The article analyzes the last two decades of higher education reforms in Slovenia. During the "period of transition," they were led by national as well as international initiatives. At an early stage, the national initiatives were mainly based on criticisms of the last reform made by the former regime, although the generation of new ideas and…

This article features Bookshare, a nonprofit that provides free electronic copies of traditional books to students with certain disabilities. Inspired by Napster, the music-sharing service, Bookshare turns books into a format that can be read aloud by computers, magnified, and spaced differently so that students with vision problems or learning…

Students are taking on more college debt in this struggling economy, often without the knowledge to make wise choices. To help students better manage their debt, some college campuses and high schools are ramping up their financial-literacy efforts, where experts say such education should begin. But a squeeze on K-12 resources has hampered the…

If big-city districts are looking to close budget gaps, shuttering schools may not be the best strategy. Closing schools does not save very much money in the context of an urban district's budget, and selling or leasing surplus school buildings tends to be difficult because they're often old and in struggling neighborhoods, a recent report from a…

The author reports on a measure to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which faces steep political hurdles. Leaders of the Senate education committee still aim to push a bipartisan revision of the much-criticized No Child Left Behind Act through Congress by year's end, in time to stave off the Obama administration's move to…

A national survey finds that, when it comes to sexual harassment in school, many students do not know where to draw the line. Based on the first nationally representative survey in a decade of students in grades 7-12, the study conducted by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), found that 48 percent of nearly 2,000 students surveyed…

The author reports on a national study of middle school students in 40 charter networks which finds that, when it comes to having an impact on student achievement, results vary and, overall, charter students do not learn dramatically more than their counterparts in regular public schools. The findings from the research group Mathematica and the…

A year ago, Republicans piled up record victories in state elections on promises that they would keep taxes low and cut government spending--including money going to education. Now, elected officials and other partisans are laying the foundation for arguments they will take to the electorate next year that depict the cuts delivered by many…

States that want newly offered relief from certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act are scrambling to satisfy an easily overlooked requirement that they "meaningfully" engage with teachers, unions, parents, and community organizations, and even modify their waiver proposals based on that input. Federal education officials warn that…

Following a push to make "the nation's report card" better reflect the academic performance of all children in America's schools, most states boosted the numbers of students with disabilities and English-language learners who participated in the 2011 reading and math tests that are part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).…

School after school in the Phoenix area has a banner hanging on the side of the building: iTeachAZ. It is shorthand for Arizona State University's new flagship undergraduate teacher education program, which integrates several high-profile--and hotly debated--reforms to teacher preparation today. Under the program, which debuted formally this…

Voters in Ohio sent an unequivocal message to the state's Republican governor and lawmakers that they went too far in reining in collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees. But analysts say the conflict between the GOP and teachers' unions in Ohio and elsewhere is not over. By an overwhelming, 22-percentage-point margin,…

The General Educational Development program, or GED, is undergoing the biggest revamping in its 69-year history, driven by mounting recognition that young adults' future success depends on getting more than a high-school-level education. Potent forces have converged to stoke the GED's redesign. A labor market that increasingly seeks some…

A mantra in recent years has been to blame the teachers' unions for many of the problems that beset public education. Americans only need look at Wisconsin, where the governor and lawmakers pushed through legislation curtailing the collective bargaining rights of teachers and other public employees. This special report examines the attempts by a…

Although the common-core standards are calibrated to ensure that students leave K-12 schools ready for work and college, they are also posing challenges for the educators who work with children just starting out their school careers. As 46 states and the District of Columbia work this year to put the new curricular guidelines in place, preschool…