Education »

  • Posted 2024-03-28 10:00:00 by: Melinda King

    MIAMI — Shiva Rajbhandari doesn’t want you to think there’s anything impressive about the fact that he ran for a school board seat at age 17. He doesn’t want you to consider it remotely awe-worthy that he campaigned on a platform to turn his Idaho district into a leader on climate change, or that he […] The post Changing education could change the climate appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-28 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    Even before her son started kindergarten, Ashley Meier Barlow realized that she might have to fight for his education. Her son has Down Syndrome; when he was in prekindergarten, school officials in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, told Barlow that he wouldn’t be going to the neighborhood school, with some special education accommodations, as she had assumed. […] The post How flawed IQ tests prevent kids from getting help in school appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-26 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    Applying to college has never been more confusing. The new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which was meant to be less complicated for students, is instead a glitchy mess. The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action has left high schoolers and their counselors unsure of what can and can’t […] The post OPINION: The glitchy FAFSA is only one problem with getting into college. Here’s how to make the process less confusing appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-26 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    For far too many students, the joy of getting into college this year is clouded by the uncertainty of not knowing what it will cost. That’s the result of a crisis in the financial aid system that is the lifeblood of college access for millions of Americans. We can and must give these students more […] The post OPINION: There’s a temporary fix to the FAFSA mess — all colleges must extend decision deadlines appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-26 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    Amid the excitement and anticipation that typically accompany the approach of graduation day there hangs a disheartening reality at our high schools this year: many students won’t have the clarity of knowing where their future lies before they walk across the graduation stage. The delay in processing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms […] The post OPINION: We fear our students will be shut out of college due to FAFSA failures appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-26 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, calamity of 2024 is being recognized and felt by students, families and schools. Without a collective will toward remedy and high-order national attention, this calamity will carry forward for several years. Amidst unprecedented delays and a bungled rollout of the revised FAFSA process and form, it’s […] The post OPINION: FAFSA is in deep trouble; all stakeholders must take steps to fix it right away appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-26 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    As of today, we are over 30 percent behind last year in FAFSA filings. If we do not mobilize as a college access community, we are at risk of losing thousands of students from the pipeline to higher education. The culprit? The difficult revised FAFSA process. Many public school counselors have told me that their […] The post OPINION: School counselors can’t undo the FAFSA mess on their own. We need a national movement right now appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-26 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    The federal government’s financial aid application, known as the FAFSA, has been plagued with problems since its new version launched December 30, three months late. This is a major problem for the more than 70 percent of undergraduates who rely on some type of financial aid to pay for their education, because they’ll have less […] The post OPINION: With financial aid processes more broken than ever, here’s what families can do appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-25 10:00:00 by: Melinda King

    Universities, philanthropies, and even the U.S. government are all trying to encourage more young Americans to pursue careers in STEM,  an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Many business sectors, from high tech to manufacturing, are plagued with shortages of workers with technical skills. In New York City, where I live, the subway is […] The post PROOF POINTS: How Covid narrowed the STEM pipeline appeared first on The Hechinger ...

  • Posted 2024-03-25 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

    School board service is one of the most overlooked public offices in America. School boards make decisions ranging from how much our teachers get paid to whether students must wear uniforms. They oversee massive budgets and employ superintendents to oversee their priorities and goals. They even decide what time students start school. Right now, there’s […] The post STUDENT VOICE: School boards are a critical piece of democracy. That’s why students must be on them appeared first on The Hechinger ...