Education

Job Market Remains Challenging For 2013 Graduates

9:52am June 05, 2013

by Andrew Schneider

For the past five years, graduation day has been a time of apprehension as much as celebration. Prospects for those entering the workforce for the first time were bleak. The class of 2013 — whether from high school or college — has cause for more optimism than previous classes.

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Why Some Schools Want To Expel Suspensions

12:12am June 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Research shows suspensions are disproportionately applied to minorities and give students a fast track to dropping out and to the juvenile justice system. The Los Angeles Unified School District recently instituted a ban on certain suspensions, but finding a viable alternative is a complex task.

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Student newspapers may be the latest victims of social media.

Education

High School Newspapers: An Endangered Species

2:49pm June 01, 2013

by Scott Simon

The New York Times reported this week that only 1 in 8 of New York's public high schools still has a student newspaper. National figures are only a bit better. NPR's Scott Simon says student newspapers are the latest victims of social media.

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Teacher Feature: Ethnobotanist Tom Carlson

12:09pm May 31, 2013

"Office hours are some of my favorite hours of the week," says professor Tom Carlson, a medical doctor, ethnobotanist and instructor of 1700 students annually at the University of California, Berkeley. One of Carlson's former students, SciFri associate senior producer Christopher Intagliata, says Carlson's class got him on the path toward science. In this "Teacher Feature," Intagliata tells his former teacher what the class meant to him.

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President Obama, with Education Secretary Arne Duncan at his side, calls on Congress on June 21, 2012, to stop interest rates on student loans from doubling. He is going to make that appeal again Friday.

Obama Presses Congress On Student Loan Rates

11:25am May 31, 2013

by Scott Horsley

Interest rates on government-backed college loans are set to double July 1 — unless Congress agrees on a fix before then. The president is expected to urge Congress on Friday to block that increase.

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The University of Tennessee became one of 10 state university systems teaming up with Coursera, a for-profit tech company.

Online College Courses Get A Big Boost, But Doubts Persist

6:01pm May 30, 2013

by Claudio Sanchez

Degree-granting institutions are responding to austere budgets by catapulting themselves into the world of online education. But some professors point to low online completion rates as evidence that these "massive open online courses" do a disservice to students.

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Losers In Chicago School Closings Target Elected Officials

12:54pm May 24, 2013

by Cheryl Corley

The Chicago school board voted to close dozens of schools, despite community protests that the closings disproportionately affect minority students. Now the teachers union and community activists want to change the system and oust the elected officials who disagreed with them.

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Education

Growing Vegetables From Seeds Takes Root For Many Gardeners

5:20pm May 20, 2013

by Sasa Woodruff

More and more gardeners are bypassing the local nursery and instead starting their veggies from seed. Seeds are often cheaper, and they give growers a bigger choice of varieties. At a community garden in Venice, Calif., students learn the ins and outs of gardening from scratch.

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LA Schools Throw Out Suspensions For 'Willful Defiance'

8:50pm May 15, 2013

by Nathan Rott

Students deemed "willfully defiant" accounted for nearly half of California's 700,000 suspensions last year. Many educators are cheering the Los Angeles Unified School District's decision to ban such suspensions, arguing the category is too broad and disproportionately targeted black students.

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Jackeline Lizama (front) plans to attend a local community college after she graduates next month from her high school in Silver Spring, Md.

Education

Latino High School Grads Enter College At Record Rate

5:46pm May 14, 2013

by Hansi Lo Wang

Latinos are entering colleges and universities at higher rates than whites and blacks but still lower than Asian-Americans. This is an all-time high for Latinos, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center report. It's the result, in part, of a dramatic rise in the graduation rate among Hispanic high school students.

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