362. 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. Curriculum Matters: What It All Means: Analysis of NAEP Results Pours In, by Erik Robelen http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2011/11/more_analysis_rolling_in_on_ne.html via @educationweek - "With a fresh round of national test data released last week for reading and math, a variety of analysts have sought to weigh in. I'll highlight a few examples I've come across."

3. National Journal -- Parsing the Nation's Report Card, by Sandy Kress #2109245#2109245#2109245#2109245#2109245 http://bit.ly/rK3gfT via @AddThis

"The gains I will discuss below are significant, but they do not yet extend much to postsecondary readiness and success in completion after high school. The movement toward greater rigor and accountability in high school and postsecondary options must be accelerated and intensified."

4. College Bound: Designing Policies to Encourage Early High School Graduation, by Caralee Adams http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/designing_policies_to_encourage_early_high_school_graduation.html via @educationweek - "There is a lot of money to be saved when high school students graduate early, so many states are offering incentives for high-achieving students who take this route. But as states craft policies, researchers at Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based national nonprofit, looked into the best way to encourage this education fast-track."

5. INCENTIVES FOR EARLY GRADUATION - http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/IncentivesForEarlyGraduation_PolicyBrief_080311.pdf

"Research has found that the most reliable predictor of college successis the quality and intensity of the high school curriculum(Adelman 2006)."

6. Lumina Foundation Will Provide $7-Million to Help More Latino Students Graduate,by Jennifer Gonzalezhttp://chronicle.com/article/Lumina-Foundation-Will-Provide/129674/

"The Lumina Foundation for Education is turning its attention to a segment of the population projected to be a key driver in meeting the nation's college-completion goals: Latino students. . . . The project is part of Lumina's Goal 2025 effort, which aims to increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025."

7. Obama will mandate Head Start competition, by David Jackson and Richard Wolf – http://usat.ly/sxC9Ed via @USATODAY - "Nationally, there are nearly 1,600 Head Start and Early Head Start programs providing early learning services to nearly 1 million low-income children."

8. What does being "college and career ready" mean? by Valerie Strauss - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/no-child-left-behind/what-is-being-college-and-care.html -“ACT defines college readiness as acquisition of the knowledge and skills a student needs to enroll and succeed in credit-bearing, first-year courses at a postsecondary institution, such as a two- or four-year college, trade school, or technical school,” she said. “Simply stated, readiness for college means not needing to take remedial courses in postsecondary education or training programs.”

9. Things to think about as students begin applying to colleges http://t.co/KqofhQY7 via @everettherald

10. N.J. must address achievement gap between rich, poor students http://t.co/VyzyxGfU http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/11/njersey_must_address_achieveme.html

11. Q&A: Student loan concerns for parents - JSOnline http://t.co/1C09p9M4

177. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. For Late Filers to Georgia Universities, Snow Is a Gift, by Eric Platt - http://nyti.ms/ghOsph

"In response to the snow- and ice-covered roads, the three Georgia colleges extended their regular-decision admission deadlines past Jan. 15. Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia stopped accepting applications on Friday, while Emory’s new deadline is Feb. 1."

2. What Degrees Should Mean, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fXU9Iz

"To try to provide a shared understanding of what degrees mean -- but without, its designers insist, turning that into a government or other mandate -- the Lumina Foundation for Education is today releasing a draft of its Degree Qualifications Profile, created by four leading higher education researchers and policy experts (more on them later)."

3. Lumina Foundation: The Degree Qualifications Profile - http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/The_Degree_Qualifications_Profile.pdf

". . .what the recipients of associate, bachelor's and master's degrees (regardless of discipline) should know and be able to do."

4. The 10 Most Popular Colleges: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/24/most-popular-colleges_n_812316.html#s227545&title=United_States_Naval

‎"To determine the most popular colleges, U.S. News looked at the fall 2009 yield rates, or percent of those accepted who enroll, of the liberal arts colleges and national universities included in their overall rankings. Below, check out the top ten most popular schools and their yield rates. U.S. News has the top 20 liberal arts colleges and national universities. Do you spot your school? Let us know in the comments section below."

5. How Rare Are Full-Ride Scholarships? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/mu0LlXT

‎"According to author Mark Kantrowitz, who is publisher of FastWeb and FinAid, less than 20,000 students a year receive a completely free ride to college. Among full-time college students enrolled at four-year colleges, just .3% received enough grants and scholarships to cover the full cost of college. . . .The odds of receiving a full-ride private scholarship is even more remote."

6. Data Show Two-year Colleges Improve Retention Rate, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/i1et01B

"At two-year public colleges, about 56% of students returned to school after their freshman year, up from 54% last year and 53% in 2005. This is the highest retention rate at two-year colleges in the 27 years of research by ACT. At four-year private colleges, the retention rate is 72%, down from 73% last year and 75% in 2005. At four-year public colleges, about 74% of freshman returned, compared to 73% last year and 73 percent in 2005."

7. Does College Make You Smarter? - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/gdaki0

‎"Have colleges, in their efforts to keep graduation rates high and students happy, dumbed down their curriculums? If they have, who is to blame? What should parents and federal taxpayers do?"

8. Products of Rote Learning - Room for Debate, by Leon Botstein - http://nyti.ms/g8InAN

‎"Why is anyone surprised to find that standards and expectations in our colleges are too low? High school graduates — a rapidly dwindling elite — come to college entirely unaccustomed to close reading, habits of disciplined analysis, skills in writing reasoned arguments and a basic grasp of the conduct, methods and purposes of science. All many of them know is rote learning, and fear of mediocre standardized tests and grades."

9. No Work, All Play, Equals a Job? - Room for Debate, by George Leef - http://nyti.ms/hrV22g

"Owing to the generally weak state of K-12 schooling, most high school graduates are not accustomed to serious academic work. They enroll in college with the expectation that it will be a continuation of K-12, that is, undemanding. What most of them want is just a credential attesting to their employability, accompanied by as much fun as possible."

10. An F in Student Effort - Room for Debate, by Philip Babcock - http://nyti.ms/e2fgha

‎"Full-time college students in the 1960s studied 24 hours per week, on average, whereas their counterparts today study 14 hours per week. The 10-hour decline is visible for students from all demographic groups and of all cognitive abilities, in every major and at every type of college."

11. Adults With College Degrees in the United States, by County - http://chronicle.com/article/Adults-With-College-Degrees-in/125995/

‎"Percentage of bachelor's degrees for everyone": Columbiana County 11.83%; Mahoning County 19.59%; and Trumbull County 15.84%. The rate for Ohio is 23.57%, while the National rate is 27.53%.

12. California is failing its students - http://t.co/3r3tMb7 via @sfgate

‎"Yudof noted that UC has already shrunk the size of each entering class for the past three years. About 9,000 qualified California high school graduates have been denied the opportunity to enter UC, he said - and it didn't have to be this way."

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