Morning Announcements: October 22, 2010

Education Week reports that the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse is broadening its definition of “gold standard” research to include nonexperimental designs.

College seniors who graduated in 2009 had an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up 6 percent from 2008, according to an annual report from the Project on Student Debt. See the New York Times story on this study.

Philadelphia schools chief Arlene Ackerman has been named the nation’s top urban school leader, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

In the American School Board Journal , Nora Carr, the chief of staff for North Carolina’s Guilford County Schools, writes “don’t wait –take action” on school reform.