By Lucie Lapovsky. Demographics are changing rapidly in the United States. From the late 1980’s until a few years ago, the number of high school graduates has been steadily increasing until it peaked in 2008 at about 3.3 million students. This number has been declining and will continue to decline for the next few years. For every 100 18-year-olds there are today, there are only 95 four-year-olds and in some parts of the country the spread is much greater. More...

By Carla Rivera. Educators say the group, which decided to revoke accreditation of San Francisco's City College, demands too much from schools. In the last year, a little-known panel of educators has been denounced by state lawmakers, sued by San Francisco's city attorney and faulted by the federal government for violating its own policies. More...

By Carlos Campo. Higher education leaders are generally responding positively to President Obama's recent "College Opportunity Summit," as the president and first lady reinforced their ongoing commitment to improving potential college students' access and success. At the event -- which featured more than 100 college presidents who signed pledges that their institutions will help with the effort--Michelle Obama recounted her own powerful story of perseverance and success as she noted how deeply the nation's leading couple's life stories are "rooted in education."
While the summit was another example of the president's clear commitment to improving higher education in America, a few surprises emerged from the gathering. More...

By Luis Ruuska. Income-diversity programs are a step in the right direction, but colleges can do more to reach out to low-income students. The country’s higher education industry has seen numerous efforts to remedy income inequality in higher education, though many of them have failed. It’s a daunting task, to say the least.
Nevertheless, President Barack Obama has tackled the issue head-on throughout his presidency. Obama increased Pell Grant funding and introduced the new “Pay-As-You-Earn” loan repayment option, in an effort to keep student loans affordable.
Evidently realizing that this is not a fight he can win alone, the president hosted leaders and representatives from 140 colleges, universities and other organizations at an education summit at the White House earlier this month. During the summit, Obama asked education leaders to make progress on combating income inequality in higher education. More...

Taking aim at the high cost of commercial textbooks, Rice University-based publisher OpenStax College today announced a partnership with open-education pioneer Lumen Learning that is projected to save students $10 million over the next two years by facilitating the adoption of free, online textbooks by colleges and universities.
The new partnership will combine OpenStax College's free textbooks with Lumen Learning's support services to help higher education institutions and faculty members successfully transition to using readily available "open-educational resources" (OER). More...

By Allie Bidwell. The president again vowed to expand access to preschool, and 'shake up' higher education.
President Barack Obama again called for increased access to early childhood education and more affordable college costs in his 2014 State of the Union address. Although President Barack Obama did not lay out any new plans for education reform in his State of the Union address Tuesday, education leaders from the early childhood education arena, through the higher education community, said they were pleased with the sign of his renewed commitment to education issues. More...

The number of students in the United States enrolled in at least one online course has increased faster than overall enrollment growth in higher education, a new report from the state Comptroller’s office shows.
The report, released today by the Comptroller’s Offices of Research and Education Accountability (OREA), found that between 2002 and 2010, the number of students enrolled in online courses throughout the U.S. grew 283 percent — from 1.6 million to 6.1 million. Nearly one-third of all higher education students took at least one course online in 2011. More...

By Ioanna Opidee. With funding cuts, falling enrollments and increased competition from MOOCs and other low-cost online programs, higher education has been under enormous pressure in recent years. But pressure often leads to positive change, and many schools are looking at continuing education as an ideal area for that change.
Approached strategically, CE offers an untapped opportunity to drive revenue, boost enrollment and further an institutional mission by serving part-time adult students. But approached ad-hoc, without a thorough understanding of its history and dynamics, efforts to reorganize CE can backfire, costing money, time and resources schools don’t have to spare. More...