Twelve years after federal policy first tried to chip away at the problem of unequal access to teacher quality through No Child Left Behind, the field continues to grapple with this complex issue.

Today’s “Equitable Access” event at the Center for American Progress (CAP), cohosted with American Institutes for Research, reminded the policy wonks in the room that low-income students and students of color are still more likely than their peers to be saddled with less experienced and less effective teachers.

A great many efforts are under way to remedy this unjust situation—from providing retention bonuses, to establishing teacher residency programs that [...]Continue Reading »

President Obama is calling his new initiative  to help every young man of color get on the path to success, “My Brother’s Keeper.” The reference is to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. After Cain kills his brother Abel, God asks Cain where Abel was and Cain replies “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

This deeply ethical question has sparked philosophical and religious debate through the centuries, but today, here and now, the unequivocal facts on young African American males all point to a “yes” answer.

The Schott Foundation’s recent report, The Urgency of Now, shows that while [...]Continue Reading »

The National Center for Education Statistics’ release last week of a survey of the condition of America’s school facilities in the 2012 Academic Year opens up a critical issue that too few understand– how the condition, design and use of facilities affect student achievement, teacher quality, teacher retention, and community support.  It has been 15 years since the last update, and those years haven’t been kind to the nation’s huge and expensive capital stock of school buildings.

The NCES report highlights that:

America’ schools are old.  On average, it has been more than 40 years since the main instructional building was constructed. [...]Continue Reading »

One section of the National Center for Education Statistics’ newly released Projections of Education Statistics to 2022 homes in on enrollment in higher education. This piece of the 41st edition of NCES’ annual forecast of future trends in important education indicators is a virtual storehouse of information about enrollments in the nation’s colleges and universities since 1997 and a guide to where the nation is likely to be in 2022.

Two trends shown in the charts below:

While the Bachelor’s degree is and probably will remain for the next decade the most commonly awarded degree in the United States, the number of [...]Continue Reading »

The Department of Education held a technical symposium last week to discuss what kind of data and analysis the federal government should use for President Obama’s accessibility, affordability, and  outcomes rating for U.S. colleges (Official title: Postsecondary Institution Rating System).

Three key takeaways from the meeting:

First, the current higher education data infrastructure urgently needs improvement. This message was delivered by just about every presenter, and it is probably the most important message of the day. There was general consensus that student-level data (the student unit record) rather than institution-level data  would provide a much stronger foundation for the ratings.

One example:  When [...]Continue Reading »

Parents and students want to know:  Who or what is to blame for the skyrocketing (up 50 percent in 10 years) cost of a college education? Some blame faculty salaries, cuts in state aid, or excessive spending. But “Administrative Bloat”— a flurry of new vice presidents, provosts, deans, and other professional workers – has been a target high on everyone’s list.

New analysis from AIR’s Delta Cost Project breaks down staffing and compensation changes in higher education and sheds new light on the role of administrative bloat in the cost of college.

Administrative positions have increased across all types of higher education [...]Continue Reading »

Flipping the classroom. A Detroit high school was one of the lowest performing schools in Michigan until they decided to flip the classroom. By recording lessons online for students to watch at home, teachers have more time in the classroom to work through problems. (YouTube)

An epidemic. Cheating has become very common in schools, with cheating making the headlines in some of the country’s most prestigious schools. These students speak about why they cheat and the pressure of being a student. (Teen Vogue)

Twelve Days of Christmas. This student gets into the holiday spirit by turning all-nighters and mental breakdowns into a [...]Continue Reading »