338. 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. Youngstown News: With YSU pact OK’d, focus shifts to morale, by Denise Dick - http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/oct/05/with-ysu-pact-ok8217d-focus-shifts-to-mo/ via Vindicator - "Although neither the union nor the administration has divulged agreement details, The Vindicator has learned that it calls for no raises in the first two years with a 2 percent increase in the third and final year. The employee health-care contribution also would increase in an amount that equals 10 percent the first year, 12 percent the second and 15 percent the final year."

2. Study Finds Minority Students Get Harsher Punishments, by Nirvi Shah - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/05/07discipline_ep.h31.html via @educationweek - "Analyzing 2006 data from the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights, Mr. Losen found that more than 28 percent of African-American middle school boys had been suspended at least once, compared with 10 percent of white males nationwide. For girls, it was 18 percent of black students, compared with 4 percent of white students."

3. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

4. Saving the 'Lost Boys' of Higher Education, by Robert B. Smith -http://chronicle.com/article/Saving-the-Lost-Boys-of/129243/ - "Higher-education officials have been wringing their hands about our own "lost boys" for years. And yet the flip-flopped gender gap continues to widen: In April 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that, for the first time, women have sailed past men in obtaining both bachelor's degrees and advanced college degrees."

5. School lunch investigation: One teacher exposes the worst meals, by Nanci Hellmich - http://usat.ly/niDHR2 via @USATODAY - "This week she is revealing her identity for the first time — Sarah Wu, 34, a speech pathologist in the Chicago public schools — and releasing her new book, Fed Up With Lunch (Chronicle Books). "With the blog, I really wanted a public record of these meals that I couldn't believe were being served to kids," she says. . . . She was working in a large elementary school where more than 90% of the kids qualified for free and reduced lunches. "Many of my students were coming from poverty," says Wu, who has a 3-year-old son. "Their families were living paycheck to paycheck. Many of my students relied on school lunch for their best meal of the day."

6. Tips for younger siblings of college freshmen, by Jenna Johnson - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/tips-for-younger-siblings-of-college-freshmen/2011/09/30/gIQADcwGLL_blog.html via @washingtonpost - "A lot of energy (and marketing) goes into fully prepping students for their first year of college. And prepping their parents to let go. But what about younger siblings? Quite often, they are forgotten until their older sibling is long gone."

7. It’s not all about the teachers, by Will Fitzhugh - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/its-not-all-about-the-teachers/2011/10/03/gIQAPRt7LL_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "More recently, and less on the fringe of this new concern, education historian Diane Ravitch wrote in her 2010 book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: “One problem with test-based accountability, as currently defined and used, is that it removes all responsibility from students and their families for the students’ academic performance. NCLB [No Child Left Behind] neglected to acknowledge that students share in the responsibility for their academic performance and that they are not merely passive recipients of their teachers’ influence.”

8. The Last and Definitive Word on Writing the Common Application Essay, by Robert S. Schwartz - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-s-schwartz/writing-the-common-application-essay_b_995186.html - "The college application essay is really your last and best chance to show a college admissions officer who you really are. Some think of the essay as a "tie breaker," something they use when they want to see beyond grades or test scores, which will push an applicant "over the top." Tell a great story. Tell it very, very well. Enjoy the process of edifying the reader. Be smart, be interesting, be yourself. And in the words of Steve Martin --"be so good they can't ignore you."