Legal troubles over state takeover. 101 Birmingham, Ala., school employees, who were either fired to transferred during a state takeover of schools, are suing to get their jobs back. They say the board didn’t approve the job cuts, and that the state superintendent wrongfully stepped in to override its decision. (Birmingham News)

Depressing statistic of the day. “Poor students with practiContinue Reading »

While I write a lot about higher education, I’ve always tried to avoid college admissions as a topic. The large majority of college students attend schools that have either open or relatively non-selective admissions policies. Yet media coverage of higher education obsessively focuses on the selective admissions rat race among a small percentage of very privileged young men and women whosContinue Reading »

Every year around this time colleges and universities release their acceptance rates. Every year the most selective colleges report that acceptance rates are at an all-time low, which freaks out the next class of high school juniors to no end. So every year I make the following point, which is that it’s not as hard for qualified students to get into a selective college as it seems. Here&#Continue Reading »