Education
Calling all students! NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge returns for 2025
For it's seventh year, our national podcasting competition will invite students from around the country, in grades four through 12, to bring us their best audio stories.
Apprenticeships are a trending alternative to college — but there’s a hitch
Apprenticeships are becoming a popular alternative to college as a career path. But demand is outpacing the supply of employers who offer them.
How D.C. tackled a child care crunch through a tax hike on the rich
In Washington, D.C., a tax on residents earning more than $250,000 a year is boosting the wages of child care workers. Two years in, it's proving to be a great investment.
Alabama lawmakers eye change to school funding formula
Lawmakers have no plans to increase taxes but are looking to revamp the formula that divvies out state funds.
Supreme Court rejects challenge to Boston’s school admissions policy
The court's action was the second time the justices declined to intervene in an admissions program based on geography since their 2023 ruling invalidating affirmative action in higher education.
Cancer interrupted their school lives, but also set them on a mission
Pediatric cancer survival rates are a crowning medical achievement. But the impact of missing school is a less-discussed side effect children then face.
How a staffing shortage can make special education jobs more dangerous
Special educators are more likely to experience violence or aggression from students. That can make hiring a challenge, at a time when schools nationwide are struggling to fill these positions.
With a record number of international students in the U.S., Trump brings uncertainty
Some schools and international students in the U.S. worry about what's to come in the incoming Trump administration. Meanwhile, a new report finds more international students in the U.S. than ever.
University of Texas, MIT and others announce free tuition for some undergraduates
Nearly half a dozen institutions of higher education announced plans this week to make tuition free for undergraduates whose families make below a certain income threshold, starting in fall 2025.
This year’s FAFSA is officially open. Early review says it’s ‘a piece of cake’
The FAFSA form is now open to students hoping to get help paying for college in the 2025-26 academic year. Students can expect a much smoother process compared to the last cycle.
Trump picks business executive Linda McMahon to lead the Education Department
McMahon is a professional wrestling business magnate and co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team. She has limited experience working with K-12 public schools.
What a Trump presidency might mean for student loan forgiveness
Several of President Biden's efforts at loan relief are in jeopardy, including a repayment plan with millions of borrowers waiting in limbo.
University of Rochester investigates ‘Wanted’ posters accusing staff of Gaza war crimes
The posters, which appeared across campus, accuse university faculty of being complicit in war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. The university president condemned the posters as antisemitic.
Gunshots at Tuskegee University sent terrified students running for their lives
The shooting left one man dead and injured at least 16 other people early Sunday, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said. An arrest was announced hours later. Many of the injured were students.
Jill Biden and Lloyd Austin visit an Alabama base to tout expanded military benefits
Biden and Austin visited a pre-kindergarten program the first lady has championed that funds universal preschool for children aged 3 and 4. The administration plans to expand it beyond military facilities and into education systems nationwide.
Alabama anti-DEI law shuts Black Student Union office, queer resource center at flagship university
Under the bill signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in March, DEI is defined as classes, training, programs and events where attendance is based on a person’s race, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation.
Community effort boosts reading scores at BCS
Results from the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program released last month showed 81% of third graders in the district are now reading at or above grade level. This is up from just 53% on the previous year’s standardized test.
Pro-Palestinian demonstration draws counter-protest at University of Alabama
Students gathered demanding the school call for a permanent and immediate ceasefire and to push the school to sever ties with defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
‘A bad day to be a panther’: Students react to BSC’s closure
Birmingham-Southern College students learned about their school's closure while on Spring Break. When they returned to campus, their emotions ranged from frustrated to angry to sad.
BSC’s Daniel Coleman talks about his years-long effort to save the school and what happens next.
After the news that Birmingham-Southern College is closing, we sat down with the school’s president, Daniel Coleman.
Struggling Birmingham-Southern College says it will close at end of May
The College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to close the longtime institution, officials announced in a news release. The announcement came after legislation, aimed at securing a taxpayer-backed loan for the 168-year-old private college, had recently stalled in the Alabama Statehouse.
SATs are going all digital, and students have mixed reviews of the new format
As SAT season kicks off this weekend, students across the U.S. for the first time will take it with computers and tablets — and not the pencils they've used since the college admissions test was introduced nearly a century ago.
What’s special about historically Black colleges and universities
What do Oprah Winfrey, Roy Wood Jr. and Stacey Abrams have in common? They all received diplomas from historically Black colleges or universities. They’re also 3 contributing writers for NPR Weekend Edition Sunday host Ayesha Rascoe’s new essay collection.
A books-to-prisons program creates connection behind bars
Katie Willis and Megan Lyle, founders of the local bookstore Burdock Book Collective, began their books-to-prisons program in 2020.
City OK’s $5 million to help keep Birmingham-Southern College open
BSC President Daniel Coleman said in a statement that next he’ll ask Jefferson County to meet the city’s commitment, focus on private donors and reengage with state leaders to work on getting more funding.
Birmingham-Southern hoped to borrow money. Now the school is on borrowed time
Birmingham-Southern College is running out of money and time. After the State Treasurer rejected the school’s $30 million loan application, school officials must now consider their options, including closing the 167-year-old campus on Birmingham’s west side.
Montgomery judge dismisses Birmingham-Southern College lawsuit against state
Judge James Anderson said he was “sympathetic” to the college, but said after a roughly hour-long hearing that phrasing in the law favored the treasurer.
Birmingham-Southern sues Alabama state treasurer, says college was wrongfully denied loan
The lawsuit contends Treasurer Young Boozer wrongly denied the college a loan from the program created this year to provide a financial lifeline to the institution. The 167-year-old college will likely close without emergency relief from the court, lawyers wrote in the lawsuit filed Wednesday.
How a rural Alabama school system outdid the country with gains in math
Piedmont City schools notched significant improvement in math, landing in the top spot among school districts across the country in a comparison of scores from before and during the pandemic. Nationwide, students on average fell half a year behind in math, researchers say.
Video shows high school band director shocked with stun gun, arrested after refusing to stop music
State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who is representing band director Johnny Mims as his attorney, said Tuesday that the incident is an “alarming abuse of power” that instead “should have been should have been deescalated.”
Nature-based education on the rise in Alabama
At least three forest schools have opened across Alabama in recent years. It's part of a nationwide movement to teach kids in nature.
Alabama ranked 45th in annual survey of child well-being
While this is one spot higher than the year before, analysts observed Alabama's improvement is largely the result of other states showing poorer outcomes as opposed to Alabama’s child well-being improving.
