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Adam Ferriss Can the News Be Fixed?
The movement to repair Americans’ broken relationship with the news media
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Rekha Tenjarla and Angela Y. He The Geography of Partisan Prejudice
A guide to the most—and least—politically open-minded counties in America
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Timothy Sean O'Connell The Least Politically Prejudiced Place in America
As American towns become more politically segregated and judgmental, what can we learn from one that hasn’t?
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Reed Saxon / Reuters Why Are American Colleges So Ridiculously Expensive?
The Masthead investigates.
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Alicia Tatone Why Is College in America So Expensive?
The outrageous price of a U.S. degree is unique in the world.
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Ashley Seil Smith Boys Are Not Defective
Girls in the Middle East do better than boys in school by a greater margin than almost anywhere else in the world: a case study in motivation, mixed messages, and the condition of boys everywhere.
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André Chung How America Outlawed Adolescence
At least 22 states make it a crime to disturb school in ways that teenagers are wired to do. Why did this happen?
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John Cuneo Can This Man Save U.S. Soccer?
How one teacher is attempting to train a generation of globally competitive players—starting with their coaches.
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Stefan Wermuth / Reuters Starbucks the Benevolent?
What would compel a massive company to start helping its employees pay rent and attend college?
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Tomer Hanuka Playing Defense Against the Drones
We’ve managed to create armies of flying robots. Can we control them?
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Gregory Reid The Upwardly Mobile Barista
Starbucks and Arizona State University are collaborating to help cafe workers get college degrees. Is this a model for helping more Americans reach the middle class?
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Shutterstock Why Do American Students Have So Little Power?
A group of Kentucky teens is struggling to get a modest bill passed, revealing just how difficult it is to convince adults that kids' opinions matter.
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Darren Braun The Case Against High-School Sports
The United States routinely spends more tax dollars per high-school athlete than per high-school math student—unlike most countries worldwide. And we wonder why we lag in international education rankings?
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Le Tigre Motivation Matters More Than Ever
Ideas of the Year 2013
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Brian Rea Why Kids Should Grade Teachers
A decade ago, an economist at Harvard, Ronald Ferguson, wondered what would happen if teachers were evaluated by the people who see them every day—their students. The idea—as simple as it sounds, and as familiar as it is on college campuses—was revolutionary. And the results seemed to be, too: remarkable consistency from grade to grade, and across racial divides. Even among kindergarten students. A growing number of school systems are administering the surveys—and might be able to overcome teacher resistance in order to link results to salaries and promotions.
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Boot Camp for Teachers
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Nigel Dickinson The World’s Schoolmaster
How a German scientist is using test data to revolutionize global learning
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Your Child Left Behind
For years, poor performance by students in America relative to those in other countries has been explained away as a consequence of our nationwide diversity. But what if you looked more closely, breaking down our results by state and searching not for an average, but for excellence?
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Veronika Lukasova What Makes a Great Teacher?
For years, the secrets to great teaching have seemed more like alchemy than science, a mix of motivational mumbo jumbo and misty-eyed tales of inspiration and dedication. But for more than a decade, one organization has been tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and looking at why some teachers can move them three grade levels ahead in a year and others can’t. Now, as the Obama administration offers states more than $4 billion to identify and cultivate effective teachers, Teach for America is ready to release its data.
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Mike Theiss/Corbis In Case of Emergency
FEMA’s new administrator has a message for Americans: get in touch with your survival instinct.
