384. 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 for articles on college access and success ▸ today http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. State budget cuts make completion goals difficult for community colleges, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vprqvR via AddThis - "Community colleges are the portal of entry into higher education for millions of academically talented minority, low income, first-generation and adult students,” the report said. These student populations are growing relative to those of wealthier, more prepared students, but community colleges lack the money to handle enrollment increases, according to the survey."

3. GAO Finds Lagging Student Outcomes at For-Profits Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/t4DMM5 via AddThis - "The new GAO report, which leaned heavily on a research study examined in an Inside Higher Ed article Wednesday, finds that the colleges lag other institutions in student unemployment, borrowing rates, debt loads, loan default rates and licensing exam pass rates, but performed better on certificate program completion rates and had similar outcomes in associate degree graduation rates and student earnings. The GAO report acknowledged that it is difficult to compare the performance of for-profits with public and private nonprofit institutions, because the industry enrolls a "higher proportion of low-income, minority and nontraditional students who face challenges that can affect their educational outcomes. . . ."

4. Bad Online Behavior Jeopardizes Students, by Robin L. Flanigan - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/08/14collegeadmit.h31.html?tkn=UUXFhkEe6N8%2BF%2FMoNjy%2B04aF8rkvzH61wuY%2B&cmp=clp-edweek - "In the company’s 2011 survey of admissions officers from the top 500 colleges and universities, 24 percent said they have viewed publicly available pages to get a clearer picture of an applicant, while 20 percent turned to Google. Twelve percent reported that their discoveries, including photos showing underage drinking, vulgarities in blogs, and plagiarism in essays, negatively affected the chance of admission."

5. Study: Middle-Class Students Are Better at Asking for Academic Help, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2011/12/study_middle-class_students_ar.html via @educationweek - "In a study released today in the American Sociological Review, University of Pennsylvania sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco found that while working-class students were more likely to wait for help, middle-class students approached or called for help on their own, and more frequently. "Unlike their working-class counterparts, middle-class parents explicitly encourage children to feel comfortable asking for help from teachers, and also deliberately coach children on the language and strategies to use in making these requests," Calarco said of the study. "What that means is that middle-class kids' help-seeking skills and strategies effectively become a form of 'cultural capital' in the classroom—by activating those resources, middle-class kids can secure their own advantages in the classroom."

6. Some New York City Scores Dip in NAEP Tests, by Winnie Hu: http://nyti.ms/vRRt2p -"But New York City showed significant improvement in narrowing the achievement gap for poor students over a decade. Eighth-grade students eligible for free and reduced lunch scored 14 points lower on reading than those who were not eligible in 2011, compared with 30 points lower in 2003. The achievement gap for blacks also appeared to shrink slightly in the city. In 2011, black students averaged 26 points lower than white students on reading tests in fourth-grade, compared with 29 points lower in 2002. In math, they averaged 22 points lower in fourth-grade and 30 points lower in eighth grade, compared with 25 points and 36 points lower in 2003."

7. Demographics Do Not Explain For-Profit Colleges' Shortcomings on Student-Success Measures, GAO Says, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Demographics-Do-Not-Explain/130040/ - "For-profit institutions perform worse than public and private colleges on most measures of quality, even when student demographics are taken into account, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office."

8. Was Gingrich Right About Putting Kids to Work? by Andrew J. Rotherham - http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/08/newt-gingrich-education-prophet/ via @TIMEIdeas - "The trend runs from micro (from kids keeping shirts tucked in to properly introducing themselves to adults) to macro: at the Washington-based SEED schools, students live at these public boarding schools five days a week. SEED is pretty extreme, but most of the new-paternalism schools have a school day that is extended beyond what’s typical now. And the most successful ones also promote intense teacher-student relationships and put a lot of thought and effort into creating a college-going culture even even the youngest students."

9. NAEP results suggest long march, not quick turnaround, by Bill Turque - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/naep-results-suggest-long-march-not-turnaround/2011/12/07/gIQAK6BKdO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "The results align closely with the latest DC CAS results, which also showed stagnant reading scores, marginal improvements in some math results and vast divides between schools in low and high-income communities. . . . That makes NAEP one more piece of evidence that there will be no quick “turnaround” of DCPS. This will be a slow march, filled with what Chancellor Kaya Henderson has called “hard, non-sexy work” of fixing curricula and coaching up teachers to meet the needs of children who come to school every day with enormous deficits."

10. Guest post: Federal student aid, by Jay Lemons - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-in-defense-of-federal-student-aid/2011/12/07/gIQA5KVVcO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "However, one aspect of the explosion in PELL costs that bears much greater scrutiny is the increase in program dollars going to for-profit schools in our country. Some of these schools do fine work and are introducing change and innovations that are positive for higher education. But some of these schools are of questionable value for students and are, in my opinion, not a good investment of federal tax dollars."