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."

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."

200. 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. Princeton and Harvard Reinstate Early Admissions, by Catherine Rampell - http://nyti.ms/fnhiRj

". . . Both Princeton and Harvard on Thursday reinstated their early admission programs. (The University of Virginia, which had also ended its early admission program with great fanfare, gave in last year.) . . . And from the 2006 press release in which Princeton announced it was ending the early admissions program: “We agree that early admission ‘advantages the advantaged,’” Tilghman said."

2. Jane Fonda at Vassar: College Tours, Campus Legends, by Michael Kolomatsky - http://nyti.ms/gDaVt2

"College tour season will soon heat up as high school seniors make final visits to schools at which they’ve been accepted. In search of the magic that will tip the scales toward one college or another, they’ll be joined by juniors who typically begin visiting schools about now."

3. Surrender to Early Admissions, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gCDaKu

"On Thursday, both Harvard and Princeton announced that they were restoring early admissions options. Significantly, they are restoring nonbinding "early action" options, not early decision -- and many skeptics about early admissions say that the biggest problems arise with binding programs, particularly at colleges that are not as generous with student financial aid as are Harvard and Princeton."

4. CNU: University accidentally sent 2,000 acceptance e-mails, by Samieh Shalash - http://bit.ly/dI7eXP

‎"Christopher Newport University e-mailed acceptance letters to 2,000 students Wednesday afternoon with the subject line "Welcome to CNU!"It was followed about four hours later by an e-mail saying the first e-mail was sent by mistake and apologizing for any confusion."

5. Lawsuit accuses TCU of fraud - http://es.pn/he7WmS

"The records describe how the 300-pound Jones remained in an English class even though the instructor considered him "dangerous," how Taylor was admitted to the university despite graduating 300th in his high school class of 377 and how both remained in good standing on their teams despite repeatedly being cited for misconduct on campus."

6. Using Social Media to Get Into College, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/988Af8a

‎"A Kaplan survey of admissions counselors from some of the top colleges and universities found that 80 percent visited potential students’ online profiles during their recruiting process. While counselors are checking students out online, they are also trying to engage them on the Internet. According to Tsouvalas, here are ways that high school students can take advantage of Facebook and other social media:"

7. 'Pathway to Prosperity' authors educate me - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2011/02/pathway_to_prosperity_authors.html

‎"Despite the fact that nearly all young people now say that they want to go to college and that increasing percentages of high school graduates are in fact enrolling in college, our college completion rate is stuck at about 40 percent. Many organizations are now focused on the challenge of how to increase our college completion rate and have set a very aggressive target of 55 percent by 2025. But even if this very ambitious improvement goal were to be reached, what is our strategy for getting the other 45 percent of young people the skills and credentials they will need to get launched on a career path that can enable them to earn a family-supporting wage and lead a productive life? This is the big question our report raises. . . ."

8. On Science Exams, New York’s Students Fall Short, by Fernanda Santos - http://nyti.ms/g19C6n

"New York was one of 17 large cities that agreed to have their results reported separately. A large majority of those cities scored below the nation as a whole. New York was in the middle among the large cities for its fourth graders and slightly below average for eighth graders. . . . The best of the 17 were Charlotte, N.C., Austin, Tex., and Louisville, Ky.; the worst were Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland."

9. In the so-called School of Financial Aid, it can pay to get the lowest score, by Alice Murphey - http://nydn.us/i0KvaZ

"Everybody wants to get high marks in college, but in the so-called School of Financial Aid, it can pay to get the lowest score. That's the case with your expected family contribution. Your contribution is determined by the information on your Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. (There's still time to file if you haven't already, but . . .some students are starting to receive their award letters.)"

10. Harvard Tuition Rises to $52,650, by Julie M. Zauzmer - http://bit.ly/edbKMQ

"Harvard College tuition and fees will climb 3.8 percent for the next academic year, reaching a total cost of $52,650. The jump in price will be coupled with a $2 million increase in the financial aid budget, bringing the total cost of financial aid to a record high of more than $160 million.Already, more than 60 percent of Harvard undergraduates receive some financial aid from the College."

11. Panel Discusses Education Gap, by Rediet T. Abebe - http://bit.ly/gCsSJl

‎"Ferguson also noted that the gap develops rapidly as young minority students approach kindergarten. Though there is “not much of a gap” around the first birthday, a divergence in test scores is already apparent by age three, he said."

12. What to Do as Colleges Cut Back on Financial Aid, by Jane J. Kim - http://on.wsj.com/igbgKP via WSJ.com

"Amid greater financial pressures, colleges are scaling back their financial-aid packages to students in ways that are likely to give wealthier families an admissions edge.Some colleges, such as Williams College, Middlebury College and Wake Forest University, are no longer "need blind" when it comes to admitting international or wait-listed students."

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125. 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. When Listing Extracurricular Activities, No Need To Fill All Blanks, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/bqSxIL

"Here’s how Monica C. Inzer, the dean of admissions at Hamilton College in New York and a member of the Common Application board, put it: We’d rather see depth than a longer list. I think students think we want well-rounded kids. We do. But we really want a well-rounded class. That could be lots of people who have individual strengths. Distinction in one area is good, and better than doing a lot of little things."

2. The Rise of the 'Edupunk' - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/9azAXt

“We're still trying to fit the Web into our educational paradigm. I just don't think that's going to work,” said Mary Spilde, president of Lane Community College, in Eugene, Ore. Today's students are “pretty bored with what we do,” she added. In a notable acknowledgment of the tail wagging the dog, several panelists alluded here to the possibility that if colleges don't change the way they do business, then students will change the way colleges do business.College leaders don't yet know how to credential the knowledge students are gaining on their own, but they may soon have to, said Mark David Milliron, deputy director for postsecondary improvement at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We are not far from the day when a student, finding unsatisfactory reviews of a faculty member on ratemyprofessors.com, will choose to take a class through open courseware online and then ask his home institution to assess him, Milliron said. Colleges need to prepare for that reality, he said."

3. When Social Media Is Irrelevant - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/bW8sTL

"In an admittedly limited study of 65 students (mostly from graduate programs) -- presented Thursday to a packed room here at the Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning -- university officials discovered that the students cared mainly that their instructors clearly communicated the expectations and requirements for a class and responded in a timely manner to their questions. They cared less about getting to know their classmates, looking at instructor profiles, having real-time chat sessions, and simulating face-to-face communication with video. Also, students who had previous experience learning online were more likely to be relatively indifferent toward social intimacy with their instructors and classmates. The notion that “social presence” might help with retention in online programs has prompted vendors to infuse their online learning platforms with more social media tools, particularly synchronous text- and video-chat features."

4. Veterans who go back to school want more support, by Jenna Johnson - http://t.co/XTPoFI4

"Researchers with the National Survey of Student Engagement interviewed nearly 11,000 student veterans who were first-year students or seniors at four-year schools. The veterans reported interacting less with their instructors than did classmates who had not enlisted, and they were less likely to partake in educational opportunities such as internships or study abroad. The Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research produces the survey each year to measure how students and faculty interact and learn. The latest, results of which will be released Thursday, found that colleges should "seek ways to more effectively engage student veterans in effective educational practices and provide them with the supportive environments that promote success."

5. Banks Spend $83 Million to Promote Student Credit Card Use, by Scott Gamm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-gamm/banks-spend-83-million-to_b_778709.html

‎"According to a new report released by the Fed, credit card issuers paid a whopping $83,462,712 to colleges, universities and institutions of higher education to promote student credit cards. As a result of this $83 million+ spent, credit card issuers gained an extra 53,164 college credit card accounts in 2009. Let me get this straight: $83 million was spent to encourage college students to open up credit card accounts, which allow students to spend beyond their means and rack up huge amounts of credit card debt (the average per student is over $4,100, according to Sallie Mae). You may think that college students use credit cards for books and groceries. But when 50% of college students have 4 credit cards or more, according to Sallie Mae, it's hard to believe that only necessities are being charged on their credit cards! Irresponsible credit card use in college will not only ruin the credit score of students, but it will instill poor spending habits for years to come."

6. College Applications Continue to Increase. When Is Enough Enough? by Eric Hoover - http://nyti.ms/dARwf9

"For this fall’s freshman class, the statistics reached remarkable levels. Stanford received a record 32,022 applications from students it called “simply amazing,” and accepted 7 percent of them. Brown saw an unprecedented 30,135 applicants, who left the admissions staff “deeply impressed and at times awed.” Nine percent were admitted. The biggest boast came from the University of California, Los Angeles. In a news release, U.C.L.A. said its accepted students had “demonstrated excellence in all aspects of their lives.” Citing its record 57,670 applications, the university proclaimed itself “the most popular campus in the nation.”

7. Education Department to Review U. of Phoenix’s Federal Student Aid http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/education-dept-to-review-u-of-phoenixs-federal-student-aid/28111

"Phoenix, like many for-profit colleges, relies heavily on federal student aid, and its prediction last month that by 2011 such aid would exceed 90 percent of its revenue—breaking a federal threshold—helped send the company’s stock price into a tailspin. According to recently released data from the department, last year Phoenix took in $1-billion in federal Pell Grants, the first institution, for-profit or otherwise, to receive that much."

8. NCAA Puts U. of Michigan on Probation for Rules Violations in Football Program

http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/ncaa-puts-u-of-michigan-on-probation-for-rules-violations-in-football-program/27703

"The Division I Committee on Infractions announced its decision in the closely watched case Thursday afternoon, when it released a 29-page report detailing the allegations—and sanctions—against head coach Rich Rodriguez’s football program. In addition to placing the institution on probation, the committee also upheld Michigan’s self-imposed penalty that would reduce the amount of practice time allotted to its football team through the end of the 2011-12 academic year. In the report, the NCAA faulted Rodriguez for allowing his program to run afoul of the association’s rules in several areas, including the number of coaches he had on staff and the amount of practice time athletes were required take part in. The NCAA also said the head coach—as well as the athletic department at large—failed to monitor the football program, and directed Rodriguez to participate in an upcoming seminar about NCAA rules."

9. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily for today's top stories on college admissions/financial aid in newsletter form - http://paper.li/rottenbornj