EDUCATION

The financial-reform bill signed into law last week includes a section on dangerous mortgages, with a provision for educating the elderly, the poor, minorities, those with language barriers, and "other potentially vulnerable consumers." Who's not mentioned but should be? The young. Among unemployed Americans ages 18 to 29, more than a quarter are behind on mortgage payments, one 2009 study found, and this group also has soaring credit-card debt and bankruptcy rates.

NEWSWEEK did a cover story a few months ago asking why we can't fire bad teachers. Today Washington, D.C., Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee proved that you can.

Education reformers were feeling optimistic. With President Obama's Race to the Top competition, which offers financial rewards to states willing to hold teachers accountable for their students' performance, they've made real progress in weeding out poor teachers.

A list of schools that have earned high marks for challenging their students despite the odds, but need better scores.

Back in 1958, Ted Schwarzrock was an 8-year-old third grader when he became one of the "Torrance kids," a group of nearly 400 Minneapolis children who completed a series of creativity tasks newly designed by professor E. Paul Torrance. Schwarzrock still vividly remembers the moment when a psychologist handed him a fire truck and asked, "How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?"

The theme of this year's national teachers' union conventions was anger, particularly at President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and reformers in general. But American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten's decision to emphasize collaboration rather than opposition to reform efforts could well boost her national image as the union leader the administration can work with.

Last month on the Daily Show, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty predicted the rise of "iCollege," a Web-based model of higher education that students could download for $199 rather than "haul their keister" to class.

Though she insists she's not trying to make the upcoming Washington, D.C., mayoral election about her, Rhee and her controversial school reforms are becoming a factor in the race.

In 1972, when Mae Jemison was just 16 years old, she arrived at Stanford University, where she intended to pursue a degree in engineering. But it wasn't long after arriving in Palo Alto that she learned that the university's science departments weren't nearly as enthusiastic about her as she was about them.

Mark Kirk, the Republican contender for Barack Obama's former Illinois Senate seat, had previously misrepresented his military service in the course of campaigning. Now his oft-recalled time as a teacher is being questioned too.

The good news: Latino and black high-school graduation rates have slightly improved. The bad: those rates are not increasing fast enough to make up for the demographic shifts in the country's public-high-school population.

Are too many high-school kids taking college-level courses, or too few?