I spent years trying to track the weapon that killed a 13-year-old Milwaukee girl. What I found is a travesty of a law that, if overturned, could put a real dent in urban violence.
Jamaal Abdul-Alim
Jamaal Abdul-Alim serves as education editor at The Conversation. His articles have appeared in the Washington Monthly, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, where he worked as a senior staff writer covering federal education policy.
Posted inSeptember/October 2023
When Colleges Apply to Students
An emerging university admissions system is helping underprivileged applicants by reversing the traditional process.
Posted inCollege Guide
A Job and a College Degree Before You Graduate High School
“Dual enrollment” programs are the hottest reform in education. But they haven’t worked for lower-income students of color—until now.
Posted inCollege Guide, Magazine, September/October 2021
Nebraska’s Sweet Tuition Deal
Anyone who serves in AmeriCorps can get in-state prices.
Posted inCollege Guide, Magazine, September/October 2020
Higher Ed’s Most Successful Failure
Why a proven reform to boost community college graduation rates can’t get traction.
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Critics Blast Federal Agency for Shoddy Oversight of College Loans
Government investigators, college financial aid officers and others testify that FSA needs to do a better job
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Getting Kids into College is One Thing, Getting Them Through is Another
NEW ORLEANS —When Pamela Bolton searched for a middle school for her daughter seven years ago, convenience, not college, was on her mind. She ended up enrolling her daughter at a new and untested middle school called New Orleans College Prep largely because she could get there easily. But New Orleans College Prep, and its […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
New Program Steers Bright Poor Kids to Top Universities and Colleges
In spite of being among the top students in his school, Joseph Nelzy was quick to give up on being admitted to one of the nation’s best colleges after he got a rejection letter from Brandeis University. “I had no hope after that,”Nelzy, 18, said in the college advising office at Abraham Lincoln High School, […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Author Tells College-Bound Students to Embrace International Challenge
WASHINGTON — Drawing lessons from her critically acclaimed book, The Smartest Kids in the World, journalist Amanda Ripley told a group of graduating high school students that they should see themselves as part of a global competition when they head off to college in the fall. “It’s not this vague competition that may happen one […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education, Magazine, September/October 2013
Dropouts Tell No Tales
An African American journalist returns to his college alma mater to find out why so many students like him never make it out.
