323. College Access and Success News

Here are links to recent news on college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Poverty rate rises in America, by Annalyn Censky - http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/13/news/economy/poverty_rate_income/ via CNNMoney.com - "The poverty rate for children under age 18 increased to 22% in 2010, meaning more than 1 in 5 children in America are living in poverty."

2. Enrollment down at YSU, by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/qVlJve via @AddThis - "Meanwhile, YSU's headcount enrollment - the actual number of individual students enrolled - is 14,540 this semester, down from 15,194 last fall semester. In addition, full-time equivalent enrollment - a measure that is used in budgeting at both the university and state levels - is down 3.5 percent."

3. Unequal education harmful, by David A. Love - http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/sep/14/unequal-education-harmful/?newswatch via @vindicator - "And although white students in the United States are also underperforming when compared to a number of other advanced nations, America will have to seriously grapple with an educational system that produces a large achievement gap based on race and ethnicity, and a pipeline to prison for youth of color.
This is not the blatant racism of hate crimes and racial epithets, but rather a silent, systemic, institutional racism that allows inferior schools to fester in poor, black and brown urban areas."

4. Part 3: Answers to Your Back-to-School Admissions Questions, by ROBIN MAMLET and CHRISTINE VANDEVELDE: http://nyti.ms/ppcM9a - "The glory of being admitted to a college lasts into the second or third week of being there. The reality of what your college values will be with you day in and day out for four years and beyond."

5. Low-Hanging Fruit, by Elizabeth Murphy - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pH7PDB via AddThis - "Whether they called them "near-completers" or "ready adults" or "stop-outs," the educators and policy experts gathered here today agreed that people who have earned most but not all of the credits they need for a college degree should receive more attention."

6. Teaching Student-Athletes, by Nate Kreuter with Eric Dieter - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pv1vVX via @AddThis - "Because of my own past as a high school and college (club-level, not varsity) athlete, I have tried to be attentive as a teacher to the special demands placed upon student-athletes, and have worked hard to understand the dual roles that they are expected to succeed within."

7. The Case Against College Rankings, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/the-case-against-college-rankings/6610/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Another one of my complaints is that too many highly educated people, who should know better, honestly believe these numbers. Over the weekend, I was talking to a friend whose son is at Yale. The brilliant young man also got into Harvard, which was ranked two spots higher - just as it is now. My friend told me that some parents questioned her son’s decision to attend Yale because Harvard was top dog. Does anyone else consider this beyond sad?"

8. International Test Scores, Irrelevant Policies, by Iris C. Rotberg - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/14/03rotberg_ep.h31.html via @educationweek - "Although countries can exacerbate or mitigate the impact of poverty through their social, fiscal, and education policies, and although some students do overcome the odds, the fact is the gap between high-poverty and more-affluent students remains a fundamental problem in virtually every country."

9. Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’, by SABRINA TAVERNISE - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB - "Minorities were hit hardest. Blacks experienced the highest poverty rate, at 27 percent, up from 25 percent in 2009, and Hispanics rose to 26 percent from 25 percent. For whites, 9.9 percent lived in poverty, up from 9.4 percent in 2009. Asians were unchanged at 12.1 percent. . . . “We’re risking a new underclass,” said Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Young, less-educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and form stable families because they are jobless,” he added."

10. What College Can Mean to the Other America, by Mike Rose -http://chronicle.com/article/What-College-Can-Mean-to-the/128936/ - "A certificate or degree alone will not automatically lift them out of hard times—there is a bit of magic-bullet thinking in these college initiatives—but getting a decent basic education could make a significant difference in their lives."

11. College Spending Trends Show Students Bearing a Growing Share of the Costs, by Goldie Blumenstyk - http://chronicle.com/article/College-Spending-Trends-Show/128972/ - "Disparities between rich and poor institutions in overall spending levels have never been larger," the report says. "The 'new money' coming into higher education is coming from either student tuitions or user fees. Rich institutions are getting richer and poor institutions are getting poorer."

12. Ravitch tells how Kopp, Duncan surprised her - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-tells-how-kopp-duncan-surprised-her/2011/09/13/gIQAbAzlPK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "I have my differences with Teach For America, but I admire the idealistic young people who join it. I often say, as I did in our debate, that if I were a college senior, I would probably want to join TFA. But my big beef is that TFA presents itself as a solution to the problems of the teaching profession, and it is not. The young people are sent into some of our nation’s most challenging classrooms with only a few weeks of training, and at just about the time they are getting a handle on how to teach, they leave. Most are gone within two or three years."

13. The Best Liberal Arts Colleges In America: U.S. News And World Report - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/the-best-liberal-arts-col_n_961784.html - "For the second year in a row, Williams College and Amherst College are the best liberal arts schools in America, according to U.S. News and World Report's annual college rankings.
See which schools rounded out the top ten below. To see the full list, click here."

14. U.S. News College Rankings 2012: The Top National Universities - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/us-news-college-rankings-_n_958948.html#s359530&title=Harvard_University_Tied - "Princeton University tied Harvard University as the top-ranked National University in U.S. News & World Report's 2012 rankings of Best Colleges. Last year, Harvard stood alone as the best ranked National University, a category that encompasses large, research-oriented schools."