Students decide to attend colleges for a number of reasons. Maybe a group of high school friends all want to go to the same school. Perhaps location is the determining factor: either wanting to be closer or farther away from home. With students applying to more schools that ever before,Read More

Democrats for Education Reform have set up shop in Austin, Texas, and they are planning on adding to the educational dialogue across the state. To begin with, it must be mentioned that there is a lot of difficult rhetoric and political language to wade through when discussing education reform. ButRead More

On a frigid February 26th morning, Dr. Frederick Chang, a former research director at the National Security Agency and current SMU professor, gave a talk on cybersecurity to a small group of SMU alumni. While the crowd may have expected an informative lecture on how cybersecurity works, the talk wasRead More

After news broke on how the newly revamped SAT will look in 2016, I heard many people asking these two questions: what is the correlation between the controversial Common Core standards and new SAT, and, will students living in states that have opted out of the Common Core be negativelyRead More

Last Month, Los Angeles Dodger Clayton Kershaw signed a $215 million dollar contract to become the highest paid pitcher in Major League Baseball history. A product of Highland Park High School, Kershaw has amassed quite a resume during his first six seasons in the league. Debuting on the mound atRead More

Last month The Atlantic published an article by Amanda Machado, entitled: Why Teachers of Color Quit, which she followed up with an interview segment on NPR. In the article and interview, Machado outlines the three reasons she walked away from the profession of teaching: a lack of cultural sensitivity byRead More

Earlier this fall, in between writing for Thesis and teaching two community college classes, I enrolled in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): “Central Challenges in American National Security, Strategy, and the Press.” The urge, while mostly compulsive, was driven by the immediate, fluid state of the international climate (SyriaRead More

The Texas legislature passed House Bill 5, which will introduce some progressive changes to the current education system. For example, the bill will create an endorsement plan for students to pick from five different areas of study (business and industry, arts and humanities, STEM, public services, and multi-disciplinary services), createRead More

In the last year alone, Texas has doubled-down on efforts to blaze its own educational path. The state sought a waiver from No Child Left Behind, voted against joining the Common Core Standards, and approved a sweeping education bill designed to regulate how Texas schools are assessed (House Bill 5).Read More

Volunteerism can, often, seem like a patchwork practice: people showing up from different communities, backgrounds, and financial situations to lend their time for a cause or purpose. Passion leads to involvement, and this is certainly on display with political campaigns, environmental movements, and religious organizations. The human desire to improveRead More

Today Memrise.com is launching a new application called Cat Academy in an effort to attract more users. Ed Cooke, co-founder of Memrise, called it “a hypnotically relaxing learning experience.” He went on to declare it, “One of the great contributions in Western education,” tongue-in-cheek. But the point is clear: MemriseRead More

Historically, Dallas has been viewed as a Southern city big on spending, fashion, and oil. While Dallas certainly helped cultivate this image with its economic expansion in the 1980s, it has, conversely, cultivated an impression that Dallas is a homogeneous city less concerned than, say, the Northeast when it comesRead More

Not one. The annual award which “…celebrates high-performing schools and schools with a high percentage of students from disadvantaged backgrounds that significantly improve whole-school test scores and student subgroup test scores,” according to the Department of Education website, did not select a single school in Texas out of 286 nationwideRead More

With the Common Core Standards kicking in this year, a lot has been made about the new model, both good and bad, but the most interesting aspect to a lover of literature, such as myself, is the debate about the new Reading Lists that were constructed for students K-12. DavidRead More

by: Erin Howland   In my junior year of high school, my AP European History teacher became demonically possessed by the idea that creating a restaurant would be the most fun and effective way to learn about Renaissance culture. The assignment was to use one 8.5x11in paper and to drawRead More

by: Neelay Patel   In a development recently highlighted by the Houston Chronicle, schools are cutting back on generally less valued positions. Librarians, art and music teachers, and physical education teachers are gradually being forced to seek other jobs. History or math teachers with a knack for sports are offeredRead More