The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is investigating whether selective colleges have been discriminating against women applicants by admitting less-qualified men in an attempt to maintain a gender balance on campus.  According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, The investigation is being undertaken at the request of commissioner and law professor Gail Heriot, an opponent of affirmative action.

Last night, 16-year-old Melody Ross, an honors student and track and field athlete, was shot to death at the football game between rival Wilson High School and Long Beach Poly High School in Long Beach, California.  The shooting took place at Wilson High School, which you may be slightly familiar with if you saw the Freedom Writers movie or read Erin Gruwell's The Freedom Writers Diary.  The school serves some of Long Beach's most upscale neighborhoods, but is no stra

As I type this, my four-year-old son is explaining that because it's getting dark outside, it's time to fire up the DVR and watch WordWorld, his favorite PBS show. Indeed, on many nights, if I'm grading papers, prepping for class, or just trying to steal a few minutes to focus on my own stuff, he does get to watch WordWorld.

Forty percent of teachers in the U.S. are "disheartened," or so says a new study by the nonpartisan nonprofit Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates.  Among the remainder, the study says, 37 percent are "contented," while 23 percent are "idealists."

School violence has been in the news frequently this past month, thanks to the beating death of honors student Derrion Albert by other teenagers and the shooting death of Trevor Varinecz by a school resource officer whom Varinecz reportedly stabbed several times.