By Joshua Muskin. Arguably most vital in committing strategically and effectively to relevance in education is what one might refer to as the “bookends” of the education equation. These are the curriculum and student assessment. The curriculum is, most fundamentally, the vision of what society requires and desires its graduates to know, to do, to be, and how to live together, as outlined in the landmark Delors Commission Report to UNESCO. More...

By Stephanie Riegg Cellini. As a number of scholars have pointed out, on average, college still pays—even in light of the relatively high debt levels we see today.  The lifetime earnings gains from attending public and non-profit four-year colleges and community colleges have been shown to be consistently high enough to outweigh the costs of attendance. More...

By Richard V. Reeves. Here is one solution to the rising cost of college: Make it free. That's what a group of anonymous donors in Kalamazoo, Mich., accomplished a decade ago for local students. Almost every high school graduate in the town is eligible for a scholarship covering from two-thirds up to the entire cost of in-state college tuition. More...

By Sultan Barakat and Sansom Milton. Over the past few years, higher education has been a frequent casualty of the violent conflicts sweeping the Middle East. Campuses have been bombed in Syria, Gaza and now Yemen; occupied or closed in Libya and Iraq; and been the subject of severe police crackdowns across the region. More...

By Jonathan Rothwell. Amidst growing frustration with the cost of higher education, complaints also abound about its quality. One critique, launched in the book Academically Adrift by two sociologists, finds little evidence that college students score better on measures of critical thinking, writing, and reasoning after attending college. More...

By Liesbet Steer. Next week, the government of Norway, in cooperation with the U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, will host the Oslo Summit on Education for Development. The summit aims to raise the scale of ambition and the level of cooperation between key actors to ensure all children can enjoy a good quality education. More...

By Liesbet Steer and Kathryn Smith. It is our hope that this year will be marked in history as the year when the world agreed on an ambitious global plan to eradicate poverty and ensure that all children have access to a high-quality basic education. Achieving these education goals will require all hands on deck. Governments, donors and nonstate actors will need to work together to deliver on this promise. More...

By Elizabeth King and Rebecca Winthrop. Educating a girl is one of the best investments her family, community, and country can make. We know that a good quality education can be life-changing for girls, boys, young women, and men, helping them develop to their full potential and putting them on a path for success in their life. We also know that educating a girl in particular can kick-start a virtuous circle of development. More educated girls, for example, marry later, have healthier children, earn more money that they invest back into their families and communities, and play more active roles in leading their communities and countries. More...

By Brad Hershbein. The circumstances in which a child grows up has a huge impact on their life outcomes—and the gap is not narrowing. If anything, multiple scholars suggest that background conditions  are now more important than ever. More...