National News

• Merit and the D.C. school system (The New York Times)
  
  
• Needy students closing test gap under 'No Child' (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Colleges seek key to success of Black men in classroom (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
  
  
• Why a small liberal-arts college decided to offer online courses (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
  
  
• Community colleges seen as source of engineers (The Chronicle of Higher Education)