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."

228. Unstack the Odds--Success, Part 2

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

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

14. Success, Part 2

A key factor in college academic success, at the micro level, appears to be how successful the student had been in high school. My study of both the college graduates and the non-degreed former MVCAP advisees from the high school Class of 2004 who were still enrolled in college during 2008 indicated as much. Indeed, for those 78 (of 568) students who had already earned their two- or four-year degree in 2008, the average [high school] GPA was 3.58; the average ACT composite score was 23.47. (In fact, for these graduates, only 5 had GPAs lower than 3.0 and but 9 had ACT composites lower than 20.) For those students who had not yet earned their two- or four year degree in 2008, but who were still enrolled in college, the average [high school] GPA was 3.08; the average ACT composite score was 20.68.

These findings suggested what might be viewed as a “common-sense” hypothesis: those high school graduates who matriculate and continue in pursuit of their degree will have been “good students” in high school; those who graduate from college in four years will have been even stronger students in high school. http://mvcap.blogspot.com/2009/11/9-results-from-class-of-2004.html

A related important factor in an individual’s academic success would seem to be that student’s ability to study and his or her study-habits. As preparation for college, however, surveys indicate that, on average, high school students do not study very much. Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews offered his findings in that regard: “I cited time diaries collected by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research showing that 15- to 17-year-olds in 2002 and 2003 devoted about 3 ½ hours a day to TV and other leisure while their average time spent studying was 42 minutes. I pointed out that the annual UCLA Higher Education Research Institute survey of college freshmen shows about two-thirds did an hour or less of homework a night in high school.” (Jay Mathews, “Why ‘Race to Nowhere’ documentary is wrong,” The Washington Post—Class Struggle, April 3, 2011.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/why-race-to-nowhere-documentary-is-wrong/2011/04/03/AFBt27VC_blog.html

Furthermore, college students aren’t studying as much as they once did. Indeed, in looking at hours spent studying over time, economists Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks from the University of California Santa Barbara concluded the following: “. . . full-time students at four-year colleges in the U.S. are investing much less time in academics than they once did. Full-time college students in 1961 allocated about 40 hours per week toward class and studying, whereas full-time students in 2003 invested about 27 hours per week. Decreased academic time investment is observable in a wide range of subsamples—across all observable demographic groups and all types of four-year colleges.” (Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks, “The Falling Time Cost of College: Evidence from Half a Century of Time Use Data,” March 24, 2010, p. 19.) http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~babcock/College_time_use_NBER.pdf

In addition, Babcock and Marks found that, with some exceptions –“ higher parental education, being female and not working are all associated with higher study times in 2003” (Ibid., p. 12)-- “. . . study times declined for students in all parental education categories. Similarly, study times declined for all race and gender categories, overall and within both sub-periods . . . . Study times fell for all choices of major, overall and within both sub-periods. Students at liberal arts colleges studied more than other students, but study times fell at all types of colleges, overall and within both sub-periods.” (Ibid., p. 15.)

“Interestingly,” the authors noted, “women used to study about the same amount as men, but study more than men in recent cohorts. Engineering students studied more than other students and the gap has widened.” (Ibid.)

If college students aren’t studying as much, what other factors might affect their chances of success? A study presented to the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) at its annual convention in March 2011 by Todd Wyatt, doctoral student at George Mason U., indicated the following: “Alongside time spent studying outside of class, alcohol consumption is the most significant predictor of a student's grade point average. It has more impact than working, watching television, online social networking — even attending class.” (Allie Greengrass, “Study: Spare time, drinking factors into school performance,” USA Today, March 30, 2011.) http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-30-spare-time-academics-drinking_N.htm

To enhance a student’s chances of success, Wyatt emphasized the importance of tutoring, stating “. . . The most important thing to take away from his research is the importance of effective tutoring.” Wyatt indicated: "Although tutoring has been proven time and time again," he said, "it's a really hard nut to crack, simply because students resist it almost like it's a sickness. They see it almost as a punishment." (Ibid.) Thus, at the risk of glibness, to improve a student’s likelihood of success at college, he or she should study more, party less, and take advantage of tutoring!