300. Summer College News

Here are some links to today's stories
about college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Column: Obama should tout fight for minority education, by DeWayne Wickham - http://t.co/8rdfOkq via @USATODAY - "We have launched more investigations than ever before. Much broader, bigger investigations" into whether school officials are unfairly disciplining black kids and shoving them "into the cradle-to-prison pipeline instead of the cradle-to-career pipeline," she told me."

2. Freedom at a Price, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pE8Ljj via @AddThis - "While details of the Ohio plan will not be final until Thursday's presentation, a draft of the plan released July 18 calls for immediately freeing all universities from certain regulatory restrictions, such as state health and safety codes, and eliminating enrollment caps. The draft also calls for giving the universities complete control of the management of their employees and exempting them from the purview of the state personnel board of review.
The universities would then be measured annually on a set of metrics that include student outcomes, such as graduation and retention rates; degree production in science, technology, engineering, and math fields; and the percentage of students participating in internship programs, as well as financial measures such as endowment size, affordability measured as a percentage of the consumer price index, and the unallocated cash balance as a percentage of total operating expenses."

3. Value of the Liberal Arts, by Katharine Brooks - http://t.co/iitPEnE - "In today’s Academic Minute, Katharine Brooks of the University of Texas at Austin answers “the question” faced by many college students."

4. Education Management Corporation Accused of Widespread Fraud, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/qsJS2E - "The Department of Justice and four states on Monday filed a multibillion-dollar fraud suit against the Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest for-profit college company, charging that it was not eligible for the $11 billion in state and federal financial aid it had received from July 2003 through June 2011.Education Management, which is based in Pittsburgh and is 41 percent owned by Goldman Sachs, enrolls about 150,000 students in 105 schools operating under four names: Art Institute, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University. In a statement Monday, the company denied any wrongdoing."

5. Kaplan Revenue Down 29% in Second Quarter - http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/kaplan-revenue-down-29-in-second-quarter/35148 - "The decline comes at a time when federal agencies and state legislators are more strictly regulating recruitment practices at for-profit colleges, and are increasingly holding them accountable for their graduates’ ability to find employment and repay their loans. As a result of those restrictions, as well as what the company calls “generally lower demand,” new enrollments dropped 47 percent from the second quarter last year."

6. Nonprofit Group Says CA Latinos Crucial to National Degree-Attainment Goals, by Molly Redden - http://chronicle.com/article/Nonprofit-Group-Says/128558/ - "Unless California is able to increase the number of its Latinos with college degrees, the United States will fall short of having the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, according to the advocacy group Excelencia in Education. . . . Excelencia found that while first-time, full-time white college students complete degrees at a rate of about 47 percent, the same group of Latino students attain credentials at a rate of only about 35 percent."

7. #College101: Freshman year bucket list, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://t.co/v7UEBbH via @washingtonpost - "Last week I shared a list of tips for surviving freshman year and asked you to share your tips for incoming freshmen . . . . The response was overwhelming. I combed through hundreds of tips and edited them into this 50-item “bucket list.” I suggest that you print it out, tape it to the back of your closet door and cross things off as you do them."

8. Top 10 Most Athletic Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/top-10-most-athletic-coll_n_921913.html#s325405&title=1_Stanford_Cardinals6615 - "Our friends at CampusSplash crunched the numbers to figure out the 25 most athletic colleges in the United States. They looked at everything from number of sports, to number of titles, program revenue and more. Below check out a slideshow of the top 10 schools . . . ."

282. Summer College News

Here are some links to today's stories

about 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 via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. The End of Subsidized Loans? by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/onGy8i -"During talks Monday, Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader, reportedly proposed making students responsible for paying the interest their loans accrue while they’re enrolled in college, a change that would save the government $40 billion over 10 years.The proposal would end the subsidized Stafford loan program, in which the federal government pays the interest that accrues while students are enrolled in school."

3. 'State Authorization' Struck Down, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/qmk46W - "Tuesday's ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia came in a lawsuit that the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities filed in January on behalf of the for-profit colleges it represents. The career college group had challenged the state authorization regulation and two of the other "program integrity" rules -- those that effectively bar incentive compensation for recruiters, and that hold colleges accountable if they misrepresent their programs and results."

4. Price Points, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/omVmuz - "These officials prefer to focus on "net tuition revenue" -- the amount of money derived from each student after aid is subtracted from sticker price. They want to shift the conversations away from the discount rate toward a more integrated approach to tuition, literally striking "discount rate" from strategic plans, and make the concepts of net revenue and the actual price of college more apparent to the public, lawmakers, and potential students."

5. Critical Choices: How Colleges Can Help Students and Families Make Better Decisions about Private Loans - http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/critical_choices.pdf - "There is general consensus that students should exhaust all available federal financial aid, including federal loans, before considering other forms of financing like private student loans. Federal loans are available to students regardless of their or their family’s income. Private student loans are one of the riskiest ways to pay for college, and they are not financial aid any more than a credit card is when used to pay for textbooks or tuition. They typically have uncapped, variable interest rates and cost the most for those who can least afford them, while federal student loans have fixed interest rates that are not affected by the borrower’s income or credit score."

6. 5 Great Ways to Succeed in College, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/X1T7Ryw via @cbsmoneywatch - "According to the academics who conducted the research, 46% of students don’t improve in their writing skills or critical thinking and reasoning abilities after two years in college. More than a third of students who graduate never improve.How can you avoid that happening to you? Here are five tips to help you succeed in college."

7. Ohio picks interim as state superintendent - The Herald Dispatch: http://bit.ly/re7R4j - "The 15-0 vote to hire interim Superintendent Stan Heffner meant the board passed over Robert Schiller, who became the lone finalist from the board’s top three picks on Sunday after a second contender dropped out. Four board members abstained on the Heffner hiring vote.“A funny thing happened on my way to Texas,” Heffner said after the vote. He had been slated to begin a new job with Educational Testing Service’s office in San Antonio on Aug. 1."

8. A College Education for All, Free and Online, by Kevin Carey - http://chronicle.com/article/A-College-Education-for-All/128162/ - "UoPeople strives to serve the vast numbers of students who have no access to traditional higher education. Some can't afford it, or they live in countries where there are simply no good colleges to attend. Others live in rural areas, or identify with a culture, an ethnicity, or a gender that is excluded from public services.UoPeople students pay an application fee of between $10 and $50 and must have a high-school diploma and be proficient in English. There are also small fees for grading final exams. Otherwise, it's free."

9. Cal State University approves 12% tuition hike - http://usat.ly/ntvN2L via @USATODAY -"With a 13-2 vote, the CSU Board of Trustees passed the annual tuition hike of $588, which comes on top of a previously approved 10 percent increase for 2011-2012."

10. Moving past excuses from the no-excuse reform crowd, by Barnett Berry- The Answer Sheet - http://t.co/iAQRw8V via @washingtonpost - "[Paul] Tough argues that if we are to educate all children to achieve high academic standards, we must tackle the challenges of poverty head-on.He highlights tactics that have repeatedly been proven effective on a small scale: “supplementing classroom strategies with targeted, evidence-based interventions outside the classroom; working intensively with the most disadvantaged families to improve home environments for young children; providing high-quality early-childhood education to children from the neediest families; and, once school begins, providing low-income students with a robust system of emotional and psychological support, as well as academic support.”

11. The FRIENDLIEST Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/the-friendliest-colleges_n_896867.html#s306756&title=Carleton_College - Which college in Ohio made this list?

12. Don't spread these myths about college admissions, by Lee Bierer CharlotteObserver.com: http://bit.ly/niweTO - "Parents who have recently "graduated" from the college admissions process freely dispense advice and sometimes misinformation. To dispel many of these untruths, let's focus on some of the most popular myths about college admissions."

13. ON COLLEGE: The do's and don'ts of helping your high school senior, by Purvi S. Mody - San Jose Mercury News http://t.co/KxyWdL5 - "Don't call colleges on your child's behalf. If you and your child have a question about admissions or anything at all, let your child take the lead. It will develop self-confidence, and colleges like to hear from the students rather than the parents."

279. Summer College News

Here are some links to today's stories
about college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. A Nudge for the Neediest, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/orO8tv - "Wisconsin Scholars Grant recipients were no more likely to persist in college than were students who received Pell Grants alone, and on average, they did not complete more college credits than did students who did not receive the grant."

2. Courting Valedictorians, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/nW45e8 - "Ivy Tech Community College announced last month that it was awarding every high school valedictorian in Indiana a scholarship valued at 15 credit hours, or about $1,500. Officials at the 24-campus community college system know better than to think they'll lure all 373 of these high-performing students away from four-year institutions with such a modest merit award. They merely hope the students will pass through to pick up some spare credits to transfer along their route to a baccalaureate degree, and that their presence will help promote the state’s two-year colleges to more households."

3. Unlocking the Gate: What We Know About Improving Developmental Education, by Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow &Emily Schneider - http://www.mdrc.org/publications/601/execsum.pdf - "Enrolling over one-third of all postsecondary education students, community colleges have become a centerpiece of America’s efforts in recent years to improve the quality of its workforce and maintain its competitiveness in the global market. However, community colleges have often struggled to graduate their students, with just over three in ten community college students earning a degree or credential within six years of first enrolling. Over half of thesestudents are academically underprepared for college-level work, and improving the success of these developmental, or remedial, students is one of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in the efforts to increase overall graduation rates –– very few of these students end up completing their required sequence of developmental coursework needed to enroll in college-level courses, let alone graduating from college with a diploma or certificate."

4. The 25 Cheapest Universities: Are They a Bargain? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/rS5bCe2 via @cbsmoneywatch - "Are these schools, however, really inexpensive? Before you decide, here are the 25 cheapest schools, based on net prices, among all four-year state universities in the United States."

5. Education Week: Advocates See Pre-K-3 as Key Early Education Focus, by Sarah Garland - http://t.co/6ZG61eH via @educationweek - "Among the revelations, the kindergarten teachers told the preschool teachers that their 5-year-olds, many of them immigrants, struggled with stories covered in the kindergarten reading curriculum. They weren’t hearing English-language classics like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” or “Humpty Dumpty” at home. So the preschools began incorporating those stories into their curricula, to help better prepare their students."

6. Students Least Likely to Persist Benefit Most From Extra Financial Aid, Study Finds, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Least-Likely-to/128159/ - "When the researchers considered students' expected persistence, they saw that receiving the additional grant did make a difference. For example, 72 percent of students who were least likely to persist and received the grant were still in college three years into the program, compared with 55 percent of students who were least likely to persist and did not receive the money.The students most likely to persist had a very different experience, however: Seventy-nine percent of grant recipients in this group were still in college three years later, compared with 94 percent of nonrecipients."

7. Shocking details of Atlanta cheating scandal, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://t.co/Jz4Ixr3 via @washingtonpost - "I found a copy of the report on this Web site of CBS Atlanta affiliate. Here are some of the revelations, taken directly from the report, which give you an idea of how the cheating was done:"

8. The MOST RADICAL Colleges, by Lindsay Dittman - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/the-most-radical-colleges_n_892463.html#s304228&title=Occidental_College - "From ultraliberal hippie dippie environmentalists to uber-conservative religious squares, we bring you the students that are canceling school to lead pro-life marches or shutting down a speaker for the Israeli PR campaign. The ones well-acquainted with social and political activism. Whether they live by a strict moral code or no code at all, these students are radical."

9. College grads’ salary offers up 4.8%, by Francine Knowles - Chicago Sun-Times: http://bit.ly/nYmMaL - "The average starting salary offer to the Class of 2011 rose 4.8 percent to $51,018, compared with offers extended to the Class of 2010, according to the latest survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers released Wednesday.The increases overall are a good indication that the job market for new college graduates is gaining strength, according to Marilyn Mackes, the association’s executive director. Still, salaries lag previous increases. In fall 2008, the average salary offer increase was 7.6 percent higher than in 2007."

10. Ohio to begin ranking all schools from best to worst, by Catherine Candisky - http://t.co/PjJzYn6 via @vindicator - "Starting next year, Ohio’s 3,500 public schools will be ranked best to worst in annual reports issued by the state.The lists will show parents and others how schools — traditional, charter and vocational — stack up based on student performance, per-pupil expenditures, percent of funding spent on classroom expenditures and other measures.The recently passed state budget included a provision requiring the Ohio Department of Education to issue annual school performance and expenditure reports. The first ones should come out in 2012."

198. 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. The Inevitable Happens in Ohio, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gRtKQ4

"Ohio has undergone rapid and significant change in its higher education system since 2007, when the state legislature passed a law allowing Strickland, rather than the Ohio Board of Regents, to appoint the higher education chancellor, streamlining the newly created University System of Ohio and -- as a near-unavoidable consequence -- politicizing its head position."

2. Ohio Chancellor Steps Down, Leaving Strat Plan in Limbo, by Eric Kelderman - http://chronicle.com/article/Ohio-Chancellor-Steps-Down/126480/

"Mr. Fingerhut's departure leaves in doubt to what extent the state will continue with the far-reaching, 10-year strategic plan the chancellor engineered and shepherded through the General Assembly in 2008 with overwhelming bipartisan support."

3. 'Lowering Higher Education' by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/dQRHU6

‎"The corporate university is one that, in the face of declining government funding, is increasingly dependent on corporate sponsorship and funding to carry out its traditional tasks of teaching and research. It literally sells physical space on the campus to corporations, accept[ing] financial donations for building projects and endowments of chairs, replete with the corporate brand."

4. Don't Believe Princeton Review's Best Value College List, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/2cb6bWj

"Plenty of the top colleges that The Princeton Review singles out for honors could also earn spots on a list of the nation’s most expensive colleges and universities. Many of the students who end up attending these “best value” school will pay more than $200,000 for their degree. Hardly what I call a bargain."

5. Schools tout efforts to keep tuition in check, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/gqMPQr via @USATODAY

"The Education Department began nudging colleges toward greater transparency last July, when it published, at http://www.collegenavigator.gov/, average net prices based on family income for schools that receive federal financial aid. Beginning Oct. 29, colleges will be required to post a "net price calculator" on their websites to help families estimate more precisely what they will be expected to pay."

6. Calculate the cost of college and chance of financial aid, by Terri Gruca - http://t.co/4GbTyC2

‎"There are a few tools that can help you determine the price of college based on your family’s income for schools that receive federal financial aid. The Department of Education created this web site last July to help families make more informed decisions about college. This is a terrific tool because it not only breaks down the cost of tuition, but of books, room and board and even how many students qualified for financial aid as well as the amount they were given."

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