Freedom University: Studying in Secret

By Thelma Gutierrez & Traci Tamura

Every Sunday, in an unmarked building, in an undisclosed location in the college town of Athens, Georgia, a group of students quietly gather in secret. They are aspiring professors, diplomats and engineers who have been banned from Georgia’s top five public universities.

But here, in this donated space, it is safe to study.

This place is called Freedom University. It has one classroom and four professors, scholars who’ve taught at the likes of Amherst, Harvard, Emory and Yale, who are teaching here, on their days off, without pay.

Their students are undocumented. They have nowhere else to go and no one else to teach them.

Continued at: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/01/freedom-university/

New Rule Will Allow States and Agencies to Release More Student Data

By Kelly Field

The Education Department will issue a final rule today that will make it easier for states to track students’ academic progress and evaluate education programs.

The rule allows state and local education officials to share student information more widely without violating federal privacy law. It also makes lenders, guarantors, and other agencies with access to student records subject to the law, known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, or Ferpa.

Continued at: http://chronicle.com/article/New-Rule-Will-Allow-States-and/129985/