Recent Educational News

Late last month, the 15 students who comprise Zaytuna College's inaugural class settled in to their first day in a classroom near the University of California, Berkeley. For these students, this is a chance to study with top Islamic scholars. For the school's founders, it's a chance to hone a new image for American Islam.

Students and parents often kick off each new school year with annual rituals -- buying new shoes, taking a last-minute trip, or picking out a shiny new lunchbox. Writer Sally Friedman shares three generations of back-to-school memories.

It's an annual ritual in Boston, as well as other areas across the country, parents help their kids move in at college dormitories. In Boston, move-in day is pretty chaotic and ties up traffic.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is seeking Ebonics translators to interpret wire-tapped conversations. Critics fear the move by a federal agency could set a precedent. But linguist John McWhorter argues that, while any conversation about Ebonics is charged, the DEA is on the right track.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has spent much of the back-to-school season talking with teachers and parents. His department recently oversaw the awarding of more than $4 billion to public schools in select states. While he's addressed countless teachers in recent weeks, now, he tackles students' questions.

Unmarried women between the ages of 22 and 30 are making 8 percent more than men in the same demographic, according to a new analysis of government data by a private research firm. It's partly because more women are college educated. But overall, women still make less than men.

BYU says it is leaving the Mountain West Conference and will go independent in football while joining the West Coast Conference in all other sports in the 2011-2012 school year.