Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. “When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.” –  Franklin D. Roosevelt E-cigarette use among youth has grown at an alarming rate. In 2017, over 2 million U.S. middle and high school students used an e-cigarette. This figure prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to launch a new youth e-cigarette prevention campaign this week to help stem what it refers to as an epidemic. Contrary to a popular misconception, e-cigarettes – including the dominant market brand, JUUL – do contain nicotine, which is a […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In Indiana, high school students can earn one of three diplomas—a Core 40 diploma, a more challenging Honors diploma and a less rigorous general diploma. But under new federal guidelines that are part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, Indiana would not be allowed to count the roughly 12% of graduates earning the general diploma toward its official high school graduation count. The new ESSA guidelines have sparked debate and raised an important question about the importance of establishing high standards for high school diplomas. Some support the general diploma because it offers […]