368. 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 on http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Only One in Three Full-Time Students Pays Full Tuition, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/vuXtgU - "In a piece entitled, “College Is Cheaper Than You Think,” Ms. Scott-Clayton, an economics professor at Columbia University, asserts that a school’s sticker price, ever-rising, carries little meaning. She notes that only one-third of full-time students pay a college’s published price, writing: 'For the average full-time student, net tuition – which subtracts grants and tax-based aid – is less than half of the published price at private nonprofit four-year schools and less than a third of the published price at the typical public four-year institution.'"

3. Judith Scott-Clayton: College Is Cheaper Than You Think: http://nyti.ms/vM7IGE - "After accounting for this assistance, net tuition and fees in the public four-year sector, at $2,490, are only $170 higher today (in constant 2011 dollars) than they were five years ago. At private nonprofit four-year institutions, net prices are $500 lower than they were five years ago. And at community colleges, the average student actually faces a negative net price – meaning they receive about $800 more in aid than they are charged in tuition and fees."

4. Part 3: Answers to Your Questions on Scholarships and Student Loans, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/w1ke0x - "One of the best strategies for cutting college costs is to send your children to an in-state public college. According to the College Board’s Trends in College Pricing2011, the average published charges for tuition, fees, room and board at an in-state public four-year college in 2011-12 is $17,131. This is much less than the $29,657 average for out-of-state public four-year colleges and the $38,589 average for private non-profit four-year colleges. Even if you get no financial aid, you will still save money at an in-state public college. Many public colleges are high quality, yielding an excellent return on the investment in your child’s future."

5. Tax credits for tuition growing rapidly, by Libby A. Nelson Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/toF6Mt via AddThis - "When the American Opportunity Tax Credit took effect in 2009, the tax savings claimed by students and families for college expenses more than doubled, climbing from $6.6 billion to $14.7 billion, according to the College Board’s Trends in Student Aid 2011 report last month. The explosive growth of Pell Grants in the same time period generated discussion, debate and an uneasy consensus that the $37 billion program is unsustainable in its current form. The parallel climb in spending on tax credits has attracted little notice."

6. Annapolis Group survey finds high satisfaction among liberal arts college graduates, by Kevin Kiley Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/w0zs3I - "According to the results, 77 percent of alumni from liberal arts colleges rated their undergraduate experience “excellent,” compared to 59 percent of alumni from private universities and 56 percent from the top 50 public universities. Graduates of Annapolis Group member institutions also reported that their college experience made them better prepared for life after college, career changes, and graduate school than did alumni from other sectors. They also reported being as prepared for their first jobs as alumni from other institutions."

7. Erroneous Pell Grant Payments in 2011 Total $1 Billion Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/syimSh via AddThis - "The Obama administration credits the drop to new measures that linked the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to Internal Revenue Service data, making it less likely that information about students' family income would be entered improperly."

8. No More Excuses: We Can Get All Children Reading, by Robert Slavin - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/sputnik/2011/11/no_more_excuses_we_can_get_all_children_reading.html via @educationweek - "The latest NAEP results, released this month, remind us that there are far too many children who do not read well, that disadvantaged and minority children are overrepresented among poor readers, and that the inequalities in academic outcomes by race and class--our most serious social as well as educational problem--begins with reading inequalities in the early grades. Everyone knows that children who don't read well will incur huge expenses over time in remediation, special education, repeated grades, and ultimately delinquency, dropout, and unemployment."

9. 11 States Seek Relief From ‘No Child’ Provisions, in Return for Raising Standards, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/u5sJqw - "Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee asked the department for relief from some No Child provisions, including the requirement that all students be proficient in English and math by 2014."

10. Penn State case presses others on abuse laws, by Marisol Bello and Greg Toppo – http://usat.ly/s1cA1d via @USATODAY - "A key issue likely to be debated in state legislatures is whether reports should go straight to police, and whether new laws are needed to shore up vague guidelines and polices about child safety on campus."

11. Are the SAT and ACT to blame for the inferiority of U.S. schools? by Jay Mathews - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/admissions-101-are-the-sat-and-act-to-blame-for-the-inferiority-of-us-schools-compared-to-those-finland-japan-singapore-and-shanghai/2011/11/14/gIQAHKAiMN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Unlike the SAT and the ACT, the content of the entrance exams in these countries is controlled by the universities and is closely tied to the content of the courses given in senior high school grades. Usually the exams must be scored by human beings since they are full of essay questions."

218.Unstack the Odds--A Plan of Action

Unstack the Odds: Help All Kids Access College—and Graduate!

by

Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

10. A Plan of Action

Necessarily, any plan of action would be based on these sound guidance principles and seek to overcome the aforementioned obstacles and barriers. But first and foremost, any plan would start early, long before students are in high school—indeed, considerably before they even enter kindergarten. Or preschool. Ideally, this early start would mean advising expectant mothers—particularly, unwed teenagers--during the critical prenatal period of their children. To be sure, there are many challenges and difficulties involved in this early approach: for example, a co-worker of mine once confronted a high school advisee, asking if she were expecting. The young lady admitted she was seven months pregnant; my co-worker then assisted her, phoning the girl’s stepmother to inform the parent! No prenatal care had been received. (The new mom returned some weeks later to show us her healthy new baby!)

Therefore, it may be more likely that measures would commonly occur during children’s school-age years. Regardless, a first step would be to encourage early reading for all children. An update of the report by Grad Nation, relating to its “Civic Marshall Plan,” emphasized importance of this reading as follows:

“Not being able to read proficiently by the end of fourth grade can put students on a path to dropping out by triggering academic difficulties resulting in grade retention. In 2009, more than 90 percent of low-income students failed to score proficiently on national reading exams. Half of all low-income fourth graders did not even reach the basic level. This foundational skill must be mastered to succeed in high school.” (Robert Balfanz, et. al., Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic—2010-2011 Annual Update, America’s Promise Alliance, March 2011, p. 20.)
http://www.americaspromise.org/Our-Work/Grad-Nation/~/media/Files/Our%20Work/Grad%20Nation/2011%20Summit/Reports/GradNation-rd6-FINAL.ashx


Another focus would be on encouraging regular attendance at school. Again to quote the Grad Nation Update,

“In recent years, there has been a growing awareness that communities with low graduation rates often have very high rates of chronic absenteeism from the early grades onward. Research shows that three out of four students who are severely chronically absent in the sixth grade never graduate from high school. (Ibid., p. 20)

Also, per the Update, is an emphasis on “early warning and intervention systems” and an emphasis on the middle grades. Indeed, according to that report:

“Research has shown that students who eventually leave high school before graduating exhibit strong predictive warning signs of dropping out, such as infrequent attendance, behavior infractions, and course failure. These warning signs — the ABCs of dropout prevention — more accurately predict whether a student will drop out of high school than any other socioeconomic factors and can be used to predict high school graduation as early as the start of middle school. Given this reality, states are enhancing the quality of the data they are collecting and are building longitudinal data systems. This is prompting the adoption of early warning systems throughout the country at the state, district, and school levels.” (Ibid., p. 21.)

Two other factors cited in the original report Building a Grad Nation are also important to emphasize. The first was parental engagement, of which that first report stated the following:

“Research has shown that students with involved parents, regardless of their family income or background, are more likely to earn higher grades and test scores, enroll in higherlevel classes, attend school and pass their classes, develop better social skills, graduate from high school, attend college, and find productive work. The opposite is true for students whose parents are less engaged.” (Robert Balfanz, et. al., Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, America’s Promise Alliance, November 2010, p. 52)

http://www.americaspromise.org/Our-Work/Grad-Nation/~/media/Files/Our%20Work/Grad%20Nation/Building%20a%20Grad%20Nation/Building%20a%20Grad%20Nation_FullReport_FINAL%2011-30-10.ashx

Another factor cited in the original report was “teacher training and effectiveness.” As that report emphasized, “Research shows that a knowledgeable and engaging teacher is the single greatest advantage a student can have to raise their academic potential.” (Ibid., p. 48.) Indeed, having served in public education for 30 years—13 years as a classroom teacher of high school social studies and 17 years as a building and district administrator—I know the importance of effective instruction and am convinced that caring and conscientious educators are probably the sine qua non to enabling all students—particularly, those at-risk—to gain college access and success.