Higher Education News

All classes in the arts and sciences have been canceled for Wednesday after a backlash against student protesters that included violent threats.

But there was little consensus on specific steps to be taken during a morning-long discussion of the American Bar Association's legal-education task force.

Thomas Herndon is the talk of economics after demonstrating flaws in a hugely influential 2010 journal article.

Proposed guidance for employers under the new health law takes note of special concerns for adjuncts. Their advocates spoke up at a hearing.

The death of a Chinese graduate student in the Boston bombings focuses new attention on what has become a mounting concern.

Also found in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth: a hat and a jacket like those seen in photographs of the bomb scene.

Several sessions at the annual conference were devoted to how colleges are working to raise the proportion of black men who earn postsecondary credentials.

At the sector's annual meeting this week, organizers made a big push to sign up colleges to participate in the Voluntary Framework of Accountability.

The report, from the New America Foundation, suggests collaborative approaches that would help more students find an affordable pathway to a degree.

Getting students past remedial courses and helping them focus their academic goals were among strategies discussed at a meeting of college leaders.

Secretary Duncan kicked off Earth Day today by announcing the 2013 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools and District Sustainability Awardees. Official Department of Education photo by Paul Wood.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan kicked off Earth Day today by announcing the 64, 2013 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools and 14 District Sustainability Awardees during a visit to Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.  Joined by Chair of White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley, Acting Administrator of the EPA Bob Persiacepe, and eager early learners, Duncan praised the selected schools and districts and reminded the classroom that: “Healthy, safe, educationally adequate facilities; wellness practices like outdoors physical activity and good nutrition; and environmental education are part of a vital cradle to career pipeline.”

From 29 states and the District of Columbia, this year’s honorees provide concrete examples of how all schools can reduce costs and environmental impact, promote better health and wellness; and ensure effective environmental education, including civics, STEM and green career pathways.  Among the honored schools, 54 are public, including seven charter, five magnet and four career and technical schools, and ten are private schools. More than fifty percent of the awardees serve disadvantaged populations.

In both new and aged facilities, these schools and districts are making school environments healthier, reducing waste, and saving millions of dollars in utility costs.  Students are learning outdoors, staying physically active, and preparing and consuming nutritious food to fuel their well-rounded learning.  Echoing his recent Video PSA, Secretary Duncan said that “environmental education provides a natural link to the careers of the future and to environment, technology and natural resource majors, which require creative thinking, problem solving and a strong foundation in STEM subjects.”

These schools and districts provide examples of how to excel in all of three award Pillars – whatever a school or district’s resources.  In fact, the selected districts are saving millions of dollars as a result of their greening efforts.  Read all about their exemplary, yet replicable, practices here.  Then, your school can draw on the same free tools these honorees use through the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Strides Resources and Webinar Series.

With the help of these tools, next fall you may even be eligible to apply to your state for its nomination to ED!  For next year, ED will provide 2013-2014 criteria to states in July.  State education agencies are encouraged to indicate their intent to nominate next spring by August 1, 2013 and schools and districts to contact their state agencies for more information on applications.

Watch the announcement of the 2013 Green Ribbon Schools here.

Kyle Flood is a confidential assistant in the Office of the General Counsel and social media manager for the ED Green Team.

As I listened to the group of students across the table, I wondered about how they did it? How did these students- from the south side of Chicago- overcome the obstacles that continually stand in the way for many of our kids who are all too often on the wrong side of the achievement gap? What happened that helped these kids academically achieve and change the trajectory of their lives? Wanting to hear more about their past, but not wanting to invade their privacy, I asked, “How many of you will be among the first in your family to go to college?” Five students raised their hands. I followed up, “How many of you went to preschool or Head Start?” All five hands remained in the air.

Reams of data point to the positive impact of early education on the lives of students who hail from tenuous circumstances, and the Chicago Longitudinal Study shows that every dollar invested in early education has a substantial return on investment. The data is important, but what is more important is the very real impact that early education has had on the lives of some of our most vulnerable students, including those kids from Chicago.

Students from Chicago’s Hubbard High School meet with Education Secretary Arne Duncan after the students’ briefed Department staff on issues facing their community.

I am keenly aware of the difference that early education can make in a child’s life, because it made a world of difference in my own. As the son of a father who dropped out of the eighth grade in Oaxaca, Mexico, and of a mother who could only read at the 3rd grade level, I did not have the best odds at achieving academic success.

Other than an old family King James Bible, there were no books in my house. There were no puzzles, or activities to teach shapes, colors, or numbers. I, like many students in neighborhoods similar to my own, was at a disadvantaged starting place in the game of life. I, however, was fortunate in that I was enrolled in Head Start, an early education program that aims to improve education, health, nutrition and parent involvement for low-income children and their families. In Head Start, I was taught the foundations which better prepared me for the start of my educational journey. As opposed to entering kindergarten behind, I went in with knowledge and competencies that allowed me to participate in class and feel confident in my abilities. The Head Start program helped me have a fair shot at learning, and ultimately a fair shot at life.

As a teacher of high school students who have been removed from other institutions and who have been identified as potential dropouts, I often wonder about the educational journey of my kids. The vast majority of my students come to class with significant academic deficiencies. My school has been identified as a model for helping these students overcome barriers to academic success, but does so with a significant amount of resources to help these students with academic, physical, mental, and emotional issues. Being familiar with their backgrounds, I know that most of my kids started off far behind many of their peers at the traditional school sites. I cannot help but wonder what would have been if my students had been part of a quality, early education program that perhaps could have given them the head start they needed.

As we transition to more rigorous standards and assessments, we find ourselves at a crossroads. Achievement of these standards will help our kids compete in the flat world, but if we do not make a concerted effort to help all kids start out with the same basic competencies through high-caliber, early education programs, we may perpetuate the achievement gap we seek to eliminate. The five students that I met from Chicago transcended the achievement gap and overcame challenges, due to the support of family, teachers, strong-willed determination, and quite possibly, the impact of early education.

Marciano Gutierrez is a 2012 Teaching Ambassador Fellow, on loan from Alta Vista High School in Mountain View, Calif.

As a wave of community-college presidents retires, their successors confront a day of reckoning, said speakers at the sector's annual meeting.

Billed as Asia's first massive open online course, the class on science, technology, and China is a sign of the region's growing interest in online education.

Babson College chose Kerry Healey, a past lieutenant governor, as its next leader. But some people on the campus have counted her political views against her.

Working 30 or more hours a week earns employees health insurance under the new law. Colleges, worried about the cost, have a solution.

Mary Sue Coleman, the first woman to serve as the University of Michigan's president, will retire when her contract expires, in July 2014.

In thinking of return on investment, dollars and cents ought to be taken into account, but not to the exclusion of other things that matter.