In the year following Hurricane Katrina, 30 percent of displaced children were either not enrolled in school or not attending regularly. Today, Louisiana has the nation’s highest rate of young adults who are neither in school nor working. And researchers are starting to ask: could the widespread gaps in schooling after Katrina be the reason?
Last month the board of Sweet Briar College announced that the school will shut its doors at the end of this term, due to financial difficulties. The announcement was made abruptly, sending the campus community into a state of shock... and then activism.
Kevin Carey's book "The End of College" is stirring up debate in higher ed circles. This week, a response to the book by a critic.
When education policy wonk Kevin Carey looks into the future, he sees the end of traditional colleges and universities and he says that's a good thing.
Today older Americans are heading back to school in record numbers. Many have already started a career, but want to gain knowledge or skills that can make them more competitive in the workplace. Colleges and universities are grappling with the needs of a changing population of students.
In her new book,“The Test: Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing–But You Don’t Have to Be,” NPR Education Blogger Anya Kamenetz examines the role testing plays in American public education.
Last week, we talked about growing dissent among adjunct college instructors who claim they’re not getting compensated fairly for the work they do. This week we’ll hear from someone who has dealt with this issue from the administration side.
What would higher education look like without adjunct professors? That’s what a grass-roots group of academics is trying to prove by holding a National Adjunct Walk-out Day on February 25.
Sometime in the next few weeks, Senate Republicans and Democrats will vote to reauthorize The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. On the podcast this week, we talk to two education advocates who differ on how and when we should test our kids.
In June 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school desegregation plans that look at students’ race. This week on the podcast, we’re featuring our 2007 documentary, “An Imperfect Revolution: Voices from the Desegregation Era,"
We talk to a Dallas doctor who thinks HBCUs may be the best pathways for African Americans interested in careers in medicine.
The Minneapolis Public School District created an Office of Black Male Student Achievement earlier this year. One goal of the office is to help young African American men graduate from high school in greater numbers.
President Barack Obama wants to make the first two years of community college free for what he calls “responsible students” who are “willing to work for it.” It’s being called “America’s College Promise.” This week on the podcast we examine the prospect of free community college for all.
Our guest this week has a message for high school seniors and their parents who are poring over the latest college rankings lists: Put ‘em down.
Philanthropic foundations have been giving money to public education for years. But our guest this week argues that philanthropies are increasingly pushing specific educational agendas.
In January 2014 nearly a hundred college presidents gathered at the White House for a summit on the rising cost of college. But data show that those same institutions have been raising their prices fastest for the poorest students than for wealthier ones. This week on the podcast, we talk to a reporter who has been following the rising college cost burden on poor families.
In 2011 the federal government required colleges and universities to publish “net price calculators” on their web sites. These tools are supposed to help families figure out which colleges they can afford. The calculators take into account family income, number of kids in college, state of residency, and other factors. But they’re often hard to use and time-consuming. Our guest this week has made this process simpler and more accessible.
There’s a paradox in today’s job market: even though there are millions of people looking for work, employers say they can’t find enough qualified workers. That’s due to an abundance of what economists call “middle skills” jobs – jobs that require specialized training beyond high school, but not a four-year college degree.
Last month the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released a report that showed evidence of nearly two decades of academic fraud perpetuated by the school’s Afro-American Studies Department. An investigation found certain professors and administrators had an unwritten policy of “propping up” student athletes. This week on the podcast, we look at academic fraud at colleges with high-stakes sports programs.
Humanities professors at colleges and universities are re-thinking what it means to offer a PhD. The old model is proving unsustainable. It takes an average nine years to get a doctorate, but less than 60 percent of PhDs are finding tenure-track teaching jobs. This week, we look at a new report recommending academics view doctoral programs in a new light.
A polling expert finds students less engaged with school as they get older. Brandon Busteed from Gallup Education says if schools taught to strengths instead of weaknesses, more students would be successful in school and in life.
Education correspondent Emily Hanford talks with author Elizabeth Green about her new book, Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone).
Education correspondent Emily Hanford continues her conversation with Dana Goldstein, author of The Teacher Wars.
Education correspondent Emily Hanford talks with bestselling author Dana Goldstein about her new book, The Teacher Wars.
Author James Paul Gee says video games are problems to solve that come with their own tools. He says they're like "an external mind," and teachers should use them in classrooms.
College is worth the investment. College graduates can't find good jobs. Student loan debt keeps rising, and now tops a trillion dollars. What can be done?
Vocational education was once a staple of American schooling, preparing some kids for blue-collar futures while others were put on a path to college. Many experts say it's time to bring back career and technical education.
Just 20 percent of college-goers fit the stereotype of being young, single, full-time students who finish a degree in four years. College students today are more likely to be older, part-time, working, and low-income than they were three decades ago.
The United States is in the midst of a huge education reform. The Common Core State Standards are a new set of expectations for what students should learn each year in school.
Researchers have long been searching for better ways to learn. In recent decades, experts working in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience have opened new windows into how the brain works, and how we can learn to learn better.
