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."

387. 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. Child homelessness up 33% in 3 years, by Marisol Bello – http://usat.ly/t6ym1z via @USATODAY - "One in 45 children in the USA — 1.6 million children — were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness."

3. Valencia College wins first Aspen Prize, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/s4d4l4 via AddThis - “Valencia reworked many traditional processes that other colleges view as immutable,” according to an Aspen-produced pamphlet describing the 10 finalists for the award. By giving students earlier advising and orientation, as well as offering a “Student Success” course, the college has tried “new things where they’ll matter most, for the neediest students." The three-year, full-time graduation and transfer rate for minority students at Valencia is 43 percent, which outpaces the national average of 33 percent. And the completion rate for Valencia’s career programs has grown 44 percent over four years."

4. Congressman Targets Pay of For-Profit-College Chiefs Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vPEPcy via AddThis - "Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a speech to a consumer group today (see video below) that he had sent letters to the CEOs of 13 for-profit education companies, asking for the compensation agreements to help "determine whether salaries, bonuses, and other compensation are appropriately tied to the performance of students they educate, the vast majority of whom pay for their education with federal tax dollars."

5. Tackling colleges' Common Application, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57341025/tackling-colleges-common-application/?tag=mncol;lst;6 - "As the name suggests, the institutions share one application that is intended to make the admission process easier. The name Common Application, however, is somewhat misleading, because schools routinely ask students to answer extra supplemental questions on the document. A typical supplemental question requires applicants to explain why they are interested in their schools."

6. More Students With Disabilities Heading to College, by Nirvi Shah - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/14/14disabled_ep.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Earlier this year, a national study found that six years after high school, students with disabilities were less likely than peers to have attended any college—55 percent compared with 62 percent, though that includes students with all types of disabilities. Among people with intellectual disabilities, the rate of employment is just 9 percent."

7. Online Schools Score Better on Wall Street Than in Classrooms, by Stephanie Saul: http://nyti.ms/u1uQmd - "A look at the company’s operations, based on interviews and a review of school finances and performance records, raises serious questions about whether K12 schools — and full-time online schools in general — benefit children or taxpayers, particularly as state education budgets are being slashed. Instead, a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards."

8. Military Children Outdo Public School Students on NAEP Tests, by Michael Winerip: http://nyti.ms/vImAF1 - "They would find that the schools on base are not subject to former President George W. Bush’s signature education program, No Child Left Behind, or to President Obama’s Race to the Top. They would find that standardized tests do not dominate and are not used to rate teachers, principals or schools."

9. Colleges Mine Data to Tailor Students' Experience, by Marc Parry -http://chronicle.com/article/A-Moneyball-Approach-to/130062/ - "Today, half of students quit college before earning a credential. Proponents feel that making better use of data to inform decisions, known as "analytics," can help solve that problem while also improving teaching."

10. For Community Colleges, a Time to Shine, by Kevin Carey -http://chronicle.com/article/For-Community-Colleges-a-Time/130064/ - "The best community colleges, they found, were unusually focused and intentional when it came to structuring the learning experience. Large or small, the top two-years didn't just offer courses and wait for students to sign up. Lake Area Technical Institute, in South Dakota, for example, has 27 technical programs, each with a defined curriculum. Sixty-six percent of its students graduate within three years, far above the sector norm."

386. 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. Detailing the For-Profit Lobbying Campaign Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/uXHOV1 via AddThis - "For-profit colleges and associations spent more than $16 million on lobbying, with much of the money going to Democrats with ties to the White House."

3. Cal State campuses overwhelmed by remedial needs, by Matt Krupnick - San Jose Mercury News - http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19526032 - "The remedial numbers are staggering, given that the Cal State system admits only freshmen who graduated in the top one-third of their high-school class. About 27,300 freshmen in the 2010 entering class of about 42,700 needed remedial work in math, English or both. . . . "It's a terrible indictment of the K-through-12 system," Postma said. "If a factory was building cars and the lug nuts kept falling off the tires, you would do something pretty dramatic about it. We keep adding the lug nuts back to the tires rather than trying to figure out what the problem is."The remedial problem is hardly confined to California. Schools across the country have puzzled over how to better prepare students for college and what to do with those who are not ready."

4. Guidance on Race-Based Factors Gets Polarized Response, by Mark Walsh - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/09/14race.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "The federal departments of Education and Justice jointly issued separate documents for K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions that outline both race-neutral and race-conscious practices that officials say may be used to advance racial diversity and avoid racial isolation."

5. The Unaddressed Link Between Poverty and Education, by Helen F. Ladd and Edward B. Fiske: http://nyti.ms/tNZk20 - "But let’s not pretend that family background does not matter and can be overlooked. Let’s agree that we know a lot about how to address the ways in which poverty undermines student learning. Whether we choose to face up to that reality is ultimately a moral question."

6. The Brutal Side of Hazing, by Charles M. Blow: http://nyti.ms/tGexyx - "His death refocuses attention on college hazing and illustrates just how pervasive and intractable the problem can be, how rooted it is into some organizations, how far some will go to belong and feel bonded and how some officials can seem to turn a blind eye — publicly disavowing and condemning while silently condoning."

7. At Forum on the Future, Leaders Dissect What Ails Higher Education Today, by Karin Fischerhttp://chronicle.com/article/At-Forum-on-the-Future/130087/ - "Henry S. Bienen, a former president of Northwestern University, concurred that fixing elementary and secondary education is a critical challenge for American colleges. Mr. Bienen, speaking on a panel Friday morning, said just 8 percent of the graduates of the Chicago public schools, on whose board he sits, are college ready. That's 8 percent, he noted, of an already-diminished population—only 57 percent of students who begin high school in the nation's third-largest city finish."

8. A superintendent calls school reformers’ bluff, by John Kuhn - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-superintendent-calls-school-reformers-bluff/2011/12/11/gIQABKBXoO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "NCLB has done one important thing: By disaggregating data, it has forced teachers and administrators like me to agonize over the outcomes of our neediest students. But after 10 years, it is clear that NCLB’s reforms haven’t spurred miracles, and it is time that the profound problem of inequality is addressed. The deck is stacked against kids who live in poverty not just because their schools are on average worse than others, but also because of the circumstances of their lives when they leave campus. It’s time that we admit that it isn’t just teachers holding back poor and minority students back. The problems are societal."

9. Study: Two-fifths of high school graduates are unprepared, by Daniel de Vise - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/study-two-fifths-of-high-school-graduates-are-unprepared/2011/12/12/gIQArZKnpO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "One-third of high school students complete the modern college-preparatory track, and another one-quarter graduate from career-preparatory programs. The remaining high school population, an estimated 40 percent, do neither. They are “a virtual underclass of students,” the researchers write, who finish high school with a transcript filled with watered-down general education courses and few prospects for success either in traditional college or in professional training."

10. The Underserved Third: How Our Educational Structures Populate an Educational Underclass, by Regina Deil-Amen and Stefanie DeLuca - http://www.soc.jhu.edu/people/DeLuca/documents/D_%20D_%20JESPAR.pdf - "This leaves over 40% of students falling within the underserved third group—lacking adequate college preparation and occupational training. This third group is disproportionately composed of lower SES, underrepresented minority, immigrantEnglish language learner, and first-generation college students. Among students who earn a high school diploma, less than half are college-ready; more than half take at least one college remedial English or math class (Goldberger, 2007; Parsad & Lewis, 2003). As the underserved third group transitions into college, they populate the bulk of such remedial classes and are among the ‘‘two thirds or more of community college students’’ who ‘‘enter college with academic skills weak enough to threaten their ability to succeed in some of their college-level courses’’(Bailey, 2009, p. 1). These students are structurally positioned to transition out of school destined to fail to access labor market rewards."

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."

383. 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. Column: Yes, college is worth the costs, by Rodney K. Smith – http://usat.ly/soYrAn via @USATODAY - "Concerns regarding student indebtedness and educational quality are legitimate, but we are losing our appreciation for education as an investment and stewardship."

3. Number of students attending charter schools soars - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/vr0mPY via AddThis - "The growth represents the largest increase in enrollment over a single year since charter schools were founded nearly two decades ago. In all, more than 500 new charter schools were opened in the 2011-12 school year. And about 200,000 more students are enrolled now than a year before, an increase of 13 percent nationwide. . . . But their performance so far has been mixed; a 2009 Stanford University study found only 17 percent performed better than regular public schools while more than twice as many - 37 percent - performed worse. Another 46 percent were about the same."

4. For-profits lag behind other colleges in student outcomes, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vNNUb5 via @AddThis - "The research found that for-profits have some competitive strengths, such as in first-year student retention rates compared to community colleges. But the adjusted data showed for-profits lagging behind other types of colleges in areas such as employment outcomes, student satisfaction with academic offerings, debt levels and loan default rates -- gaps that probably cannot be fully explained, the researchers say, by the greater propensity of students at the colleges to have prior risk factors."

5. “The For-Profit Postsecondary School Sector: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators?” by David J. Deming, et al - http://www.frbatlanta.org/documents/news/conferences/11employment_education_demming.pdf

"In this article, we describe the schools, students, and programs in this sector, its phenomenal growth in the past decade, and its relationship to the federal and state governments. The for-profits seem to have forged a highly successful business model. They appear to be nimble critters that train non-traditional learners for jobs in the fast growing areas, such as health care and information technology. But there is a potential dark side. Default rates on the loans taken out by their students vastly exceed those of other institutions of higher education and audit studies have shown that some for-profits have highly aggressive and even fraudulent recruiting techniques. Are the for-profits “nimble critters” or “agile predators”?"

6. What's the matter with high school counselors? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57332594/whats-the-matter-with-high-school-counselors/?tag=mncol;lst;7 - "The new national survey, which was released by the College Board, detected a huge divide between educational goals and what is actually occurring in the schools. For instance, 85 percent of surveyed counselors agreed that schools should work to ensure that all students complete high school and are ready to succeed in college and careers, but only 30 percent said that this was the mission of their own schools. Among those surveyed, 55 percent believe schools require either a complete overhaul or major changes to improve student success."

7. Dual Enrollment Improves College Going, Under the Right Circumstances, Studies Find - http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/dual-enrollment-improves-college-going-under-the-right-circumstances-studies-find/38887 - "Dual enrollment, in which students take college courses while they’re still in high school, can increase college enrollment and completion, but its effectiveness depends on which classes students take and where they take them, according to two new studies from the National Center for Postsecondary Research. The research, which echoes previous studies, found strong positive effects for students who took the classes on college campuses, but not those who took them at their high schools. It also found similar completion rates between students who took dual-enrollment classes and those who took Advanced Placement ones."

8. Penn State analyzes football program, by Kevin Johnson and Kelly Whiteside – http://usat.ly/rPeYMb via USATODAY - "In his first extensive interview since taking office last month, Penn State President Rodney Erickson said Tuesday that he seeks to transform the university's public face from a football factory to a "world class research institution."

9. Paterno’s Payback? Penn State Football is No. 1 in Academic Bowlsays @kaylawebley - http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/07/paternos-revenge-penn-state-football-is-no-1-in-academic-bowl/ via @TIMEIdeas - "But the more ironic news is that the team that topped the list is Penn State, whose football program coached by the legendary Joe Paterno was recently rocked by a sex-abuse scandal. According to the analysis, Penn State graduates 80% of its football players in six years or less and also shows no achievement gap between its black and white players, which NAF says is extremely rare for Division I football teams. (At LSU, by comparison, the team’s black players are 32% less likely to graduate than their white counterparts.) Winning the top honors in the academic bowl further proves the success of Paterno’s “grand experiment,” which was his idea that major-college athletes could contend for national championships while excelling in the classroom."

10. D.C. schools have largest black-white achievement gap in federal study - by Lyndsey Layton - http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-have-largest-black-white-achievement-gap-in-federal-study/2011/12/06/gIQArNnMcO_story.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "D.C. public schools have the largest achievement gap between black and white students among the nation’s major urban school systems, a distinction laid bare in a federal study released Wednesday. The District also has the widest achievement gap between white and Hispanic students, the study found, compared with results from other large systems and the national average."

11. Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the 2011-12 Bowl-bound College Football Teams - http://tidesport.org/RGRC/2011/2011_FBS_Bowl_Study[FINAL].pdf - "Lapchick said, “Notre Dame and Northwestern would have played for the National Championship if there was a national championship game for Graduation Success Rates among bowl teams. Both teams graduated at least 94 percent of all football student-athletes and at least 92 percent of African-American football student-athletes. Notre Dame graduated 100 percent of their African-American footballstudent-athletes."

380. 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. New book says elite black students don't try for high-paying jobs, by Allie Grasgreen Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/saSoWE via AddThis - "Yet, many of the students she interviewed socialized primarily with other black peers. “While black students may derive substantial value from these networks, there is also a considerable downside to their separation from the wider campus community. Racially integrated networks provide access to information otherwise unavailable to these students, including the existence of occupations they had never considered, the awareness of how to obtain training for them, and connections to professionals (white and nonwhite) who possess them.”

3. Poverty Matters, by Peter DeWitt - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/11/poverty_matters.html via @educationweek - "On average, professional parents spoke over 2,000 words per hour to their children, working class parents spoke about 1,300, and welfare mothers spoke about 600. So by age 3, children of professionals had vocabularies that were nearly 50% greater than those of working-class children and twice as large as those of welfare children" (Rothstein, 2004, p. 28)."

4. On Long Island, SAT Cheating Was Hardly a Secret, by JENNY ANDERSON and PETER APPLEBOME: http://nyti.ms/vPRg6d - "In Great Neck, a place where the high-achieving schools are the center of public life, and where high-priced tutors and admissions consultants are routine advantages for the wealthy, educators and parents are mortified that the community’s reputation could be muddied by the SAT scandal. But while it is clear that only a tiny proportion of students at the schools cheated, the scheme came to light only because it was widespread and well known enough that officials at North got wind of it."

5. Consumer Advocate Says States Fall Short in Oversight of For-Profit Colleges, by Goldie Blumenstyk - http://chronicle.com/article/Consumer-Advocate-Says-States/129978/ - "While the federal government and some states have recently increased their regulation of the sector, "only a few states have devoted sufficient resources in recent years to challenge for-profit school abuses and provide relief for students," says the report from the National Consumer Law Center. "Regardless of their views on how best to deliver higher education, all regulators and policy makers should be against ripping off students."

6. What matters most in college admissions — money or merit? by Esther Quintero - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/what-matters-most-in-college-admissions--money-or-merit/2011/11/30/gIQALNKEJO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "Money, not only merit, matters in college admissions. According to the survey of 462 directors and managers, in the face of generalized budget cuts, universities are favoring applicants who don’t need financial assistance to pay their tuition.About 22 percent agreed that “the financial downturn [had] forced them to pay more attention to an applicants’ ability to pay when [making] admissions decisions.” Directors acknowledged seeking more candidates who would not need financial aid, including out-of-state and international students. Furthermore, 10 percent of four-year colleges reported that the admitted students who could pay in full had lower grades than their peers who couldn’t."

7. Guest post: In defense of a liberal education, by Christopher Nelson - College, Inc. -http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-in-defense-of-a-liberal-education/2011/12/02/gIQAj8plKO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost -"The best educated person today, just as yesterday, is one fully capable of adapting to or taking advantage of changing conditions, precisely because the well-educated adult has integrity of character, a rootedness in essentials, and a self-understanding that makes it possible to live well and consistently in an unpredictable world."

376. 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. 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."

373. 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. Lee El Diario de Joe Rottenborn ▸ noticias destacadas del dia via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Panel's Failure Means Education Cuts in '13, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/tvlcqO -"While the Pell Grant program is exempt from cuts in the first year, the other student-aid programs will lose $134-million, reducing aid to at least 1.3 million students. Career, technical, and adult education will lose $136-million, affecting 1.4 million students, says the committee."

3. More Charges, More Details in SAT Cheating Scandal Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/rwfAXd via AddThis - "Some of those charged allegedly paid others to take the SAT on their behalf. Prosecutors said that they believed that 40 students and former students were involved, but that the statute of limitations prevented charges from being brought against all of them."

4. Poll shows concern over Penn State and other athletic programs, by Allie Grasgreen Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/v5PVRh via AddThis - "A full 72 percent of respondents said Division I college athletic programs have “too much influence over college life.” Only 3 percent said programs have too little influence; 16 percent said they have “about the right amount” and 9 percent were unsure."

5. GAO releases new investigation of for-profit colleges, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tXujkA via AddThis - "The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released results from a second undercover “secret shopper” investigation of for-profit colleges, this time attempting to enroll a fictitious student online at 15 unnamed institutions. The findings were mixed, but investigators uncovered problems with how seven of the colleges handled online course grading, academic dishonesty, or students’ exit counseling."

6. Finding Common Ground: Why Educators Should Join Twitter, by Peter DeWitt - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/11/why_educators_should_join_twitter.html via @educationweek - "We live in the 21st century where our students don't just "do" social networking; it is a part of who they are as digital citizens. To us, it's a big deal to get on Facebook or Twitter, and to our students it is something they cannot fathom living without. Understanding their connection with those sites will increase an educator's connection with their students. Being able to talk their language may even provide an opportunity to breakthrough to a hard to reach student."

7. More Students Charged in Long Island SAT Cheating Case, By JENNY ANDERSON and WINNIE HU: http://nyti.ms/uA0Cx7 - "The investigation began when administrators at Great Neck North looked into student rumors. Their focus soon fell on students who had registered to take the tests outside the district, and those whose scores and grades showed a disparity. They turned over the details to prosecutors, who opened a broad examination."

8. How the Future Looks From High School http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/22/how-the-future-looks-from-high-school via @roomfordebate - "How does the future look to a high school senior? We checked in with 15 of them, at four American high schools."

9. Undercover Probe Finds Lax Academic Standards at Some For-Profit Colleges, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Undercover-Probe-Finds-Lax/129881/ - "The probe, which is described in a report made public Tuesday, found that staff at six of the 12 colleges that enrolled the investigators tolerated plagiarism or awarded credit for incomplete or shoddy work."

372. 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. Nearly 4,250 Apply to New Harvard Early Admission Program, by REBECCA R. RUIZ AND JACQUES STEINBERG: http://nyti.ms/v2Nmwd - "The college said on Monday that 4,245 students filed single choice early action applications by its Nov. 1 deadline; under that program, students are prohibited from filing early applications with other private colleges in the United States. Those 4,245 applicants represent more than double the size of Harvard’s anticipated class of 2016, and they mark a 5.9 percent increase from four years ago, when early admission was last in effect at Harvard and 4,010 students chose to apply."

3. Accreditor Questions Career Education on Placement Rates Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sce6jn via AddThis - "A recent review by an outside law firm found that some of the company's 49 health education and art and design schools did not have sufficient documentation to back up job placements, and that 13 failed to meet the accreditor's placement rate requirement."

4. Data Driving College Preparation, by Caralee J. Adams - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/16/12data_ep.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Once Kentucky educators started sharing data about how high school students were doing after graduation, things started to change. University professors and high school teachers began comparing notes about their expectations in class. Rigor was ramped up. Transition courses were developed in high schools to help lagging students avoid remediation in college. Advanced Placement restrictions were lifted to expose more students to college-level courses."

5. Hechinger Report Should value-added teacher ratings be adjusted for poverty? by Sarah Garland: http://hechingerreport.org/content/should-value-added-teacher-ratings-be-adjusted-for-poverty_6899/#.Tsu3t0gKqjk.twitter via AddThis - "A large body of research has found that student achievement is affected not only by a student’s individual circumstances at home, but also by the circumstances of other children in the same school and classroom. Studies have found that students surrounded by more advantaged peers tend to score higher on tests than similarly performing students surrounded by less advantaged peers. To some experts, this research suggests that a teacher with a large number of low-achieving minority children in a classroom, for example, might have a more difficult job than another teacher with few such students."

6. Cutting student aid like ‘eating our own seed corn’ by Dennis Berkey - College, Inc. -http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-cutting-student-aid-like-eating-our-own-seed-corn/2011/11/22/gIQADl11kN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost -"But the word out of Washington is that financial aid is not viewed as investment, but as spending. Cutting aid to low-income students would be a form of eating our own seed corn. These programs contribute mightily to our nation’s bottom line. They create highly skilled workers. They stimulate our economy. They even help create jobs. Clearly, it is time for a reminder as to why these programs are so vital."

371. 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. Part 6: Answers to Your Questions on Student Loans and Scholarships, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/smnRyj - "How do you pay for college when you don’t qualify for need-based aid, all in-state schools have rejected your student, and the only opening is an out-of-state public school with $30,000-plus/year in expenses? Are loans the only option?"

3. Last of 7 Parts: Answers to Your Questions on Student Loans and Scholarships, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/voeFJ9 - "There are several billion dollars of scholarships that are based primarily on merit. A few of these scholarships have a financial need component, but most do not. However, these scholarships are very competitive, with only about one in eight students in bachelor’s degree programs using scholarships to pay for their education. Scholarships are part of the plan for paying for college, but not the entire plan. Very few students win enough money each year to cover all college costs."

4. Report from higher education research group's annual meeting, by Doug Lederman Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/uWYNOp via AddThis - "Jez told that story with data, showing that for-profit colleges enroll more Californians than all sectors other than community colleges (at 380,000 students, far less than the California Community Colleges’ 970,000 but more than third-place California State University at 332,000), greater proportions of black and Latino students than any other sector, and greater proportions of Pell Grant-eligible students than any sector but (surprisingly) private nonprofit colleges."

5. Business majors: College's worst slackers? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57326939/business-majors-colleges-worst-slackers/?tag=mncol;lst;8 - "Business majors, according to the survey, studied the least among college students. The average business student studied just 14 hours a week. In contrast, engineering students, the hardest workers on college campuses, studied 19 hours a week."

6. Let’s Get Ready Offers Help for College Admissions, by Michael Winerip: http://nyti.ms/uWw5XV - "So Nathaly found a free program that helps low-income teenagers throughout the Northeast work the system too, called Let’s Get Ready. Students are given help filling out college applications, writing essays, practicing interviews and preparing for the SAT."

7. How About Better Parents? by Thomas L. Friedman: http://nyti.ms/rpSy63 - "There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement."

8. PISA In Focus 10: What can parents do to help their children succeed in school? - http://www.pisa.oecd.org/dataoecd/4/1/49012097.pdf - "Students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child “every day or almost every day” or “once or twice a week” during the first year of primary school have markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child “never or almost never” or only “once or twice a month”.

9. Colleges' Data on Student Learning Remain Largely Inaccessible, Report Says,by Collin Eaton - http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Data-on-Student/129853/ - "Often, the report says, colleges and universities don't provide easily digestible information about student learning that prospective students and parents can understand and use to make their college choices. Student learning measures might consist of course grades, course evaluations, surveys, and interviews, says the report."

10. College graduation rates: Income really matters, by Tami Luhby - http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/21/news/economy/income_college/ via CNNMoney.com - "Some 54% of students from wealthy families obtained bachelor's degrees, said Martha Bailey, an assistant economics professor at the University of Michigan. But only 9% of low-income students got college diplomas."

365. 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. Last of 5 Parts: Answers to Your Questions on Applying with a Learning Disability, by Marybeth Kravets: http://nyti.ms/v4UE95 -"In this final installment, Ms. Kravets answers questions on college options for those with autism and pervasive developmental disorders."

3. Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania, Addresses High School Students, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/vREAvS - "One of four female presidents in the Ivy League, she began by describing her own high school experience. She then made a disclosure that seemed to surprise many of her young listeners: she was, she told them, the first in her family to attend college."

4. What Should Penn State Applicants Think? by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/vG3nOS -"First, I would caution applicants not to do anything rash. This, after all, is a world-class state university, with highly regarded programs in dozens of disciplines, including those in undergraduate business and engineering. (While I don’t typically steer applicants and their families toward the U.S. News rankings, please consider this moment an exception: it is probably worth noting how high so many Penn State programs place in the annual survey.)"

5. Enrollments tumble at for-profit colleges, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vQOY6e via AddThis - "Over the last year or so, most of the major for-profits have changed their view of their target student market, to varying degrees. Companies that previously sought out lesser-prepared students, and made lots of money on them, now believe those students come with regulatory risks that outweigh potential payoffs."

6. Student veterans do better than peers when given support services, by Elizabeth Murphy Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/twxSYI via AddThis - "The study found:

Student veterans were earning an average grade point average of 3.04.

The retention rate from fall 2010 to spring 2011 was 94 percent, above the national average of 75 percent for first- to second-year retention.

About 71 percent of students earned all of the credits they pursued, with an average of 24 credits for the academic year."

7. College Bound: Europe and U.S. Share Vision and Challenge for College Goals, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/in_other_international_higher_education.html via @educationweek - "Both the E.U. and U.S. will face shortages of skilled workers unless there is a significant increase in educational attainment. Both have set concrete goals: The E.U. wants 40 percent of its citizens age 30-34 to have college degrees by 2020. The U.S. aims to have 60 percent of its population with postsecondary training or a degree by 2020. And both are experiencing financial pressures that make attaining these new benchmarks difficult."

8. Professor disputes anti-AP film ‘Race to Nowhere’ by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/professor-disputes-anti-ap-film-race-to-nowhere/2011/11/01/gIQA2IsK1M_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "Bauerlein was as amazed as I at Abeles’s insistence that schoolwork is ruling children’s lives “across all economic and cultural groups.” He noted that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 15- to 19-year-olds have an average of 5.69 leisure hours a day. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 8- to 18-year-olds spend 7.5 hours a day with entertainment media. A Nielsen survey counted 3,339 text messages a month sent or received by the average 13- to 17-year-old with a cellphone."

9. The GI Bill is Not Enough, by Eric Greitens - http://shar.es/bMJDD - "The fact is, many universities are still not equipped to serve the specific needs of a veteran population. As a result, Veterans register for classes, but with little direction from the school. They lack clarity about how their military experience and schooling can translate into a civilian credential, and then find themselves in programs that are unaligned to their career goals. Many leave without ever obtaining a degree."

348. 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. Student loan debt hits record levels, by Dennis Cauchon – http://usat.ly/neJ8xx via USATODAY - "The amount of student loans taken out last year crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time and total loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion for the first time this year. Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago after adjusting for inflation, the College Board reports. Total outstanding debt has doubled in the past five years — a sharp contrast to consumers reducing what's owed on home loans and credit cards."

2. For-profit colleges focus of student loan issue, by Dennis Cauchon – http://usat.ly/nz5mEp via @USATODAY - "The federal government has promoted and subsidized loans as a way to help young people and workers get the education needed to succeed in a troubled economy. The government made or guaranteed more than 80% of the $1 trillion in loans outstanding and backed more than 90% of new loans this year. For-profit schools such as the University of Phoenix, DeVry University and hundreds of smaller institutions have been particularly successful in winning students and their federal aid by offering courses that focus on specific careers, often taught online and aimed at older, non-traditional students."

3. How to avoid defaulting on your student loans, by Sandra Block – http://usat.ly/oBR9h8 via @USATODAY - "While defaulting on any loan will trigger a lot of unpleasant consequences, defaulting on your federal student loan debt could be disastrous. Your wages may be garnished and your tax refunds withheld. Your credit score will be ruined, which will make it more difficult to borrow for a house or a car."

4. The Rapid Rise of Merit Aid, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/nV3X6m via @AddThis - "Many institutions – particularly those that are moderately selective – have embraced merit-based financial aid out of the belief that offering partial scholarships will help them attract paying students away from higher-profile peers. Numerous states, especially in the South, have put in place hefty aid programs based on academic merit to try to keep academically qualified students within the state’s borders for college. But many student aid experts roundly pan the approach for abandoning the historical goal of using financial assistance to draw into higher education those who would have been unlikely to attend otherwise."

5. It's Not Me. It's You. by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/pBbRh1 via AddThis - "Since the economic recession began in 2008, state revenues have not kept pace with state funding obligations, resulting in budget shortfalls in most states and cuts to most state services. When states cut appropriations to higher education institutions in the past, colleges and universities made up the difference through tuition hikes and belt-tightening. Both lawmakers and university leaders kept quiet, knowing that appropriations would return and that large tuition increases would likely be followed by smaller hikes."

6. Tuition assistance slashed by 75 percent for Marines, by Travis J. Tritten - Marine Corps - Stripes: http://1.usa.gov/n9E4nC via @AddThis - "The Marine Corps announced Tuesday it has slashed tuition assistance by 75 percent for servicemembers who take classes on their off-duty time. The change went into effect immediately and reduces the maximum education assistance available from the Department of Defense standard of $3,500 per year to just $875 per year for Marines — about enough to cover two university courses, according to a service-wide bulletin.The Marine Corps said the new rate is equal to the average class load taken on by Marines who use the tuition assistance program and is a more focused use of the service’s tuition funds."

7. 8 Ways to Search for Great Colleges, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/8-ways-to-search-for-great-colleges/6949/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "1. Decide whether you want to attend a college or a university. Choosing between the two main types of schools will significantly narrow your search. Here are posts that can help you understand the difference between these institutions:"

8. Questions Raised About 'High-Flyers' Study, by Nirvi Shah - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2011/10/are_high-achieving_students_be.html via @educationweek - "In this massive study of tens of thousands students, children who performed in the bottom third in reading or math in grade 3 had less than a 1 percent chance of being high achievers by grade 8. Even average students in grade 3, (between 40 and 60 percentile) had less than a 5 percent chance of becoming high achievers later," they wrote recently on their blog. A high achiever in grade 3 math was 17 times more likely to be a high achiever in grade 8 than your average grade 3 student, and 142 times more likely than someone who was performing in the bottom third of students in grade 3. The results were broadly similar for reading."

9. States, Districts Move to Require Virtual Classes, by Michelle R. Davis - http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/10/19/01required.h05.html via @educationweek - "The goal is to make sure students get an online-learning experience in a low-risk, supportive environment, Airhart says. “The reality is, when a student leaves us, whether they’re going to a four-year college, a technical college, or going into the world of work, they’re going to have to do an online course,” she says. “This helps prepare the students.” More districts and a handful of states are starting to agree with this notion. They’re requiring students to get some form of online learning on their résumés before leaving high school."

10. Parents Urged Again to Limit TV for Youngest, by Benedict Carey - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/health/19babies.html?hpw - "Parents of infants and toddlers should limit the time their children spend in front of televisions, computers, self-described educational games and even grown-up shows playing in the background, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned on Tuesday. Video screen time provides no educational benefits for children under age 2 and leaves less room for activities that do, like interacting with other people and playing, the group said."

11. Out With Textbooks, in With Laptops for an Indiana School District, by Alan Schwarz - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/education/19textbooks.html?hpw - "Unlike the tentative, incremental steps of digital initiatives at many schools nationwide, Munster made an all-in leap in a few frenetic months — removing all math and science textbooks for its 2,600 students in grades 5 to 12, and providing a window into the hurdles and hiccups of such an overhaul. . . . Munster is hardly the first district to go digital. Schools in Mooresville, N.C., for example, started moving away from printed textbooks four years ago, and now 90 percent of their curriculum is online."

12. Will new NCLB law be less test-obsessed? by Monty Neill - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/will-new-nclb-law-be-less-test-obsessed/2011/10/18/gIQAmIx5vL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Statewide tests will continue in grades 3-8 and once in high school in reading and math, and science once each in grades 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12. The bill would pave the way for multi-state consortium tests. Based on the consortium’s applications, the “new” exams will remain mostly multiple-choice and short answer, meaning they will trivialize teaching and learning just as current NCLB tests do."

13. Ravitch: Why ‘miracle schools’ aren’t really miracles - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-why-miracle-schools-arent-really-miracles/2011/10/18/gIQAM62RuL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "The lesson in all this debunking is not that poor kids can't learn. Of course, they can. Let me say that again, slowly: Yes, poor kids can learn and excel. But whether or not children are poor, education is a slow, incremental process. While it is true that a student may have a remarkable change in attitude and motivation and demonstrate large test-score gains in a short period of time, it is rare indeed when an entire school or district experiences a dramatic increase in test scores. Any huge change in scores for a school or a district in a short period of time ought to provoke skepticism and a demand for evidence, not a willing suspension of disbelief."

14. Miracleschools site, by Gary Rubinstein and Noel Hammatt - http://miracleschools.wikispaces.com/ - "Informally, a 'miracle' school is one that is significantly outperforming the nearby schools in its neighborhood despite working with the same student populations and the same limited resources. More formally, we think that a true miracle school would have the following eight characteristics:"

15. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily on http://paper.li/rottenbornj

330. 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. Could No Child Left Behind be history? by Lesa Jansen – http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/22/could-no-child-left-behind-be-history/ via CNN - "Friday, President Obama will announce that his administration will begin reviewing state's applications to waive the No Child Left Behind requirements in return for tangible commitments to close achievement gaps."

2. Obama rolling back Bush-era education law – http://usat.ly/o6QD75 via @USATODAY -"Under the plan Obama was to outline Friday, states would be allowed to ask the Education Department to be exempted from some of the law's requirements if they meet certain conditions. That includes enacting standards to prepare students for college and careers and setting evaluation standards for teachers and principals."

3. Serving Soldiers? by Paul Fain - Inside Higher Ed http://bit.ly/pLSXLQ via AddThis - "At issue is the $4.4 billion in Post-9/11 G.I. Bill benefits distributed last year by the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as tuition assistance for service members. For-profit colleges received about $1.6 billion, or 37 percent, of that amount, according to a report released Thursday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Eight of the 10 institutions receiving the largest amounts are for-profits, and they raked in a combined total of more than $1 billion."

4. The Secret College Advantage: Money Talks, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/the-secret-college-advantage-money-talks/6671/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "According to Inside Higher Ed, some schools are so eager to attract students who can pay full price that they admit them despite lower grades and test scores. The interest in full-pay students is so strong that 10 percent of four-year colleges report that the full-pay students they are admitting have lower grades and test scores than do other admitted applicants."

5. Obama Administration Sets Rules for NCLB Waivers, by Alyson Klein - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k%2012/2011/09/obama_administration_sets_rule.html via @educationweek - "The waiver plan also appears to back off on a specific deadline for bringing all students to proficiency, a key facet of the current law. The blueprint would also have called for states to set a goal of having all students be proficient on state tests by 2020, as opposed to the 2013-14 school year in current law. But the waiver plan doesn't set a particular end date. Instead, states would still disaggregate data and set performance targets for every school and every student subgroup, and then set "ambitious but achieveable goals". They could set goals, for instance, to cut the achievement gap in half in six years."

6. Colleges Try to Unlock Secrets to Student Retention, by Caralee J. Adams - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/21/04college_ep.h31.html via @educationweek -"The gap between access and completion has put a new focus on ramping up retention—the percentage of freshmen who return to the same institution for a second year of college. And that’s a task, observers say, for precollegiate educators as well as their college counterparts. . . . Students’ lack of academic preparation in K-12 and lack of commitment to earning a degree were among the top reasons for attrition, according to the ACT retention survey."

7. No Child Left Behind Waivers for States, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/nup3sc -"Under the new policy, only those states that have adopted new academic standards that the administration calls “college and career ready” will be eligible to receive the waivers, according to White House documents distributed on Thursday."

8. Single-Sex Education Is Assailed in Report, by Tamar Lewin - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/education/23single.html?src=recg - "It asserts that “sex-segregated education is deeply misguided and often justified by weak, cherry-picked or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid scientific evidence.” But the strongest argument against single-sex education, the article said, is that it reduces boys’ and girls’ opportunities to work together, and reinforces sex stereotypes. “Boys who spend more time with other boys become increasingly aggressive,” the article said. “Similarly, girls who spend more time with other girls become more sex-typed.”

9. Highlighting Flow of Military Benefits to For-Profits, Senators Seek Changes in Key Rule, by Kelly Field -http://chronicle.com/article/Senators-Put-Spotlight-on/129127/ - "Under the 90/10 rule, for-profit colleges must receive at least 10 percent of their revenue from nonfederal sources to be eligible to receive federal student aid. But military benefits aren't counted as part of the federal share, so some colleges have courted veterans as a way to ensure their compliance with the rule. To discourage this practice, Democrats—and many veterans groups—want to include military money on the federal side of the formula."

10. Don Quixote, College Choice, and the Myth of Fit, by Mark Moody -http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/don-quixote-college-choice-and-the-myth-of-fit/28781 - "There is a popular slogan posted in many college counseling offices: “College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won.” This statement has become a mantra we repeat to families as an antidote to the media-driven obsession with rank, reputation, and prestige. . . . Our colleague Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions and financial aid at Kenyon College, once captured the frustration of a conversation about the whole business of Fit when she exclaimed, “Fit happens!” Happily, this tongue-in-cheek phrase nails it. We hope it can become the new counseling office motto, opening our kids to unexpected possibilities and a more authentic, empowering and reflective transition to the next phase of their lives."

11. A New ‘Poor Students Need Not Apply’ Policy at College? by Brad Tuttle - http://ti.me/oMI8Yd via @TIMEMoneyland - "Many American universities admit that they are actively trying to recruit students who don’t need financial aid and will pay full, non-discounted tuition. Sometimes, these students aren’t as qualified as other applicants, but they get in anyway because they’re willing to pay up."

12. Top 10 myths of college admissions, by Steve Cohen - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/top-10-myths-of-college-admissions/2011/09/22/gIQAEn8XoK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com -"Unfortunately, many parents are navigating this world wearing blinders. They’re operating on rumor, wishful thinking, or outdated notions of how the system worked when they applied. Let’s address the top 10 myths."

13. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories about college access and success, via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/x7cmxSo

7.

329. 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. More college officials learn about applicants from Facebook, by Mary Beth Marklein – http://usat.ly/rpUwnK via @USATODAY - "Nearly a quarter (24%) of admissions officials at 359 selective colleges say they used Facebook, up from 6% the previous year, and 20% used Google to help evaluate an applicant, says the survey, conducted by Kaplan Test Prep. Kaplan, which did not identify participating colleges, queried 500 colleges listed in U.S. News & World Report rankings and in Barron's Profiles of American Colleges."

2. ‘Pursue your dream’ by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH - http://bit.ly/mQFLL9 via AddThis - "It makes sense," said Jasmine Wallace, 17, a senior and member of the school's yearbook committee. "It's important to show kids that there's far more to life than being on the streets, than just giving up on yourself and what you can do with your life. These are real people pursuing their careers and working hard at what they do. It gives you something to hold on to. It gives you hope that you can also make something of your own life."

3. Gazing Into Higher Ed's Future, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/ns4co1 via AddThis - "And the gender gap, already a concern for many in higher education, would widen: with enrollments of women growing by 21 percent and men by just 12 percent, as the department projects, by 2019 women would make up 59 percent of all postsecondary students, up from the current 57.1 percent."

4. College Bound: States Pass New Laws to Encourage College Completion, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/09/states_pass_new_laws_to_encourage_college_completion.html via @educationweek - "Nearly 80 new laws related to college completion have been approved in states so far in 2011, and the range of approaches are chronicled by Boosting College Completion, a two-year initiative by the Education Commission of the States funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."

5. For-Profit Colleges, Vulnerable G.I.’s, by Hollister K. Petraeus - http://nyti.ms/o9aZzl - "The schools have a strong incentive to enroll service members and veterans, in large part because of the “90-10 rule” created by the 1998 amendments to the Higher Education Act. Put simply, the rule says that a for-profit college must obtain at least 10 percent of its revenue from a source other than Title IV education funds, the primary source of federal student aid. Funds from Tuition Assistance and the G.I. Bill are not defined as Title IV funds, so they count toward the 10 percent requirement, just like private sources of financing.
Therein lies a problem. For every service member or veteran (or spouse or child, in the case of the post-9/11 G.I. Bill) enrolled at a for-profit college and paying with military education funds, that college can enroll nine others who are using nothing but Title IV money."

6. St. Mary’s U. Finds That When It Texts, Students Come, by Alex Campbell - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/st-marys-u-finds-that-when-it-texts-students-come/33328 - "At St. Mary’s University, potential students are given the option to sign up for updates when they first make contact with the institution. Throughout the application process, they get alerts, and, if they reply, the university writes back to them individually. For the second straight year, students who signed up were more likely to apply than those who didn’t, and, if they got accepted, they were more likely to matriculate."

7. Grading the GOP Candidates on Education, by Andrew J. Rotherham - http://ti.me/nTMHie via Time - "As some start to drop hints about what their education plans might look like, here's a handicapper's guide to the leading contenders and their views — and record — on education."

8. Obama prepares to revamp ‘No Child Left Behind’ by Lyndsey Layton - http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/obama-prepares-to-revamp-no-child-left-behind/2011/09/16/gIQAKUrXlK_story.html via Washingtonpost.com - "Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are scheduled Friday to detail plans to waive some of the law’s toughest requirements, including the goal that every student be proficient in math and reading by 2014 or else their schools could face escalating sanctions. In exchange for relief, the administration will require a quid pro quo: States must adopt changes that could include the expansion of charter schools, linking teacher evaluation to student performance and upgrading academic standards. As many as 45 states are expected to seek waivers."

9. The problem with Obama’s plan to issue NCLB waivers, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-problem-with-obamas-plan-to-issue-nclb-waivers/2011/09/21/gIQAdVfQmK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "States have been begging Washington to relieve them of the most onerous of NCLB’s provisions, Adequate Yearly Progress, a measure that requires public schools to ensure that nearly all of their students score as proficient on standardized tests in reading and math by 2014. Failing to reach sub-goals toward that end results in punitive measures that require schools to be restructured in one of several models. As the 2014 goal has approached, the number of schools in danger of failing has shot up."

10. More public universities turn dorms into residential colleges, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/more-public-universities-turn-dorms-into-residential-colleges/2011/09/21/gIQA8tjGlK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "The idea of a residential college is not new at schools like Cambridge and Harvard, or small liberal arts colleges. But lately many large public institutions are adopting the model, creating small academically driven communities where students can live all four years . . . . The idea is that by putting these students in a building with lots of gathering spots — movie theaters, fitness rooms, kitchens and gaming rooms — they will learn from each other and share ideas."

11. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories about college access and success, via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/x7cmxSo