Pricing out high school dropouts. The price to take the GED test will triple in the next year, making it inaccessible to some of its poorest students. (The Columbus Dispatch)

Midwest colleges take the largest chunk. International enrollment in U.S. universities has increased 6 percent since last year, even as total enrollment has leveled off. (Associated Press)

Packed lunch. CouldContinue Reading »

Do quality and completion rates go hand-in-hand? High-achieving Massachusetts students who accepted scholarships to attend public, in-state institutions (rather than more selective, private ones) didn’t graduate on time, according to a new study that tries to draw a link between college quality and completion rates. (Harvard Kennedy School)

“That applause you hear in the backgroundContinue Reading »

The future of ed tech. Nearly 65 percent of today’s students will end up at jobs that haven’t been invented yet, according to this infographic. (TFE Research)

Teacher pay. Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel show there are ways to pay teachers more within current school system budgets—and without increasing class size. The Hassels also contributed to Education Sector’s recent compilatioContinue Reading »

Still in the lead. As President of Northern Virginia Community College, Richard Ernst led the small institution to become one of the largest and most innovative in the nation. Now at age 79, he’s still leading—he’s winning gold medals as a senior Olympian track star. (Washington Post)

Novice teacher placement. First-year teachers tend to be assigned to poor-performing classes, or those tContinue Reading »

Evaluating the effectiveness of PD. Professional development is often rated based on whether teachers enjoyed it, but should it be judged in other ways? Could it be linked to achievement? (The Hechinger Report)

They got this. Officials in San Diego and San Jose are taking it upon themselves to address pension woes, as policymakers in Sacramento stall on the issue. Education Sector’s SaraContinue Reading »

Beyond classroom walls. The underlying theme in yesterday’s NAEP science scores? An overall lack of hands-on experimentation and learning. So get children outside and learning, says Andy Rotherham. (TIME)

Just in case. A scuffle between one Ohio school district superintendent and a board member has left the board member so rattled that he’s hired a bodyguard and sheriff’s deputy to accomContinue Reading »

Education, an election issue? Sixty-seven percent of swing-state voters rank education as “extremely important,” behind jobs and the economy, according to a report out today. (h/t Huffington Post) (College Board)

If they can’t go, bring it to them. Google Art Project brings the world’s art museums to classrooms via Google Earth and virtual tours. About 150 collections from 40 countries aContinue Reading »

Like a glove. The exit of former Washington Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau should remind us that although someone may have the abilities, they may just not be the right fit. This applies to teaching too, says Eduwonk’s Andy Rotherham. (Eduwonk)

Hint, hint, second-round applicants. PoliticsK12 provides a bulleted list of the top flaws seen in the first round of applications to the adContinue Reading »

Tuition-free degrees that come with a catch. Students at the University of California-Riverside have proposed a fix for increasing tuition costs: get rid of tuition completely. Instead, they say, graduates could re-pay the university by allocating 5 percent of their salaries for their first 20 years of employment. (TIME)

If pizza is a vegetable, could it be considered trans-fat-free? ColContinue Reading »

State Teacher Policy Yearbook. The National Council on Teacher Quality today released its annual state-by-state analysis of teacher-related policies. NCTQ said it saw more changes across the board in the last year than in any other year (this is the fifth edition), although it gave the nation as a whole a D+.

Now, for step 2. Nashville school officials have a data trove that keeps tabs oContinue Reading »