Educate

Just 20 percent of college-goers fit the stereotype of being young, single, full-time students who finish a degree in four years. College students today are more likely to be older, part-time, working, and low-income than they were three decades ago.

The United States is in the midst of a huge education reform. The Common Core State Standards are a new set of expectations for what students should learn each year in school.

Researchers have long been searching for better ways to learn. In recent decades, experts working in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience have opened new windows into how the brain works, and how we can learn to learn better.

Long-predicted demographic changes mean a new kind of student is figuring out where to go to college, and how to pay for it.

A new report looks at why some schools have a lot of money to spend per pupil, while others don't, and what to do about it.

In May Stephen Smith was invited to be on a panel in Minneapolis that focused on the value of higher education. The panel answered questions such as: Who needs college?

A growing number of adjunct faculty at colleges and universities across the country are voting to unionize. Data from the Department of Education show a tremendous move toward using these so-called contingent teachers in all types of post-secondary institutions over the last 40 years.

The government wants to collect data on America's children. And that has parents across the country more than a little nervous.

The second of a series on what's inside the Common Core State Standards. Last week we heard about the English Language Arts and Literacy portion; this week we talk to one of the lead authors of the standards for mathematics.

What do children need to know in school to be prepared for the future? That's the question that drives a new set of national learning standards called the Common Core.This week: inside the standards for English Language Arts/Literacy.