Education Department

Competency-based education is gaining steam, but questions remain about which forms the U.S. Department of Education will back.

Thursday's meeting is simultaneously a pivot for the Obama administration away from its stalled legislative agenda and a rare chance for White House-level attention for a large group of academic leaders.

An effort to simplify how institutions are authorized to operate in multiple states prepares to invite its first members.

The U.S. Education Department is applying its state authorization regulation differently to nonprofit and for-profit colleges, in ways that some experts believe is unfair and possibly illegal.

Calling lobbyists' reaction to Obama's rating system proposal "premature and more than a little silly," Duncan says Education Department will develop metrics by which colleges will be judged.

Jamienne Studley, former Skidmore president and Education Department lawyer, is named deputy under secretary of education.

As Education Department begins new round of deliberations over "gainful employment," its draft language is both simpler and stricter.

In response to Congressional invitation, college groups suggest ideas for revising key federal law, from federal student-level database to risk-based approaches to accreditation and student aid.

Proposal circulating on Capitol Hill asks accreditors to create a way for new providers to gain approval more quickly.

The Education Department gears up to try again on regulations governing vocational programs, and -- building on its recent activity -- hints at broad regulatory agenda in the near future.