Chris Myers Asch is promoting the creation of a Public Service Academy, a sort of West Point for bureaucrats offering a free four-year education in exchange for five years of government service.

The College Board will drop its Advanced Placement Italian exam at the end of this academic year because it was not attracting enough students.

China announced a series of measures aimed at helping millions of recent college graduates find work amid the deepening impact of the global financial crisis.

TWO HATS Eleanor Tritt, top right, Amagansett’s principal and superintendent, visiting a second-grade class. The school houses 115 pupils.

PROTEST Hundreds objected to the mandated flu vaccinations.

A group of sixth graders — seven boys and five girls, including Julie Shon, 11, center — studied at Elite Academy in Flushing, Queens. The entrance test is Friday.

Bank of America employees on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., offered give-aways like water bottles, backpacks, games and other items, trying to persuade students to sign up for credit cards and other banking services.

On Tuesday and Wednesday there was a slowdown at the Common Application Web site, which handles online applications for some 350 colleges and universities.

Some highly selective schools have said they will not go along with Score Choice, a new policy allowing students to select which of their multiple scores colleges can see.

Construction is underway at the C. S. Mott Children’s and Women’s Hospital.

James J. Liautaud, right, founder of Jimmy John’s sandwich shops, with James Lyons, who was the dean of discipline at his high school, Elgin Academy in Illinois.

Syndie Sablik and her daughters Cheriden, 12, and Carrigan, 9, at a conference at Tefft Middle School in Streamwood, Ill.

Samuel P. Huntington

The chorus of P.S. 22 performed Dec. 18 at a party for a new book at a Manhattan restaurant.

An orientation session for parents and children at the Clinton School for Writers and Artists, a middle school in Chelsea.

Supporters of Donald J. Guter argue that he had done a good job and that his only failing was not getting along with the university’s president.

Jaison Ipe, right, a student at the Yale School of Management, introducing his group’s mock hedge fund to a panel of bona fide hedge fund insiders and questioners.

A law school opening next fall in Southern California is offering a big incentive to top students: free tuition for three years.

Amid state and city budget cuts, the bright lights have dimmed at Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts — the school of “Fame” fame.

The former president of a company that refurbished sports equipment for hundreds of school districts pleaded guilty to charges that included failing to properly test thousands of youth football helmets.

Decreased enrollment, especially at small colleges with tuition-driven budgets, could mean significant cutbacks to programs and faculty.

A former high school dropout aced the city's G.E.D. exam and is now attending college, with her sights set on earning multiple master's and a Ph.D.