Why Do Schools Read Everyone’s Name at Graduation?
Members of the audience care about their loved one’s brief moment of glory—and no one else’s.
Why America Needs Its HBCUs
The president of Howard University argues that “it is a danger to the national interest to not invest in these institutions.”
How the War on Drugs Kept Black Men Out of College
A new study finds that federal drug policy didn’t just send more black men to jail—it also locked them out of higher education.
How to Teach Students to Think
Kamala Harris’s Long-Shot Bid to Fix School Funding
The senator and presidential candidate says America needs to reform how it funds schools, but the details of any alternative approach are scant.
When Was the Last Time American Children Were So Afraid?
Students used to duck and cover. Now they have lockdown drills.
What It’s Like to Be Quarantined on a College Campus
A UCLA student talks about measles exposure at his school, his time in isolation from other students, and making a TikTok video to pass the time.
Why It Matters Where College Students Binge-Drink
In preventing campus sexual assault, where students drink could be just as important as how much.
What It’s Like to Teach at One of America’s Least Racially Integrated Schools
Angela Crawford has taught English at a Philadelphia high school for 23 years. Not many veteran black teachers like her are left nationwide.
The Other Segregation
The public focuses its attention on divides between schools, while tracking has created separate and unequal education systems within single schools.
Elizabeth Warren Wants College to Be Free
The Democratic presidential hopeful has proposed canceling outstanding loans and making public college tuition-free—and she has an idea for how to pay for it.
The Columbine Blueprint
As the first school shooting to become a nationwide media spectacle, Columbine shaped a generation of mass-consumed tragedies.
High School Was Different Before Columbine
The year 1999 is, for many, a bright line dividing two divergent teen experiences.
The Disciplines Where No Black People Earn Ph.D.s
In more than a dozen academic fields—largely STEM related—not a single black student earned a doctoral degree in 2017.
The First Reparations Attempt at an American College Comes From Its Students
Georgetown’s students voted to tax themselves to pay descendants of enslaved people, instead of waiting for the school to do something.
Why Are So Many Teen Athletes Struggling With Depression?
When high-school sports replicate the training methods and intensity seen at the college level, players feel the toll.
When Medical Schools Become Less Diverse
Texas Tech recently announced it will no longer take race into account in admissions to its medical school—a move that might affect not only aspiring doctors, but many of their would-be patients as well.
The Children of the Children of Columbine
Twenty years after the shooting at Columbine High School, some survivors—now parents themselves—are figuring out how to talk to their kids about lockdown drills.
The Utter Inadequacy of America’s Efforts to Desegregate Schools
In 1966, a group of Boston-area parents and administrators created a busing program called METCO to help desegregate schools. They thought of it as a quick fix to a passing problem. But the problem hasn’t passed, and METCO isn’t enough to fix it.
College-Admissions Hysteria Is Not the Norm
A focus on highly selective schools obscures the experience of the vast majority of American undergraduates.