Were you able to maximize your education tax breaks this year? Sure …. Uh, actually I don’t know. All these terms like “deductions” and “non-refundable credit” kinda scare me. That’s OK – the tax code can be pretty intimidating – just like finding financial aid for college.  However, the basicRead More

Before we explore portions of the need-based financial aid universe, I need to make sure you did your homework. Did you fill out your FAFSA form, like we told you to here? Yep. Now what? Generally speaking, there are three types of need-based student aid: grants work-study loans Grants areRead More

For parents with students looking to enroll in college this fall, one elephant in the room is affording massive tuition bills. Despite ever spiraling cost, there is still considerable aid available to students and parents, both through government and private sources. The first step toward tapping these sources of financialRead More

Last month, Rice University reported that its total applications for its incoming freshman class had reached an all-time record of 17,715 – which represents an increase of 15 percent over 2013. The number of applications has roughly doubled since 2007, the college reported in a press release. Rice is seekingRead More

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

Many of us structure our days by prioritizing so that we create a healthy balance among work, school, friends, family, exercise, sleep, etc. As adults, we have had a few more years of practice balancing our lives. Kids, however, have not quite learned how to structure their days to createRead More

Last August I interviewed for a one-year visiting professor position at Texas A&M’s political science department.[1] The position involved teaching three courses each term in introductory American Politics and Texas politics. The courses were large lectures, with 300 students apiece without teaching assistants. The lacks of TAs surprised me, becauseRead 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

At a March 13 meeting packed with community members, the Houston Independent School District Board of Education voted to close Dodson Elementary School and repurpose Jones High School. The vote to close Dodson divided the board 5-4, with board members Anna Eastman, Rhonda Skillern-Jones, Wanda Adams and Paula Harris opposedRead 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

On Friday 3/14, thousands of Houston area students will receive notifications of whether or not they were admitted to the private school of their choice. Schools time the mailings to coincide with spring break so that parents have time to “chill” over drinks at the beach. Two weeks later, HISDRead More

Redesigning the SAT for 2016 Big changes are coming to the SAT in the spring of 2016.  On March 5th, College Board President David Coleman revealed his organization’s plans to shift the SAT from superficially testing a broad selection of concepts to more focused testing on a select few concepts. Read More

  The traditional vision of the college professor is that of the tenure-track faculty member: the guy with elbow patches and a tweed jacket who does research, lectures and has tenure – job security that allows them freedom to do research and teach controversial subjects. That vision is less trueRead More

In 2014, the Houston Independent School District Superintendent will be drastically increasing the number of dual-language programs in the district, adding 14 schools to the existing programs, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier announced during his Feb. 25 State of the Schools Address. HISD currently has two dual language programs. One, atRead More

The internationalization of Houston schools continues its rapid pace, both in the number of existing schools that are offering International Baccalaureate curriculum and in new schools that are under construction dedicated to the concept. Currently there are 10 high schools in the Houston area that offer an IB program, upRead More