By Chronicle Staff. Report: “Does College Teach Critical Thinking? A Meta-Analysis”
Authors: Christopher R. Huber and Nathan R. Kuncel, both of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Publication: Review of Educational Research, a journal of the American Educational Research Association
Summary: Educators, policy makers, and employers all want colleges to teach students critical-thinking skills, but are colleges succeeding in doing so? To answer that question, the study’s authors analyzed 71 research reports published over the past 48 years.
Their conclusion: Yes, despite arguments to the contrary, students’ critical-thinking skills do improve in college. More...

By Chronicle Staff. Report: “A New Measure of College Quality to Study the Effects of College Sector and Peers on Degree Attainment”
Authors: Jonathan Smith, policy research scientist at the College Board, and Kevin Stange, assistant professor of public policy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Organization: National Bureau of Economic Research
Summary: Recent high-school graduates who start their higher education at community colleges are far less likely to earn bachelor’s degrees within six years than are those who begin at four-year colleges, the researchers found. This paper examines why that is. More...

By Chronicle Staff. Report: “45th Annual Survey Report on State-Sponsored Student Financial Aid”
Organization: National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs
Summary: This survey of aid programs for the 2013-14 academic year found the amount states awarded to students increased by 1.6 percent, adjusted for inflation, to $11.7 billion, compared with $11.2 billion awarded the previous year. More...

By Kate Stoltzfus. The Lilly Endowment will donate $50 million to the United Negro College Fund to aid career development at historically black colleges and other colleges with high African-American enrollment, The Washington Post reports. More...

By Andy Thomason. Laureate Education Inc., one of the largest for-profit education companies in the world, announced on Friday it would file for an initial public offering. The company also announced it had converted itself into a public-benefit corporation, a model that commits a company to providing public service as well as earning profits. More...

By Andy Thomason. Arne Duncan will step down as U.S. secretary of education in December, an Education Department official confirmed on Friday. The news was first reported by the Associated Press. More...

By Andrew Mytelka. The recently hired director of Dartmouth College’s Native American program has stepped down amid criticism of what she claimed as her ethnic background and tribal affiliation, reports the Valley News, a Vermont newspaper. More...

By Andy Thomason. Ten people died and seven more were wounded in a shooting spree on Thursday at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., law-enforcement officials said.
In a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Sheriff John Hanlin of Douglas County, Ore., said that three of the seven were critically injured, the Associated Press and other news outlets reported. More...