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.”