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You don't have to have big bucks to join the latest trend in philanthropy. Soup groups around the country let diners pool their money to support deserving local initiatives. In Philadelphia, one dinner raised $225 for a teacher's class project.

New York and New Jersey were able to avoid big cuts to instruction in their public schools thanks to the U.S. government's stimulus spending, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

At Lake Superior State University, college officials have been releasing a list of banished words since 1976. Words that you're not allowed to say this year include "baby bump" and "occupy." It's a list destined to receive some "blowback."

Lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique, and now that information is everywhere some say it's a waste of time. Now, physicists have the data to prove it. But efforts to lose the lecture encounter resistance — sometimes from students.

New Jersey is one of 11 states Wednesday that applied for a federal waiver from elements of No Child Left Behind, the federal education law. New York state is also expected to apply for the waiver by February.

In the wake of the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, policies and procedures for reporting such incidents on college campuses have come under more intense scrutiny.

School spirit at Penn State was dealt another blow Saturday when it lost its last home game of the football season to Nebraska. The loss comes just days after the firing of the university's iconic head coach Joe Paterno and the arrest of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on 40 counts of abusing young boys. NPR's Jeff Brady reports on the game's aftermath.

A 19-year-old Emory University student is accused of charging up to $2,500 to take the exam for high school students.

The president said states can now apply for waivers allowing them to scrap the requirement that all children must show they are proficient in reading and math by 2014. But states must first meet conditions designed to better prepare and test students.

New York City public school teachers report back to work on Tuesday to prepare for the start of the academic year — but this year they will be without the annual stipend they received for school supplies.

City students who get suspended for infractions this coming year will now have a new alternative school — in the headquarters of the teacher's union.

P.S. 124 Yung Wing School was scheduled to lose three teachers this year, if cuts threatened by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went through. Because of seniority protections, teachers with the least experience would have been the first to go, and Mr. Lee was only in his third year. But there he was this summer, studying his new classroom, imagining the children that will soon fill rows and pass through corridors.

An Albany judge has sided with the state teachers union, by ruling that the state put too much emphasis on student test scores in its new teacher evaluation system scheduled to go into effect this fall.

New York City charters schools once again performed better than the citywide average on this year's state exams. But that's largely because of the gains in math.

The city and state teachers unions are urging the state to reject a $27 million contract with an educational technology company owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

City principals have to finalize their budgets for the coming school year by next Friday, and a few are taking a do it yourself approach. They're planning to save money by going back into the classrooms.

The Department of Education said between 75 and 100 schools were represented at a recruitment fair held at the Brooklyn Museum on Tuesday. Teachers looking for work in New York City attended the fair.

Churches that have been holding Sunday services in New York City public schools can continue doing so for now — but that could all change if the city gets its way.

Student grades are up at struggling Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School – a school with low graduation rates. But federal funds that school administrators credit with helping the recent transformation now hang in the balance.

Meet another student in our Senior Snapshots series, which offers a look at some of the New York teenagers getting their diplomas this month.