Eighth graders in the U.S. who perform poorly in math (mostly Blacks and Hispanics) are entering high school unprepared for their studies according to the Brookings Institution: "It's hard to teach a real algebra class if you have kids who don't know arithmetic."

Workers with college degrees – except for those with professional degrees – earned less last year than they did in 2000 (After adjusting for inflation). Economics professor Matthew J. Slaughter: "A college degree still provides an important security blanket … just how warm this blanket is is now less clear." (via Matthew Yglesias)

More than 200,000 U.S. school kids were hit by their teachers last year, according to a study by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU. The study concludes that black children in the South are more likely to experience corporal punishment than their white counterparts elsewhere in the U.S..

The U.S. housing crisis, part of the current economic downturn, has increased the number of public school students who qualify for free meals. Paying for additional meals has put a strain on many school districts attempting to reduce costs in light of budget cuts.

One out of five public school students in the U.S. is Latino, an increase of 50 percent in the last 15 years, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center. It also concludes that Latino students are more likely to live in poverty than non-white students.

Teachers working in Texas' Harrold school district will be allowed to carry concealed guns once they take part in crisis management training. Superintendent David Thweatt: "When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started."

Boys and girls perform equally on Math tests throughout most of their schooling, according to a study led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Los Angeles Times asks: why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?

National banks like JP Morgan Chase and Citibank are beginning to cut back loans, and in some cases, not provide loans to students who attend community and commercial colleges. Over 40 percent of undergrads in the U.S. are enrolled in a community college and Latinos are twice as likely to attend community college over a four-year college.

"Reading First," a $1 billion-a-year initiative designed to teach reading to low-income children, is not working, according to a report by the Department of Education.