
Will the College Admissions Test Disappear?
In March, the first group of American high school juniors will sit for a newly overhauled Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) that features more time for fewer questions, among other changes. But even with a makeover, the test, administered by the College Board, may have lost some of its power to determine a student’s academic future.

Deal or no Deal
After critical court decision, future California lease-leaseback contracts stand on shaky ground.
For the past four years, Star Academy in Natomas didn’t look like a regular school. Due to overcrowding, elementary kids went to class in a commercial building that faced a major street and had warehouse space in the back. Last year, when the moratorium was lifted, the district considered building the new charter school through a lease-leaseback deal. But the method, once a popular way for struggling districts to acquire new facilities, has come under legal fire in recent years.

This Business School Will Change the World, if It Can Survive
While other B-schools work to expand their reach and shed their old boys’ club stigma (with some success—Bloomberg data show that the share of women in business schools has increased six percentage points since 2007), Presidio resembles the school they say they’re trying to become. Its current MBA class is 56 percent female, and ninety percent of Presidio graduates work in sustainability posts, according to Presidio’s president, William Shutkin.

UC Davis Suspends KaloBios Drug Trial After CEO Shkreli’s Arrest
The University of California at Davis and Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida have suspended a planned drug trial sponsored by KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. following the arrest of Chief Executive Officer Martin Shkreli on securities fraud charges.

Solar-Powered Success
Habitat for Humanity partnership offers troubled youth the opportunity to to learn job skills
To certain young adults, the rising sun is no longer just a metaphorical promise of a new day, but rather a literal chance for a new start in life. The very light the sun provides is working as the harbinger of opportunities and career skills for students who have been in the dark.

Student Debt Can Hurt Women More Than Men
It will take women MBAs a year longer than men to pay back their student loans, according to our analysis of Bloomberg data, gleaned from our annual ranking of MBA programs.

Investment in Higher Education is Essential to Regional Business Growth
For the first time since 2006, California’s governor and Legislature will provide the California State University the funding its Board of Trustees had sought for this academic year. Of course the level of funding does not approach what it was before the great recession, but it does provide an opportunity for the largest system of higher education in this state and country to meet the continued demand for education sought by thousands of potential students.

Carrying Student Debt? You May Be In for a Lot of Robo-Calls
In the past, debt collectors could autodial borrowers only on the phone number they provide in their loan agreements. The new rules could allow the companies to repeatedly call any phone number associated with a student loan borrower—including family members’ cell phones or any number once held by the debtor.

The Helping Hand
Senator Holly Mitchell says a level playing field is the mission behind most of her measures
California State Senator Holly Mitchell can be an imposing figure. While most people presume that term evokes physicality, it is Mitchell’s intellect and passion for defending those she believes have little or no voice in the political process that make her such a formidable figure around the Capitol. We talked with her about her effort to turn that passion into policy.

The Contemporary Counselor
Law schools are responding to the gap in entrepreneurial education that up-and-coming lawyers need
Traditionally, the path from law student to full-fledged lawyer has been fairly straight-forward: A student starts out with a summer internship at a law firm, graduates and passes the bar exam, then gets hired at a law firm. In a secure and supportive work environment, law graduates can make good money, meet professional mentors and learn the skills required to be a real lawyer. This is the standard route, the one most students embark on every year. But more graduates like Alexandria Goff are choosing to buck tradition in the name of independence.