Photo credit: ccarlsteadby Eric HooverWhen Jon Erickson joined the ACT, in 1984, the college-admissions process was not yet a front-page fixation. These days, he can’t go to a dinner party without anxious parents asking him to explain the secret recipe for conquering the ACT and getting into a big-name college.Read the rest of the story at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Photo credit: SuperFantasticUpdated by Libby NelsonEvery year, a new paper argues, tens of thousands of Americans die sooner than they should for an entirely preventable reason. It’s not smoking, or not exercising, or eating sugar. It’s dropping out of high school and college.Read the rest of the story on Vox.

Photo Credit: www.SeniorLiving.orgby Neal MortonThe American Civil Liberties Union, waging the first of potentially several legal challenges against school choice in Nevada, has filed a lawsuit to stop the state’s new education savings accounts, claiming a violation of a constitutional prohibition against the use of public money for religious purposes.Read the rest of the story at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Photo Credit: Francisco Osorioby The Associated PressSANTIAGO, Chile –  Thousands of students are marching in the streets of the Chilean capital to complain about delays in an education overhaul.Read the rest of the story at Fox News.

Photo Credit: Nicola Bothwellby Lauren HodgesSimmons College announced it will close the campus master’s degree program in business, the only one of its kind in the nation exclusively for women.Read the rest of the story at NPR.

Amid promises and photo ops, real talk about education is missing from the campaign trail. Here are five key issues candidates must address.

by Elizabeth A. HarrisAs summer began, Dan Akim, a junior at Manhattan’s ultracompetitive Stuyvesant High School, planned to attend debate camp, to study for the PSATs and to go on some family vacations.Yet he felt that he could pack more into these months, so he also signed up for three online courses, in precalculus, computer science and public health. While on car rides with his family in Italy, he would sometimes use a mobile hot spot to chip away at one of the courses, while his mother asked why he was not soaking up the view instead.Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

Photo Credit: TimlewisnmAmericans look beyond testing when they evaluate schools.Student engagement at school and whether students feel hopeful about their future are far better factors to consider when evaluating schools than using standardized test scores, according to the results of the 47th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools.Read the rest of the story at PDK/Gallup Poll.

by Corey MitchellA group of Chicago parents and residents fighting to have a say in what happens to their neighborhood high school have entered the second week of a hunger strike.The Chicago Sun-Times reports that members of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School havelobbied for years on behalf of the school, first to prevent a planned closure, then to put a new neighborhood school in the building.Read the rest of the story at Education Week.

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdonby Rebecca KleinStudents in America’s schools are much, much poorer than they were nine years ago.In 2006, 31 percent of America’s students attended schools in “high-poverty” districts, meaning that 20 percent or more of the district’s students lived below the federal poverty line. By 2013, however, this number jumped to over 49 percent, according to an analysis of U.S. Census estimates from the nonprofit EdBuild. This means that nearly half of the nation’s children between the ages of 5 and 17 attend schools in communities where a large chunk of families are struggling to get by.See the map and the rest of the story at the Huffington Post.

Photo Credit: dcJohnby Grace SmithThere will be no penalty for New York state school districts that had large numbers of students who refused to sit for the New York standardized tests this year.Education officials made the announcement to put to rest the uncertainty over how districts would respond to the anti-testing movement. Kate Taylor of The New York Times reports that state and federal officials had warned for months that districts that fell below the 95% participation rate might stand to lose federal funds. Leaders of the “opt-out movement” argued that these were nothing but empty threats.Read the rest of the story at Education News.

If I told you there was a global network of passionate educators available to converse with you — on any subject and at any time — would you be interested? What if I told you this amazing worldwide network was also free? Would that peak your interest?by John PadulaIf you think such an environment can’t possibly exist, it can and it does — right on Now, I’m not talking about the “What did Kim Kardashian have for breakfast?” I’m talking about a facet of Twitter that doesn’t get enough exposure in the media. Every day, every minute, thousands of educators are conversing on Within those brief 140-character messages, lesson plans are being swapped, strategies are being discussed, issues are being raised, and passionate educators, mainly those in the trenches, are responding with expertise, thoughtfulness, and compassion.Let me share my Twitter story:Four years ago, I reached a crossroads in my teaching …

Photo Credit: U.S. Dept. of Agricultureby Amy SchimkeAs the second phase of Colorado’s “Breakfast After the Bell” law takes effect this fall, thousands more low-income students will have access to free breakfast served during school hours.It’s a development lauded by advocates who say the program improves attendance and achievement, but not always by administrators in the districts required to provide the universal free meals.Read the rest of the story at Chalkbeat Colorado.

Photo credit: Woodleywonderworksby Hallie JacksonLONDONDERRY, N.H. — Forget emails and immigration: the topic du jour for half-a-dozen Republican candidates Wednesday involved education.Topping the agenda at a policy forum in the key early-voting state of New Hampshire was Common Core, the school standards program that has become deeply unpopular among conservative voters in the Republican Party.Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Photo Credit: U.S. Dept. of Agricultureby Ron NixonWASHINGTON — A majority of Americans support providing schoolchildren with healthy meals that consist of more fruits and vegetables and fewer foods high in calories and sodium, according to a national poll released on Tuesday by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Read the rest of the story in The New York Times.