funds the incentives at South High Community School and all the other schools that participate in this program. It pays each student who scores a 3 or above (high enough to earn college credit) on the math or science A.P. exam $100. Teachers’ incentives are not as straightforward and are based on the percentage of their students that pass the exa... Read More About Why Students Are Being Rewarded For AP Tests

The average tuition for the top 10 colleges has increased around 25% the last six years, starting with the 2004-2005 school year through the 2009-2010 school year.            Also, these tuition costs do not include room and board, meal plans, books, other mandatory fees, etc. These are simply base tuition numbers, and tuition can increase or decrease depending on the major within a university. This can vary dramatically from university-to-university.            One of the biggest reasons listed is that states have stopped or reduced spending ... Read More About Why College Tuition Is Increasing

What would it take to get a flawless attendance record from your kid? Baseball tickets? Gift cards? A necklace? How about an automated wake-up call from former NBA-great Magic Johnson? A handful of schools in New York City are actually doing all of those to help increase school attendance through politicians and administrators collaboration, according to an article in the New York Times. And it’s working. On any given day one out 15 elementary students is absent in NYC public schools, compared to one out of 13 in 2007 and one out of nine in 1995. Other NYC schools have taken larger strides to increase attendance. The Center for New Y... Read More About Why Students Are Being Rewarded To Attend School

Many would think the typical college student is bouncing around from class-to-class, living in the dorm room, pulling all-nighters and occasionally firing up the latest lineup of Apple products. That’s the life of the average full-time college kid and usually mom or dad – or the government – is fronting the bill. But, that’s not the case anymore. Today, most college students are part-time students rather than full-time students, according to an article in the Washington Post. A report from the nonprofit organization Complete College America states that nearly 75 percent of college students today are part-time, jugglin... Read More About Why More College Students Are Part Time

Online education has been lighting up every education news service since the Internet was created. Some believe it can work in addition to traditional schools/colleges, and others think it could actually replace traditional schools. However you feel toward it, there is now an easier way to search for online schools. You don’t have to type “online college” into Google to find all the schools in your area or even wait for “empowering” radio commercials. The US News & World Report launched an online education directory where students can easily find appropriate programs. Visit this site for the directory and ot... Read More About How To Find An Online Education That Suits You

The average SAT scores for the high school class of 2011 fell across the nation, according to the College Board (the creator of the SAT) and an article in the New York Times. The average, national reading score fell to a record low of 497, a three-point decrease from 2010. The average writing score dropped two points to 489, and the average math score fell one point to 514. The College Board believes that a more diverse group of students caused this decrease, mainly students whose first language is not English. Nearly 27 percent of the roughly 1.65 million students who took the test came from a home where English is not the only/primary lang... Read More About Why SAT Scores Might Be Decreasing

How cool would it be if you could start your college application essay with: “I’m a nationally published writer”? That is possible, and it would definitely wake up whoever is reading your application essay. The Huffington Post and the Patch (a network of over 800 hyper-local news sites), both owned by AOL, are currently recruiting bloggers (age minimum is 13). Right now, you can easily become a blogger and actually publish articles on the Patch’s website, which is read primarily by local audiences. The content provider has about 800 full-time writers, and it has asked all of them to recruit at least 10 writers each f... Read More About How Students Can Become National Bloggers

Teachers have tried many tactics to stop their students from cheating. But, it was the teachers themselves who got caught cheating in 2011. They were erasing and changing their students’ answers on achievement tests to make themselves look better, according to an article in the New York Times. In recent years, the government has made the achievement or proficiency tests the cornerstone of its education debate. It uses these tests to measure students’ achievement, comparing them to students in foreign countries and past students. The government then blamed teachers for their students’ poor performance on these tests, and it... Read More About How To Stop Cheating In Test Grading

Every college student is forced or encouraged to take a bunch of general education classes that are unrelated to his/her major. There are administrators on both side of the argument, lobbying for their case, according to an article in the Washington Post. One group, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, has been compiling research to argue for its case. It found that many colleges require three or fewer of the basic subjects, such as math, science, foreign language, composition, the fundaments of U.S. history, economics, literature, composition, etc. The group analyzed 1,007 colleges and found that three fifths of those schools do not... Read More About Why A General Education

Budget cuts are getting so strict that some school districts are shaving days off the school year and making school weeks only four days (instead of five), according to an article in the New York Times. It’s a child’s dream, and an educator’s nightmare. The American education system is torn between desperately trying to improve its quality and harsh budget cuts. It’s nearly impossible to find a middle ground. One side will have to cave. Just about everyone in education agrees that taking kids out of the classroom could not possibly improve education. But, strict budget cuts are forcing administrators to d... Read More About Why Schools May Shorten Their School Years

Employers have raised their standards to the point where many now require a master’s degree instead of a bachelor’s degree, according to an article in the New York Times. Employers can be very selective in whom they hire as the unemployment rate rises. Combine that with the fact that a higher percentage of people now have bachelor’s degrees than they did 10 years ago, and careers are just looking bleak for recent college graduates. The master’s is now the fastest growing degree, as 657,000 were awarded in 2009, twice as many since the 1980s. The rate has skyrocketed in the past few years as many with bachelor degrees ... Read More About Why Advanced Degrees Are Becoming More Popular

Another higher education program, The University of the People, just set out with the mission of extending affordable education to more people, according to an article in the New York Times. It hopes to spread education to poor students around the world.  The university was started in Haiti, after the earthquake destroyed most of the country’s higher education infrastructure. The school set up three computer centers in tents and invited English-speaking students from nearby tent cities to come and work for about four hours a day. “They don’t have electricity, they don’t have computers, there are university studen... Read More About How One University Is Offering Affordable Education

Two Stanford professors have announced that they will offer a free online class on artificial intelligence, according to an article in the New York Times. Stanford professors, Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig – two of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence experts – will teach the course. Over 112,000 and counting people have already enrolled in the class, which is nearly six times the entire Stanford student body. Students range from high school to retirees, and the course will represent students from 175 countries. Thrun and Norvig said that they will teach this course as part of an education experiment... Read More About Stanford Offers Free Artificial Intelligence Class Online

The government is investing heavily in early childhood education, trying to get students school-ready earlier. This will then cut down on “catching up time,” making class time more efficient, according to an article in the District Administration. The U.S. Department of Education has collaborated with the Department of Health and Human Services to create a $500 million grant for early childhood education.  The government is also throwing in incentives to encourage states to promote early childhood education. Under Obama’s Race to the Top, states can earn extra funding if they create better early childhood education pro... Read More About Why The Dept Of Education Is Investing In Early Childhood Education

The price of college never seems simple to calculate. There’s tuition plus room and board, minus scholarships, plus random fees, minus financial aid, and on top of that, colleges are always changing those numbers. But good news for your migraine – The U.S. Education Department recently stepped into the college rankings business to release a public Web site that lists the most and least expensive college, along with those with the steepest tuition hikes, according to an article in the Washington Post. The new site, collegecost.ed.gov. seeks to create more transparency around the net price of colleges, giving prospective students h... Read More About How To Find The True Cost Of College

As summer is winding down, ponder the possibility that some schools are considering no summer breaks at all. The idea of year-round schooling, meaning no break is longer than eight weeks, has been tossed around for years, and an article in the District Administration just revisited the debate. Proponents of year-round schooling argue that students don’t do anything over the summer. They don’t read, they don’t look at math problems or history facts. They do nothing and essentially forget all the information they learned the previous year. They argue that the last month or so of school is a waste because students cannot focu... Read More About Why Schools Are Considering Year Round Classes

In terms of bang for your buck – public colleges may have a better return on investment that previously thought.  An article in the Washington Post cited an article from SmartMoney magazine, which measured the value of colleges by their graduates’ salaries in proportion to the tuition they paid as students. However, this is only a “value” metric, and SmartMoney magazine admitted that its scale is far from perfect. Its analysis does not take financial aid into consideration. Some colleges post high tuition prices but offer huge scholarships to nearly every student. It’s a marketing ploy. Many Ivy League sch... Read More About Assessing ROI Of A College Degree

Colleges are replacing student loans with grants in the same amount, according to an article in the Washington Post. So, instead of taking out a $5,000 loan to pay for college expenses, your college might just give you a $5,000 grant. This is a growing financial aid initiative to eliminate student loans at some of the nation’s most expensive colleges. No-loan pledges can even make college free for some students, if they would need full financial aid to attend. This movement started during the 2007-2008 school year, and now more than 70 colleges offer this program to some of their neediest students. Four years later, some of these stud... Read More About Colleges Replacing Loans With Grants

There has been a lot of talk and buzz about how bad the American education system is, why it’s so bad and whose fault it is. And on the fault side, nearly everyone who is connected to education has been blamed for the lackluster system. But, what happens when we stop talking about why it stinks, and start trying to make it better? The District Administration tried to answer that question. The 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) compared the achievement gains between American and foreign students. It found that American students were not achieving as quickly or as strongly as many other foreign countries, thus start... Read More About How To Fix American Schools

You’re a teacher. Your performance is evaluated by teachers, judged and rated by teachers. Your mentor is a teacher, and your boss is a teacher. Imagine that. Would you love it or hate it? What if you’re a student or parent – how do you feel then? The Montgomery County Public Schools system in Rockville, Maryland has a unique process of teachers evaluating other teachers, according to an article in the New York Times. Stronger teachers provide support to weaker ones, and teachers there also have the power to fire weaker teachers if they do not improve.  The program, Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), allows more senior... Read More About How Teachers Can Support And Evaluate Other Teachers

“Small” is not a word many students hear when colleges talk about their class sizes anymore, and when they do use that word – they’re most likely using it incorrectly. Major budget cuts have forced many colleges to cut costs. The easiest and most effective way for colleges to do that was by slimming down on their staff (both professors and administrators). The national, public universities were hit harder than private universities, and research universities were hit the hardest. See more from Varsity Tutors here on budget cuts leading to larger class sizes. But, not all schools have increased their class sizes, and ... Read More About Colleges With Small Class Sizes

Employment rates and starting salaries for graduating college students entering the job market have fallen drastically in the last few years, according to an article in the New York Times. Only 55.6% of 2009 college graduates found jobs that actually used their degrees; 22.4% are unemployed, and 22% are working jobs that do not use their college degrees. Students were surveyed in the spring; so these numbers could have changed by their graduation dates. However, 90% of graduates in 2006-2007 had jobs (that were relevant to their degrees) during the spring before their graduation. The median starting salary for 2009 and 2010 college graduate... Read More About Why College Grads Face A Tough Job Market

It’s no secret to anyone that decreased funding has greatly affected education at all levels. College tuition fluctuated, teachers and staff were laid off and a lot schools simply looked and felt different. In the past few years, public universities were forced to cut costs because of decreased state and federal funding, and slimming down on staff and faculty was the easiest way to do so. Public universities have significantly slimmed down on professors, administrators and other staff members (per 100 students) since 2001, according to an article in the Washington Post. The Washington Post cited a report from State Higher Education Ex... Read More About Universities Manage With Fewer Staff

Education funding may be down in the past few years, but one private donor is starting to pour more money back into education – that one donor is Bill Gates. Gates is cracking his piggy bank to the tune of $373 million in 2009 for education and an additional $78 million to advocacy, according to an article in the New York Times. The $78 million poured into advocacy was four times the amount the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation spent in 2005 on advocacy. The money donated on education and advocacy do not go to the same areas. The advocacy money funds grassroots organizations that Gates and his wife support. For example, the Gates Foun... Read More About How Bill Gates Influences Education Reform

Save the arts – that’s the mantra of many educators. But, after all, it could be the arts that save us. Funding for arts education is consistently cut and decreased when budgets become tighter. Some administrators and educators don’t believe it’s as important as other subjects, and it’s incredibly more difficult to measure the effects of an arts program. But, a presidentially-appointed committee on arts education is trying to change the perception of arts education, according to an article in the Washington Post. The committee is arguing that arts education can help students at all levels find their voice and h... Read More About Why The Arts Are Crucial To Education

Obama and Arne Duncan are trying to raise the bar for everyone in education – teachers, administrators, and now principals.In an effort for full reform, they are now looking at principals, threatening to replace many of them, according to an article in the District Administration. The government is providing a $3.5 billion fund to underachieving schools if they meet certain achievement benchmarks. If schools fail to meet these benchmarks, then they will be forced to make major reforms or surrender their share of funding. Underachieving schools will be forced to replace their principal, half of their teaching staff, close down entirely ... Read More About Changing Principals To Change Schools

Dave Eggers and Ninive Clements Calegari of the New York Times say teachers are underpaid and blamed entirely way too much for the underachieving American education system. In their argument, Eggers and Clements Calegari compared teachers to military professionals. “We don’t say, ‘It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!’ No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” writes Eggers and Clements Calegari. So why shouldn’t we treat ... Read More About Increase Teacher Pay To Improve Academics

In recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 2 - 6), U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has drafted an open letter to the nation's teachers.  Read the full text here.  In it, he praises teachers' flexibility and adaptability, and the life-long relationships educators build with students.  He also challenges teachers to join him in efforts to improve teacher evaluation systems, and to transform American education from a "factory model" to one built for the information age. Read Duncan's letter here.  ... Read More About Secretary Of Education Addresses US Teachers

The business and higher education landscapes are changing, and no we’re not talking about the Internet. We’re talking about women and minority groups enrolling in colleges at record-breaking rates and now beginning to earn more advanced degrees than men. The most recent census figures released in April 2011 show that women now hold more advanced degrees (master’s, PhD degrees) than men for the first time, according to the Associated Press and an article in the Wall Street Journal. Women have outpaced men in bachelor’s degrees since 1996. Roughly 20.1 million women have bachelor’s degrees, compared to about 18.7... Read More About Why Women Outnumber Men In Higher Education

Budget cuts have trickled all the way down to early-childhood education, as funding for these programs has decreased between 2009 and 2010, according to a study published in the Washington Post. The Obama administration urged states to increase their pre-kindergarten programs for three- and four-year-olds, but there simply wasn’t enough funding to meet the president’s request. Total-state funding for these programs dropped about $30 million across the nation. Many states are putting most or all of their funding dollars in K-12. So, decreasing funding for early-childhood education has helped many states preserve funding for K-12,... Read More About Decreased Funding For Early Childhood Education

Bridge, a card game with seemingly complex rules to those who don't play, is becoming the game of choice in classrooms.  A recent article in the New York Times article points to ridge as being as intellectually stimulating as chess, but with an added social component.  Whereas chess is a two person game, bridge can be played with four persons at a time, and variations of the game can accomodate any number of even players. The game has even drawn the support of the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who donated $1 million back in 2005 to promote bridge in schools. With terms like "tricks" and "dummy", bridge is a game that combi... Read More About A Card Game Boosts Social And Academic Skills

There is now more accumulated student loan debt than accumulated credit card debt for the first time in the United States, according to an article in the New York Times. Accumulated student loan debt will likely reach a trillion dollars this year, as more students are enrolling in colleges and borrowing government dollars. However, economists argue that this is actually a good sign and could boost the economy as students pay back loans with interest. They believe that it’s a healthy investment that will lead to higher earnings, unlike credit card debt, which only hurts consumers’ budgets, giving them less disposable income to put... Read More About Why College Student Debt Is Growing

America’s schools are having a difficult time simply teaching students how to be proficient in reading, math and science. That’s why many schools completely ignore teaching basic character skills. Most schools do not effectively teach behavioral skills and proper attitudes/manners like cooperating, being on time, making eye-contact, speaking persuasively, etc, argues Jay Mathews in an article in the Washington Post. Some schools are trying to incorporate these basic skills into education, a practice known as character education; however, many schools are still ignoring them. Very few schools have actually made progress in charact... Read More About Should Schools Teach Character

Who owns your school? Sure, a group of administrators and your principal run it. But, whom do they report to? Recently, the private-equity-backed firm Meritas – owned by Sterling Partners – purchased Claremont Preparatory School, a six-year-old private school in Lower Manhatten, according to an article in the New York Times. (Sterling Partners also owns Sylvan Learning Centers, a chain of tutoring centers). Claremont Prep’s tuition is $34,650 for next year. Meritas is not the only for-profit company to purchase private schools, and this is a growing trend. These companies are buying struggling private schools (mostly high ... Read More About Why Investors Are Buying Up Schools

How many college-bound students would like to have more financial support? Sounds pretty good right and not much of a catch. All you have to do is go to college to be eligible for funding from the Federal Government of the United States of America. This funding will be in the form of federal incentives (grants, funding, and financial aid), according to an article in the New York Times. The Obama administration is offering significant incentives in an effort to encourage people to go to college and earn a degree. It targeted college dropouts, asking them to go back and earn their degrees; then it targeted colleges, asking them to take indivi... Read More About Federal Grants To Boost College Entrance Rates

Earlier this year, the Obama administration discussed plans to change the No Child Left Behind act with the media. Journalists and education administrators alike thought Obama was bluffing, trying to create action in policy makers.  It was no bluff. The Obama administration asked Congress to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law on Monday, March 14, in an effort to accelerate its public education overhaul, one of Obama’s major goals, according to an article in the Washington Post. The Obama administration has been aggressively pursuing education reform and plans to have the new version of No Child Left Behind law implemented by the... Read More About Changes Likely For NCLB

Until recently, America has led the world in producing college graduates. President Barack Obama has vowed that America will retake the lead by 2020, winning the support and funding of many organizations. Higher-education groups have targeted many different groups and demographics, always trying to promote education to increase America’s overall number of college graduates. These groups have promoted the importance of this initiative to community colleges, public universities, African American students, college dropouts and other demographics. Now, education groups and the Obama administration are targeting Hispanic students to increa... Read More About Initiatives To Increase College Graduation Rates

By now, everyone has heard something negative about America’s public schools. They are falling behind foreign countries’; they don’t prepare kids for college or future employment; it’s the teachers’ fault; it’s the bureaucrats’ fault, reads the news. Simply put, many schools in America need help, and now the government is making it official as it could soon label three-fourths of public schools ‘failing’ under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to an article in the  Washington Post. The Obama administration recently announced that it would revamp former president George ... Read More About Judging School Performance

With $50,000 colleges and beyond, it only appears as if the cost of college is absolutely skyrocketing. However, new research actually suggests that the total net cost of college (tuition minus scholarships/aid) is decreasing slightly, according to an article in the Washington Post. In the previous few years, colleges have hiked tuition at record rates. But now, colleges are announcing much smaller tuition increases for the 2011-2012 school year.   Tuition costs increased rapidly during the Great Recession, but costs are now starting to level out. Tuition costs are decreasing partly because colleges previously received a lot of criticis... Read More About College Tuition Hikes Easing

“How is this ever going to help me,” asks every student at some point in his/her life, buried under mountains of busy work, properly hidden by the euphuism of “homework.” Now, teachers are going to need a better answer to this common question, one much better than “it’s (homework) due tomorrow morning.” Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior and blogger for the Huffington Post, recently guest published an article in the Washington Post, claiming that homework is counterproductive and needs to be reevaluated. Kohn noted that even the best teachers assign counterproducti... Read More About Homework That Works

Teachers are feeling the heat and the blame of the lagging American education system, and now they are under further scrutiny, scrutiny by journalists. The U.S. News & World Report is planning on giving grades (A through F) to over 1,000 teachers’ colleges, trying to pinpoint the effective and ineffective programs, according to the an article in the New York Times. This program was announced in January and teachers’ colleges are by no means welcoming this action, claiming it to be an unfair representation and scrutiny of their practices. The U.S. News and World Report partnered with the National Council on Teacher Quality, a... Read More About Analyzing Teachers Colleges

College is coming. It’s coming sooner for some and later for others. But, it’s still coming for most, and it’s never too soon to prepare. Winter time is always a stressful time for high school seniors, lobbying for certain colleges, awaiting acceptance or rejection letters. Some of them may even look back to their freshmen years of high school or even earlier, thinking I should have taken a harder curriculum, more extra-curricular activities or even gotten an A in that Algebra class. Once you’re a high school senior – or when you’re the parent of high school senior – it’s too late to change wha... Read More About How To Prepare For College Now

Despite President Obama's recent declaration of a "Sputnik Moment" for the nation, K-12 level science fairs across the U.S. are facing hard times. Lack of funding and resources has left many fairs on their last legs.  And yet as we go on celebrating the accomplishments of football teams and athletes in middle schools and high schools, the academics are seemingly being neglected. A recent article in the New York Times reports on the state of science fairs, from the more well known Siemens Competition and the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, to more local ones such as the Greater St. Louis Science Fair.... Read More About Why Science Fairs Are Important

By now, the news of the Pell grant funds dwindling to extinction has probably spread to every school district, every home and every student. The Pell grant system has typically been the most significant financial aid program for college students. However, many experts feared that the entire Pell grant system would collapse for the 2011-2012 school year because of a $5.7 billion gap in financing, according to previous reports in December, 2010. But, it won’t collapse. The Pell grant system will continue to fund students through the 2011-2012 school year and most likely beyond, according to an article in the Washington Post. The U.S. D... Read More About State Of Pell Grants

When reports surfaced that the American education system was lagging behind that of other countries, people began pointing fingers and blaming different practices. Now, politicians are blaming teacher tenure, claiming it is one of the reasons for America’s subpar educational system, according to an article the New York Times. This action was motivated by President Barack Obama’s call to reward effective teaching, which was restated in this year’s State of the Union Address. Some Republican politicians have interpreted this as removing the ineffective teachers or removing teacher tenure. Governors in Florida, Idaho, Indiana... Read More About Teacher Tenure Under Scrutiny

Digital education is a rapidly-growing trend for public and private schools across the nation, as these mediums are quickly transforming how students learn. Now, school libraries are beginning to catch on to the trend, getting rid of thousands of physical books and replacing them with digital copies, according to an article in the District Administration. The District Administration cited Cushing Academy, a private secondary school in Massachusetts that recently gave away most of its 20,000 physical textbooks. The school upgraded by purchasing nearly 200 iRivers and Kindle e-readers. Cushing Academy also sold all of its 445 students a laptop... Read More About Libraries Go Digital

Years of education, of knowledge, of learning, but what exactly does it amount to? Are college grads actually better at certain tasks than non grads, and how much more qualified are they than non grads? These questions are continuously asked and are nearly impossible to correctly answer. But, the Lumina Foundation released a report published in an article in the Washington Post, addressing these exact questions. The report seeks to define what college graduates should be able to do. It concluded that college graduates, despite field of study, should demonstrate abilities in five areas of competence. According to the study, graduates should ... Read More About What Should College Graduates Know

After stepping down as Washington D.C.'s public schools chief, Michelle Rhee has decided to create her own organization to lead, StudentsFirst.  She is touting it as a national level platform with which to advance education reforms that put students first.  A pledge to raise $1 billion has already been issued to support the organization.  Critics and supporters alike have already drawn battle lines. Much remains to be seen as to whether Rhee can implement real educational advancements, or if she produces more rhetoric than action. Read more about Rhee's work in the Wall Street Journal article, or browse the StudentsFirst websi... Read More About Rhee Launches Student Advocacy Group

Admission officials are trying to shed their old, stuffy, always buttoned-up image and trying to appear more “cool” and approachable to prospective college students, according to an article in the Washington Post. They are doing so to respond to many high school students who decided against the traditional essay and paper application, the students who got creative with their applications, producing YouTube videos and other materials. Many officials, across the nation, representing various different colleges that followed their prospective students, are diving into popular social mediums and creating their own YouTube videos, blog... Read More About Social Media And College Admissions

  By now you've probably heard about Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg pledging $100 million to the Newark, NJ, public school system.  Fast Company magazine surveyed a panel of education experts (Foundation directors to university professors) to hear how they would use that amount of funding to overhaul the U.S. education system.  Here's what they had to say: Build new preschool centers, with a focus on a low student to teacher ratio Rewrite standardized tests from scratch for all subjects Support more arts programs, including music and dance Provide funding for more parent-teacher conferences Establish wee... Read More About How Would You Spend 100M To Change Education

For years politicians and administrators have tried to create educational equality, providing tutors and additional help for struggling students and raising awareness about under-performing schools. But, what about the gifted students? They are the most ignored group of students in America. They are more talented and naturally-intelligent than normal students, and therefore do not need any additional help, at least that’s what most believe. Some believe that the American education system should give gifted students more resources, rather than ignoring them. They believe that they should receive additional help and funding to help the f... Read More About Funding To Support Gifted Students

Pell grants have typically been America’s most significant financial aid program for college students, but there is now a $5.7 billion gap in financing for next year’s Pell grants, according to an article in the New York Times. On top of that there is an $8 billion gap for Pell grants in 2011. Politicians are not sure about the future of Pell grants system in its entirety. Pressed by a tight budget, Congress finally debated into stopgap financing Friday, December 16 shortly before the budget expired. Temporary measures, extending until February, will likely stay consistent with current budget, not providing any more funding for P... Read More About Future Of Pell Grants Uncertain

Young people interested in writing have a new home, and it’s Figment.com. The site launched in early December, calling itself an online community for young writers to share work samples, receive feedback from other young writers, read and explore new, young fiction writers.  Jacob Lewis, a former managing editor at the New Yorker, and Dana Goodyear, a staff writer at the New Yorker, created the site, originally envisioning it to be a similar to a social network site, like the young adults’ literary Facebook. However, the two noticed that young adults didn’t want another Facebook. What they wanted, “was to read a... Read More About Online Community For Young Writers

Students who like their teachers learn more, according to a new report cited in the New York Times. This study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is seeking to distinguish the good teachers from the bad. Students who described their teachers as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their students learn from their mistakes learned more than their fellow classmates, as measured by their outperforming them on standardized test scores, according to the report. This report is part of a larger, two-year project that the Gates Foundation is funding to enhance education. This two-year p... Read More About How To Assess Teachers

Foreign languages are making a comeback. Modest? Sure. Slight? Yes. But a comeback indeed, as enrollment in foreign language majors has been rising steadily, according to the Washington Post. Enrollment in every foreign language has been consistently rising slightly, according to a new survey by the Modern Language Association of America, published in the Washington Post. The trend of all foreign languages rising slightly is fairly new. Language enrollments for French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian and Japanese have been on enrollment roller coasters, experiencing short-lived ups and down in, according to past surveys by the Modern Languag... Read More About Rise Of Foreign Language Enrollment

            College is expensive. Very few can counteract the simple fact that it is expensive. Now, why it’s expensive is a completely different story, and that answer is longer, far longer, than anyone’s patience level.             The Center for College Affordability and Productivity has been continuously releasing facts and other pieces of information about how the higher education system can reform, according to an article in the Washington Post.            1. Encourage More Studen... Read More About How To Make College More Affordable For All

Whether it be teachers’ and principals’ egocentrism, bitter sentiment of not having the Internet and other resources while they were in school or simply wanting students to spend more time on homework, some have banned their students from any and all outside sources on homework assignments, according to an article in the Washington Post.               This means students cannot look to the Internet, other students, their parents, other textbooks, or even possibly a private tutor to complete homework assignments or seek further knowledge.     &nbs... Read More About Schools Ban Outside Help

Here are five emerging technology trends in K-12 classrooms as we step into 2011: Increase in use of mobile devices - cellphones and iPad devices have replaced the desktop computer as the tech tool to use. Increase in web-based instruction  - scales easily and allows for remote access. Increase in tech-based monitoring and assessment - for the most recent implementation, see the New York Time's article about the Gates Foundation backing a massive push for webcams in classrooms that monitor teacher performance. Increase in cloud-based applications - ever used Google docs before? Increase in teacher professional development that focu... Read More About Education Tech Trends For 2011

            Falling asleep in class, there’s the hooded sweatshirt pulled over the head, hide your eyes as you rest your head on your hand or the-I’m-just-going-to-hope-teacher-doesn’t-see-me approach, is something that just happens at times, despite actual effort or interest.             However, teachers are wising up and using new ploys to catch and wake up students, ploys more effective than the if-you-sleep-or-daydream-I-will-catch-you ploy. Teachers, in attempts to keep students awake, paying attention and engaged in their classes... Read More About Using Technology To Engage Students

The percentage of students taking college courses online has nearly tripled since 2002, according to an article in The Washington Post.             The Washington Post cited a study that stated 29% of college students took at least one online course in the fall of 2009, compared to 10% in 2002.             The 2010 study, Class Differences: Online Education in the United States, 2010, noted that online education has been growing continuously. Online enrollment increased from 1.6 million in 2002 to 3.2 million in 2005 to 5.6 million i... Read More About Rise Of Online College Courses

12th grade students’ reading/math scores increased slightly, since their record lows in 2005, according to federal results released November 18th, cited by an article in The New York Times.             These reading and math tests comprise the National Assessment of Education Progress test. The Department of Education administered this test to what it determined to be a representative sample of about 50,000 12th grade students nationwide in the spring of 2009.                The Department of Education stated tha... Read More About Nationwide Reading And Math Abilities

Elite colleges are all in competition with each other, and the one statistic they can brag about is how many high school students – who received acceptance letters – actually commit and attend that college.             Many top colleges believe that this figure is the ultimate sign of how prestigious and respected that certain college is. This is how colleges compare themselves to one another.             Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill all had more accepted high school stud... Read More About Freshmen Yields At Top Colleges

Technology is rapidly creating more ways to apply for college and continually taking the tedium out of the process, according to an article in The New York Times.             High school students can now choose from the Common Application, the Common Black Application, XAP, Embark, Superapp and the Universal College Application. All of these application formats promise to save students time by allowing them to fill in academic and personal information only one time for all colleges the student wishes to apply to and accept the application.         ... Read More About Different Ways To Apply To College

Do you have a few Advanced Placement classes in your schedule?  Now, you’re not required to take the corresponding AP test come May, but the class should be preparing you for said test.  However, an easy question to ask would be: should I take the AP test?  The answer is simply, “yes”.  Here’s why… College credit for cheap - One AP test will cost you $87 (as of 2010).  Some school districts may even offer financial assistance to students taking AP tests.  That may sound like a lot of money, but on the other hand, many colleges will award you college credit for good scores. ... Read More About Take The Exam If You Are Taking The AP Class

Practice, class, practice, class, practice, homework, class, clubs/organizations, homework, game, practice, class, homework, projects, practice game and then maybe laundry – goes the schedule of collegiate athletes.             Compare that to a typical full-time student’s schedule of class, homework, clubs/organizations and of course maybe laundry…maybe. A student athlete’s schedule is more demanding than a typical student’s.             However, N.C.A.A. student athletes are now graduating at record r... Read More About Graduation Rates Of Athletes

The Obama administration is setting new regulations on colleges that participate in federal student aid programs, according to an article in The Washington Post.             This initiative will change how admission recruiters are paid, how course credits are defined and how college curriculums and training programs will operate.             There will be 13 new regulations for colleges that accept federal student aid programs, decided on by policy makers October 27, 2010. The rules will go into effect in July 2011, giving the federa... Read More About New Higher Education Regulations

            Some students, overcoming the rising costs of college, have successfully created their own scholarships, recruiting donors through websites and other platforms, according to an article in The US News & World Report.             These students are creating personal social networking pages through Myspace and Facebook, asking potential donors for financial support. Not many students have received significant donations through these methods. But, The US News and World Report published eight tips that can help you create your own scholarship ... Read More About Make Your Own Scholarship

Higher spending on public schools does not always translate to success, according to an article in The District Administration.             Politicians and education administrators typically place a high emphasis on spending for schools. When schools lag behind and students are not achieving, the quick fix is always more spending.             In June 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau released education funding per-state and per- student for the 2007-2008 school year. The study discovered that the average spending for an American public st... Read More About Education Funding And Success

Colleges strive to provide students with the latest, most innovative technology and services, funded through research and development spending.             Universities’ research and development spending increased 5.8 percent in 2008, according to the latest National Science Foundation survey, cited by an article in The Washington Post. The private college industry chipped in a relatively small but growing portion of the 5.8 percent.             This has been a continuous trend.  Research and development spending rose 12 p... Read More About Research Spending Of American Colleges

President Barack Obama is now encouraging adults to go back to college and receive the degrees they never finished, in hopes of America regaining the lead of producing college graduates, according to an article in The Washington Post.             There are an estimated 37 million adults 25-64 who went to college but never graduated.             The Lumina Foundation is leading a four-year $14.8 million project throughout America to encourage adults to receive their degrees. The Lumina Foundation will partner with other organizations ... Read More About Increasing College Completion Rates

A recent study concluded that offering teachers performance bonuses does not actually increase students’ achievements, according to an article in The Washington Post.             The study was conducted by the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt. The study rewarded Nashville, Tennessee public school math teachers in grades 5 through 8 with $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000 performance bonuses when they reached annual student achievement marks. Roughly 300 teachers participated, and half were assigned to a control group that could not receive any bonuses; the other half... Read More About Merit Based Teacher Pay

America was once the leader in postsecondary degrees. However, in recent years it has fallen far from the top.             The Lumina Foundation for Education placed a goal in 2008 for a college completion rate of 60 percent by 2025. America will not reach that goal, according to an article in The Washington Post.             The foundation claims to be the first organization to set this benchmark, which was later adopted by President Barack Obama and other education administrators.         &n... Read More About The American Education Gap

There has always been much debate on how valuable a college degree is. Some are convinced it’s a waste of money and time that could have been spent working and earning income. Others say it’s a necessary education experience that will give one a competitive advantage.             A recent study was conducted by the College Board – the same company that creates the SAT – claiming that a college degree’s value is growing, according to an article in The New York Times.             Workers who had college de... Read More About The Value Of College Degrees

     Schools across the country are giving authority back to the teachers by throwing out the administrative grips. At these schools, teachers are solely making all the administrative decisions and teaching.             Palmer Park Predatory Academy (P3A) will open in Detroit in the fall of 2010 with no principal or other administrators. This school will replace the Barbara Jordan Elementary school, which was recently labeled as a low-performing school, according to an article in The District Administration. The Detroit public school system realized that a dramatic tu... Read More About Teacher Led Schools

The SAT has predominantly been the staple of standardized tests for students hoping to be accepted into the nation’s top colleges. However, in recent years the ACT is becoming more popular, according to an article by Bob Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, published in The Washington Post.             The SAT was created over 80 years ago, and 20 years ago 75% more students took the SAT than the ACT. The ACT was largely a regional test, more popular in the South, Midwest, Southwest and Mountain states.      ... Read More About The Rise Of The ACT

Most schools boast small, effective student to faculty ratios. Smaller classes give students more one-on-one time with faculty members, increasing the value of their education. But, the economic downturn is dramatically increasing the size of classes at all levels.             Justin Snider, an undergraduate professor of writing at Columbia University, wrote a guest column in The Washington Post stating that schools can no longer afford small classes.             Snider cited California’s 1996 decision to launch a state-wide, c... Read More About The Disappearance Of Small Classes

The United States is no longer the global leader in postsecondary degrees, according to an article in the The Washington Post.             A postsecondary degree is any degree that one attains after high school. It could be an Associate’s Degree, Bachelor’s Degree or Master’s Degree.             This trend is consistent with other findings that k-12 students in the United States are lagging behind many other foreign students.             The Washington Post cit... Read More About US Trailing In Higher Education

For some teachers it’s becoming “what can I do to make my numbers better”. Those numbers are of course their students. Numbers and students are not synonymous, but the new federal-funding, education allocation is placing them in the same sentence.             An increasing amount of schools are implementing a value-added program to systematically determine how effective their teachers are, according to an article in The New York Times.             Schools are receiving mixed reviews on this program. Some believe it... Read More About Education By Numbers

The days of greasy, unhealthy hamburgers, deep fried chicken nuggets and Sloppy Joe’s – made famous by Saturday Night Live – are numbered. School lunches will soon be healthier, according to an article from The Associated Press.             These items will not be completely removed from school cafeterias; however, they will be made healthier. Also, high-calorie, sugary sodas will not be as readily available.             First lady Michelle Obama’s vision of healthier school lunches has gained the support of m... Read More About Healthier School Lunches

            A recent study indicated that schools with strong leadership and ubiquitous role-model figures demonstrate higher success among students, according to an article in Sify News.             The study entitled “Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning” claimed that students’ achievements and test scores were higher in schools that extended and diversified leadership positions. Success rose if principals and other traditional leadership figures shared authority and leader... Read More About School Leadership

            Scott G. McNealy, the co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems – one of the largest sellers of server computers – is launching an online hub for free textbooks and other course materials called Curriki, according to an article in The New York Times. Sun Microsystems was purchased by Oracle, a software manufacturer, in 2010.             Curriki, a nonprofit organization, and many other organizations are building a trend of creating open-source, online versions of many existing textbooks. These online versio... Read More About Free Textbook Market

The U.S. Senate recently passed a $10 billion bill to preserve teachers’ jobs throughout the nation, according to an article in District Administration.             The bill will also send $16 billion for Medicaid purposes.             Naturally, the $10 billion will not eliminate all teacher layoffs. However, it is expected to save 140,000 American teachers’ jobs.             This bill is being passed in response to consistent reports that tens of thousands of teach... Read More About Senate Approves Teacher Bill

The American workforce is changing rapidly as more and more employers are beginning to make college degrees a prerequisite for jobs, according to an article in The New York Times.               In 2018, many more jobs will demand at least a two-year associate’s degree opposed to only a high school diploma. In fact, the number of these types of jobs will outnumber the people who are qualified with the proper amount of education by three million, according to a report that will be released by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. The report was cite... Read More About Importance Of College Degrees

            Save the teachers, a House Democrat proposes. Cut funding from Obama’s highly-debated education reform proposal and use the money to prevent thousands of teacher layoffs, according to an article in The Washington Post.             Rep. David R. Obey (Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, proposed that congress refinance Obama’s “Race to the Top” education reform program and fund a $10 billion measure to preserve many teachers’ jobs.       &n... Read More About Education Reform Plans

In a recent article, Jay Mathews of The Washington Post offers a fresh opinion on America’s academic culture of high prestige and narrow notoriety.             Mathews argues that Americans are very naïve in thinking that our universities are by far and beyond the best in the world. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford are some of the best colleges in the world; however, Mathews argues that some foreign colleges are catching up to these institutions.             Mathews cited Ben Wildavsky's "The Great Brain Race: How Glo... Read More About Foreign Colleges

 President Barack Obama’s proposal for education reform has been receiving strict opposition from many education administrators, according to an article in The New York Times.       Recently, teachers unions and educators are leading the debate against lawmakers over Obama’s “Race to the Top” education reform plan. Some state officials in California privately told The New York Times that Obama’s proposed plan has a 50-50 chance (at best) of gaining the necessary approval to pass. The plan also needs $700 million from Washington.       Obama’s Race to the... Read More About Education Reform Debate

A Master’s degree traditionally carries an honorable, intelligent and prestigious clout; however, the value of this clout is a moot point.             To some, a Master’s degree is a sign of intellectual superiority, but to others it could simply be a framed piece of paper that needs to be dusted regularly. There are many pros and cons to pursuing a Master’s degree, and it would be wise for students to make the decision of whether they will pursue one early.  As the economy plummets, the interest in graduate programs increases.       ... Read More About The Value Of A Masters Degree

        In attempts to attract prospective students, many colleges across the nation are promising incoming freshmen that their tuition rates will not rise during their four years in college, according to an article in The US News & World Report.       All public universities in Illinois and several other public and private colleges throughout the nation are locking freshmen tuition rates. However, these schools are raising separate fees such as housing, meal plans and other various costs. Also, these colleges are increasing the tuition rates that each incoming freshmen class will pay, witho... Read More About Colleges Offering Tuition Guarantees

Colleges across the nation are aggregately experiencing decreases in federal budget money for instruction. These figures are met by increased spending on administrative costs, according to an article in The New York Times. These figures are taken from a recent study from colleges’ and universities’ reports to the federal government. “Students are paying more, and a greater share of the costs, but are arguably getting less,” Jane Wellman, the executive director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability, told The New York Times. The Delta Project aims to maintain the quality... Read More About Students Paying More For Education

            The U.S. Department of Education released its New Education Technology Plan May 5th, 2010, noting its strong intentions to implement more technological advances in k-12 classrooms, according to an article in District Administration.             The suggested plan includes heavy use of mobile devices, increasing digital usage and content, and social networking for more communication. It is still unsure exactly how schools will use these measures to foster education. The uses will vary from school-to-school.   &nb... Read More About The Future Of Technology In Education

            Most students who attend for-profit colleges are forced to take out much larger loans and accumulate more debt than students who attend non-profit colleges, according to an ." rel="nofollow">article in The Washington Post.             The article cited a study completed by the College Board. The study used the 2007-2008 college school year. It found that 53% of students who attend for-profit colleges accumulated at least $30,500 in debt. Only 24% of students who attend non-profit colleges and 12% of students in public coll... Read More About For Profit Colleges

The ripple effects of the economic recession are continuing to surge through education as many public high schools are preparing to layoff tens of thousands of teachers nationwide, according to a recent article from The Washington Post.             These layoffs will result in larger class sizes and some schools will be forced to cut certain programs and classes. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York and New Jersey are likely to be hit the hardest with the most faculty layoffs.             Congress is currently considering impleme... Read More About Massive Teacher Layoffs Imminent

Digital education: It’s growing. It’s exploding. It’s the future of learning. But, what exactly is it and how can it help the classroom?             Here are several digital tools that can be great resources to help teachers and students create successful learning environments. Feel free to add to this post with digital tools you have used or heard of. Electronic textbooks: Mainly used by college professors. These allow professors to digitally edit and change the information in textbooks. This helps professors create a textbook that is fully customized to each class. Al... Read More About Digital Learning Tools

Education Secretary Arne Duncan was featured yesterday on CNN's "Fixing America's Schools".You can view the two video clips here.Skip to the 3 minute mark of both clips to hear Duncan's talking points.The setting was a "town hall" meeting at an Atlanta high school, and Duncan touched on issues ranging from education loans, tuition tax credits, and the FAFSA form.  A few points of note: * Income-based loan repayments * Duncan touts junior colleges, for-profit universities as viable alternatives to traditional 4-year college * Assessing "growth" and "gain" instead of simply meeting a benchmark. Being a town hall setting, it was naturall... Read More About Arne Duncan On The Future Of American Education

Online education: it seems so simple, so convenient. So perfect for you? It could be; however, there are several mistakes that online teachers frequently see students make, according to The US News & World Report. The US News & World Report published eight, common mistakes associated with online education.  1. Not verifying the school’s credibility: Most students go to college and other schools to receive credits. However, some employers and colleges simply will not accept some online schools’ credits. They put no credence in some of these unaccredited online schools. Therefore, attending certain online schools are a... Read More About Online Education Pitfalls

            Experts are saying that foreign students are surpassing American students by scoring much higher on many achievement tests, according to The New York Times.             Many foreign students are at least a year ahead of their American peers academically. Currently, about 70% of American students graduate from high school, which is lower than most other developed foreign countries. Only Spain, Mexico, New Zealand and Turkey lag behind the United States in K-12 educational achievement. The New York Times reported that Americ... Read More About American Education Lacking

            President Barack Obama will send a proposal to congress for an education system reform the week of March 14, according to The Los Angeles Times.             Obama’s proposal will also reform the No Child Left Behind project to improve high schools and give graduates the “the best chance to succeed in a changing world,” Obama told the Los Angeles Times.             His plans developed in the midst of many reports stating that America’s education... Read More About Reworking The Education System

            Professors can now customize textbooks by editing, rewriting, or deleting various sections of them through new online software.             Macmillan, one of the largest publishers of textbooks, is creating a new digital textbook program called DynamicBooks. This program will be like a Wikipedia version of textbooks, according to The New York Times.             Many professors use generic textbooks and assign various outside-of-the-book readings and assignments. Also,... Read More About Digital Textbooks

Dear high school seniors, when you sit in a cubicle for the next 50 years of your life for nine hours a day, what do you want to do? Think about it, and let yourself know in a few years.             The earlier one can declare a major the better. However, it is very important for students not to pigeon-hole themselves into majors before college even starts. Choosing a major is one of the most important decisions students can make, and they need to choose carefully. After all, it very well could be what you do every day for the next 50 years.        &nbs... Read More About College Majors

            This post is being written while listening to Professor Jim Newton’s Communication Studies 187: Journalistic Ethics from the University of California Los Angeles for free.             The lecture is an hour-long video clip from YouTube. The U.S. News and World Report states that many college professors are uploading their lectures to online sites, extending higher education past students and teachers to all people. Their lectures are publicly available to anyone interested.        ... Read More About Free Online College Lectures

"When will I ever need this?"  "Why would I ever need to know this?" Questions like this from students are often met with an answer like, "Well...when you're in the real world..."Wrong answer.  This represents the loss of a great learning opportunity.  Instead of referencing some ambiguous state called "the real world," educators could instead find applications with which the students can directly relate.  Merely just saying that they will need this specific piece of knowledge in some future "real world" also unnecessarily devalues the student's current lives.  Are they not living very real moments every day? So how c... Read More About In The Real World

            The Advance Placement program is increasing in high schools throughout the nation, bringing more opportunities to students, according to The New York Times.             The A.P. program was originally created to allow top students to take college-level classes and earn college credit. Most high schools offer A.P. classes in a variety of different subjects. A.P. students take the A.P. exam, and they can earn college credit at most institutions with a passing score of 3, 4, or 5. The exam is scored 1-5, with 5 as the highest... Read More About AP Program Grows

"Failure is the mother of success" - Chinese sayingThink back on your own schooling, and you'll realize that most classroom environments are meant to stifle failures.  If you're currently a student, you well know the embarassment that comes if you raise your hand and offer an incorrect answer.  Students become boxed in, afraid to stretch their thinking beyond the confines that teachers have established.  However, research, and anecdotal evidence, is showing that accepting failures as part of the learning process can lead to more creative individuals who are able to apply problem solving skills to new problems.  The December... Read More About Failing Is An Option

A New York Times article has reported that SRI International for the Department of Education discovered that students performed better in online learning scenarios than in classroom scenarios. The study was performed from 1996 through 2008, and it used mostly college students and adults. However, some K-12 students were used. Students who did some or all of their work in online settings ranked nine percent higher on test scores than students who used strictly classroom, face-to-face instructions. On average, students who used online instructions ranked in the 59th percentile on test scores, while students who used only classroom instructions... Read More About Online Education

You might be thinking this post is superfluous.  What's so hard about reading a textbook?  Turns out it's more difficult than it looks.  Flip open any math, history, science textbook these days, and you might feel like you've opened up a circus tent.  Tons of colors.  Every other word is bolded, underlined, or italicized.  Almost every page has a callout box.  Pictures are strewn all over the place, sometimes they are even placed in page corners to supposedly "guide" you through the the chapters.  On top of all that, there are special "sections" in each chapter to distract you.  "Come read this real... Read More About How To Read A Textbook

            Nearly all colleges have bookstores located on or close to campus. And every single one of them is a lot more expensive than it needs to be.             A lot of these bookstores are affiliated with the university. These bookstores know what books the professors assign, and they usually have those books in stock. However, they understand that they have little to none competition, granting them the liberty of jacking the prices up. They know students will buy books there because they have a dearth of other choices.  &... Read More About Avoid Your College Bookstore

Hollywood takes its cues from reality, but in this case, the opposite could be happening.  With the rise in popularity of TV shows such as CSI, Numb3rs, and Bones, interest in forensic sciences has increased, especially among the teen age set.  In this case TV influencing real life is a good thing, and some schools and programs have cropped up to cultivate these interests.  Robotics Schools such as Montvue Elementary in Pomona, CA are offering robotics classes that combine many disciplines.  Think about it, in real life problems don’t present themselves in the form of “please graph y = x^2 + 3x + 2”, so ... Read More About It Does Not Have To Be Boring

Starved for ideas?  Watch a Tedtalk!  Tedtalks happen at TED Conferences.  It’s marketed as a gathering of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators.  The best part?  Many of the talks are posted online, entirely free, for anyone to view!  You don’t have to pay a fortune (tickets start around $6,000) to attend a conference, all you need is an Internet connection. With topics ranging from Entertainment to Science to the Arts, you’re bound to find something that interests you.  You may even find new interests within a matter of minutes.  Here’s a small sampling of the insp... Read More About Watch a TED Talk

There are varying studies that “prove” the value of college degrees, and yet there are others that “prove” colleges do not actually make one more valuable. However, the bottom line is that simply going to college will not automatically enhance one’s value in the job market.             The New York Times asked “how much does the actual teaching and learning that happens on campus really matter.” Many people who have college degrees are working blue-collar jobs. However, statistics claim that the median earnings for people who have a 4-year bachelo... Read More About True Value of College Degrees

It's What You Make of It           Facebook was intended to be a social networking site between friends of a similar age.             The Berlin wall was never intended to fall; the Ozone layer was intended to withstand anything, and any written word ever published was intended to be read. However, intentions are not permanent or withstanding, and Facebook is no longer for people your age.             Your high school teachers may not have been on Facebook, but your college professors wil... Read More About Facebook

Choosing a college based on strong academics is very important; however, there is a lot more to college than its national, academic rankings. Every college has its own unique culture, consisting of its academics, its geographic location and its student body. It’s the vibe one gets from that college. There is nothing you can read or hear to fully understand a college’s culture. No one can tell you truly what it’s truly like, and how you will feel about it. You need to visit as often as you can. Some colleges are in isolated towns, and others are in the heart of big cities. Students at certain colleges tailgate for football g... Read More About Go On College Visits!

Computer programming skills prove to be great asset In a world that is rapidly going digital, many employers are looking for people who understand the digital world and computer programming skills as well as their field of study. These people who can combine computer programming skills with the knowledge of their field will be more attractive to employers, according to The New York Times. Many young students are reluctant to pursue these careers because the skills are difficult to quickly learn, and schools do not teach the material at a deeper level. Many high school programs only give students a surface level, computer programming educati... Read More About Computer Programming Skills Prove To Be Great Asset

The stacks and online databases of hopeful, entrance applications for the incoming 2009-2010 freshmen class have grown sharply for the nation’s top, competitive schools, decreasing the chances of acceptance, according to The New York Times. Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Yale and Brown are some of the more recognizable schools that saw increases in applications. These schools have traditionally been highly selective, and they have scrutinized applications further, making it one of the toughest years for hopeful students. The Times reported that the percentage of students accepted into these competitive colleges has been or near record l... Read More About Recession Can Not Slow Interest In Elite Colleges

There are many reasons why college is different than high school; however, the main reason is the different way you will be forced to think. High school teachers preach that you will think critically in their high school courses, but most students are not fully introduced to this type of thinking until college starts. High school classes do require some critical thinking, but not nearly as much as colleges do. The entire course curriculum can be different. High school classes rely on memorizing dates, definitions and other facts. However, college challenges students to know and apply the knowledge to the professional business world or everyd... Read More About College Demands Critical Thinking

Traditionally, out-of-state tuition is much more expensive than in-state, and it is inevitable for students who are interested in out-of-state colleges. However, some colleges are alleviating or decreasing out-of-state tuition charges, according to The U.S. News and World Report. High-ranking, popular colleges that already attract many intelligent prospective students are not decreasing out-of-state charges. These colleges have many students who are willing to pay the high fees. Also, these schools have stricter restrictions for who can apply for in-state tuition. Most of these schools only allow students to receive in-state tuition if they ... Read More About Colleges Decreasing Out-of-State Tuition