Education News

Still, Mr. MacRae wants a college education and knows that some good universities are predominantly white, far from his homelands in the Arizona desert, and hard to get into. So his parents paid $50 for Alistaire to join 50 other American Indian students this summer, meeting with representatives of Harvard, Stanford and 19 other schools for a crash course on how to apply to elite colleges.

Fast-growing school districts suffer because as new students come into a district, the tax receipts from their houses may not come in for a year to 18 months after the students actually are enrolled.

Microsoft plans to spend more than $35 million over the next five years to add a U.S. component to its overseas Partners in Learning program, which has endeavored to train teachers and students in technology. The goal stateside is to create technology-infused learning models that can be replicated and sustained by schools from Puget Sound to New York City, and everywhere in between.

The nation’s first large-scale school laptop program appears headed for expansion, regardless of whether state lawmakers vote to fund the initiative next year.

Without visionary school leadership, backed by supportive communities, the disparities in ed-tech budgets increase.

The governor has said creating a state trust fund that would provide tuition grants is a key priority for his administration, as tuition has risen steadily and as state support for public universities declines.

"The Company," a class devoted to teaching both soft skills, such as how to get along with co-workers and greet clients, to hard skills, like creating spreadsheets, filing, banking and planning the perfect business trip.

Northface University says it can produce more useful job hires than Ivy League schools in barely half the time.

"I don’t know where these kids go to school," counselor Katreena Whitted, a 22-year-old University of Maryland graduate, said, laughing. "They know a lot more than I do."

New solutions are needed to improve public education without dramatic
increases in funding