Giving Compass' Take:

• Natalie Schwartz, writing for Education Dive, compiled a list of education stories from 2018 that humanize some of the broader policy decisions last year. 

• How can philanthropy potentially help or hinder education policy reform? 

• Read about how philanthropy impacts higher education funding. 

Over the past year, K-12 and higher education news has developed at a breathless pace.

While some stories have already faded in our memories, others have sparked lasting movements in education that will extend beyond 2018.

Several stories we read stuck with us this year because they put a spotlight on how national trends in education are affecting everyday people, from college hopefuls in small-town Louisiana to conservative student groups on Penn State's sprawling campus.

Below, we gathered up some of the most compelling stories of 2018 that showed us the human side of the big decisions in education:

ProPublica | A Betrayal 
A teenager in Long Island, New York, was looking for a way out of his MS-13 gang, whose members were killing off students in his high school. So he wrote a confession to his 11th-grade English teacher and gave information to police, with an expectation he would be relocated in return. Instead, ProPublica's Hannah Dreier reports, "he was slated for deportation and marked for death."

The Baltimore Sun | These Baltimore students aren't afraid of mass shootings. They're facing gun violence in their everyday lives.
In a city for which 2018 marks the fourth-straight year of at least 300 homicides, many school children have already grappled with and even witnessed losing loved ones to gunfire.

The New York Times Magazine | Arizona Lawmakers Cut Education Budgets. Then Teachers Got Angry. 
Fed up with stagnant pay and poorly funded public schools, Arizona teachers converged at their state capitol to urge lawmakers to increase education funding. Feeling that little was being done, the teachers then took matters into their own hands, launching a movement to support pro-education ballot measures and candidates.

Read the full article about education reads by Natalie Schwartz at Education Dive