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."

341. 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. Undocumented immigrant students will be eligible for California aid, by Michael Martinez - http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/08/us/california-dream-act/index.html - "Undocumented immigrant students in California will be able to receive state-funded financial aid in 2013 to attend college, under a new law signed Saturday by Gov. Jerry Brown. The law allows top students who are on a path to citizenship to apply and receive the state aid, the governor said. About 2,500 students are projected to receive Cal Grants totaling $14.5 million, according to the California Department of Finance. That averages out to $5,800 per student. The funding amounts to 1% of the overall $1.4 billion Cal Grant program, officials said."

2. Starting to Worry, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/nmMkXK via @AddThis - "In the past year, presidents of several elite liberal arts colleges have questioned whether the financial model underpinning their institutions – one relying on high tuition costs and student aid paying for expensive instruction and residential life on beautiful campuses -- is sustainable over the long term. They have also begun to question whether the education they offer, with small classes, relatively rigid schedules, limited course and major offerings, and intense academic rigor, is going to continue to appeal to students. . . . In total, liberal arts colleges teach about 5 percent of all undergraduate students, and include hundreds of institutions, some of which are struggling financially.A residential liberal arts education is expensive to deliver. It requires highly trained faculty members, small classes, significant academic resources, and a residential environment with amenities."

3. Suddenly Ineligible, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/nplIyb via AddThis - "The budget, proposed Sept. 29 by an appropriations subcommittee, would make several changes to the Pell Grant program. Among them: The grants could be used for 12 semesters, not the current 18; students enrolled less than half-time would no longer be eligible; and students who are eligible for less than 10 percent of the maximum grant would receive nothing, rather than $550 as they would have in the past. Students without a high school diploma or GED would no longer receive the grants."

4. Flexibility on Tutoring Pleases Districts, Worries Industry, by Michele McNeil - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/12/07ses_ep.h31.html via @educationweek

"2009: Education Secretary Arne Duncan uses his waiver authority to let all school districts provide tutoring before choice and to serve as providers of SES tutoring.

2011: Mr. Duncan announces a broad waiver plan to give states more flexibility under NCLB, which includes lifting the requirement that school districts in need of improvement set aside money for, and provide, tutoring and choice."

5. Education Week's Digital Directions: Teachers use social media to enhance instruction - http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/10/07/460859iexchangesocialmediacurriculum_ap.html via @educationweek - "School districts around central Iowa are scrambling to keep up with policies stipulating personal and professional boundaries between teachers, administrators and students as social media applications and wireless-capable devices become more accessible. But most schools have come to terms with the fact the Internet, including social media, has become a stock part of instruction, said Karl Hehr, director of technology and information for Ames Community School District."

6. A Sociological Eye on Education Duncan vs. Duncan, by Aaron Pallas - http://bit.ly/p8Y0yk via @AddThis - "But although there are some shining examples of high-performing schools serving high concentrations of students in poverty, they surely aren’t typical–and it would be very misleading to claim that any state or school district has effectively eliminated the link between poverty and low academic achievement, despite a decade or more of federal and state reforms intended to do just that."

7. Economic inequality: The real cause of the urban school problem, by Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-perspec-1006-urban-20111006,0,6924934.story - "Historically, we have relied on our public schools to level the playing field for children born into different circumstances, but in recent years, the gaps in achievement and behavior between high- and low-income children have only grown wider. Why? For one thing, residential segregation by income has meant that poor children are concentrated in the same schools to a much greater extent today than 40 years ago. As a result, children from low-income families are far more likely to have classmates with low achievement and behavior problems, which have a negative effect on their own learning."

8. Group Calls for More Spending on New York Students, by Winnie Hu - http://nyti.ms/nak1IL - “This is not going the cheap way,” said Michael A. Rebell, an education professor and lawyer who is executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity. “What we’re saying is, if we’re really serious about overcoming the achievement gap, students need these services to have a meaningful opportunity. . . . Starting with prenatal care for mothers, the campaign’s recommendation counts on 18 years of services — through high school graduation — that include extensive early child care and after-school and summer programs."

9. A Classroom Software Boom, but Mixed Results Despite the Hype, by Trip Gabriel and Matt Richtel - http://nyti.ms/ojodYC - "The federal review of Carnegie Learning’s flagship software, Cognitive Tutor, said the program had “no discernible effects” on the standardized test scores of high school students. A separate 2009 federal look at 10 major software products for teaching algebra as well as elementary and middle school math and reading found that nine of them, including Cognitive Tutor, “did not have statistically significant effects on test scores.” Amid a classroom-based software boom estimated at $2.2 billion a year, debate continues to rage over the effectiveness of technology on learning and how best to measure it."

10. Digital library aims to expand kids' media literacy, by Greg Toppo – http://usat.ly/qud62q via @USATODAY - "It goes like this: Take a very large room and fill it with the latest digital media — laptop computers, music keyboards, recording equipment, video cameras and gaming consoles. Invite teenagers. Apply a little pressure, pushing them both to consume and produce media. Watch what happens."

11. Guest post: Let’s be up-front about merit aid, by Stephen MacDonald - College, Inc. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-lets-be-up-front-about-merit-aid/2011/10/07/gIQAx098SL_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "The only difference is that we disclose a student’s merit aid up front. Why? The late John Synodinos, former president at Lebanon Valley, believed that parents should know at the time of their child’s acceptance how much their education was going to cost them. “You wouldn’t buy a winter overcoat this way,” John said. “You wouldn’t buy a coat in December and wait until March to find out how much it is going to cost you. You shouldn’t have to buy a college education that way, either.”This policy takes the mystery out of the financial aid process, making it easy to understand for students and their family. This simple plan is one that rewards students for their good work. It’s a plan LVC still uses 20 years later."

12. Why school reform can’t ignore poverty’s toll, by Marcus D. Pohlmann - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-school-reform-cant-ignore-povertys-toll/2011/10/07/gIQAYPHMUL_blog.html via @washingtonpost - "Poverty increases family stress, leads to poor nutrition and medical care, and, importantly, means children are talked to less and end up with vocabularies that are about half that of middle-class children. Research suggests that the first years shape a child’s capacity to learn. Science tells us that it is essential to brain development that babies are spoken to, read to, cuddled, and allowed to engage in physical play. National Institute of Health studies have indicated the foundations necessary for higher learning — working memory, vocabulary, spatial recognition, reasoning, and calculation skills — are set by the time a child reaches puberty."

13. The Most Expensive Colleges In America: Campus Grotto List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/the-most-expensive-colleg_n_1003135.html - "For the fifth year in a row, our friends at Campus Grotto calculated which colleges boast the highest total price tags in the country -- some nearing a whopping $60,000 per year. This year, 19 colleges made their list. See the top 10 most expensive colleges below, and click over to Campus Grotto for the full list and their methodology."

323. 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. Poverty rate rises in America, by Annalyn Censky - http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/13/news/economy/poverty_rate_income/ via CNNMoney.com - "The poverty rate for children under age 18 increased to 22% in 2010, meaning more than 1 in 5 children in America are living in poverty."

2. Enrollment down at YSU, by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/qVlJve via @AddThis - "Meanwhile, YSU's headcount enrollment - the actual number of individual students enrolled - is 14,540 this semester, down from 15,194 last fall semester. In addition, full-time equivalent enrollment - a measure that is used in budgeting at both the university and state levels - is down 3.5 percent."

3. Unequal education harmful, by David A. Love - http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/sep/14/unequal-education-harmful/?newswatch via @vindicator - "And although white students in the United States are also underperforming when compared to a number of other advanced nations, America will have to seriously grapple with an educational system that produces a large achievement gap based on race and ethnicity, and a pipeline to prison for youth of color.
This is not the blatant racism of hate crimes and racial epithets, but rather a silent, systemic, institutional racism that allows inferior schools to fester in poor, black and brown urban areas."

4. Part 3: Answers to Your Back-to-School Admissions Questions, by ROBIN MAMLET and CHRISTINE VANDEVELDE: http://nyti.ms/ppcM9a - "The glory of being admitted to a college lasts into the second or third week of being there. The reality of what your college values will be with you day in and day out for four years and beyond."

5. Low-Hanging Fruit, by Elizabeth Murphy - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pH7PDB via AddThis - "Whether they called them "near-completers" or "ready adults" or "stop-outs," the educators and policy experts gathered here today agreed that people who have earned most but not all of the credits they need for a college degree should receive more attention."

6. Teaching Student-Athletes, by Nate Kreuter with Eric Dieter - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pv1vVX via @AddThis - "Because of my own past as a high school and college (club-level, not varsity) athlete, I have tried to be attentive as a teacher to the special demands placed upon student-athletes, and have worked hard to understand the dual roles that they are expected to succeed within."

7. The Case Against College Rankings, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/the-case-against-college-rankings/6610/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Another one of my complaints is that too many highly educated people, who should know better, honestly believe these numbers. Over the weekend, I was talking to a friend whose son is at Yale. The brilliant young man also got into Harvard, which was ranked two spots higher - just as it is now. My friend told me that some parents questioned her son’s decision to attend Yale because Harvard was top dog. Does anyone else consider this beyond sad?"

8. International Test Scores, Irrelevant Policies, by Iris C. Rotberg - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/14/03rotberg_ep.h31.html via @educationweek - "Although countries can exacerbate or mitigate the impact of poverty through their social, fiscal, and education policies, and although some students do overcome the odds, the fact is the gap between high-poverty and more-affluent students remains a fundamental problem in virtually every country."

9. Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’, by SABRINA TAVERNISE - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB - "Minorities were hit hardest. Blacks experienced the highest poverty rate, at 27 percent, up from 25 percent in 2009, and Hispanics rose to 26 percent from 25 percent. For whites, 9.9 percent lived in poverty, up from 9.4 percent in 2009. Asians were unchanged at 12.1 percent. . . . “We’re risking a new underclass,” said Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Young, less-educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and form stable families because they are jobless,” he added."

10. What College Can Mean to the Other America, by Mike Rose -http://chronicle.com/article/What-College-Can-Mean-to-the/128936/ - "A certificate or degree alone will not automatically lift them out of hard times—there is a bit of magic-bullet thinking in these college initiatives—but getting a decent basic education could make a significant difference in their lives."

11. College Spending Trends Show Students Bearing a Growing Share of the Costs, by Goldie Blumenstyk - http://chronicle.com/article/College-Spending-Trends-Show/128972/ - "Disparities between rich and poor institutions in overall spending levels have never been larger," the report says. "The 'new money' coming into higher education is coming from either student tuitions or user fees. Rich institutions are getting richer and poor institutions are getting poorer."

12. Ravitch tells how Kopp, Duncan surprised her - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-tells-how-kopp-duncan-surprised-her/2011/09/13/gIQAbAzlPK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "I have my differences with Teach For America, but I admire the idealistic young people who join it. I often say, as I did in our debate, that if I were a college senior, I would probably want to join TFA. But my big beef is that TFA presents itself as a solution to the problems of the teaching profession, and it is not. The young people are sent into some of our nation’s most challenging classrooms with only a few weeks of training, and at just about the time they are getting a handle on how to teach, they leave. Most are gone within two or three years."

13. The Best Liberal Arts Colleges In America: U.S. News And World Report - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/the-best-liberal-arts-col_n_961784.html - "For the second year in a row, Williams College and Amherst College are the best liberal arts schools in America, according to U.S. News and World Report's annual college rankings.
See which schools rounded out the top ten below. To see the full list, click here."

14. U.S. News College Rankings 2012: The Top National Universities - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/us-news-college-rankings-_n_958948.html#s359530&title=Harvard_University_Tied - "Princeton University tied Harvard University as the top-ranked National University in U.S. News & World Report's 2012 rankings of Best Colleges. Last year, Harvard stood alone as the best ranked National University, a category that encompasses large, research-oriented schools."