330. 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. Could No Child Left Behind be history? by Lesa Jansen – http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/22/could-no-child-left-behind-be-history/ via CNN - "Friday, President Obama will announce that his administration will begin reviewing state's applications to waive the No Child Left Behind requirements in return for tangible commitments to close achievement gaps."

2. Obama rolling back Bush-era education law – http://usat.ly/o6QD75 via @USATODAY -"Under the plan Obama was to outline Friday, states would be allowed to ask the Education Department to be exempted from some of the law's requirements if they meet certain conditions. That includes enacting standards to prepare students for college and careers and setting evaluation standards for teachers and principals."

3. Serving Soldiers? by Paul Fain - Inside Higher Ed http://bit.ly/pLSXLQ via AddThis - "At issue is the $4.4 billion in Post-9/11 G.I. Bill benefits distributed last year by the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as tuition assistance for service members. For-profit colleges received about $1.6 billion, or 37 percent, of that amount, according to a report released Thursday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Eight of the 10 institutions receiving the largest amounts are for-profits, and they raked in a combined total of more than $1 billion."

4. The Secret College Advantage: Money Talks, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/the-secret-college-advantage-money-talks/6671/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "According to Inside Higher Ed, some schools are so eager to attract students who can pay full price that they admit them despite lower grades and test scores. The interest in full-pay students is so strong that 10 percent of four-year colleges report that the full-pay students they are admitting have lower grades and test scores than do other admitted applicants."

5. Obama Administration Sets Rules for NCLB Waivers, by Alyson Klein - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k%2012/2011/09/obama_administration_sets_rule.html via @educationweek - "The waiver plan also appears to back off on a specific deadline for bringing all students to proficiency, a key facet of the current law. The blueprint would also have called for states to set a goal of having all students be proficient on state tests by 2020, as opposed to the 2013-14 school year in current law. But the waiver plan doesn't set a particular end date. Instead, states would still disaggregate data and set performance targets for every school and every student subgroup, and then set "ambitious but achieveable goals". They could set goals, for instance, to cut the achievement gap in half in six years."

6. Colleges Try to Unlock Secrets to Student Retention, by Caralee J. Adams - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/21/04college_ep.h31.html via @educationweek -"The gap between access and completion has put a new focus on ramping up retention—the percentage of freshmen who return to the same institution for a second year of college. And that’s a task, observers say, for precollegiate educators as well as their college counterparts. . . . Students’ lack of academic preparation in K-12 and lack of commitment to earning a degree were among the top reasons for attrition, according to the ACT retention survey."

7. No Child Left Behind Waivers for States, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/nup3sc -"Under the new policy, only those states that have adopted new academic standards that the administration calls “college and career ready” will be eligible to receive the waivers, according to White House documents distributed on Thursday."

8. Single-Sex Education Is Assailed in Report, by Tamar Lewin - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/education/23single.html?src=recg - "It asserts that “sex-segregated education is deeply misguided and often justified by weak, cherry-picked or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid scientific evidence.” But the strongest argument against single-sex education, the article said, is that it reduces boys’ and girls’ opportunities to work together, and reinforces sex stereotypes. “Boys who spend more time with other boys become increasingly aggressive,” the article said. “Similarly, girls who spend more time with other girls become more sex-typed.”

9. Highlighting Flow of Military Benefits to For-Profits, Senators Seek Changes in Key Rule, by Kelly Field -http://chronicle.com/article/Senators-Put-Spotlight-on/129127/ - "Under the 90/10 rule, for-profit colleges must receive at least 10 percent of their revenue from nonfederal sources to be eligible to receive federal student aid. But military benefits aren't counted as part of the federal share, so some colleges have courted veterans as a way to ensure their compliance with the rule. To discourage this practice, Democrats—and many veterans groups—want to include military money on the federal side of the formula."

10. Don Quixote, College Choice, and the Myth of Fit, by Mark Moody -http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/don-quixote-college-choice-and-the-myth-of-fit/28781 - "There is a popular slogan posted in many college counseling offices: “College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won.” This statement has become a mantra we repeat to families as an antidote to the media-driven obsession with rank, reputation, and prestige. . . . Our colleague Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions and financial aid at Kenyon College, once captured the frustration of a conversation about the whole business of Fit when she exclaimed, “Fit happens!” Happily, this tongue-in-cheek phrase nails it. We hope it can become the new counseling office motto, opening our kids to unexpected possibilities and a more authentic, empowering and reflective transition to the next phase of their lives."

11. A New ‘Poor Students Need Not Apply’ Policy at College? by Brad Tuttle - http://ti.me/oMI8Yd via @TIMEMoneyland - "Many American universities admit that they are actively trying to recruit students who don’t need financial aid and will pay full, non-discounted tuition. Sometimes, these students aren’t as qualified as other applicants, but they get in anyway because they’re willing to pay up."

12. Top 10 myths of college admissions, by Steve Cohen - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/top-10-myths-of-college-admissions/2011/09/22/gIQAEn8XoK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com -"Unfortunately, many parents are navigating this world wearing blinders. They’re operating on rumor, wishful thinking, or outdated notions of how the system worked when they applied. Let’s address the top 10 myths."

13. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories about college access and success, via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/x7cmxSo

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