The Weekly Dispatch

Often, one researcher says, some factor—such as the odds of life events keeping people from ever graduating—is missing from the analysis about the college choices people make.

This whole discussion of merit — what it even means, how it drives who gets to go to college, how it shapes people’s college dreams — is threaded through so many debates in higher education. And it can distort the conversation.

The American Journalism Project is giving grants to support a set of national news organizations working in local communities. We're excited to be part of this group working to reimagine and strengthen local news.

Connect with our new team of reporters covering the role of colleges in rural America, the future of postsecondary education in prisons, and higher education and racial equity.

Ultimately, one expert argues, we need to build systems that create a good fit for every student, that see the goal as developing children, not sorting them.

Our nation’s two-year colleges often get little attention in national conversations about higher ed. And yet they enroll more than one-third of the undergraduates in America.

A new book probes what colleges can do to change public sentiment. “Universities are not doing a great job of communicating what they are doing,” says Stephen Gavazzi, one of the authors and a human sciences professor at Ohio State.

We started a new project back in June focused on covering the connections between education and work. It's a topic getting a lot of attention in public-policy circles but not one that's regularly covered on the ground. Here's what's struck us so far.