272. Review of College News

Here are some links to today's stories

about college access and success.

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. A Pre-College Summer To-Do List, by Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hyman - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/summer-to-do/ - "As the next class of college freshmen prepare to pack for college, I asked Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hyman, authors of The Secrets of College Success, to compile some tips for getting ready academically. What follows are excerpts. –Jacques Steinberg"

2. The Case for More College Grads, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/jqIUMu - "In their new report, "The Undereducated American," Carnevale and his co-author, Stephen J. Rose, acknowledge that "with many college graduates unsuccessful in finding work in the current economic climate, the temptation to reject postsecondary education as a viable economic option grows stronger, especially among working families for whom college costs are always a stretch." But they aim to use historical data to show that the analysts (and parents of recent graduates who may feel that way) are engaged in short-term thinking."

3. The Wrong Message, By Roy L. Beasley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/kamSC5 - "However, I have serious reservations about some of the policy inferences the authors draw from their findings that gaps in these skills between black students and white students grow larger during the first two years of undergraduate study."

4. For San Diego Schools, a Fear That Larger Classes Will Hinder Learning, by Michael Winerip - http://nyti.ms/jVlRLp - "San Diego’s decision to set a class size of 17 at its poorest schools was based on the most influential study in the field, the Tennessee STAR project. That research, done in the 1980s, concluded that students in small classes (13 to 17 children) outperformed those in regular classrooms (22 to 25) in kindergarten to third grades. The gains were biggest among poor minority children, and that advantage continued for years to come."

5. U.S. Will Need Another 20 Million Workers With Some College Education, Report Says - http://chronicle.com/article/US-Will-Need-Another-20/128059/ - "It finds that across the job market—even in positions that normally do not require a degree—education has benefits. But if the nation continues to underproduce college-going workers, it says, "the large and growing gap between the earnings of Americans of different educational attainment will grow even wider."

6. The Surprising Task of Getting Your Child Ready for College, by Tom Morris - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-morris/the-surprising-task-of-ge_b_882647.html - "Here's something you may not have thought about yet: What happens next fall at the first stage of the college adventure and in the semester after that will likely be in some way crucial for determining or charting out the possibilities for every subsequent opportunity your child will face."

7. More Central New York high school graduates picking community college, other affordable colleges, by Elizabeth Doran - http://t.co/M5bOY6m - "The college “was the furthest thing from my mind when I started applying to colleges,” Wilson said. “But the bottom line became how much is it going to cost me, and OCC became the best choice by far. I can take my general education classes there and then transfer after two years.”

8. As schools cut budgets, strains on counselors grow, by Christine Armario -http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/06/24/general-us-broken-budgets-a-counselor-apos-s-life_8533889.html - "In all, Wagner has to register 600 freshmen in this high school in a suburb north of Miami for their next year's classes, and help another 200 12th grade students through college applications and graduation. There are recommendation letters to write, crises to handle. On the one hand, she must monitor low performing students; on the other, she must shepherd a bevy of meticulous students at this A-rated school vying to get into the nation's most prestigious colleges.There's just not enough time . . . ."