Students Paying More and Getting Less, Study Says

By KATE ZERNIKE 12:15 PM ET

College students are covering more of what it costs to educate them, even as colleges are spending less on them.

John DeFrancis, Chinese Language Scholar, Is Dead at 97

By EDWARD WONG

Few scholars of Chinese wrote more probingly about the language than Mr. DeFrancis, and fewer still created teaching materials that had so widespread an impact on generations of students.

The I.R.S. Considers Pressing Schools to Further Reveal Their Business Activities

By LYNNLEY BROWNING

The I.R.S. is undertaking a major effort to learn more about whether academic institutions are improperly using their nonprofit status to avoid paying certain taxes.

Few Specifics From Education Pick

By SAM DILLON

Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools chief, told the Senate that he would work for “real and meaningful change” in the nation’s schools if confirmed as education secretary.

College Abruptly Moves Up Deadline for Applications

By TAMAR LEWIN

College-bound procrastinators, beware: When state budgets get tight, application deadlines can tighten up, too.

Athletes and Colleges Feel a Recruiting Pinch

By MARK VIERA

Sports programs at some smaller universities have scaled back on recruiting trips, while some recruits and their families are considering the costs of living far from home.

Teachers at 2 Charter Schools Plan to Join Union, Despite Notion of Incompatibility

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and JENNIFER MEDINA

The United Federation of Teachers announced that it had organized teachers at two New York City charter schools that are part of the Knowledge Is Power Program.

City Signs Contract to Track Special Education Data

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

The New York City Department of Education has signed a $55 million contract with a company to overhaul the way it tracks information about students with disabilities.

Battle on Crèches in Schools Goes to City Hall

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

The battle over whether to allow nativity scenes in schools will go to City Hall, as some try to persuade the education committee to support an effort to overturn the ban.

Brooklyn Diocese Moves to Shut 14 Schools

By PAUL VITELLO and WINNIE HU

If executed, the plan will mean that one of the nation’s largest Catholic diocese will have closed nearly 40 percent of its grade schools in the past seven years.

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Fiction Reading Increases for Adults

By MOTOKO RICH

The National Endowment for the Arts says in a report that it believes a quarter-century of precipitous decline in fiction reading has reversed.

State Weighs Approval of School Dedicated to Hebrew

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

Two years after a wave of protests over New York City’s first public school dedicated to the Arabic culture, state education officials are expected to consider greenlighting a Hebrew language charter school in Brooklyn.