By Ben Wildavsky. If you want to know how U.S. schoolchildren are performing, you don't have to look far: A wealth of information is available, thanks to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Go online and see, for instance, that Massachusetts children outperform those in Texas, that average math scores have gone up nationally over the past 20 years and that the District of Columbia was the only urban district to improve in math and reading in grades 4 and 8 last year. More...

By Jane C. Timm. More Hispanics than whites were admitted to the University of California this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The demographic shift signals a changing make-up of the country’s largest state, where Hispanics are already the largest ethnic group.
The university system admitted 61,120 Californians to this fall’s freshman class; 28.8% of them are Latino, topping 26.8% who are white, the university’s data detailed. Both demographic groups still trail Asians, who make up 36.6% of admitted freshman. Blacks represent just 4.2% of the admitted freshman class, continuing to lag behind their state-wide demographic representation, as 6% of Californians are black. More...

By Pat Schneider. Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to extend a freeze on tuition at University of Wisconsin campuses misses the point, says UW-Madison associate professor Sara Goldrick-Rab: College is already too expensive for many families. And Goldrick-Rab has a revolutionary idea to remedy that situation. Use federal and state money now spent on an inefficient and inequitable financial aid system to provide free, to all qualified students, two years of education at any public university, college or community or technical college, argue Goldrick-Rab and associate professor Nancy Kendall. Read more...

By Grace Solem-Pfeifer. Online and distance education is growing quickly at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and administrators expect it to be a key piece of the enrollment puzzle.
In fall 2013, 6,633 students were enrolled in undergraduate online courses and fully online programs. The combined population of these groups is growing an average of 25 percent per semester, according to Online and Distance Education Executive Director Marie Barber. For distance only-programs, which are fully online, growth is about 10 percent per semester.
At his 2013 State of the University address, Chancellor Harvey Perlman said 70 percent of online enrollment includes students who are also present on campus. More...

By Ellie Lunney. Many federal employees and their family members will be able to take advantage of a tuition discount as part of a new partnership between the government and academia.
Federal workers who live outside of Maryland can receive a 25 percent discount on all undergraduate and most graduate programs offered at the University of Maryland University College. Out-of-state tuition rates at UMUC now are $499 per credit hour for undergraduate classes and $659 per credit hour for graduate programs. The rates drop to $374.25 and $494.25 respectively, with the 25 percent discount. Federal workers’ spouses and their legal dependents also are eligible for the reduced rates. The tuition break applies to in-person and online classes. More...

By Matthew Derr. Throughout American history, colleges and universities have provided leadership on the social and political issues of the day. One criterion of the health of our democracy is the active role of higher education in civic dialogue and as a catalyst for change based on prevailing values and advances in knowledge. The issue of our day is not simply an issue of the day, it is the greatest challenge to life on this planet in human history: climate change. More...