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

2. Duncan Calls for Urgency in Lowering College Costs, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/thZSu2 - “Three in four Americans now say that college is too expensive for most people to afford,” Mr. Duncan said. “That belief is even stronger among young adults — three-fourths of whom believe that graduates today have more debt than they can manage.” College seniors with loans now graduate with an average debt load of more than $25,000."

3. Committee on Measures of Student Success issues final report, by Libby A. Nelson Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sOdSKW via AddThis -"One of the recommendations, if endorsed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, would create a combined “graduation and transfer” rate that includes students who graduate from a two-year college as well as those who do not graduate but do go on to a four-year institution. That move would be a victory for community colleges, who have argued that counting only those students who earn degrees makes community colleges appear less successful than they really are."

4. 10 job market trends college grads need to know, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57332329/10-job-market-trends-college-grads-need-to-know/?tag=mncol;lst;8 - "Hiring of college graduates is expected to increase 4 percent across all degree levels, according to a survey of more than 3,300 employers. The survey, which is the largest of its kind, has been conducted annually for 41 years by Michigan State University. . . . Hiring will be strong for college majors such as computer science, accounting, agriculture sciences and agriculture business. Other in-demand degrees will include communications, public relations, marketing, finance and economics."

5. Experts Say Social Sciences Are 'Left Behind,' by Sarah D. Sparks - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/30/13social.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Researchers at an NRC forum on social sciences in Washington this month suggested that the expansion of testing in math and reading under the No Child Left Behind Act has led to a piecemeal approach to social and behavioral science subjects in the states. . . . “No Child Left Behind frankly left us behind, and the common core gave us a footnote,” said S.G. Grant, the education dean at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y. The discussion caps a year of dismal news on the social studies front for U.S. students: National Assessment of Educational Progress reports out this year found mostly mediocre performance for students in geography, civics, and history."

6. Learning the Language: New Study on Hispanic Achievement Paints Stark Picture, by Lesli Maxwell - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2011/11/new_study_on_hispanic_achievem.html via @educationweek - "When it comes to "readiness to learn," Hispanic children face several disadvantages compared with their white peers. Thirty-three percent of Hispanic children in 2008 lived in families where no parent had full-time employment compared with 21 percent of white children. And in 2007, 27 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty compared with 10 percent of white children. Those factors and others translate to Hispanic children being less likely than their white or black peers to recognize letters of the alphabet, knowing how to write their name, or being able to count to 20 or higher."

7. THE SOCIAL & EDUCATIONAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE OUTCOMES OF HISPANICS IN URBAN SCHOOLS- http://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/4/HispanicStudy2011.pdf -"Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) analyzed for this report show that Hispanic fourth graders read and do math at substantially lower levels than students with greater advantages and students who speak English. The situation is compounded by the fact that large numbers of Hispanic students live below the poverty line, do not have health insurance nor access to pre-school services, are unlikely to have a parent who has graduated from high school, are among the working poor, and face constant suspicions about whether they are in the country legally."

8. Surge in Free School Lunches Reflects Economic Crisis, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/tmx5jh - "The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program."

9. ‘Broader, bolder’ strategy to ending poverty’s influence on education, by Pedro Noguera - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/broader-bolder-strategy-to-ending-povertys-influence-on-education/2011/11/29/gIQAtTvaAO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.com - "Over 50 years, numerous studies have documented how poverty and related social conditions — such as lack of access to health care, early childhood education and stable housing — affect child development and student achievement. The research never suggests that poor children are incapable of learning or that poverty itself should be regarded as a learning disability. Rather, research suggests that poor children encounter obstacles that often adversely affect their development and learning outcomes."

10. Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer’s salary: $4 million, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/ohio-state-football-coach-urban-meyers-salary-4-million/2011/11/29/gIQAup9K9N_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost.com - "Meyer will earn three times more than Ohio State President E. Gordan Gee, the nation’s highest paid university president. On most campuses, coaches top the payroll. And despite the economy, budget cuts and increasing tuition, coach salaries continue to climb."

11. Kevin Carey: The Dissenter The New Republic: http://bit.ly/tyVhGG via AddThis" -"Improbably, at the end of a four-decade-long career as the nation’s most prominent education historian and a vocal advocate for education reform, Ravitch has emerged as reform’s fiercest critic. Her about-face has made her more famous and influential than she has ever been. Now, pundits, scholars, philanthropists, and education leaders are all asking the same question: What happened to Diane Ravitch?"

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

2. Whatever happened to…Nancy Guarneros, undocumented student, DREAM Act hopeful? By Thelma Gutierrez – http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/25/whatever-happened-to-nancy-guarneros-undocumented-student-dream-act-hopeful/ via CNN - "Currently, undocumented students cannot apply for student financial aid and they can’t legally work – so unless they can come up with tuition on their own, many are forced to give up their academic aspirations."

3. The Fallout Over Syracuse's Abuse Scandal, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/sbL9lV - "The events again raise the question: What should applicants think? Syracuse’s basketball team and its N.C.A.A. tournament record are points of pride for many students. The school’s strong sports culture has surely served as a draw for some applicants. Will some now see it as a liability?"

4. Report suggests approach to improving graduation rates, by Kaustuv Basu Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/rOwyBk via AddThis - "Only 32.9 percent of men earn a degree in four years, while the percentage for women is 43.8. The gap shrinks to 5.5 percentage points at the end of the sixth year. First-generation college students earn a degree at the rate of 27.4 percent after four years, while students whose parents have college degrees have a graduation rate of 42.1 percent. Asian American and white students had the highest four-year graduation rates, at 44.9 percent and 42.6 percent respectively. Degree-attainment rates remain is the highest at private universities; the lowest numbers come from public four-year colleges."

5. 6 reasons to invest in a 529 plan today, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57331762/6-reasons-to-invest-in-a-529-plan-today/?tag=mncol;lst;9 - "Are you wondering whether it's a good time to open up a college 529 savings account? One of the nation's foremost 529 plan experts says the answer is a resounding Y-E-S. Joseph Hurley, the founder of SavingforCollege.com, says there are a number of timely reasons why families shouldn't dawdle in opening a 529 plan. Here are six great reasons to consider acting now."

6. Middle Schoolers Getting Prepped for College, by Nora Fleming - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/29/13middle_ep.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "ACT researchers found in 2008 that the academic level students achieve by 8th grade has a bigger impact on college and career readiness and success than anything that happens academically in high school."

7. College Bound: Report Sheds Light on Factors Influencing College Graduation, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/report_sheds_light_on_who_is_graduating_from_college.html via @educationweek - "There are distinct racial disparities in completion. Asian-Americans had the highest four-year graduation rates at 44.9 percent, followed by whites, 42.6 percent; Latinos, 25.8 percent; African-Americans, 21 percent; and American Indians, 16.8 percent."

8. At Top Colleges, Anti-Wall St. Fervor Complicates Recruiting, by Kevin Roose: http://nyti.ms/tvpf3m - "Banks and hedge funds have long wooed undergraduates from elite colleges with lavish dinners, personalized e-mails and free trips to New York for interviews. It’s all part of an annual courtship ritual known as on-campus recruiting. But this fall, the antibank animus of the Occupy Wall Street movement has seeped onto college campuses. At some schools, anger at big banks has turned the on-campus recruiting process into a crucible of controversy."

9. Secretary of Education Urges Colleges to Rein In Costs, by Kelly Field -http://chronicle.com/article/Secretary-of-Education-Urges/129912/ - "The department is billing the speech as the start of a "national conversation" on college costs."

10. Graduation Rates Can Be Predicted More Precisely by Examining Student Characteristics, Report Says, by Jennifer Gonzalez - http://chronicle.com/article/Graduation-Rates-Can-Be/129914/ - "Many colleges now use basic student information such as race and ethnicity, gender, high-school grade-point average, and SAT and ACT scores to project an expected graduation rate. By considering other, more-personal characteristics, such as how students rate their emotional health, whether they are the first in their family to attend college, and whether they anticipate having to work full time while enrolled, an institution can increase the accuracy of its four-year graduation-rate prediction by 66 percent, its five-year rate by 54 percent, and its six-year rate by 53 percent, says the report."

11. It's time to fight unemployment the old-fashioned way, says Elaine Chao http://ti.me/syS2bn via @TIMEIdeas - "One of the lessons all ages should take away from this era — and one which parents and grandparents should drill into children balking at homework or at going back to school — is that education is the best protection against ruin in hard times. Those with higher educations certainly have not been invulnerable to harm in this recession, many are underemployed and unemployed, but they always have been in the best position to survive and thrive."

12. Common Core standards pose dilemmas for early childhood, by Samuel J. Meisels - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/common-core-standards-pose-dilemmas-for-early-childhood/2011/11/28/gIQAPs1X6N_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "But early childhood education — concerned with children from birth to the end of third grade — seems nearly an afterthought in the standards. Not only do they end (or begin) at kindergarten, ignoring more than half of the early childhood age range, they simply don’t fit what we know about young children’s learning and development."

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

2. The other student loan problem: too little debt, by Justin Pope - Boston.com - http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-27/news/30447871_1_student-loan-higher-education-report-cheaper-community-colleges via @ArchiveDigger - "Students who take extreme steps to avoid debt at all costs, they say, may get stuck with something much more financially damaging than moderate student loan debt. They may not wind up with a college degree. To pay for college and minimize borrowing, students are working longer hours at jobs and taking fewer credits. They’re less likely to enroll full-time. They’re living at home. They’re “trading down’’ to less selective institutions with lower prices, and heading first to cheaper community colleges with plans to transfer later to four-year schools. Those may sound like money-savers, but in fact each is a well-documented risk factor that makes students less likely to graduate."

3. Study Links Academic Setbacks to Middle School Transition, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/28/13structure.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "The study, part of the Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series at Harvard University, found that students moving from grade 5 into middle school show a “sharp drop” in math and language arts achievement in the transition year that plagues them as far out as 10th grade, even risking thwarting their ability to graduate high school and go on to college."

4. Impact of Alternative Grade Config's on Student Outcomes through Middle and HS, by Guido Schwerdt and Martin R. West - http://www.edweek.org/media/gradeconfiguration-13structure.pdf - "Taken as a whole, these results suggest that structural school transitions lower student achievement but that middle schools in particular have adverse consequences for American students. Especially when considered along those of other recent studies (e.g. Bedard and Do 2005, Cook et al. 2008, Rockoff and Lockwood 2010, Schwartz et al. forthcoming), our findings clearly support ongoing efforts in urban school districts to convert standalone elementary and middle schools into schools with K-8 configurations."

5. With Blocks, Educators Go Back to Basics, by Kyle Spencer - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/nyregion/with-building-blocks-educators-going-back-to-basics.html?_r=1&hpw - "Studies dating to the 1940s indicate that blocks help children absorb basic math concepts. One published in 2001 tracked 37 preschoolers and found that those who had more sophisticated block play got better math grades and standardized test scores in high school. And a 2007 study by Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Hospital, found that those with block experience scored significantly better on language acquisition tests."

6. Virtual schools are multiplying, but some question their educational value, by Lyndsey Layton and Emma Brown - http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virtual-schools-are-multiplying-but-some-question-their-educational-value/2011/11/22/gIQANUzkzN_story.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter - "K12 Inc. of Herndon has become the country’s largest provider of full-time public virtual schools, upending the traditional American notion that learning occurs in a schoolhouse where students share the experience. In K12’s virtual schools, learning is largely solitary, with lessons delivered online to a child who progresses at her own pace."

7. 5 reasons for-profit colleges will survive, by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/5-reasons-for-profit-colleges-will-survive/2011/11/27/gIQApBvy2N_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "For-profit colleges often have better graduation rates for the same kind of students. U.S. Education Department data show students with two or more key risk factors, such as delayed enrollment, no high school diploma or full-time job, have only a 17 percent chance overall of getting a two-year or four-year degree. Their chances are 24 percent at for-profit schools. That’s not a big improvement, but they are doing it with fewer tax dollars."

8. Haven for struggling kids, by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/haven-for-struggling-kids/2011/11/23/gIQAuwx2oN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "As a country, we do a better job with our best students — the kind found in abundance in the Washington suburbs — than we do with our worst. Most students in the bottom halves of our classes drop out before high school graduation. We are a mostly middle-class country, but our substantial minority of poor youths must deal not only with gaps in their reading, writing and math skills but terrible conditions at home."

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

2. Financial Aid Help: http://t.co/eV0mVNlE - "Seniors and Senior Parents: It’s a great time to sign up for your pin #’s from FAFSA.ED.GOV (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid). A parent needs a pin # and a student needs a separate pin # in order to file. Go to fafsa.ed.gov and click “Get Pin #” to proceed."

3. 'Evaluating, Understanding And Comparing Financial Aid Offers' http://t.co/9SmcutMC - "So you have been accepted at several colleges that you applied to. You filed your FAFSA and other financial aid forms. You have been waiting for the numbers to arrive and finally they start filling you mailbox. Now what?"

4. Counselors Urge Applicants to Hit Aid Deadlines http://t.co/DkQaiIT7 via @townnews - "High school officials are urging parents to pay attention to deadlines so there are no missed opportunities while applying for student loans and financial aid for high school seniors."

5. North Star Financial Advisor Gives Back http://t.co/dEUXTXC4 via @sfgate - "Clarisa Hernandez of North Star Resource Group works to help create a better future for underprivileged children."

6. Minnesota Early Childhood Education Achievement Gap http://t.co/EFKnJgLk via @ABC6NEWS

7. Are black students lacking basic skills? http://t.co/mNyf0AtQ - "OPINION - Across the country, the achievement gap between white students and black students persists. . . ."

8. Minorities’ ISAT scores on rise in D300 - Elgin Courier News: http://t.co/gCVAZ0xb via @AddThis - "ALGONQUIN — Elementary and middle school students who are Hispanic and black are closing achievement gaps in Community Unit School District 300."

9. Frenzy over SATs - http://t.co/cUcqeSZC - "In my work with families I encounter a great deal of anxiety about the college application process. Much of this anxiety occurs when parents and kids come late to the tasks at hand. In a panic, they desperately try to play catch-up in order to get through everything that needs to be done . . . ."

10. Mexicans in New York City Lag in Education, by Kirk Semple: http://nyti.ms/tt9mlb - "Mexicans, the fastest-growing major immigrant group in the city, have the highest dropout rate: about 41 percent of Mexicans ages 16 to 19 have dropped out of school. . . . This crisis endures at the college level. Among Mexican immigrants 19 to 23 who do not have a college degree, only 6 percent are enrolled. That is a fraction of the rates among other major immigrant groups and the native-born population."

374. 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)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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

2. Income achievement gap almost doubles black-white achievement gap - http://t.co/462xeLvw via @StanfordEd

3. 'Are Advanced Placement (AP) Classes Important for College Admission?': http://EzineArticles.com/6708832 - "Colleges like to see students challenge themselves academically. They are not impressed with students who only meet the minimum academic requirements, even if they have all A's. This is why AP classes can make a difference for college acceptance."

4. High schools awarded for college prep efforts college, students, schools - http://t.co/mFNQodw6 http://bit.ly/u3YawP

5. Colleges look to recruit top academic students http://t.co/WEgDgGh4 - "College recruiting is not just for athletes anymore. U-W Madison says the nation's top research schools and other Big Ten universities are trying to lure some of Wisconsin's top academic students."

6. College Options http://www.emissourian.com/news/st_clair_news/article_1ca0ba22-153c-11e1-8bfe-001cc4c03286.html#.Ts2evG6bLQU.twitter via Townnews - "Erin O'Neil, Missouri College Advising Corps college adviser working in the St. Clair R-XIII School District, is helping high school students with potential college options and preparation as she settles into a local two-year stint."

7. Does Financial Need Impact College Admissions Chances? - College Admissions Q&As (http://t.co/YL8VAMpm) http://bit.ly/rBKe2K

8. 4 more accused of taking college admission exams for students #cnn http://t.co/wWBGze1G - "More Long Island students were arrested Tuesday in an ongoing investigation of a college admission exam cheating scandal, prosecutors say."

373. 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. Lee El Diario de Joe Rottenborn ▸ noticias destacadas del dia via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Panel's Failure Means Education Cuts in '13, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/tvlcqO -"While the Pell Grant program is exempt from cuts in the first year, the other student-aid programs will lose $134-million, reducing aid to at least 1.3 million students. Career, technical, and adult education will lose $136-million, affecting 1.4 million students, says the committee."

3. More Charges, More Details in SAT Cheating Scandal Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/rwfAXd via AddThis - "Some of those charged allegedly paid others to take the SAT on their behalf. Prosecutors said that they believed that 40 students and former students were involved, but that the statute of limitations prevented charges from being brought against all of them."

4. Poll shows concern over Penn State and other athletic programs, by Allie Grasgreen Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/v5PVRh via AddThis - "A full 72 percent of respondents said Division I college athletic programs have “too much influence over college life.” Only 3 percent said programs have too little influence; 16 percent said they have “about the right amount” and 9 percent were unsure."

5. GAO releases new investigation of for-profit colleges, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tXujkA via AddThis - "The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released results from a second undercover “secret shopper” investigation of for-profit colleges, this time attempting to enroll a fictitious student online at 15 unnamed institutions. The findings were mixed, but investigators uncovered problems with how seven of the colleges handled online course grading, academic dishonesty, or students’ exit counseling."

6. Finding Common Ground: Why Educators Should Join Twitter, by Peter DeWitt - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/11/why_educators_should_join_twitter.html via @educationweek - "We live in the 21st century where our students don't just "do" social networking; it is a part of who they are as digital citizens. To us, it's a big deal to get on Facebook or Twitter, and to our students it is something they cannot fathom living without. Understanding their connection with those sites will increase an educator's connection with their students. Being able to talk their language may even provide an opportunity to breakthrough to a hard to reach student."

7. More Students Charged in Long Island SAT Cheating Case, By JENNY ANDERSON and WINNIE HU: http://nyti.ms/uA0Cx7 - "The investigation began when administrators at Great Neck North looked into student rumors. Their focus soon fell on students who had registered to take the tests outside the district, and those whose scores and grades showed a disparity. They turned over the details to prosecutors, who opened a broad examination."

8. How the Future Looks From High School http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/22/how-the-future-looks-from-high-school via @roomfordebate - "How does the future look to a high school senior? We checked in with 15 of them, at four American high schools."

9. Undercover Probe Finds Lax Academic Standards at Some For-Profit Colleges, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Undercover-Probe-Finds-Lax/129881/ - "The probe, which is described in a report made public Tuesday, found that staff at six of the 12 colleges that enrolled the investigators tolerated plagiarism or awarded credit for incomplete or shoddy work."

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

2. Nearly 4,250 Apply to New Harvard Early Admission Program, by REBECCA R. RUIZ AND JACQUES STEINBERG: http://nyti.ms/v2Nmwd - "The college said on Monday that 4,245 students filed single choice early action applications by its Nov. 1 deadline; under that program, students are prohibited from filing early applications with other private colleges in the United States. Those 4,245 applicants represent more than double the size of Harvard’s anticipated class of 2016, and they mark a 5.9 percent increase from four years ago, when early admission was last in effect at Harvard and 4,010 students chose to apply."

3. Accreditor Questions Career Education on Placement Rates Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sce6jn via AddThis - "A recent review by an outside law firm found that some of the company's 49 health education and art and design schools did not have sufficient documentation to back up job placements, and that 13 failed to meet the accreditor's placement rate requirement."

4. Data Driving College Preparation, by Caralee J. Adams - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/16/12data_ep.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Once Kentucky educators started sharing data about how high school students were doing after graduation, things started to change. University professors and high school teachers began comparing notes about their expectations in class. Rigor was ramped up. Transition courses were developed in high schools to help lagging students avoid remediation in college. Advanced Placement restrictions were lifted to expose more students to college-level courses."

5. Hechinger Report Should value-added teacher ratings be adjusted for poverty? by Sarah Garland: http://hechingerreport.org/content/should-value-added-teacher-ratings-be-adjusted-for-poverty_6899/#.Tsu3t0gKqjk.twitter via AddThis - "A large body of research has found that student achievement is affected not only by a student’s individual circumstances at home, but also by the circumstances of other children in the same school and classroom. Studies have found that students surrounded by more advantaged peers tend to score higher on tests than similarly performing students surrounded by less advantaged peers. To some experts, this research suggests that a teacher with a large number of low-achieving minority children in a classroom, for example, might have a more difficult job than another teacher with few such students."

6. Cutting student aid like ‘eating our own seed corn’ by Dennis Berkey - College, Inc. -http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-cutting-student-aid-like-eating-our-own-seed-corn/2011/11/22/gIQADl11kN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost -"But the word out of Washington is that financial aid is not viewed as investment, but as spending. Cutting aid to low-income students would be a form of eating our own seed corn. These programs contribute mightily to our nation’s bottom line. They create highly skilled workers. They stimulate our economy. They even help create jobs. Clearly, it is time for a reminder as to why these programs are so vital."

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

2. Part 6: Answers to Your Questions on Student Loans and Scholarships, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/smnRyj - "How do you pay for college when you don’t qualify for need-based aid, all in-state schools have rejected your student, and the only opening is an out-of-state public school with $30,000-plus/year in expenses? Are loans the only option?"

3. Last of 7 Parts: Answers to Your Questions on Student Loans and Scholarships, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/voeFJ9 - "There are several billion dollars of scholarships that are based primarily on merit. A few of these scholarships have a financial need component, but most do not. However, these scholarships are very competitive, with only about one in eight students in bachelor’s degree programs using scholarships to pay for their education. Scholarships are part of the plan for paying for college, but not the entire plan. Very few students win enough money each year to cover all college costs."

4. Report from higher education research group's annual meeting, by Doug Lederman Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/uWYNOp via AddThis - "Jez told that story with data, showing that for-profit colleges enroll more Californians than all sectors other than community colleges (at 380,000 students, far less than the California Community Colleges’ 970,000 but more than third-place California State University at 332,000), greater proportions of black and Latino students than any other sector, and greater proportions of Pell Grant-eligible students than any sector but (surprisingly) private nonprofit colleges."

5. Business majors: College's worst slackers? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57326939/business-majors-colleges-worst-slackers/?tag=mncol;lst;8 - "Business majors, according to the survey, studied the least among college students. The average business student studied just 14 hours a week. In contrast, engineering students, the hardest workers on college campuses, studied 19 hours a week."

6. Let’s Get Ready Offers Help for College Admissions, by Michael Winerip: http://nyti.ms/uWw5XV - "So Nathaly found a free program that helps low-income teenagers throughout the Northeast work the system too, called Let’s Get Ready. Students are given help filling out college applications, writing essays, practicing interviews and preparing for the SAT."

7. How About Better Parents? by Thomas L. Friedman: http://nyti.ms/rpSy63 - "There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement."

8. PISA In Focus 10: What can parents do to help their children succeed in school? - http://www.pisa.oecd.org/dataoecd/4/1/49012097.pdf - "Students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child “every day or almost every day” or “once or twice a week” during the first year of primary school have markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child “never or almost never” or only “once or twice a month”.

9. Colleges' Data on Student Learning Remain Largely Inaccessible, Report Says,by Collin Eaton - http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Data-on-Student/129853/ - "Often, the report says, colleges and universities don't provide easily digestible information about student learning that prospective students and parents can understand and use to make their college choices. Student learning measures might consist of course grades, course evaluations, surveys, and interviews, says the report."

10. College graduation rates: Income really matters, by Tami Luhby - http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/21/news/economy/income_college/ via CNNMoney.com - "Some 54% of students from wealthy families obtained bachelor's degrees, said Martha Bailey, an assistant economics professor at the University of Michigan. But only 9% of low-income students got college diplomas."

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

2. Part 5: Answers to Your Questions on Scholarships and Student Loans, by MARK KANTROWITZ: http://nyti.ms/vSLe2N - "In this fifth round of responses, Mr. Kantrowitz addresses questions extending from inheritance to divorce."

3. Signs of Hope in Job Market for New College Grads Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vlzMQt via AddThis - "Those majoring in engineering, computer science, accounting, agriculture sciences and agriculture business, and some science fields are expected to see the greatest number of opportunities."

4. Where the jobs (and money) will be, by Joanne Jacobs - http://p.ost.im/p/eBVaH8 - "Wages rise with education: Only 36 percent of jobs for workers with only a high school diploma pay $35,000 or more, compared to 54 percent of jobs for associate degree graduates and 69 percent of jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree."

5. At Penn State, a Bitter Reckoning, by MICHAEL BÉRUBÉ - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/opinion/at-penn-state-a-bitter-reckoning.html?hp - "The public image of Penn State is now that of students rioting on behalf of a disgraced football coach. But there are also 6,000 full-time teachers and researchers working here — and none of us had anything to do with this mess. Like the vast majority of our 45,000 students, we did not riot. We are every bit as disgusted and horrified as you are. This is our place that has been trashed, and we care deeply about cleaning it up."

6. Engineering Majors Hit the Books More Than Business Majors Do, Survey Finds, by Sara Lipkahttp://chronicle.com/article/Who-Hits-the-Books-More-Study/129806/ - "Engineering majors spend the most time studying, 19 hours a week, but even among those who exceed 20 hours, nearly a quarter still often show up for class without assignments completed, the report says. Business majors study the least, 14 hours a week, along with social-science majors, whose professors' expectations, at 18 hours a week, are furthest from reality."

7. Study: College students rarely use librarians' expertiseby Steve Kolowich – http://usat.ly/pFPY9y via USATODAY - "This is one of the sobering truths these librarians, representing a group of Illinois universities, have learned over the course of a two-year, five-campus ethnographic study examining how students view and use their campus libraries: students rarely ask librarians for help, even when they need it."

8. Below The Line: Portraits of American Poverty, by Feifei Sun - LightBox http://ti.me/tlSXaq via TIME - "Eric, 3, lives with two siblings, their mother and grandparents in a trailer park for migrant farm workers in Firebaugh, Calif. His grandmother regularly walks two miles with him to pick up free food from the local community center to supplement the family’s $350/week income."

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

2. Special report on Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, Penn State scandal, by L. Jon Wertheim and David Epstein - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/magazine/11/16/penn.st/index.html - "What they could not possibly have known was that their accounts would help set in motion the most explosive scandal in the history of college sports, one that would make a mockery of the recent drumbeat of NCAA outrages."

3. Penn State case brings other victims forward, by Marisol Bello – http://usat.ly/rYcawT via USATODAY - "It's a collective empowerment for victims," says Jeff Herman, a Miami attorney who specializes in sexual abuse cases. "Many feel isolated and alone. Then they see all this press and all of a sudden, they see victims standing up and taking on institutions."

4. College coaches cash in, by Erik Brady, Jodi Upton and Steve Berkowitz – http://usat.ly/sh5KGr via USATODAY - "Critics find it troubling that this rapid rise for coaches comes at a time when instructional spending at many schools has slowed or declined amid economic struggles and shrinking state education budgets. "Athletics has gotten so disproportionate to the rest of the economy, and to the academic community, that it is unbelievable," says Julian Spallholz, a professor in the department of food and nutrition at Texas Tech, where coach Tommy Tuberville got a $550,000 raise. "This kind of disproportion in the country is why people are occupying Wall Street."

5. Engineering Majors Most Likely to Burn the Midnight Oil, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/rpr1PY - "The average college student, the researchers reported, studied for 15 hours each week. Engineering students fell on the higher end of the spectrum — devoting roughly 19 hours to class preparation — while students with majors in business and social sciences were on the lower end, spending about 14 hours preparing for class. (Meanwhile, the survey found, students of business were more likely to hold a job during the school year.)"

6. Part 4: Answers to Your Questions on Scholarships and Student Loans, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/tTizgO - "The odds of winning a scholarship, however, are pretty slim. The majority of students, regardless of their race, will not win private scholarships. Even in STEM fields the odds of winning a scholarship are about 1 in 6. Both white and minority students find it difficult to win private scholarships because there are relatively few scholarships. Race has little to do with it, though white students enjoy a statistical advantage over minority students. As documented in a recent student aid policy analysis paper, “The Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race,” white students are 40 percent more likely to win private scholarships than minority students."

7. The Early Line on Early Applications for the Class of 2016, by JACQUES STEINBERG and REBECCA R. RUIZ: http://nyti.ms/sC1Nc0 - "The window for applying to many colleges and universities under early admission programs closed late Tuesday night. While it will be some time before a definitive statistical portrait emerges of this early admissions season, The Choice has been dutifully requesting application figures from a range of more than 100 institutions. The chart above, which we’ll be updating regularly as other figures trickle in, represents the equivalent of early returns in an election, with results from two dozen “precincts.”

8. NSSE 2011 measures student engagement by major, by Allie Grasgreen Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/uiKnGX via AddThis - "For example, McCormick said, first-generation students likely haven’t had as much informal consulting or guidance as their peers whose parents went to college. That might be why this year's NSSE survey shows they went beyond the typical student in terms of learning strategies -- while they spent significantly less time preparing for class, they were more likely than their peers to use a variety of strategies, especially the less common ones such as reviewing notes after class and creating their own examples to help them study."

9. Parental Interactions and Child Development, by Daniel Messinger Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/ufQDl1 via AddThis - LISTEN TO THIS!

10. Consumer Protection Bureau Survey on Private Loans Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vNPZU5 via AddThis - "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comments on private student loans from students, families, colleges and loan providers to prepare a report for Congress on private student lending. In a notice published in today's Federal Register, the bureau said it was seeking information on how students use private loans, what types of comparison shopping tools are available, what best practices are for financial aid offices who counsel private borrowers, and other topics related to the private lending industry."

11. 25 college majors with the highest unemployment ratesby Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57325132/25-college-majors-with-the-highest-unemployment-rates/?tag=mncol;lst;9 - "Five of the college majors with the worst job prospects on this list are related to psychology. Ironically, psychology is the fifth most popular college degree."

12. 25 college majors with lowest unemployment rates, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57324669/25-college-majors-with-lowest-unemployment-rates/?tag=contentMain;contentBody - "The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce used U.S. Census Bureau statistics to tease out the unemployment rates for 173 college majors. I looked at the 100 most popular college majors and pulled out the 25 majors with the lowest unemployment."

13. College Bound: Demand for Jobs That Require High School Diploma Declines, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/glimpse_at_where_students_are_applying_early_admission.html via @educationweek - "For all the talk of the value of a college degree, there are decent jobs for those with just a high school diploma. The problem is there are not enough of those jobs to go around, according to a report released yesterday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. . . . It found that 37 percent of all jobs in 2018 will be for workers who have either some high school education, a high school diploma, or on-the-job training. This number is down from 72 percent in 1973, 44 percent in 1992, and 41 percent in 2007. In other words, the demand for postsecondary education will increase from 59 percent to 63 percent in the next seven years."

14. Rising College Costs Are Due Largely to Books, Room, and Board, Study Finds -http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/rising-college-costs-are-due-largely-to-books-room-and-board-study-finds/38109 - "The average amount that students paid, after subtracting savings from scholarships and grants, increased by nearly $3,000, while net tuition prices grew by only about $1,000 over roughly the same period. The overall cost to attend a two-year college also grew, by $1,333, despite the fall of net tuition prices by $849."

15. Hey, it's time to Occupy Education, says @arotherham - http://ti.me/tr1PO5 via @TIMEIdeas - "What do I mean by educational inequality? We’re all familiar with achievement gaps between white kids and minorities. But here’s the income-based gap: just 8% of low-income students get a college-degree by the time they are 24 while three-quarters of affluent students do."

368. 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily on http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Only One in Three Full-Time Students Pays Full Tuition, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/vuXtgU - "In a piece entitled, “College Is Cheaper Than You Think,” Ms. Scott-Clayton, an economics professor at Columbia University, asserts that a school’s sticker price, ever-rising, carries little meaning. She notes that only one-third of full-time students pay a college’s published price, writing: 'For the average full-time student, net tuition – which subtracts grants and tax-based aid – is less than half of the published price at private nonprofit four-year schools and less than a third of the published price at the typical public four-year institution.'"

3. Judith Scott-Clayton: College Is Cheaper Than You Think: http://nyti.ms/vM7IGE - "After accounting for this assistance, net tuition and fees in the public four-year sector, at $2,490, are only $170 higher today (in constant 2011 dollars) than they were five years ago. At private nonprofit four-year institutions, net prices are $500 lower than they were five years ago. And at community colleges, the average student actually faces a negative net price – meaning they receive about $800 more in aid than they are charged in tuition and fees."

4. Part 3: Answers to Your Questions on Scholarships and Student Loans, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/w1ke0x - "One of the best strategies for cutting college costs is to send your children to an in-state public college. According to the College Board’s Trends in College Pricing2011, the average published charges for tuition, fees, room and board at an in-state public four-year college in 2011-12 is $17,131. This is much less than the $29,657 average for out-of-state public four-year colleges and the $38,589 average for private non-profit four-year colleges. Even if you get no financial aid, you will still save money at an in-state public college. Many public colleges are high quality, yielding an excellent return on the investment in your child’s future."

5. Tax credits for tuition growing rapidly, by Libby A. Nelson Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/toF6Mt via AddThis - "When the American Opportunity Tax Credit took effect in 2009, the tax savings claimed by students and families for college expenses more than doubled, climbing from $6.6 billion to $14.7 billion, according to the College Board’s Trends in Student Aid 2011 report last month. The explosive growth of Pell Grants in the same time period generated discussion, debate and an uneasy consensus that the $37 billion program is unsustainable in its current form. The parallel climb in spending on tax credits has attracted little notice."

6. Annapolis Group survey finds high satisfaction among liberal arts college graduates, by Kevin Kiley Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/w0zs3I - "According to the results, 77 percent of alumni from liberal arts colleges rated their undergraduate experience “excellent,” compared to 59 percent of alumni from private universities and 56 percent from the top 50 public universities. Graduates of Annapolis Group member institutions also reported that their college experience made them better prepared for life after college, career changes, and graduate school than did alumni from other sectors. They also reported being as prepared for their first jobs as alumni from other institutions."

7. Erroneous Pell Grant Payments in 2011 Total $1 Billion Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/syimSh via AddThis - "The Obama administration credits the drop to new measures that linked the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to Internal Revenue Service data, making it less likely that information about students' family income would be entered improperly."

8. No More Excuses: We Can Get All Children Reading, by Robert Slavin - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/sputnik/2011/11/no_more_excuses_we_can_get_all_children_reading.html via @educationweek - "The latest NAEP results, released this month, remind us that there are far too many children who do not read well, that disadvantaged and minority children are overrepresented among poor readers, and that the inequalities in academic outcomes by race and class--our most serious social as well as educational problem--begins with reading inequalities in the early grades. Everyone knows that children who don't read well will incur huge expenses over time in remediation, special education, repeated grades, and ultimately delinquency, dropout, and unemployment."

9. 11 States Seek Relief From ‘No Child’ Provisions, in Return for Raising Standards, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/u5sJqw - "Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee asked the department for relief from some No Child provisions, including the requirement that all students be proficient in English and math by 2014."

10. Penn State case presses others on abuse laws, by Marisol Bello and Greg Toppo – http://usat.ly/s1cA1d via @USATODAY - "A key issue likely to be debated in state legislatures is whether reports should go straight to police, and whether new laws are needed to shore up vague guidelines and polices about child safety on campus."

11. Are the SAT and ACT to blame for the inferiority of U.S. schools? by Jay Mathews - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/admissions-101-are-the-sat-and-act-to-blame-for-the-inferiority-of-us-schools-compared-to-those-finland-japan-singapore-and-shanghai/2011/11/14/gIQAHKAiMN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Unlike the SAT and the ACT, the content of the entrance exams in these countries is controlled by the universities and is closely tied to the content of the courses given in senior high school grades. Usually the exams must be scored by human beings since they are full of essay questions."

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

2. 529 college savings plan a great gift, by Sandra Block – http://usat.ly/u0eHfQ via @USATODAY - "Saving for college has never been more important. Federal and state budget deficits could lead to cuts in traditional sources of financial aid, which means there's a good chance there won't be as much available when your child goes to college, says Joseph Hurley, founder of SavingforCollege.com. Meanwhile, tuition continues to increase much faster than the rate of inflation. Tuition and fees at public colleges and universities rose more than 8% this year, according to a recent report by the College Board."

3. Program helps prepare kids for kindergarten, by Bob Coupland - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/vLsGOE via AddThis - "Called SPARK Ohio (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids), the program works with families, schools and the community to ensure children's readiness and schools' readiness to receive children and families, according to its website. . . . The program is designed to help 4-year-olds increase communication, language, literacy and math skills."

4. Part 2: Answers to Your Questions on Scholarships and Student Loans, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/tcJAdo - "The unsubsidized Stafford loan and the Parent PLUS loan, both federal education loans, are available without regard to financial need. Even wealthy families may qualify for these loans. The Stafford loan is a student loan while the Parent PLUS loan is, as the name suggests, a loan borrowed by parents of undergraduate students. The unsubsidized Stafford loan has a fixed 6.8 percent interest rate and the Parent PLUS loan has a fixed 7.9 percent interest rate."

5. Occupy protests focusing increasingly on student debt, by Libby A. Nelson Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vXcfBn via AddThis - “Student loan debt has been rising inexorably, and college students in the last couple of years are entering one of the worst job markets in a generation,” Kamenetz says. “There’s a real feeling of betrayal that hits a lot of people when they find out that the debt they were told was good debt is not paying off.”

6. Survey finds that counselors question effectiveness of schools, by Scott Jaschik Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/spuyVP via AddThis - "In function after function that the counselors found important -- such as helping students understand the kind of preparation they would need for colleges and careers, or promoting good understanding of the college application process -- relatively few found their schools to be doing well in them."

7. Report Links College to Promising 'Career Clusters' Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tsmCx9 via AddThis - "The report argues that while there will be some jobs in the future for which only a high school diploma is required, those positions will be few and far between -- and will have limited advancement potential. The clusters in which students are likely to see the greatest number of jobs and advancement potential require a college education, the report says."

8. Georgetown U. Report on Career Clusters -- http://cew.georgetown.edu/clusters/ - "Here are several key highlights from the report:

While jobs for workers with high school diplomas are in decline, they still exist.

Jobs for middle skill workers (jobs for workers with some college, a certificate, or an Associate's degree) will make up 29 percent of the workforce by 2018.

Manufacturing will continue to decline in total employment, but retiring Baby Boomers will create 2 million job openings.

The gender gap in wages varies greatly from cluster to cluster. For example, the gap in Architecture and Construction is $2,000; in Health Science, it is $69,000."

9. Counselors See Conflicts in Carrying Out Mission, by Catherine Gewertz - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/15/13counseling.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Nine in 10 counselors, for instance, said that two objectives should top their schools’ priority lists: ensuring that all students have access to high-quality education and that they graduate well-equipped for college and careers. But fewer than four in 10 said their schools actually operated as if those goals were central to their mission."

10. Bachelor's Degree Is Still Best Path to Middle-Class Jobs and Earnings, Report Says, by Jennifer Gonzalez - http://chronicle.com/article/Bachelors-Degree-Is-Still/129784/ - "The study also concludes that women need education beyond high school to earn the same wages as men with only a high-school diploma. For example, a man can earn $35,000 annually with a high-school diploma in the manufacturing sector, while a woman must obtain a postsecondary credential and work in health care to earn as much, the report concludes. "A woman just can't make it with only a high-school diploma," said Anthony P. Carnevale, a research professor at Georgetown who directs the Center on Education and the Workforce."

11. Research doesn’t back up key ed reforms, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/research-doesnt-back-up-key-ed-reforms/2011/11/12/gIQAPRoWFN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "There is no solid evidence supporting many of the positions on teachers and teacher evaluation taken by some school reformers today, according to a new assessment of research on the subject. The Education Writers Association released a new brief that draws on more than 40 research studies or research syntheses, as well as interviews with scholars who work in this field."

366. 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily on http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. SAT Essay Question Proves Prescient, Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/tiKkNa - "The test-takers were then asked to answer a question — “Is it often difficult for people to determine what is the right thing to do?” — and directed to use “examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.”

3. Seeking Your Questions on Scholarships and Student Loans, by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/rwHDtl - "I’ve once again asked Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and founder of the Web sites finaid.org and fastweb.com, to spend a week in our virtual Guidance Office."

4. Latest Developments on Penn State Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/v6k4eS via AddThis - "For those seeking perspective on how the Penn State scandal compares to other major athletics scandals, Slate has assembled links to some of the better long-form journalism on such scandals in the past, as well as some more recent coverage."

5. HechingerEd Blog The new G.I. Bill: Big money, big challenges [podcast]: http://bit.ly/rDEFfU via AddThis - "In September, Hechinger Report writer Jon Marcus reported for The Washington Post that universities were heavily recruiting veterans to get a piece of the $11 billion made available through the new post-9/11 G.I. Bill, but providing little of the additional support that many veterans say they need."

6. Why Do Top Schools Still Take Legacy Applicants? http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/13/why-do-top-schools-still-take-legacy-applicants via @roomfordebate - "A recent article in The Times about the pressure felt by Ivy League alumni to get their children into their alma maters — and by those children to get into their parents’ colleges — demonstrated that legacy preferences are still a big part of the admissions process at top schools."

7. Affirmative Action for the Rich, by Richard D. Kahlenberg - http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/13/why-do-top-schools-still-take-legacy-applicants/affirmative-action-for-the-rich via @roomfordebate -"Legacy preferences provide the equivalent of a 160 point boost on the math and verbal SATs, not the “tiebreaker” that many universities claim. These preferences disproportionately benefit wealthy white students, providing, in essence, affirmative action for the rich."

8. How Do You Define Merit? Debra J. Thomas and Terry L. Shepard - http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/13/why-do-top-schools-still-take-legacy-applicants/humans-cant-be-ranked-by-merit via @roomfordebate - "Fewer than 100 of the nation's 3,500 colleges and universities -- less than 3 percent -- have so many qualified applicants that they have to choose among them. At this handful of institutions, legacies are only a small fraction of the candidates. Of these few legacies, not all are admitted, and many that are would have been accepted anyway."

9. Bad for Diversity, by John C. Brittain - http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/13/why-do-top-schools-still-take-legacy-applicants/legacy-preferences-are-bad-for-campus-diversity via @roomfordebate - "A study conducted by researchers at Duke University in 2005 found that underrepresented minorities constitute 28.2 percent of the U.S. population; 12.5 percent of the entire applicant pool of 18 national schools; but minority legacy applicants only accounted for 6.7 percent of the applicant pool. The researchers concluded that legacies today reflect the domination of whites that have in their words, “monopolized” higher education throughout history."

10. Respect for Tradition, by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg - Room for Debate
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/201...

- "More likely legacy admissions are a small number of a large group of set-asides, of special categories crafted and blended into a tapestry of talent that make up an incoming class: legacies, yes, but also musicians, athletes, veterans, minorities, students from all regions of the country and nations of the world, along with those who wish to study rare languages or STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)."

11. Hard-Core Economics, by Peter Sacks - http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/13/why-do-top-schools-still-take-legacy-applicants/hard-core-economics via @roomfordebate - "Elite institutions have struck an implicit bargain with their alumni. That bargain essentially says, “You give us money, and we will move your kid to the front of the line.” . . . The whole enterprise is brought to you by the generosity of ordinary American taxpayers, via tax breaks and subsidies. Their children are waiting patiently in the back of the line, buying into the myth that the system is fair and meritocratic, when in fact, the game is rigged, and the winners are pre-ordained."

12. Athletes Are the Problem, by Michele Hernandez - http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/13/why-do-top-schools-still-take-legacy-applicants/in-college-admissions-athletes-are-the-problem via @roomfordebate - "Like it or not, 40 percent of the class at most top colleges are reserved for "hooked" kids -- the largest group is generally recruited athletes (up to 20 percent), the rest are legacies, underrepresented minorities, development cases (donors) and V.I.P.'s (famous people's kids). It's hard for me to say legacy preferences are not fair because the truth is that the process isn't fair and legacies take up a relatively minor percentage of the class (typically 10 percent)."

13. Crime on Campus: Penn State Raises Question, Do Colleges Have Too Much Power? by Kayla Webley - http://ti.me/rZSq5p via TIME - "One of the few oversight tools the government has is the Clery Act. Named after a Lehigh University student who was raped and strangled by another student in 1986 in her dorm room, the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial-aid programs to disclose each year the number of alleged criminal offenses, including sexual offenses, that are recorded on campus or in other areas that are under university control, such as remote classrooms and fraternity houses. In addition, schools must also issue timely warnings in cases in which the reported crime represents a threat to the campus community."

14. Proof there is no proof for education reforms, by Carol Corbett Burris- The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/proof-there-is-no-proof-for-education-reforms/2011/11/13/gIQAAeVWJN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "Jonah Rockoff of Columbia University, who consults with the New York State Education Department on VAM (value-added modeling) scores and teacher evaluation, recently made a presentation at the Nassau Boards of Cooperative Educational Services. He included a slide, far more modest in its claims, regarding effective teaching and the achievement gap.When I questioned him about it, he was quite honest and admitted that there exists no empirical proof that three effective teachers in a row would close the achievement gap. It is merely a hypothetical extension of results from a model. He also honestly admitted that there exists no study that demonstrates that evaluating teachers using student test scores results in gains in achievement."

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

2. Last of 5 Parts: Answers to Your Questions on Applying with a Learning Disability, by Marybeth Kravets: http://nyti.ms/v4UE95 -"In this final installment, Ms. Kravets answers questions on college options for those with autism and pervasive developmental disorders."

3. Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania, Addresses High School Students, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/vREAvS - "One of four female presidents in the Ivy League, she began by describing her own high school experience. She then made a disclosure that seemed to surprise many of her young listeners: she was, she told them, the first in her family to attend college."

4. What Should Penn State Applicants Think? by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/vG3nOS -"First, I would caution applicants not to do anything rash. This, after all, is a world-class state university, with highly regarded programs in dozens of disciplines, including those in undergraduate business and engineering. (While I don’t typically steer applicants and their families toward the U.S. News rankings, please consider this moment an exception: it is probably worth noting how high so many Penn State programs place in the annual survey.)"

5. Enrollments tumble at for-profit colleges, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vQOY6e via AddThis - "Over the last year or so, most of the major for-profits have changed their view of their target student market, to varying degrees. Companies that previously sought out lesser-prepared students, and made lots of money on them, now believe those students come with regulatory risks that outweigh potential payoffs."

6. Student veterans do better than peers when given support services, by Elizabeth Murphy Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/twxSYI via AddThis - "The study found:

Student veterans were earning an average grade point average of 3.04.

The retention rate from fall 2010 to spring 2011 was 94 percent, above the national average of 75 percent for first- to second-year retention.

About 71 percent of students earned all of the credits they pursued, with an average of 24 credits for the academic year."

7. College Bound: Europe and U.S. Share Vision and Challenge for College Goals, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/in_other_international_higher_education.html via @educationweek - "Both the E.U. and U.S. will face shortages of skilled workers unless there is a significant increase in educational attainment. Both have set concrete goals: The E.U. wants 40 percent of its citizens age 30-34 to have college degrees by 2020. The U.S. aims to have 60 percent of its population with postsecondary training or a degree by 2020. And both are experiencing financial pressures that make attaining these new benchmarks difficult."

8. Professor disputes anti-AP film ‘Race to Nowhere’ by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/professor-disputes-anti-ap-film-race-to-nowhere/2011/11/01/gIQA2IsK1M_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "Bauerlein was as amazed as I at Abeles’s insistence that schoolwork is ruling children’s lives “across all economic and cultural groups.” He noted that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 15- to 19-year-olds have an average of 5.69 leisure hours a day. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 8- to 18-year-olds spend 7.5 hours a day with entertainment media. A Nielsen survey counted 3,339 text messages a month sent or received by the average 13- to 17-year-old with a cellphone."

9. The GI Bill is Not Enough, by Eric Greitens - http://shar.es/bMJDD - "The fact is, many universities are still not equipped to serve the specific needs of a veteran population. As a result, Veterans register for classes, but with little direction from the school. They lack clarity about how their military experience and schooling can translate into a civilian credential, and then find themselves in programs that are unaligned to their career goals. Many leave without ever obtaining a degree."

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

2. South Korean students' 'year of hell' culminates with exams day, by Jiyeon Lee #cnn http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/10/world/asia/south-korea-exams/index.html READ THIS. "Most South Korean students consider their final year in high school "the year of hell." It is when all students are put to the ultimate test. About 700,000 test applicants sat down in classrooms across the country Thursday to take their college entrance exams -- also known as the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). . . . For many, this one test -- which lasts a good eight hours -- will determine which university they enter. It is considered the chance to make or break one's future."

3. A New Book Argues Against the SAT, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/rMhctr - "That study broke applicants into three socio-economic classes. They found that 29 percent of students from the highest social class scored above 1400 on the SAT, compared to 24 percent of middle class students and 14 percent of lower class students. Turning that pyramid on its head, the study found that those students from lower social classes were more likely to have earned a top high school G.P.A.. . . “High school grades are the single most powerful predictor of college performance,” he said. “High SAT scores over-predict how well a student is going to do in college, and they’re inversely related to academic engagement.”

4. Part 4: Answers to Your Questions on Applying with a Learning Disability, by Marybeth Kravets: http://nyti.ms/uIDMUQ - "In this fourth round, Ms. Kravets addresses the question of physical disabilities that impact learning capacity."

5. Report Finds One in Three College Students Has Taken an Online Class, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/ssMpaB - "Nearly a third of all college students are now taking online courses, so said a new study released on Wednesday by the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board."

6. L.I. Inquiry on Cheating Now Covers Five Schools, by Jenney Anderson - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/nyregion/sat-cheating-inquiry-on-long-island-expands-to-include-act.html?_r=1 - "At the hearing, representatives of the Educational Testing Service said that about 3,000 test scores were examined for irregularities each year — out of more than two million exams taken — and that of those, 1,000 were canceled, most after test-center supervisors reported irregularities, or because of large jumps from scores on previous tests. Suspected impersonations constituted about 150 of those canceled scores. About 700 people were turned away for questionable identification at test sites."

7. Penn State president and football coach lose jobs amid sex abuse scandal, by Kevin Kiley Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sav1IK via AddThis - "The Pennsylvania State University Board of Trustees and Graham Spanier have decided that, effective immediately, Dr. Spanier is no longer president of the University," the board said in a statement Wednesday. "Additionally, the board determined that it is in the best interest of the University for Joe Paterno to no longer serve as head football coach, effective immediately."

8. Essay on why smart people make foolish ethical choices, by Robert J. Sternberg Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/t68Gdz via AddThis - "Every time there is a new ethics scandal, whether in a university or some other setting (such as in government or the corporate world), observers wonder how those involved could have been so stupid. Could they really have done the things of which they are accused? If so, what were they thinking? In fact, there are three precipitating factors for ethics scandals that practically guarantee that they will not be going away anytime soon. The three factors are foolishness, the complexity of ethical reasoning, and ethical drift, which I discuss in turn."

9. Survey Finds Pell Grant Support Among Young Adults Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/s8id8n via AddThis - "Adults aged 18 to 34 are overwhelmingly concerned about the cost of college and levels of student debt, regardless of whether they attended college, and oppose cuts to federal student aid programs, according to survey results announced Wednesday by the Institute for College Access and Success, Young Invincibles and Demos: Ideas and Action, three advocacy groups. The survey found that 73 percent of respondents believe college students graduate with too much debt, while only 21 percent described the average debt as "manageable."

10. Digital Education: Blended Learning on the Rise, Report Says, by Katie Ash - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2011/11/blended_learning_on_the_rise_r.html via @educationweek - "The eighth annual Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning, released today at the Virtual School Symposium in Indianapolis, finds that single-district online programs—many of which include blended learning—are the fastest-growing segment of online education this year. (Single-district online programs are created by a district for the students in that district only.)"

11. Community Colleges Open an Online Doorway to Better Grades and Graduation Rates, by Josh Fischman - http://chronicle.com/article/7-Community-Colleges-Try-an/129605/ - "There are two things Clint McElroy knows about community-college students: A huge number of them don't stay in school. And many of them—who are often the first in their families to go to college, and who must juggle work and parenting—don't understand how to balance all those demands while studying at the college level. . . . And just 27 percent of all students graduated within three years of starting community college, according to "What Works in Student Retention," a 2010 report by ACT, the nonprofit education-assessment organization. The survey, of 305 colleges, reported that the leading reasons for attrition were a student's lack of readiness for college-level work, deficient study skills, and money problems."

12. Is an Ivy League education money wasted? by Brad Tuttle http://ti.me/u1FlJq via @TIMEMoneyland - "The college-selection equation today is not unlike shopping for a new car, with some consumers preferring a flashy, eye-catching model, and others seeing more value in a dependable, unexciting product that is cheaper to pay off, and that still gets you where you need to go.Continuing with this metaphor, what we’re seeing is that more students are going with the Honda Civics of higher education, rather than the Porsches and Corvettes. The Wall Street Journal reports on the trend for students to not only question the value of an Ivy League education, but to attend cheaper (or free) public colleges even though they were admitted to much “better” institutions."

13. Did Penn State officials violate the Clery Act? by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/did-penn-state-officials-violate-the-clery-act/2011/11/09/gIQAh0CZ6M_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "The Clery Act requires colleges and universities to annually disclose campus crime statistics and, in some cases, to warn the community if a crime poses a safety threat. The education department oversees compliance of the act, and notified the university of its investigation on Wednesday. “If these allegations of sexual abuse are true then this is a horrible tragedy for those young boys. If it turns out that some people at the school knew of the abuse and did nothing or covered it up, that makes it even worse,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “Schools and school officials have a legal and moral responsibility to protect children and young people from violence and abuse.”