Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Oscar winner "The Last Repair Shop" explores the costs of repairing musical instruments

Mar 11, 2024
“The Last Repair Shop” focuses on the people who maintain the 140,000 musical instruments owned by Los Angeles Unified School District public schools.
Courtesy Searchlight Pictures

Higher ed expands in prisons as students prepare for life on the outside

Mar 6, 2024
Schools are seeking government approval to start degree programs after financial aid for incarcerated students was fully reinstated.
Brandon Warren, who runs the reentry program at Lee College Huntsville Center, created educational resources for people in prison.
Elizabeth Trovall/Marketplace

Personal finance classes are becoming the norm in high schools

Feb 27, 2024
thirty five states now require these courses — 12 more than two years ago, according to a new survey.
Young people who've taken these courses tend to have higher credit scores, research shows.
istock/ Getty Images Plus

A year after the Taliban barred women from universities, many remain bereft of options

Jan 2, 2024
The World Bank has warned the ban on educating women will hurt the country’s prospects for economic growth. 
Male students stand in front of a poster ordering women to wear hijabs at a private university in Kabul in March 2023. Women have been unable to attend universities in Afghanistan since December 2022.
Wakil Koshar/AFP via Getty Images

International students are returning to U.S. colleges and universities 

Nov 15, 2023
But they're not quite back to pre-pandemic levels, and they're coming from different parts of the world.
The impact of international student enrollment on a university's bottom line varies — are the students are undergraduates paying full tuition or graduate students who get paid a stipend?
Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

Why is it so hard for community college students to transfer credits to 4-year institutions?

Nov 10, 2023
The Department of Education says institutions need to talk to each other about how to make credits transfer.
"Sometimes you have a cultural reluctance to accept community college courses as being identical to what was taught at the university," says James Kvaal, undersecretary for the Department of Education. 
skynesher/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Econ teachers want you to know that economics is all about decision making

Nov 6, 2023
For National Economic Education Month, we asked high school teachers what they hope students take away from their economics class.
October was National Economic Education Month, and this year the Federal Reserve celebrated by launching an Instagram profile.
Getty Images

Undergraduates flock to associate degree and certificate programs

Oct 26, 2023
They're cheaper and quicker than earning a bachelor's degree. When students complete their courses, jobs will likely be waiting for them.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden toured a North Carolina community college in June. Many students are choosing to forgo the bachelor's degree path to a career.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Education in personal finance is on a tear — and there’s a payoff

Oct 26, 2023
There’s research that shows students who take financial education courses make smarter decisions about money.
Econ and personal finance teacher Sharon Paul stands next to a poster in her classroom showing different notes of currency.
Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace