by Sarah D. SparksThe nation’s premiere federal testing program is poised to provide a critical window into how students’ motivation, mindset, and grit can affect their learning.Read the rest of the story at Education Week.

by Shen Lu and Hilary WhitemanBeijing (CNN)- Now breathe.Almost 9.5 million high school students in China have just finished possibly the most important exam of their lives.Read the rest of the story at CNN.com.

Friday is graduation day at an unusual K-8 school in California — and there is only one graduate. He’s part of an experiment in San Francisco called AltSchool that could re-define how your kids get an education, reports Ben Tracy.Read and watch the rest of the story at CBS News.

Over 3,000 protesters have gathered in Moscow to call for science and education reforms in Russia, amid budget cuts and the closure of a leading scientific foundation over a “foreign agent” tag.Read the rest of the story at RT.

Photo credit:  Sakeeb SabakkaNew data show that 81 percent of class of 2013 graduated in four yearsby Holly Yettick and Sterling C. Lloyd The on-time graduation rates in the nation’s public high schools have hit historic highs. The U.S. Department of Education reports that 81 percent of the class of 2013 graduated within four years, as tabulated by the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR).Read the rest of the story at Education Week.

by Franz StrasserWhile the cost of college education in the US has reached record highs, Germany has abandoned tuition fees altogether for German and international students alike. An increasing number of Americans are taking advantage and saving tens of thousands of dollars to get their degrees.Read the rest of the story at BBC News.