How Do We Fix It?
20 July 2016
Podcast / Over 15 Minutes
New York, New York, United States
Young people are graduating from high schools and not ready for college level work. Liz Willen describes different initiatives around the United States that have provided solutions for improving secondary education. She addresses the importance of STEM, role models for students, and project-based learning.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/a-by-the-e-book-education-for-5-a-month
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
22 May 2013
Text / 1500-3000 Words
For-profit companies are making good private schools available even to Africa’s poor. They can do it – and can do it on an enormous scale – by hiring neighborhood residents to teach, and scripting out every word of every lesson on an e-reader.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/upshot/a-case-study-in-lifting-college-attendance.html
David Leonhardt
The New York Times
10 June 2014
Text / 800-1500 Words
Delaware has been working to make sure that all college-ready graduates, regardless of socioeconomic status, make it to college. With financial reasons standing in the way of many qualified students, the state has worked on multiple levels to make this a possibility.
http://hechingerreport.org/a-low-income-brooklyn-high-school-where-100-percent-of-black-male-students-graduate
Meredith Kolodner
The Hechinger Report
14 July 2015
Text / 1500-3000 Words
The overall graduation rate for black male students in New York City was 58 percent in 2014 - student retention rates are equally poor. But one school achieved a 100% on-time graduation rate last year, motivating their students with a student-founded, student-sustained 'fraternity'.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/upshot/a-national-admissions-office-for-low-income-strivers.html
David Leonhardt
The New York Times
16 September 2014
Text / 800-1500 Words
Attending college is not always a given option for gifted teenagers from less-than-wealthy backgrounds. National organization QuestBridge creates a way for low-income and minority high-achieving students to go to their dream colleges free of cost.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/a-team-approach-to-get-students-college-ready
David Bornstein
The New York Times
15 May 2013
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Blue Engine, which places recent college grads as full-time teaching assistants in New York City public schools, is helping poor students thrive in college. They focus on small teacher-student ratios, frequent feedback for teachers, and a concentration on 'gateway' courses associated with success in college.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/a-way-to-pay-for-college-with-dividends
David Bornstein
The New York Times
2 June 2011
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Low-income students are always looking for ways to finance their education. A new system using “human capital contracts” to pay for higher education isn’t as scary as it sounds.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/474/back-to-school
Ira Glass
This American Life
14 September 2012
Podcast / Over 15 Minutes
As kids and teachers head back to school, we wanted to turn away from questions about politics and unions and money and all the regular school stuff people argue about, and turn to something more optimistic — an emerging theory about what to teach kids.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/beyond-sats-finding-success-in-numbers
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
15 February 2012
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Many qualified students lack the motivation to follow through attending college due to a lack of peer support. A highly successful U.S. program sends great inner-city students to elite colleges in groups – one key to graduation.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/04/kalamazoo-the-promise-save-american-cities-105366.html#.VYmmCflViko
Cassie Walker Burke
Politico
3 April 2014
Text / Over 3000 Words
Huge numbers of students lack the chance to go to college because of financial problems. Recently, Kalamazoo schools received more funding allowing them to have the chance to help and pay for students to then go to college and receive a higher education.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/opinion/sunday/intense-tutoring-can-close-the-math-gap.html
David L. Kirp
The New York Times
31 January 2015
Text / 800-1500 Words
Inner-city kids, generally, fare worst on measures of academic achievement like standardized tests. An intensive tutoring and mentoring program in Chicago has produced big improvements for young boys, pairing them two-on-one with math tutors that offer homework support and educational guidance.
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