With just a few days to go in the competition, nearly 80 detailed projects have been submitted to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology's "Reimagining the Higher Education Ecosystem Challenge."
A new report proposes the creation of a national network of "apprenticeship institutes" in every state. These centers would act as hubs for employers, workers, high schools, community colleges and unions.
A new report developed by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, its International Quality Group and NORC at the University of Chicago examines "emerging approaches" for judging quality in higher education.
Senate bill 2986, "Correctly Recognizing Educational Achievements to Empower Graduates Act," was re-introduced in early June. The bill would encourage states to establish or expand reverse transfer programs, initiatives that award associate degrees to individuals who have transferred to a four-year college from a community college without first earning an associate degree.
An organization that has blocked efforts to allow the federal collection of student outcomes data on the basis of protecting student privacy rights has come out in support of an alternative approach being kicked around in Congress. The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities issued a statement recently in support of legislation that would bypass the idea of a central federal database but still enable the generation of insights about how students fare after graduation.
A new report has recommended continuation of a pilot to allow high school students to use Pell grants to cover the costs of college courses. The Alliance for Excellent Education is pushing Congress to consider the test involving early college high schools and dual-enrollment programs because it believes the move could boost college enrollment and completion.
With the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation looming, colleges and universities in the United States are working out how to achieve compliance.
While the Federal Communications Commission has set a date for rescinding net neutrality — the rules by which internet service providers are expected to abide — a new resolution by U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) aims to preserve the protections classifying the internet as a public utility.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently held the M.I.T. Policy Hackathon, an event that brought together data science, engineering and policy students to come up with solutions to real problems brought by the event's organizers. Participants were given access to datasets from government, education and nonprofit institutes and asked to tackle problems in fields such as transportation, the future of work, cybersecurity, energy and climate and health.
A new Virginia law mandates creation of guidelines for open educational resources at colleges and universities. H.B. 454 requires the governing boards of public institutions to implement guidelines for the adoption and use of low-cost and no-cost O.E.R. in their courses offered at such institution. However, while the policies and procedures are required, no instructor would be forced to use O.E.R. The guidelines can also address the use of "low-cost commercially published materials."