What's the Big Idea..?

The StudentEdge team understands the importance of staying informed about education topics. That’s why we’ve launched this blog to give you easy access to daily educational news links and important articles regarding new trends in education and counseling from a variety of sources. Just as StudentEdge is a one-stop resource for students, this blog is a one-stop resource for the education news and information that’s important to you.


EdNews.org - Daily EdNews

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The Psychological Cost of Applying to College

As May 1st draws near, the traditional deadline for replying to a college's acceptance letter, many students already have resigned themselves to their second, third, or even fourth choice school. With an unprecedented spike in the number of applicants to colleges this year, students were facing rejection at their first-choice schools at record rates. Moreover, those students relegated to the wait lists are about to discover their fate. Given the intensity of this annual pressure-driven situation, psychologists wonder what kind of toll does this take on a student's health?

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/health/29well.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Monday, April 28, 2008

The SAT finally a good predictor of grades?

Not exactly. However, the "new" writing portion of the SAT outshines its older and more established siblings, the Critical Reading and Math sections, when it comes to predicting freshman success. The early findings from two studies, one conducted by The College Board (who administers the SAT) and the University of California, is sure to raise a few eyebrows - especially since most colleges still consider the Writing portion as optional.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-04-24-sat_N.htm

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Changes to 'No Child Left Behind' Offered by Education Secretary

On Tuesday, Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education, proposed a series of fixes to President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law. Among the proposals, Ms. Spellings wants to require states to use a single federal formula to calculate high school graduation rates. Additionally, she would require schools to notify parents about their rights to transfer students out of a federally failing school and the opportunity to take advantage of federally financed tutoring available to those students. The finalized regulations will be issued in November and will take effect one month later

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/washington/23child.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=education&adxnnlx=1208955743-JXlaozJEkQoyooKTLkgOcg

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Prestige or Affordabilty?

It's one of the toughest questions a parent might have to answer. With all of the acceptance letters already sent, it's a question that many parents are now forced to answer. What complicates this even more is the murky state of college financial aid: dozens of private companies have fled the student loan market making traditional sources of financing education scant. Compounding this is the housing market collapse: parents can no longer rely on home equity loans to help finance their child's education. Therefore, is it worth going into debt for a pricier, more prestigious school or will your child be fine in a more affordable one?

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/business/19money.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Monday, April 21, 2008

Turn-about is fair play...

At the end of each season of CBS's TV show "Survivor," the folks that the finalists had a hand in voting off now have to rely on those very same folks to vote for them - to win a million dollars. It's an interesting case of role reversal; something high school seniors and college admissions counselors are experiencing right now. Last fall, the seniors were the ones looking to impress the colleges to gain admission; now, it's those colleges where they have successfully gained admission, who are looking to woo the students. Some colleges are holding admissions parties, where they have alumni speak about their own collegiate experience, and some are even paying for students to fly out to their campus.

Check out the article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042002113.html

Friday, April 18, 2008

Banks Leave, Lawmakers Enter

The US House of Representatives, yesterday, approved a measure that would allow the Department of Education to buy federally guaranteed loans--loans that private investors will not buy. It is another step in trying to avert the looming shortage of available student loans for new college students.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041702268.html

Thursday, April 17, 2008

$100 Million Gift from AT&T

AT&T will announce a $100 million gift today, to help combat this nation's high school dropout problems as noted by America's Promise Alliance. The gift ranks among one of the highest ever corporate donations on record, but is the second such gift in as many months: Goldman Sachs & Company also announced it will donate $100 million dollars to women's business education in the developing world.

Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/17charity.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

When "Lenders of Last Resort" Become a First Option...

Student loan companies are in turmoil and banks are tightening their budgets. All in all, parents will be in peculiar waters this year when trying to figure out how to pay for their child's college tuition. Colleges are doing their part, many of them joining the federal government's direct lending program, but many experts fear that too many private lenders have left the market and the "lenders of last resort" may not be able to pick up the slack.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/business/12loan.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Record Number of Applicants Creates a Peculiar Situation

With the record number of high school students applying for higher education this year, one would be tempted to think that this ultra-competitive environment would make it easy for admissions counselors to fill their incoming freshman class. Not exactly. This year, for college admissions, it's a year of uncertainty. Admissions deans are doing some fuzzy math to estimate how many students to accept, hoping that these students would ultimately choose their school. These calculations are yielding some crazy results: for example, at one Maryland school, a student with a near perfect GPA was accepted to Yale but rejected from her second-tier safety.

Read about this article at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.college10apr10,0,2604313.story

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Obama and Hilary Agree: No Child Left Behind is Broken

While both Democratic presidential hopefuls, Senators Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, disagree on a number of key issues, they find common ground on one topic: No Child Left Behind. The act, when signed in 2002, received broad bipartisan support, but now both Democratic presidential hopefuls call the act extensively flawed.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08100/871524-298.stm

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Study Shows Difference in Dyslexia by Language

The National Academy of Sciences on Monday reported that dyslexia affects different parts of children's brains depending on whether they are raised reading Chinese or English. This finding might signal a need for therapists to seek different methods of assisting dyslexic children from from different cultures.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040701798.html

Friday, April 4, 2008

Fed Requires States to Use Single Drop-out Formula

On April 1st, the Bush administration announced it will require states and school systems to report high school graduation rates, which have long been subjectively submitted, in a uniform way. Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education, made this announcement on the heels of another report that reported a graduation rate of less than 50% in major cities across the US.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=53380;_hbguid=c02b97fe-f8f3-4b9e-9e6b-faaf6ce716aa

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Record Lows for America's Elite Colleges and Universities

93 out of 100 students applying to Harvard for fall '08 admission are about to find out that they will have to go with their second choice school. With one of the largest applicant pools in years, it's no secret that the competition for admission to the nation's elite colleges and universities has become more and more intense each year, but this spring, in particular, has seen a record of low admission numbers.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/education/01admission.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Will You Graduate? Flip a Coin...

Across America's biggest cities, the odds that a ninth-grader will graduate from high school are almost equivalent to a coin toss, according to a study being released today by the America's Promise Alliance, which was founded by Colin Powell.  As you cross from the city into the suburb, you will find that the odds of graduating go up dramatically--as much as twenty-five percent for some suburbs!

Read more about the study at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-04-01-cities-suburbs-graduation_N.htm