382. 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. At White House Meeting on Affordability, a Call for Urgency, Innovation, and Leadership, by Collin Eatonhttp://chronicle.com/article/At-White-House-Meeting-on/130012/ -"Improving completion with the existing enrollment is not going to close the gap, we're going to have to get more students and get more students to complete—a good portion of them are going to have to be nontraditional students, those already in the work force."

3. Questions for the SAT's Top Cop, by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/s4deNW - "During the 2010-11 academic year, the office conducted about 9,600 investigations of SAT testing irregularities, including fire alarms going off during testing and reports of test taker impersonation. On test day, test takers must present their admission ticket as well as an acceptable form of photo ID. The name on the admission ticket must match exactly the name on the ID, and the ID must include a recent, recognizable photo. Test center staff members are authorized to refuse admission to any test taker with invalid or questionable ID. A list of acceptable forms of ID is available on the SAT Web site."

4. The 'Boy Problem' Examined, by Elizabeth Murphy Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tE7mzE via AddThis - "The female advantage is present across racial groups, as well, according to the data. In 1981, the most recent birth year calculated, white women have an 11 percent point advantage over white men, black women are at 9 percentage points and Hispanic women at 6 percentage points, according to the paper."

5. GAINS AND GAPS: CHANGING INEQUALITY IN U.S. COLLEGE ENTRY AND COMPLETION, by Martha J. Bailey and Susan M. Dynarski - http://www.nber.org/tmp/1823-w17633.pdf - "We find growing gaps between children from high- and low-income families in college entry, persistence, and graduation. . . . Sex differences in educational attainment, which were small or nonexistent thirty years ago,are now substantial, with women outpacing men in every demographic group. The female advantage in educational attainment is largest in the top quartile of the income distribution."

6. Districts see rise in homeless students, by Charlie Boss The Columbus Dispatch - http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/12/05/when-shelter-is-home.html - "It seems like in December and January, everything falls apart for a family,” said Pam Reveal, who oversees enrollment for Groveport Madison schools. “They lose their homes and jobs. A lot of them won’t go to a shelter unless they absolutely have to. Some have been sleeping in parking lots." The 5,822-student school district just southeast of Columbus has the highest rate of homeless students in Franklin County. About 8percent of the district’s students did not have a permanent address at one point last school year. That’s about 450 students, more than triple the number from the 2006-07 school year."

7. How to Rescue Education Reform, by FREDERICK M. HESS and LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND: http://nyti.ms/tntDvY - "Perhaps No Child Left Behind’s most enduring lesson is the value of humility — a virtue that must be taken to heart in crafting a smarter, more coherent federal role in schooling."

8. Employers Say College Graduates Lack Job Skills, by Lacey Johnson -http://chronicle.com/article/Employers-Say-College/130013/ - "The group surveyed more than 1,000 employers in various industries last month about whether job applicants possess the skills to thrive in the workplace. More than half of employers said finding qualified applicants is difficult, and just under half thought students should receive specific workplace training rather than a more broad-based education."

9. Guest post: A more relaxed approach to Early Decision, by Jeff Rickey - College, Inc. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-a-more-relaxed-approach-to-early-decision/2011/12/06/gIQAo1JXZO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Instead of making them wait to hear from us until the middle of March, we developed a plan that allows students to apply Early Decision at any time up until our Regular Decision deadline of February 1. Students declare their Early Decision intentions by completing and submitting the Early Decision contract, and, once that is received and the admissions application is complete, the application is evaluated and the student is notified, usually within a couple of weeks of completion."

10. Still Waiting: Black Male Achievement in America, by LaVar Young - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lavar-young/black-male-achievement_b_1121379.html?ref=education&ir=Education - "But, the statistics are tangible and certainly disturbing, and they start immediately at birth. For one, black infant mortality rates are more than twice that of whites, in a country that already has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world. As they grow into toddlerhood and childhood, the evidence mounts. Two-thirds of black children live in single parent households, which is three times that of white children. And one-third live in poverty, compared with one tenth of their white counterparts. In school, black males score lower on standardized tests, are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school, three times as likely to be suspended from school and less likely to go on to a two-year or four-year college."