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