389. 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. Diploma Rates Far Short of Goal, Report Says, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/tlKr21 - "From 2000 to 2009, the report noted, the percentage of adults with associate degrees or higher increased by just 3 percent. If that pace holds steady, by 2025 the United States will fall nine percentage points below the president’s goal, with 46 percent of adults holding college degrees. . . . The report also highlighted differences in completion rates by race, noting that while around 40 percent of all young Americans hold college degrees, nearly 70 percent of Asian-Americans do, compared with 49 percent of white young adults, 19 percent of Hispanic young adults and 29 percent of African-American young adults."

3. For-profits should get ahead of accountability push, experts say, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/rBPRxL via @AddThis - “They’re going to run you out of town anyway,” said Smith, who is senior vice president of academic strategies and development for Kaplan Higher Education. “Get in front and make it look like a parade.”

4. AYP Results for 2010-11 - http://www.cep-dc.org/ - "This report updates previous CEP research with data from the 2010-11 school year on the number of schools not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The estimated percentage of all U.S. schools not making AYP was 48% in 2011, an all-time high and an increase from 39% in 2010."

5. What Is College For? by Gary Gutting: http://nyti.ms/rGzWtl - "Most American college students are wrapping up yet another semester this week. For many of them, and their families, the past months or years in school have likely involved considerable time, commitment, effort and expense. Was it worth it?"

6. Our Universities: Why Are They Failing? by Anthony Grafton - http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/nov/24/our-universities-why-are-they-failing/?pagination=false - "Fewer than 70 percent of high school students graduate. Just over 70 percent of those graduates will enter some form of postsecondary education. But barely more than half of those who start BA programs will finish them in six years, and only 30 percent of those who start community college will win an associate degree in three years. After that point, most people don’t manage to graduate."

7. Education Secretary Overstated Failing Schools Under No Child Left Behind, Study Says, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/ugOmVJ - "Now a new study, scheduled for release on Thursday, says the administration’s numbers were wildly overstated. The study, by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington research group headed by a Democratic lawyer who endorses most of the administration’s education policies, says that 48 percent of the nation’s 100,000 public schools were labeled as failing under the law this year."

8. ‘Moneyball’ Meets Education, Part 2: Colleges Pool Data to Prevent Dropouts, by Marc Parry - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moneyball-meets-education-part-ii-colleges-pool-data-to-prevent-dropouts/34681 - "But what if you could perform that kind of predictive analysis based on student information and course records from many colleges, not just one? That’s the idea behind an ambitious project that is pooling more than 640,000 student records from six different institutions. Led by WCET, a group that promotes technology in higher education, the project aims to answer three main questions. What factors make some students drop out? What keeps others in college? What demographics make a difference?"

9. Boomers heading back to community colleges, by Matthew Daneman – http://usat.ly/vZMU22 via @USATODAY - "An increasing number of people ages 50 and up are headed to community college — 388,000 were enrolled nationwide in fall 2009, the most recent data available from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). That was up 6% from 2007 and more than 12% from 2005. Nationwide, people over the age of 50 typically make up between 5%-6% of community college enrollment, according to AACC figures."

10. George W. Bush Looks Forward After No Child Left Behind, by Andrew J. Rotherham - http://ti.me/sS7ErX via @TIMEIdeas - "The education debate about George W. Bush is loaded with irony. The same President who is attacked by the left for pushing through tax cuts that benefited the wealthy is being assailed by the right for education policies that focus on disadvantaged students allegedly at the expense of high-achieving ones. But Bush remains steadfast. He considers No Child Left Behind a piece of civil rights legislation, and while his party is running from his education record, some education leaders are starting to run toward his institute and its work."

11. Why strong afterschool programs matter to school reform, by Jodi Grant -http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-strong-afterschool-programs-matter/2011/12/14/gIQAvtUpuO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "Afterschool programs have long known that they can embrace the hours between the time school closes and parents return from work to provide children, especially those who don’t have access to other activities, with exciting, engaging experiences that will help them learn academic, social and professional skills. The research is clear: children in quality afterschool programs are more likely to come to school and stay in school, more likely to hand in their work and get better grades."