321. College Access and Success News

Here are links to recent news about college access and success.

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Adapting to the iPad, called education's 'equalizer' by Alesha Williams Boyd: http://usat.ly/nipmmy via @USATODAY - "I think the key word for this is engagement," Barry says. "The engagement was just a lot higher. I think it's adaptive to meet the needs of individual students. I think it's an equalizer. I do think it's a game changer."

2. Part 1: Answers to Your Back-to-School Admissions Questions, By Robin Mamlet and Christine Vandevelde: http://nyti.ms/oPWt1d - "The best approach for students is to take an appropriately challenging academic course load and do the very best they can. And does it matter how students spend their time outside of class? It does."

3. More Baltimore graduates attend two-year colleges, where they are less likely to earn degree, by Erica L. Green - http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bs-md-ci-college-completion-report-20110907,0,7483796.story - "The consortium also found that only 5.8 percent of those who started at a two-year college earned a degree in six years compared with 34 percent of those at four-year-colleges."

4. Diversity and the Rankings, by Catharine Hill - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/ovwow5 via @AddThis - "It is an unfortunate characteristic of our society that achievement in high school correlates with family income. The possible explanations range from prenatal care to quality of high schools to SAT prep. Whatever the causes, the data are clear. . . . For example, our data indicate that for students with SATs (and ACT equivalents) of 1420 or above, 12.8 percent come from the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution."

5. 5 Things High School Juniors Should Be Doing Now, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/5-things-high-school-juniors-should-be-doing-now/6562/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Today, however, I want to share some advice with high school juniors, who also need to be preparing for college:"

6. Census: Education Has Greater Effect on Earnings than Race, Gender, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2011/09/census_education_has_greater_e.html via @educationweek - "A worker's level of education has a greater effect on his or her earnings over the course of a 40-year career than any other demographic factor, including gender or race, according to a new study released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau."

7. On Campus, It’s One Big Commercial, by Natasha Singer - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/business/at-colleges-the-marketers-are-everywhere.html?_r=1&hpw - "This fall, an estimated 10,000 American college students will be working on hundreds of campuses — for cash, swag, job experience or all three — marketing everything from Red Bull to Hewlett-Packard PCs."

8. Smartphone Game Turns College Tours, Orientations Into Scavenger Hunts, by Josh Keller - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/mobile-game-turns-college-tours-and-orientations-into-scavenger-hunts/33114 - “People might think that they’re doing it to play this game, but in reality they’re getting better information, they’re participating in the process,” he says."

9. Civil rights icon Robert Moses promotes middle school algebra, by Bill Turque - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/civil-rights-icon-robert-moses-promotes-middle-school-algebra/2011/09/08/gIQAxbndFK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "Moses is founder of The Algebra Project, a non-profit that works with schools to make algebra more available to middle schoolers as a way of fostering careers in math, science and engineering."

10. The ups and downs of U.S. News rankings, by Daniel de Vise - College, Inc. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/the-ups-and-downs-of-us-news-rankings/2011/09/09/gIQAUN0nFK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "But track the rankings over five or 10 or 20 years, and a pattern emerges of distinct winners and losers."

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

317. 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. Sign up to take ACT exam - http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/sep/03/sign-up-to-take-act-exam/ via Vindicator - "Registration is open for the Oct. 22 ACT achievement test. Students who wish to take the college admission and placement exam must register before Sept. 16."

2. Can a consultant get you into college? http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2011/08/31/pf_college_admissions.cnnmoney/ via CNNMoney.com

3. An 'Instructor Like Me' by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/nWyrHN via @AddThis - "Nonwhite students at community colleges are more likely to stay in classes and to earn higher grades if they have instructors of their race or ethnicity, according to a study released Monday by the National Bureau for Economic Research. But the same is true for white students, meaning that hiring more minority instructors may result in decreased performance by white students."

4. 15 Things You Need to Know About College Students, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/15-things-you-need-to-know-about-college-students/6490/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Student from wealthier families with incomes of at least $108,000 earn 55% of bachelor’s degree compared to the bottom income quartile of students (7%). Eighty two percent of students from families in the highest income quartile earn bachelor’s degrees compared with eight percent for the poorest Americans."

5. Student Success Depends on Public Accountability, by Jamie Vollmer - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/31/02vollmer.h31.html via @educationweek -"America’s educators cannot teach all children to high levels because they are working in a system designed to do something else: select and sort young people for an industrial society that no longer exists; a system designed to leave children behind. We have a system problem, not a people problem."

6. Perry's College Plan: It's Just a Start, by Anthony P. Carnevale - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/ojMuQV - "Today, America's selective four-year colleges educate half the students, who are increasingly affluent and white; two-year colleges and the least-selective four-year schools educate the less fortunate, other half -- who are increasingly working class, Hispanic and African American. Elite four-year colleges enroll only 4 percent of students from low-income families, 6 percent of Hispanics, and 5 percent of African Americans."

7. College Costs: The Role of Rising Demands, by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/pQbm6Y - "For decades, we have used the college experience as a halfway house between childhood and adulthood. If we make the college years leaner and meaner, then we must condition high school graduates for the new realities of higher education."

8. Slashing College Costs: A Glimpse of the Future, by Jane S. Shaw - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/qG8GHX - "When students and their parents conclude that the price of education is higher than its rewards, they will stay away, and the college “bubble” will burst. A tuition price war is the likely result, and Perry wants Texas to be ready."

9. China Isn't Cutting Education Investments, Marc Johnson - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/o3897u - "The decisions of state governments to rapidly reduce financial support for college education have led to the necessity of universities raising tuition. While the overall cost has not increased greatly, students are shouldering more of it."

10. Perry's Plan Will Help Control College Inflation, by David Guenthner - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/qxFxS8 - "College costs are quickly approaching a crisis point. Student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt, and the poor job market for recent college graduates is spurring a growing debate on whether a college degree is still worth it."

11. Investing in Human Resources, by Martha O'Connell - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/pKyekx - "As William Butler Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” . . . The true value of a college education should not be judged by a graduate’s ability to get that first job out of college, but rather to be prepared for jobs that have not yet been created and to have the ability to shift with changes that will occur throughout one’s lifetime."

12. QS World University Rankings 2011/12 - http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011

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