Educate

What if one day a week, school was in the woods? On the podcast, Emily Hanford takes us to Vermont to understand why teachers wanted to take their students into the forest, and what the kids -- and the teachers -- are learning from it.

There are 183 federally-run Bureau of Indian Education schools in the nation, and about a third of these are in poor condition. Some students at BIE schools deal with poorly-insulated classrooms, holes in the roof, rodents, and other issues on a daily basis.

A generation ago, if you walked into an American classroom, you’d likely find a veteran teacher who'd been on the job for 15 years or more. Today you're more likely to find a brand-new teacher – someone who's been the job for a year or less.

Over the past decade many elite colleges have taken great strides to admit low-income students, but there are unanticipated financial and cultural barriers to fitting in on campus that can’t easily be solved by merely giving students a foot in the door. Questions of class differences have spurred a nationwide movement of “first generation” student clubs on college campuses.

In the year following Hurricane Katrina, 30 percent of displaced children were either not enrolled in school or not attending regularly. Today, Louisiana has the nation’s highest rate of young adults who are neither in school nor working. And researchers are starting to ask: could the widespread gaps in schooling after Katrina be the reason?

Last month the board of Sweet Briar College announced that the school will shut its doors at the end of this term, due to financial difficulties. The announcement was made abruptly, sending the campus community into a state of shock... and then activism.

We talked last week with Kevin Carey, author of “The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University […]

Kevin Carey's book "The End of College" is stirring up debate in higher ed circles. This week, a response to the book by a critic.

When education policy wonk Kevin Carey looks into the future, he sees the end of traditional colleges and universities and he says that's a good thing.

Today older Americans are heading back to school in record numbers. Many have already started a career, but want to gain knowledge or skills that can make them more competitive in the workplace. Colleges and universities are grappling with the needs of a changing population of students.