From New York Magazine, here is a short article offering insight into what goes on inside admissions rooms at small liberal arts colleges.

A recent article for the New Republic argues for common education standards as a means to improve the U.S. public school system.

Thanks in part to this left-right alliance, attempts to formulate common standards died in their inchoate phases under both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. And even the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001–the most ambitious federal attempt ever to hold failing schools accountable–left the question of what, exactly, students should be learning up to individual states.

The results have been depressing. Not wanting their schools to be labeled as failing, many states have watered down their standards–a trend that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has correctly called “a race to the bottom.” Expectations for students are therefore often embarrassingly low. Consider that, last year, 86 percent of New York eighth-graders were proficient in math based on the state’s exam–but only 34 percent were proficient according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is given to students nationwide. A system that could produce that kind of statistical gap is clearly one in need of reform.

Surprisingly, reform is coming from individual states themselves, 48 of whom participated in drafting a set of more rigorous standards, along with the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.   These standards would be applied to all states who voluntarily adopt them.  The editors of the New Republic see this as a “seismic shift in education policy.”  For more, read on here.

From the Wall Street Journal, here is an article to remind you that rejection from your top choice school isn’t the end of the world.

Both Warren Buffett and “Today” show host Meredith Vieira say that while being rejected by the school of their dreams was devastating, it launched them on a path to meeting life-changing mentors. Harold Varmus, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, says getting rejected twice by Harvard Medical School, where a dean advised him to enlist in the military, was soon forgotten as he plunged into his studies at Columbia University’s med school. For other college rejects, from Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy and entrepreneur Ted Turner to broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw, the turndowns were minor footnotes, just ones they still remember and will talk about.

Continue reading here.

In the U.S. News and World Report, Kim Clark lists 10 factors to consider when determining whether a college’s financial aid offer will be large enough to meet your needs.

This year, Tufts University offered applicants the opportunity to post a Youtube video as part of their applications.  This New York Times article has more information on the response.

According to Sam Dillon’s recent New York Times article, eight states plan to allow some high school students to graduate two years early if they pass a series of exams.  Those students would then be able to enroll in community college.

“The program is being organized by the National Center on Education and the Economy, and its goals include insuring that students have mastered a set of basic requirements and reducing the numbers of high school graduates who need remedial courses when they enroll in college. More than a million college freshmen across America must take remedial courses each year, and many drop out before getting a degree.”

I have mixed feelings about this plan. It is certainly true that many who enroll in community college must take developmental classes, even though high school was supposed to provide them with these basic skills.  Still, unless these exams must be passed by all students receiving diplomas, I don’t see how this new plan will prevent some from graduating without certain necessary skills.

I worry, too, that sixteen-year-olds are not emotionally ready for college.  After all, attendance is not compulsory.  Many of my students are shocked to learn that I will not chase down missing assignments or give them second chances to turn in late work, as their high school English teachers once did.  Others simply lack the  maturity necessary to ignore the many distractions of the outside world, especially the pressure placed by those friends who are not enrolled in school and thus do not need to complete three or four hours of homework each night.  These students often stop attending class, or continue to attend but fail to complete enough work to earn a passing grade. Younger students would likely struggle with this even more.

Maturity, unfortunately, cannot be measured by a battery of academic exams.  If we allow high school students to graduate early, we must ensure they are not just academically ready to move on, but emotionally ready as well.

This article from the Chronicle talks about the ways in which student blogs compete with traditional campus newspapers.

Davis Shaver may be the future of alternative student media. From his room in Springfield—a dorm floor painted with characters from The Simpsons—the Penn State sophomore battles a storied college newspaper that employs 200 student journalists.

His weapon: An unruly news blog called Onward State. And on this particular Friday in mid-December, the preppy University Park entrepreneur savors another coup. The morning edition of the paper, The Daily Collegian, reports on a forthcoming “rave” party in the student center—a story that developed from a blog item Onward State ran four days earlier. Mr. Shaver and Chase Tralka, a fellow blogger, are still laughing about the uproar. “They just kind of steal our stuff,” Mr. Tralka says with a shrug.

Onward State is part of a national wave of student-run Web outfits determined to reinvent college journalism. Mr. Shaver calls his 14-month-old operation, which involves about 20 people at Pennsylvania State University, a “blogging fraternity.”

In The New Republic, Seyward Darby responds to AFT President Randi Weingarten’s recent speech at the National Press Club, in which she called for educational reforms that would make it easier to fire bad teachers, among other things.  One notable suggestion was to use student test scores to measure teacher performance.  This represents a major shift for the union, who previously preferred to shift blame for poor student performance toward incompetent administrators and away from the instructors themselves.  Darby raises some remaining questions raised by Weingarten’s speech, such as which test scores should be used and how performance pay would be evaluated.  For another take on the speech, see Stephen Sawchuk’s article for Education Week and on his blog.

According to Amanda Ripley’s article in the most recent issue of the Atlantic, the leaders of Teach for America think they know.  The organization has compiled ten years of data and observation in an attempt to define the qualities that predict a great teacher–and it’s not just magic or charisma.  Some of the traits that seem to matter most are a history of perseverance, high “life satisfaction,” college grade point average (especially in the last two years of college), and leadership achievement.  For the full story, as well as some anecdotal examples of effective and ineffective teaching, read her article “What Makes a Great Teacher?”

President Obama announced on Wednesday a partnership between federal agencies and public universities to train thousands more mathematics and science teachers each year, part of the administration’s effort to make American students more competitive globally in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Leaders of 121 public universities have pledged to increase the total number of science and math teachers they prepare every year to 10,000 by 2015, up from the 7,500 teachers who graduate annually now.

Forty-one institutions, including California’s two university systems and the University of Maryland system, said they would double the number of science and math teachers they trained each year by 2015.

According to Libby Smith in “Universities Pledge to Train More Math and Science Teachers by 2015,” a recent article in the Chronicle for Higher Education, this plan is part of the Obama administration’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign to improve math and science education.  Whether training more teachers will improve the quality of math and science education in the U.S. remains to be seen.