393. 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. Early Line on Early Admissions: http://nyti.ms/swWdAH - "High school seniors who applied to early admission programs can find an early tally providing some context for this year's process."

3. Colleges are watching applicants' online trails - http://kansascity.com/: http://bit.ly/u07ZEq via AddThis - Watch what you post!

4. New Report Analyzes Nation's Progress in Meeting College Graduation Goals: http://bit.ly/vitc5v via AddThis - "To help the nation achieve its educational goals, CollegeBoard.org recently issued a report to assess the current state of the nation's college graduates."

5. Low-income quota eyed for St. Paul schools http://t.co/wy2UiQMB http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/135900333.html

6. Malloy unveils education reform ideas for Conn. http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2011/12/20/malloy_unveils_education_reform_ideas_for_conn via @BostonDotCom - "Connecticut lawmakers will be asked next year to allow more state intervention in troubled school districts, more autonomy for high-achieving schools, changes in teacher evaluation methods. . . ."

7. Build School Systems on a Solid Foundation http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/20/15westervelt.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Early-childhood education must promote opportunities for needy children, Gerrit Westervelt and Cassie Schwerner say."

8. Essay: Washington college grant program favors vocational over liberal education Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sCAoaQ via AddThis - "Last year, as Washington State faced a severe budget crisis, legislators embraced a novel way to fund student financial aid: a public-private partnership between the state and private corporations. Called the Opportunity Scholarship Fund, the fund attracts private donations and matches them. . . ."

9. The Envelope, Please: Eight High School Seniors Blog Their College Searches: http://nyti.ms/vIviRa - "Eight students from four high schools -- one each in Atlanta; New York City; Minnetonka, Minn.; and Long Beach, Calif. -- invite readers of The Choice along on their college searches, via a first-person series called "The Envelope, Please."

10. Some Early Applicants Will Wait a Little Longer: http://nyti.ms/uzzRXu - "For early applicants to the University of Michigan and Lehigh University, there is a bit more waiting for admissions decisions this year."

11. Sniffing Out Financial Aid Awards, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.thecollegesolution.com/sniffing-out-financial-aid-awards#.TvFQmxlaRZ0.twitter via AddThis - "Parents and teenagers should not apply to colleges and universities before getting a good idea how much scholarships or grants a school would provide."

12. Measuring the Generosity of Colleges, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.thecollegesolution.com/measuring-the-generosity-of-colleges#.TvFQ1pbxwus.twitter via AddThis

13. The Best Way to Study for Final Exams, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-best-way-to-study-for-final-exams#.TvFRNc6A2qU.twitter via AddThis - "Research from Purdue and Washington University suggests the best way to study for final exams for high school and college students."

377. 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. Whatever happened to…Nancy Guarneros, undocumented student, DREAM Act hopeful? By Thelma Gutierrez – http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/25/whatever-happened-to-nancy-guarneros-undocumented-student-dream-act-hopeful/ via CNN - "Currently, undocumented students cannot apply for student financial aid and they can’t legally work – so unless they can come up with tuition on their own, many are forced to give up their academic aspirations."

3. The Fallout Over Syracuse's Abuse Scandal, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/sbL9lV - "The events again raise the question: What should applicants think? Syracuse’s basketball team and its N.C.A.A. tournament record are points of pride for many students. The school’s strong sports culture has surely served as a draw for some applicants. Will some now see it as a liability?"

4. Report suggests approach to improving graduation rates, by Kaustuv Basu Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/rOwyBk via AddThis - "Only 32.9 percent of men earn a degree in four years, while the percentage for women is 43.8. The gap shrinks to 5.5 percentage points at the end of the sixth year. First-generation college students earn a degree at the rate of 27.4 percent after four years, while students whose parents have college degrees have a graduation rate of 42.1 percent. Asian American and white students had the highest four-year graduation rates, at 44.9 percent and 42.6 percent respectively. Degree-attainment rates remain is the highest at private universities; the lowest numbers come from public four-year colleges."

5. 6 reasons to invest in a 529 plan today, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57331762/6-reasons-to-invest-in-a-529-plan-today/?tag=mncol;lst;9 - "Are you wondering whether it's a good time to open up a college 529 savings account? One of the nation's foremost 529 plan experts says the answer is a resounding Y-E-S. Joseph Hurley, the founder of SavingforCollege.com, says there are a number of timely reasons why families shouldn't dawdle in opening a 529 plan. Here are six great reasons to consider acting now."

6. Middle Schoolers Getting Prepped for College, by Nora Fleming - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/29/13middle_ep.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "ACT researchers found in 2008 that the academic level students achieve by 8th grade has a bigger impact on college and career readiness and success than anything that happens academically in high school."

7. College Bound: Report Sheds Light on Factors Influencing College Graduation, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/report_sheds_light_on_who_is_graduating_from_college.html via @educationweek - "There are distinct racial disparities in completion. Asian-Americans had the highest four-year graduation rates at 44.9 percent, followed by whites, 42.6 percent; Latinos, 25.8 percent; African-Americans, 21 percent; and American Indians, 16.8 percent."

8. At Top Colleges, Anti-Wall St. Fervor Complicates Recruiting, by Kevin Roose: http://nyti.ms/tvpf3m - "Banks and hedge funds have long wooed undergraduates from elite colleges with lavish dinners, personalized e-mails and free trips to New York for interviews. It’s all part of an annual courtship ritual known as on-campus recruiting. But this fall, the antibank animus of the Occupy Wall Street movement has seeped onto college campuses. At some schools, anger at big banks has turned the on-campus recruiting process into a crucible of controversy."

9. Secretary of Education Urges Colleges to Rein In Costs, by Kelly Field -http://chronicle.com/article/Secretary-of-Education-Urges/129912/ - "The department is billing the speech as the start of a "national conversation" on college costs."

10. Graduation Rates Can Be Predicted More Precisely by Examining Student Characteristics, Report Says, by Jennifer Gonzalez - http://chronicle.com/article/Graduation-Rates-Can-Be/129914/ - "Many colleges now use basic student information such as race and ethnicity, gender, high-school grade-point average, and SAT and ACT scores to project an expected graduation rate. By considering other, more-personal characteristics, such as how students rate their emotional health, whether they are the first in their family to attend college, and whether they anticipate having to work full time while enrolled, an institution can increase the accuracy of its four-year graduation-rate prediction by 66 percent, its five-year rate by 54 percent, and its six-year rate by 53 percent, says the report."

11. It's time to fight unemployment the old-fashioned way, says Elaine Chao http://ti.me/syS2bn via @TIMEIdeas - "One of the lessons all ages should take away from this era — and one which parents and grandparents should drill into children balking at homework or at going back to school — is that education is the best protection against ruin in hard times. Those with higher educations certainly have not been invulnerable to harm in this recession, many are underemployed and unemployed, but they always have been in the best position to survive and thrive."

12. Common Core standards pose dilemmas for early childhood, by Samuel J. Meisels - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/common-core-standards-pose-dilemmas-for-early-childhood/2011/11/28/gIQAPs1X6N_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "But early childhood education — concerned with children from birth to the end of third grade — seems nearly an afterthought in the standards. Not only do they end (or begin) at kindergarten, ignoring more than half of the early childhood age range, they simply don’t fit what we know about young children’s learning and development."

375. 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. Financial Aid Help: http://t.co/eV0mVNlE - "Seniors and Senior Parents: It’s a great time to sign up for your pin #’s from FAFSA.ED.GOV (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid). A parent needs a pin # and a student needs a separate pin # in order to file. Go to fafsa.ed.gov and click “Get Pin #” to proceed."

3. 'Evaluating, Understanding And Comparing Financial Aid Offers' http://t.co/9SmcutMC - "So you have been accepted at several colleges that you applied to. You filed your FAFSA and other financial aid forms. You have been waiting for the numbers to arrive and finally they start filling you mailbox. Now what?"

4. Counselors Urge Applicants to Hit Aid Deadlines http://t.co/DkQaiIT7 via @townnews - "High school officials are urging parents to pay attention to deadlines so there are no missed opportunities while applying for student loans and financial aid for high school seniors."

5. North Star Financial Advisor Gives Back http://t.co/dEUXTXC4 via @sfgate - "Clarisa Hernandez of North Star Resource Group works to help create a better future for underprivileged children."

6. Minnesota Early Childhood Education Achievement Gap http://t.co/EFKnJgLk via @ABC6NEWS

7. Are black students lacking basic skills? http://t.co/mNyf0AtQ - "OPINION - Across the country, the achievement gap between white students and black students persists. . . ."

8. Minorities’ ISAT scores on rise in D300 - Elgin Courier News: http://t.co/gCVAZ0xb via @AddThis - "ALGONQUIN — Elementary and middle school students who are Hispanic and black are closing achievement gaps in Community Unit School District 300."

9. Frenzy over SATs - http://t.co/cUcqeSZC - "In my work with families I encounter a great deal of anxiety about the college application process. Much of this anxiety occurs when parents and kids come late to the tasks at hand. In a panic, they desperately try to play catch-up in order to get through everything that needs to be done . . . ."

10. Mexicans in New York City Lag in Education, by Kirk Semple: http://nyti.ms/tt9mlb - "Mexicans, the fastest-growing major immigrant group in the city, have the highest dropout rate: about 41 percent of Mexicans ages 16 to 19 have dropped out of school. . . . This crisis endures at the college level. Among Mexican immigrants 19 to 23 who do not have a college degree, only 6 percent are enrolled. That is a fraction of the rates among other major immigrant groups and the native-born population."

349. 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. How colleges use, misuse social media to reach students, by Umika Pidaparthy - #cnn - http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/20/tech/social-media/universities-social-media/index.html -"For universities competing to attract top students, it's no longer enough to have a glossy brochure and a sleek website. Schools like Johns Hopkins are reaching out to engage with applicants on Facebook and Twitter. They're also finding that a robust social media campaign, along with such creative features as student-run blogs, can lure prospective students while a stale online presence can turn them off. College admissions officers are indeed learning to interact with students where they hang out: online. According to a recent study by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, 100% of universities surveyed use social media to communicate with students, up from 61% in 2007-08. The study found that 98% of the responding colleges have a Facebook page and 84% have a Twitter account."

2. Law aims to give more accurate tally of college costs, by Brandon James Smith – http://usat.ly/plFaea via @USATODAY - "Now, due to a federal law that kicks in on Oct. 29, there's an online tool required on college websites — a net price calculator — intended to to help give students and families a more accurate estimate of real costs."Universities all cost different amounts, so it's hard to know what the family might be responsible for until much later in the process and after they've applied for financial aid. This helps them to find what the real final cost will be early in the process," said Nanci Tessier, vice president of enrollment management of the University of Richmond."

3. Are Too Many Americans Earning Four-Year Degrees? by Rebecca R. Ruiz - http://nyti.ms/pDUsO7 - "The debate, held by Intelligence Squared in Chicago as part of that city’s Ideas Week, featured Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and entrepreneur, and Charles Murray, a political scientist, arguing that the college market is flooded with too many students. Arguing against them were Henry S. Bienen, president emeritus of Northwestern University, and Vivek Wadhwa, a director of research at Duke University."

4. Questions for The Times's Adam Liptak on the Future of Affirmative Action, by Jacques Steinberg and Adam Liptak - http://nyti.ms/oQmbUD - "As things stand now, under the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision, admissions officers may take account of race and ethnicity as one factor among many in a “holistic review” of applications. A hypothetical decision overturning Grutter might forbid direct consideration of those factors but continue to allow consideration of, say, economic hardship or knowledge of a second language."

5. More Applications, More Waiting Lists, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/qiXSU0 via @AddThis - "Most four-year colleges saw an increase in applications in 2010, and more colleges used waiting lists than they did the year before, with smaller proportions of students admitted off the waiting lists, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. . . . The average selectivity rate (the percentage of applicants who are offered admission) at four-year colleges was 65.5 percent for fall 2010, down about one percentage point from the previous year. So all those reports about the few elite colleges with single-digit selectivity rates (while true) are about as unrepresentative as you could get."

6. Reframing the 'Stem Shortage' Debate, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/mVCM3B via AddThis - "The country is still producing lots of workers with what the report calls "STEM competencies," including investigative and problem solving tendencies, the authors state. But those skills are increasingly in demand in other non-STEM fields such as health care management and professional and business services, and because those fields typically pay more and often offer some rewards that core science and engineering jobs may not -- such as social or entrepreneurial interests, or a chance to manage other people -- workers with STEM skills are increasingly being "diverted" to non-STEM jobs."

7. STEM full report, by Anthony Carnevale, Nicole Smith, and Michelle Melton - http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/stem-complete.pdf - "We find that the disagreement between those who argue thatSTEM workers are undersupplied and those who argue theyare oversupplied can be resolved by the fact that large numbersof people with STEM talent or degrees divert from STEMoccupations either in school or later in their careers."

8. Lastest Trends in College Admissions: 15 Things You Should Know, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/lastest-trends-in-college-admissions-15-things-you-should-know/6967/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "14. The average public high school counselors spend just 23% of their time on college counseling, while the average private school counselors devote about 55% of their time to college issues.15. Only 26% of public schools have at least one counselor who works exclusively on college counseling issues. In comparison, 73% of private schools have a dedicated college counselor."

9. New report: Dropout rates five times higher for poor students, by Nick Pandolfo - http://p.ost.im/p/eMn2Hx - "According to the report, the “event dropout rate,” which estimates the percentage of high school students who left school between the beginning of one school year and the beginning of the next, is five times greater for low-income teenagers than it is for those from affluent families. The difference in the dropout rate between white and minority teenagers also remains stark. The rate is twice as high for black teens (4.8 percent) as it is for white teens (2.4 percent). It is even higher for Hispanics, at 5.8 percent."

10. Illinois high school test scores fall to a new low, by Diane Rado and Tara Malone - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-state-test-scores-1020-20111020,0,5375024.story - "About half of Illinois public high school students flunked state exams in reading, math and science this year, the worst performance in the history of the 11th-grade Prairie State Achievement Examination, statewide test results show. The record-low results, scheduled to be released Thursday, come after Illinois closed loopholes that kept academically weak juniors from taking the exams, a practice revealed in a 2009 Tribune analysis. Some local school officials attributed their declines in part to the larger testing pool that included less-prepared students."

270. Review of 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. Sad summer ahead for teen employment, by John Wisely and Christina Hall - http://usat.ly/jHcVz7 via @USATODAY - "The official teen unemployment rate is about 25%, but that figure doesn't count all the teens who aren't seeking work. When all teens are factored in, only 25% of them will actually have jobs. That level of discouragement or disinterest worries many economists."

3. Troubled life ended in violence, by Adam Ferrise - TribToday.com - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/mIoBnS - "Before Brandon Adkins was gunned down Saturday in the street, he had been shot at, attempted suicide, had his life threatened and was suspected of committing myriad crimes, including stealing a car, burglary and assault, according to police reports."

4. Now That You've Gotten In, by Lionel Anderson - http://nyti.ms/k44fM6 - "Now that you’ve gotten in, give some thought to staying in, excelling and, ultimately, graduating."

5. Education Week: Study Finds Gaps Remain Large for Hispanic Students, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/XzIegAW via @educationweek - "While growing numbers of Hispanic students have changed the face of American education over the past two decades, the gap between them and their white classmates in math and reading remains as wide as it was in the 1990s, according to a new federal study."

6. Oregon Legislature adopts goal of seeing 40 percent of Oregonians have a college degree, by Bill GravesOregonLive.com - http://t.co/6DWaFP8 - "The House voted 46-14 in favor of Senate Bill 253, which declares one mission of Oregon's education system is to ensure by 2025 that: 40 percent of all adult Oregonians have a bachelor's degree or higher, 40 percent have earned an associate's degree or post-secondary credential and 20 percent have a high school diploma or the equivalent. The bill goes next to Gov. John Kitzhaber, who will sign it into law."

7. Hunt is on for overseas college students, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/jAxCGs via @USATODAY - "But as more countries seek to cash in on the growing market for international students, the USA is losing ground. From 2000 to 2008, the number of students enrolled in a college outside their home country soared 85% to 3.3 million. During that time the U.S. share shrank, from 24% to 19%, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operative Development."

8. The Achievement Gap: Why Hispanic Students Are Still Behind, by Kayla Webley - http://t.co/ayrgeWS via @TIME - "The report analyzes tests given to fourth and eighth graders in math and reading in 2009. Overall, on a national level, Hispanic students scored about 20 points — or two whole grade levels — lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scale. (A common rule of thumb among education advocates is that 10 points on the NAEP scale is equivalent to one grade level.)"

9. Positioning young black males for success, by Michael T. Nettles - The Answer Sheet - http://t.co/iTQ9rsq via @washingtonpost - "One final note, at the symposium, the other recurring refrain we heard was that we don’t have a “child problem” we have an “adult problem.” That problem is the desperate need for all adults, parents, educators, policymakers and others to get involved and solve this crisis."

10. ANDREA NEAL: Effective summer reading programs can narrow the achievement gap - http://t.co/wh5FsEs - "The pioneering study on the subject was done in 1978 by Barbara Heyns, who followed 3,000 sixth and seventh graders in Atlanta, Ga. through two school years and the intervening summer. She concluded "the gap between black and white children and between low and high income children widens disproportionately during the months when schools are not in session."Similarly, a 1996 study found that middle-income students experienced reading gains during the summer while low-income students regressed."

11. Prioritizing Early Childhood Education: We Can't Afford to Wait, by Susan Ochshorn - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ochshorn/prioritizing-early-childh_b_880959.html - "A growing number of children in the United States are not ready for school. Studies show that at least half of the educational achievement gap between poor children and their more advantaged peers is evident in the kindergarten classroom."

267. Review of 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. Access and Equity -- Worldwide, by Elizabeth Redden - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/kU68Wo - “This is an organization that seeks to facilitate education as a solution,” said J. Michael Adams, the new president of IAUP and president of Fairleigh Dickinson University, in New Jersey. “Give me a problem and I will tell you the solution: the solution is education.”

3. New Reports Reveal Alarming Facts About the Educational Experiences of Young Men of Color - http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/collegeboard/50563/ - "Nearly half of young men of color age 15 to 24 who graduate from high school will end up unemployed, incarcerated or dead."

4. Diplomas Count 2011, Education Week - http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2011/06/09/index.html?intc=EW-DC11-EWH - "This year's Diplomas Count reconsiders the "college for all" movement and examines postsecondary options for students other than a bachelor's degree."

5. At High School in Queens, an R.O.T.C. Program’s Enduring Influence, by Michael Winerip - http://nyti.ms/jnvWp0 - "The junior cadets’ purposefulness sets the tone for the entire school, Mr. Shama said. “R.O.T.C. has the biggest impact of any program in our school,” he said. “Nothing comes close.”

6. Nancy Folbre: Will Business Buy In to Early Childhood Education? - http://nyti.ms/kHBIoj - "Economists disagree about a lot of things, but many agree that public investments in early childhood education pay off. The social benefits far exceed the social costs."

7. Male Students of Color From Different Backgrounds Face Similar Hurdles, by Molly Redden - http://chronicle.com/article/Male-Students-of-Color-From/127953/ - "But with great frequency they reported dealing with stereotypes, with the pressure to support their communities or families, with money problems, or with a feeling of alienation from their campus."

8. Study: Clubs in High School Lead to Higher Salaries Later, by Kayla Webley - http://t.co/rK9fV4o via @TIMENewsFeed - "GOOD uncovered a study that said a student who participates in extracurricular activities in high school will earn 11.8% more in later life. The report, published by Vasilios D. Kosteas, an economics professor at Cleveland State University, concluded the 11.8% salary bump is equivalent to more than two and a half years additional of schooling."

9. The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color: A Review of Research, Pathways and Progress - http://youngmenofcolor.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/downloads/EEYMC-ResearchReport.pdf - "Recommendation 1: Policymakers must make improving outcomes for young men of color a national priority."