Claudio Sanchez

The University of the People says it's the "world's first, tuition-free, online university," designed for poor students who would otherwise lack access to higher education. The institution has 1,300 students in 129 countries, but it's also struggling to maintain its "free" mission.

Congress passed a bill Friday to keep the interest rate on government-backed student loans from doubling. It's a victory for students, but other compromises by Congress could cost them a lot more in the long run.

President Obama delivered his annual back-to-school speech at Benjamin Banneker High School, one of Washington, D.C.'s top performing schools.

Nearly 1 million kids who start high school every year don't make it to graduation. At a time when federal and state budgets are tight, dropouts costs taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue, health care, welfare and incarceration costs.

The Bolivian-born math teacher who surprised the education establishment by teaching students in a tough Los Angeles high school to master calculus and other higher math courses has died. Jaime Escalante was 79. His inspiring story gained fame in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver but in later years he struggled to duplicate his earlier successes.

Parents and teachers often expect less of students who are the children of Dominican immigrants. This causes their grades and ambitions to suffer.

President-elect Barack Obama is said to have chosen Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan to serve as education secretary. Duncan has run the country's third-biggest school district for the past seven years. He has focused on improving struggling schools, closing those that fail and getting better teachers.

The No Child Left Behind Act — which Congress approved with overwhelming bipartisan support — is now drawing sharp bipartisan opposition. The law is up for reauthorization, and many — including those who originally supported it — are pointing out its flaws.

The late Albert Shanker, a teachers union president, argued vigorously that the unions — which politicans have blamed for standing in the way of reforms — needed to prove their critics wrong. A new book examines why his ideas have had such a lasting impact on schools, unions and politics.

Public schools perform favorably with private schools when students' income and socio-economic status are taken into account, according to a new report from the U.S. Education Department. The findings counter a popularly held notion, that private schools outperform public schools.