Adora Svitak started writing at age five and hasn’t stopped since. Now 12 years old, she has published three books (Flying Fingers, Dancing Fingers, and Yang in Disguise), writes her own blog, and teaches other students by doing school visits and using online distance learning.

Adora is a rare literary prodigy who has a lot to show us about why we should value reading and books. You can learn more about her at her blog and her website.

A new video infographic from GOOD Magazine and Chris Weller takes a broad look at the state of education in America today. Compared to many other first world countries, we’re falling rapidly and dangerously behind.

As technology becomes more and more instrumental in the classroom and beyond, how can we prevent America’s achievement gaps from widening? Today, computers are the new pen and paper.

Per Scholas, a nonprofit in New York City founded in 2002, aims to give low-income communities access to technology. The organization takes end-of-life computers from companies, wipes them clean of old data, refurbishes them, and then redistributes them to schools.

From GOOD:

To date, [Per Scholas has] partnered with six public middle schools to distribute over 2,000 computers to students and teachers and provided hundreds of hours of technology training. The result: Students are not only empowered to achieve in school, but also gain computer skills that will help them for the rest of their lives.

Source: Bureau of Labor Studies

The cost of a college education has ballooned over the past few decades, intimidating prospective students with so-called “sticker shock” at the total cost of their tuition and living expenses and leaving those same students burdened with student loans 4+ years later. This naturally raises an important question, especially in this uncertain economy: What is the value of such an expensive degree? The New Yorker’s Rebecca Mead reports that some economists have argued that the job categories that will add the most employees during the next decade don’t require a college degree. Anecdotes of successful college drop-outs abound, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

However, a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that a bachelor’s degree or higher actually results in significantly higher earnings in 2009 than it did 30 years ago. Broken down by gender, men only earn more today than their counterparts in 1979 if they have a college degree, and earn from 7.8% to 28% less with a lower level of education. In addition, the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University released a study on June 15th addressing America’s growing demand for a better-educated workforce, which we posted about previously.

What do you think will be more important: investing time and a lot of money in a bachelor’s degree, or getting into the workforce early? High school should better prepare students for the working world, but does that mean we should also discourage high school grads from possibly “wasting” money on college?

The artists behind Flocabulary and Week in Rap brings the high school Class of 2010 a very awesome graduation gift. From the first text message sent in 1992 (the year most of you were born) to the recent passage of the health care bill in the U.S., “this is (nearly) all the major headlines of your life. In rap.”

For more current-events rap songs by the week, browse the archives at The Week in Rap online. Though this is the last installment of the school year, Week in Rap comes back in the fall–not that you should lag behind on current events in the meantime!

We’d like to give a big shout-out to Lynn O’Shaughnessy over at The College Solution for compiling a list of the “10 Best College Websites.” She made a great resource for parents, college students, and prospective students a couple of weeks ago, listing ten sites that address a variety of topics that are part of the college admissions process: choosing a major, graduation rates, rankings, student feedback, loan and scholarship information, and much more. Below are five particularly useful sites Lynn found, with her description of each:

College Navigator. This federal website contains more data on the nation’s colleges and universities than any place else on the Internet.

CollegeMajors101. College Majors 101 offers lots of information about what you can do with dozens of majors, as well as what you can expect academically if you pursue these majors.

Project on Student Debt. This website is devoted to helping families make the best economic choices when tackling college costs. The site also has a list of schools that have pledged to limit or eliminate the use of student loans in their financial aid packages.

College Board. The College Board is a staple; at their website, you can easily retrieve the academic profile of a college’s freshman class, financial aid and merit aid stats, available majors, and much more.

Unigo. This site, which has teamed up with the Wall Street Journal, serves up the unvarnished scoop on schools from the students themselves.

We also have a couple more sites we would like to add to this list:

StageofLife.com – College. StageofLife.com is a free website for users to share stories and wisdom for every stage of life between high school and retirement. They have an entire section devoted to college students, with guest bloggers, a writing competition, videos, and stories from college students. This is a great resource if you’re looking for real perspectives from students.

The College Solution. Lynn’s blog is an excellent resource in and of itself. If you didn’t click on the link above to see her full list of  recommended websites, you should still check out her blog for stories, blog posts, and resources about admissions, financial aid,  academics, and more.

Have you used these websites already in researching potential colleges? Which resources were helpful for you? Leave a comment and share with us the tools that you found helpful in the admissions process.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education responded to growing concern over the debt level of graduates from for-profit colleges by proposing new student-aid regulations. We previously posted about the PBS FRONTLINE documentary College, Inc., which examined how recruiters are paid based on how many students they enroll at these for-profit institutions. The process is manipulative: recruiters are pushed to “dig deep [and] get to what’s bothering [a prospective student], so you can convince them that a college degree is going to solve all their problems.”

So, how does the new Education Department proposal help you, the prospective student who may get swindled and left with enormous debt and few opportunities for a job upon graduation?

• For-profit colleges would be required to provide information about their programs’ graduation and job placement rates. This will allow you to determine the value of the degree offered by your program, and create more accountability for the college.

• Colleges must also provide information about how much debt graduates have upon graduation, and their income relative to that debt.

• Recruiters can no longer be paid based on how many students they enroll. This means a recruiter for a college will be less likely to engage in emotionally manipulative and aggressive tactics to convince you to sign up.

What was left out of the proposed regulations? Originally, they included a provision that cut off federal aid from programs “whose graduates could not repay their [loans] in 10 years.” In other words, if you and your fellow graduates from a for-profit college had so much debt that you could not pay off loans even after a decade of paying up to 8% of your income, the Department of Education would cut off federal financial aid, which is a for-profit college’s single largest source of income. This was easily the strongest part of the proposal, protecting students from the worst behavior of these colleges.

What has been your experience with for-profit colleges? Do you think the Department of Education should strengthen provisions such as cutting off federal aid from colleges that create indebted graduates who can’t find jobs? Share your stories and ideas with us.

Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High Charter School in San Diego, California is a model school that takes a nontraditional approach to teaching its students. Founded by educator Larry Rosenstock, High Tech High offers project-based learning, which simulates true-to-life experiences, and has proven to be highly successful.

The school boasts a college entry rate of 100% and the vast majority of kids score above average on standardized tests.

Above, watch Larry Rosenstock describe the vision behind High Tech High’s unique and innovative curriculum. Do you think this inspiring approach can be replicated in high schools across the country? What’s your take on traditional education versus this new style of teaching focused primarily on real-world application?

Rosenstock was featured as education blog The Daily Riff’s “Person of the Year” in education. Learn more about High Tech High at the official website.

Claudia Rodriguez juggles a job with the National Guard, a family life with a husband and two children, and college courses at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville. She is a veteran of the U.S. army and on her way to completing an associates degree in sociology with a minor in Spanish.

Although Claudia has already achieved a great deal in life and those around her describe her as an excellent student, family provider and role model, she knows she can do more. Attaining her degree will allow her to begin a career in counseling–something she is passionate about, while also setting an example for her children.

Says Claudia: “I think I made good choices. I am very excited about the future.”

Click here for more stories from adult students on the path to opportunity.

If there ever was a question about the necessity of postsecondary education for successfully competing in the job market, there isn’t any longer. According to a new study released today by the Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce, by 2018, 63% of all jobs will require some sort of postsecondary education. The study, entitled Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018, gives a detailed forecast of the types of jobs expected to be available, and the preparedness of the workforce to adequately fill these positions. Among the findings is the fact that employers will need 22 million workers with AA or BA degrees, and another 4.7 million with postsecondary certificates. Currently we will fall short of that number unless a drastic reform takes place.

As our economy bounces back, more and more jobs will become available. By 2015, new job creation is expected to reach where it would have been if it weren’t for recession-related losses. It’s imperative that we have a labor force ready with the skills needed to excel at these newly created employment opportunities. Our need for college-educated workers is growing at a rate faster than we can keep up with.

Additionally, the study goes on to discuss the industries and occupations that will require the highest levels of education, and which states will be home to these jobs. It’s an incredibly detailed report that should spark much discussion on education reform and the need for every student to strive for some sort of postsecondary credential. The study is available online at http://cew.georgetown.edu/jobs2018/.