July 10: Education News We're Reading This Week
July 10, 2015—Here are the best articles from education news this week.
Recent data shows the U.S. succeeding when it comes to increasing high school graduation rates and closing gaps for historically disadvantaged groups. Now, writes Chad Aldeman, schools with less than 60 percent student success are becoming the exception.
Proposed New Jersey legislation would establish a college loan lottery, where winners would have their college debt paid directly to the institution to which they owed money, reports Inside Higher Ed.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, a new National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report shows the transfer of U.S. students has increased over recent years: more than one third of students who began college in 2008 moved to a new school at least once. Due to state performance-based funding, many institutions will be penalized for this lack of retention.
EdBuild has created an interactive map using Census Bureau data which outlines concentrations of poverty in the U.S. A similar map would have been hard to come by in recent years, writes The Washington Post, noting that it is a handy tool to understand poverty and wealth in the country’s nearly 14,000 school districts.
As both Houses of Congress consider bills to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Education Week writes that the Obama administration is concerned that neither version of the legislation focuses enough on struggling schools and closing the achievement gap. The Obama administration also fears that the bipartisan nature of the current discussion means any rewrite will lack the federal accountability needed to increase our country’s proficiency rates.
They also gave an update after Wednesday’s vote, in which the House passed a Republican-backed version of the act by a tally of 218 to 213.
Heading off to school soon and still unsure of where all the money will come from? Make the most of some last-minute opportunities by reading about these 11 tips in U.S. News & World Report.
New College Scholar and former Young Scholar Min Zhong was praised in The Washington Post for her determination to reach the top. The 19-year-old learned English at age nine after moving to the U.S., helped care for two younger brothers growing up, and will now attend Swarthmore College in the fall.
This week the Cooke Foundation awarded 39 scholarships to exceptional graduate students, all of whom are previous Cooke Scholars and will attend the nation’s top institutions of higher education.
The Philadelphia Inquirer featured a spotlight piece on Larry Liam Ching Liu, the first recipient of the inaugural Cooke Oxford Award. A graduate of the Community College of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, Liu will study comparative social policy at the University of Oxford’s Lincoln College.