Well, this one was of the longest short weeks I can remember…
Education Politics 
From the Department of Education’s Press Office: “Fact Sheet: Education Department Releases Proposed Regulations to Encourage Better and Fairer Tests, Reduce Burden of Testing.”
Via ProPublica: “New Jersey‘s Student Loan Program is ’State-Sanctioned Loan-Sharking’.”
Presidential Campaign Politics 
Hillary Clinton released an update to her plans for higher education and college affordability, with a proposal for free, in-state public college tuition for those with incomes up to $125,000 – a move that brings her campaign in closer alignment to those policies proposed by rival candidate Bernie Sanders. She also proposed a three month moratorium on federal student loan payments.
Here’s the draft of the Democratic Party Platform, which includes free community college as a plank.
“Did Clinton University Break The Same Law As Trump U?” asks The Daily Beast.
Education in the Courts 
Via AL.com: “A Lee County jury today convicted Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard on 12 felony charges in his ethics case, removing Hubbard from office. Hubbard, 54, was convicted after a jury spent seven hours deliberating whether he used his public position for personal gain.” The charges include receiving money from the ed-tech company Edgenuity.
Via the Texas Tribune: “Three University of Texas at Austin professors sued their university and the state on Wednesday, claiming Texas’ new campus carry law is forcing the school to impose ‘overly-solicitous, dangerously-experimental gun policies’ that violate the First and Second Amendments.”
“Kansas State University’s policy not to investigate accusations of rape in off-campus fraternity houses is ‘incorrect,’ according to federal government statements filed in court in support of two female students at the university,” The New York Times reports. These students filed federal lawsuits earlier this year, contending the university violated Title IX.
Via Eweek: “Home Computers Connected to the Internet Aren’t Private, Court Rules.”
“Why I Am Suing the Government” by Christian Sandvig (on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act).
From court filings, reported by The Washington Post: “In her own words: Rolling Stone’s Sabrina Rubin Erdely on experience with ‘Jackie’.”
“A Portland Public Schools board member has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the district, alleging racial discrimination,” The Oregonian reports.
There’s more on legal cases in the sports section below.
Testing, Testing… 
News on testing in the politics section above.
Online Education (The Once and Future “MOOC”) 
“‘Top universities to offer full degrees online in five years’” says the BBC, citing a prediction made by Coursera’s Daphne Koller.
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “For Students Taking Online Courses, a Completion Paradox.”
Research from EuroDL: “Massive Open Online Courses and Economic Sustainability.”
Institut Mines-Télécom joins edX.
Coding Bootcamps (The Once and Future “For-Profit Higher Ed”) 
News on for-profits in the accreditation section below. A study on for-profits and adjunct labor in the research section below.
Meanwhile on Campus 
“Public Colleges Chase Out-of-State Students, and Tuition,” says The New York Times.
“Career centers are providing more access to some companies than others (for a fee), a move that has career counselors concerned institutions are selling students to the highest bidder,” Inside Higher Ed reports. (I should add: career matching startups are becoming quite popular investment targets. A trend, perhaps, to watch.)
Libraries remain relevant, and The New York Times is on it.
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “The U. of California’s Open-Access Promise Hits a Snag: The Faculty.”
Michigan State University has dropped its general ed requirement that students take college-level algebra.
Buzzfeed continues its reporting on sexual harassment on college campuses, this time with a story on astrophysics professor Christian Ott: “Caltech Professor Who Harassed Students Will Not Return To Campus For Another Year.”
“Chinese investors provided $3 million in startup money for Thunderbird Preparatory Academy, a Cornelius charter school that’s fighting for survival,” reports the Charlotte Observer.
Accreditation and Certification 
The Higher Learning Commission announced that it would delay any action on the proposed sale of the Apollo Education Group, the parent company of the University of Phoenix.
Tressie McMillan Cottom speaks with Marketplace about the connections between welfare reform, credentialing, and for-profit higher ed.
Go, School Sports Team! 
Via The Tennessean: “The University of Tennessee-Knoxville has reached a settlement in a lawsuit about sexual assaults involving student-athletes, ending a dispute that pitted eight young women against the $126 million football program. UT will pay the plaintiffs $2.48 million, a sum that also includes fees for their attorneys.”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Many universities provide lists of friendly lawyers to athletes accused of sexual assault and other crimes but don’t provide the same help to victims or nonathletes with legal troubles. U of Tennessee settlement raises questions about the practice, which the NCAA permits.”
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Two staff members at Georgia Southern University breached ethical-conduct rules by providing forbidden academic assistance to three athletes, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced on Thursday, citing a decision by its Division I Committee on Infractions.”
From the HR Department 
Via Fortune: “Android Co-Founder To Lead Google’s New Education Project.” In recent years, Rich Miner has been an investor in Google’s venture capital wing, Google Ventures. No word on what this “new education project” might be. By the sounds of this report, Miner isn’t sure yet either.
“Major faculty and staff cuts at Plymouth State University” by Bryan Alexander.
Upgrades and Downgrades 
Via AV Club: “Apple gets patent to disable cell cameras at concerts, and it’s super evil.” Just at concerts. Suuuure.
“Pearson Collaborates With Google to Develop Virtual Reality Learning Experiences for Students.”
Via The Nation: “Teach for America Has Gone Global, and Its Board Has Strange Ideas About What Poor Kids Need.”
“Could AI replace teachers? 10 ways it could?” by Donald Clark.
“Amazon Inspire, Open Educational Resources, and Copywrong” by Bill Fitzgerald.
The non-profit Technology for Education Consortium is partnering with an ed-tech company Lea(R)n “to use the latter company’s technology platform to collect and analyze data around ed-tech purchasing, including the RFPs and contract terms that go with the purchases,” according to EdWeek’s Market Brief.
“3 Lessons Chipotle Can Teach EdTech” is an actual headline.
Funding and Acquisitions (The Business of Ed-Tech) 
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Data, Privacy, and Surveillance 
Via Chalkbeat: “A Colorado mom asked for records about her son. The school district billed her $567.” Yay, FERPA.
From the Berkman Klein Center: “Privacy and Student Data – An Overview of Federal Laws Impacting Student Information Collected Through Networked Technologies.”
“Safety, Risk, and Informed Decisions” – Common Sense Media’s Bill Fitzgerald writes about how to evaluate the privacy of ed-tech software (and how to evaluate Common Sense Media’s privacy evaluations).
Data and “Research” 
Via the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel: “Over the past three decades, state and local expenditures on prisons and jails have increased more than three times as fast as spending on elementary and secondary education, according to a new brief released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Get Schooled blog reports that “A new Duke University study suggests problems paying attention in school in early childhood can foreshadow academic challenges later, including graduating from high school. Such students are 40 percent less likely to graduate, according to the study.”
EduKwest has released its latest “EdTech Market Brief India,” detailing continued growth, as the title suggests, of the ed-tech market in India.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a Florida State University study: “Passing rates in gateway courses have dropped across Florida’s 28 open-access colleges as more students skip remediation and head straight to college-level classes. But because a law that took effect in 2014 gives students that option, the actual number of students passing entry-level college courses has increased.”
“Montana’s Online Credit Recovery Program Scrutinized by Researchers,” Education Week reports.
Daniel Willingham writes about what he sees as an “Important new study of homework.”
“Dean Dad” Matt Reed writes about research that suggests for-profits led to the rise of adjunct labor.
Via The Atlantic: “Taking More Courses May Help Solve the College Debt Crisis.” This draws on research from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University on students in Tennessee.
Via Education Week: “Teachers in High-Poverty Schools Less Confident in Ed-Tech Skills, Survey Finds.”
“The Myth of the English Major Barista” by Robert Matz.
“Half of Associate Degree Holders Are Underemployed,” according to Payscale.
Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce released its latest study about jobs, and among the headlines gleaned from it, this one by Bloomberg: “Americans With More Education Have Taken Almost Every Job Created in the Recovery.” Like, 99%.
Via NPR: “Babies Of Color Are Now The Majority, Census Says.”
Via Science Alert: “A bug in fMRI software could invalidate 15 years of brain research.” But keep on using those colorful images in your slides to argue why lectures are bad.
RIP 
Three students from American universities were among the 22 victims of terrorists last week in Bangladesh.
RIP to Philando Castile, age 32, who was shot on Wednesday by a police officer. I try to avoid the viral videos of Black men being murdered, but I clicked on the Facebook feed of his girlfriend, broadcasting live from the front seat of the car. Her composure and her code-switching was remarkable, even more so considering their four year old daughter was in the back seat. Castile was the cafeteria supervisor at J. J. Hill Montessori, and the school community grieves for someone they loved and who by all accounts loved each child he served.
I’ll include some resources and readings and responses in HEWN (the Hack Education Weekly Newsletter) that I’ll send out tomorrow. But for now, stay safe out there.
Icon credits: The Noun Project