Claudio Sanchez

On the education front, President Obama's State of the Union address is likely to focus on three big proposals:

First, the president wants to talk about the idea he floated last week of making community college tuition-free. This is new.

The plan would benefit about 9 million full- and part-time ...

Some states have been quick to drop the new national academic standards — but North Carolina is taking its time before deciding the Common Core's future in 2015.

President Obama is on the road as part of his effort to jump-start his 2015 agenda. Friday he's in Tennessee, talking about higher education.

As the senior member of the NPR Ed team with 25 years on the education beat, here are the top stories that my expert sources and I believe will be ones to watch in 2015. For more predictions, check out our crowdsourced list.

1. Standardized Testing Under Fire

The Education Department's unveiling today of a controversial proposal has fueled a debate over what this kind of system can — or should — measure.

With Republican majorities in the House and Senate, Congress may push for change on several big education issues, including a rewrite of the law known as No Child Left Behind. But it'...

Higher education, preschool funding, the Common Core and the future of No Child Left Behind are just a few of the education policies that will be in play under the new Republican-controlled Congress. How will these things change? We called Sen. Lamar Alexander to ask.

The Tennessee Republican is ...

The city's public schools have lurched from one crisis to the next. The latest: canceling the contract with the teachers' union. Just about everyone worries that there's no long-term fix in sight.

Mounting debt, concentrated poverty and a political fight have nudged its school system to the brink of insolvency. With nowhere else to cut, district officials voided the teachers' union contract.

For years,Washington Monthly has been rating and ranking the nation's colleges.

But for its 2014 edition, the magazine has done something new. It has put out a list of what it says are the nation's worst colleges. That is, schools with high tuition, low graduation rates and high student ...

For 14-year-old Yashua Cantillano, life in New Orleans is an improvement.

But that's not saying much.

Just three months ago, Yashua was in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, dodging gang members. He says they would drive by his school, guns visible, threatening to kill him, his younger brother — Yashua's whole family.

"We'd ...

Suburban school principals aren't exactly known as rabble-rousers. In general, they're a pretty sedate bunch — you know, composed, serious, calm.

But if you want to get them riled up, ask them what they think about the Common Core State Standards and how teachers are evaluated.

That's exactly what I ...

U.S. immigration officials have allowed tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America to join family members or other guardians in the U.S. Nearly 1,000 are in New Orleans, for now.

A former elementary school teacher from Utah took the reins of the nation's largest teachers union this week.

As president of the National Education Association, Lily Eskelsen Garcia represents nearly 3 million teachers. Her No. 1 one priority? As she puts it: "Roll back standardized testing before it does more ...

Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and swept away many of its public schools. Now, the city's largest district is unveiling a transformed school system, composed entirely of charter schools.

In Mexico a half-century ago, and in Wildwood, N.J., finding deeper meaning in a beloved playground game.

The start to the school year in New Orleans offers a landmark moment in U.S. education. For the first time, a major urban school district will operate entirely with charter schools.

Vergara v. California dealt a serious blow to teacher tenure and seniority laws in that state. And anti-tenure groups say their movement is spreading.

Why are so many low-income and minority kids getting second-class educations in the U.S.? That question is at the center of the heated debate about tenure protections and who gets them.

Medicare's trust fund is projected to have money until 2030, four years longer than predicted last year.