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Education Department Announces New Rules for Accreditors. The U.S. Education Department announced "a series of executive actions to improve accreditors' and the department's oversight activities and move toward a new focus on student outcomes and transparency." The announcement included executive actions and recommended legislative reform, focusing on transparency, that officials s...
DC Shuttle ...
Ed Department Finalizes Rules on Income-Based Repayment and Student Aid Delivery. The U.S. Education Department finalized two rules expanding an income-based student loan repayment program and giving students more options for receiving aid. The rule will expand the REPAYE program to allow five million more Direct Loan borrowers to cap their monthly student loan payment amount at 10...
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STEM Education Act Signed into Law. President Obama signed the STEM Education Act of 2015, which expands the definition of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) to include computer science programs. The bill was originally introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT), members of the Science, Space and Technology Committee. The law does not increas...
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Arne Duncan to Step Down in December from Education Secretary Position. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced he will step down at the end of December. He has served since the beginning of President Obama's first term, almost seven years. Obama will name John B. King Jr., currently deputy secretary of education in the Education Department, as interim secretary to serve unti...
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Moody Says College Closures will Increase. Moody's Investor Service released a private report which projected that by 2017, the closure rate of small colleges is likely to be triple that of the past decade. The report said there would be declining enrollment, particularly among the small private colleges. The closure rate of small colleges was relatively low during the past decade,...
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The New College Scorecard. The Obama administration's new College Scorecard was unveiled last weekend. Collegescorecard.ed.gov was revamped and updated by the administration, instead of the ratings system the administration had hoped to develop. The administration released thousands of new data points, broken down by individual college and going back several years. The new data sho...
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New Scorecard Site to Replace Ratings System. The White House unveiled a new and improved College Scorecard website, which is intended to replace the ratings system that the administration had proposed, the now-abandoned Postsecondary Institution Ratings System (PIRS). The site displays data for colleges, including graduation rates and earnings, and is intended to be mobile-frien...
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Clinton Details Student Loan Plan. Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is rolling out her policy proposals for student loan and higher education reform. The plan would cost $350 billion over 10 years to reduce interest rates and encourage free college programs. The broad reforms would aim to encourage state schools and community colleges, through grants, to adopt free or near fre...
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Shining Light on Campus Sexual Assault. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA) with a focus on combating campus sexual assault. Testifying before the committee were Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Dean Heller (R-NV) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), who have advocated for leg...
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Higher Education Act Reauthorization and Innovation. The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing entitled "Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Exploring Barriers and Opportunities within Innovation." This hearing, one of several leading up to the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), focused on the changing higher education la...
DC Shuttle ...
Education Department Announces New Rules for Accreditors. The U.S. Education Department announced "a series of executive actions to improve accreditors' and the department's oversight activities and move toward a new focus on student outcomes and transparency." The announcement included executive actions and recommended legislative reform, focusing on transparency, that officials s... 
DC Shuttle ...
Ed Department Finalizes Rules on Income-Based Repayment and Student Aid Delivery. The U.S. Education Department finalized two rules expanding an income-based student loan repayment program and giving students more options for receiving aid. The rule will expand the REPAYE program to allow five million more Direct Loan borrowers to cap their monthly student loan payment amount at 10...