Some Top Students Look for Hidden-Gem Colleges
By Margot Adler, NPR

Admissions anxiety around a small group of highly selective colleges is more intense than ever. Students shoot for those schools because of what they hear from their parents and friends, and what they read in ranking systems. But there are still many students who have chosen not to get caught up in the frenzy and are choosing colleges with different profiles.

'Math Anxiety' Confuses the Equation for Students
By Sean Cavanaugh, Education Week (subscription required)

In recent years, researchers and educators have delved further into the topic of "math anxiety," or the ways in which students' lack of confidence in that subject undermines their academic performance. Today, the issue is receiving renewed attention from academic scholars and others, who believe that developing a better understanding of the causes and implications of math anxiety is a key to improving achievement for many students.

Admissions Jockeying Starts Earlier in New York
By David Herszenhorn, The New York Times

New York City is home to the widest expansion of school choice since the 1970s and provides a bounty of options intended to shake up the system by improvement through competition. The system is also meant to provide something for everyone. But some say the city's public school choice process has left many parents and children stressed.

Reports: Test Scores, Grades Don’t Jibe
By Nancy Zuckerbrod, The Houston Chronicle

Large percentages of high school seniors are posting weak scores on national math and reading tests even though more of them are taking challenging courses and getting higher grades in school, say two new government reports released Thursday

Huge IPEDS Lives
By Doug Lederman, InsideHigherEd

The U.S. Education Department is quietly moving ahead with plans to significantly expand the information and data it collects from colleges each year through an online survey — including an entirely new section that would require institutions to report on the accountability measures they use and their scores on those tests or tools.

A Reunion of Refugees, Class of '57
By Joseph Berger, The New York Times

Bard College's treatment of Hungarian refugees in the mid-1950s is in sharp contrast to the current suspicion with which immigrant scholars are met.

The Fabulous $50,000-a-year Education
By Peter Hong, The LA Times

Overall, tuition and fees at four-year institutions have increased 35% over five years according to the College Board. What's more, many prestigious schools are raising prices at a time when they have more money than ever.

Governors' Plans Offer Good News for Higher Education
By Peter Schmidt, The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required)

With most states' economies in healthier shape than they have been in years, public colleges and their students are finding plenty to cheer in the State of the State and budget addresses that governors have delivered in recent weeks to kick off legislative sessions.

New Help for the Middle Class
By Scott Jashik, InsideHigherEd

Stanford and many other top colleges are changing how they weigh home equity in determining a family's ability to pay for their children’s postsecondary education. The result is that some middle class families could find themselves paying several thousand dollars less than they do now to have their children attend some of the most prestigious colleges in the country.

English Growth - and Backlash - in Korea
By Alan Brender, InsideHigherEd

English-language programs are flooding South Korean universities - and they are creating a backlash from Koreans who fear a loss of their culture and professors who worry about a loss of control.

Palestinian Universities Drawn Into Factional Clashes
By Greg Myre, The New York Times

Many Palestinians never imagined that the violence in their streets would spread to these institutions, sources of great pride to all Palestinians. But as infighting spun out of control at the beginning of this month, it consumed the major universities that represent one of the few hopes of a better life here in the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Academies 'Making Good Progress'
BBC

England's academy schools programme is on course to meet its aim of raising pupils' attainment in deprived areas according to the National Audit Office.

New Research Programs Focus on the Canadian Student Experience
By Moira Farr, University Affairs

A new centre at the University of Calgary and a graduate program to train student-affairs specialists at the University of Toronto are set to fill a gap in research on postsecondary students in Canada.

Postsecondary Education: Improved Access, Quality Key
By John Stubbs, Sally Webber, and Elizabeth Parr-Johnson, The Chronicle Herald

The key to Canada's continued competitiveness in the global knowledge-based economy is investment in education. That is why, after years of focusing almost exclusively on health care, the country's political leaders are increasingly making the case for more spending on post-secondary education. However, consensus on the need for more money masks a difference of opinion over how new funds should be spent.

Declining Student Numbers Risk Country's Future, Group Warns
By Caroline Alphonso, The Globe and Mail

Canada's higher-education system could shrink by as many as 100,000 students in the next decade unless the country moves aggressively to recruit more low-income and aboriginal students, a new report by the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation warns.

Tuition Fees Projected to Rise
By Paul Mayne, Western News

Western University is planning tuition increases ranging from three to eight per cent are proposed for each of the next two years.

Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well Being in Rich Countries
UNICEF

The United States ranked 14th out of 24 nations in a report by UNICEF comparing the educational well-being of children in industrialized countries. Belgium, Canada, and Poland achieved the top three rankings in the survey. The factors used for comparison were the average achievement in reading, math, and science by age 15, the percentage of 15- to 19-year-olds who remain in school, and the transition from school to employment.

The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher.

To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.