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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Had Daniella Kippnick followed in the footsteps of the hundreds of millions of students who have earned university degrees in the past millennium, she might be slumping in a lecture hall somewhere while a professor droned. But Kippnick has no course lectures. She has no courses to attend at all. No classroom, no college quad, no grades. Her university has no deadlines or tenure-track professors. (The Atlantic)
The Obama administration is expected to announce on Friday that it will allow some prisoners, all of whom have been barred from receiving federal Pell Grants since 1994, to receive them under a limited pilot program. The change is small in scope, but it sends a strong signal. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Acorss the highway from the lawns of Nairobi’s Muthaiga Country Club is Mathare, a slum that stretches as far as the eye can see. Although Mathare has virtually no services like paved streets or sanitation, it has a sizeable and growing number of classrooms. Not because of the state—the slum’s half-million people have just four public schools—but because the private sector has moved in. Mathare boasts 120 private schools. (The Economist)
More than half of high school juniors and seniors across the country don’t feel they’re ready for college and careers, even though these remain top goals for students, according to a survey released Thursday. (EdSource)
The College Board, which has been under fire during the past year from conservatives for revisions it made to the AP U.S. History course, released a new version Thursday that it says responds to “principled feedback” from critics. (The Washington Post)
It’s no secret to Hillary Clinton’s campaign that it won’t win the backing of the country’s most powerful labor organization quite yet. (Politico)
Minnesota
New statewide standardized test results show that Minnesota students made no overall improvement in math, reading or science this year, despite pledges from many state and local school leaders to improve test scores. (Star Tribune)
New York
Success Academy, the fast-growing network of sought-after charter schools, announced on Thursday that it had received an $8.5 million gift to add schools in New York City. (The New York Times)