388. 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 ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap in D.C. Still Wide Education News - http://shar.es/oTbKI

3. More on the D.C. Achievement Gap and Michelle Rhee's Legacy - http://bit.ly/u20rqW

4. Chicago Teachers Union Organizes Parents Against CPS ‘School Actions’ -http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/school-news/29530-chicago-teachers-union-organizes-parents-against-cps-school-actions-.html

5. Maya Cole: Why I will vote against Madison Prep http://bit.ly/uBtOk3

6. Researchers Probe 'Myths' Around Math Gender Gap, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/cMCj6Ybx via @educationweek

7. Start the scholarship search with fact-finding http://t.co/nxBiwOEU & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper: http://t.co/8g9wlTX2 via @AddThis

8. Vanderbilt, Duke are South's most selective colleges - http://t.co/nq2Xv3VW via @nashvillebiz

9. Rice is most selective college for admissions in Texas - http://t.co/4F4i0JrT via @HOUBizjournal

10. On College: What struggles do you reveal on your college application? - San Jose Mercury News http://t.co/WSInAjqR

386. 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 ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Detailing the For-Profit Lobbying Campaign Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/uXHOV1 via AddThis - "For-profit colleges and associations spent more than $16 million on lobbying, with much of the money going to Democrats with ties to the White House."

3. Cal State campuses overwhelmed by remedial needs, by Matt Krupnick - San Jose Mercury News - http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19526032 - "The remedial numbers are staggering, given that the Cal State system admits only freshmen who graduated in the top one-third of their high-school class. About 27,300 freshmen in the 2010 entering class of about 42,700 needed remedial work in math, English or both. . . . "It's a terrible indictment of the K-through-12 system," Postma said. "If a factory was building cars and the lug nuts kept falling off the tires, you would do something pretty dramatic about it. We keep adding the lug nuts back to the tires rather than trying to figure out what the problem is."The remedial problem is hardly confined to California. Schools across the country have puzzled over how to better prepare students for college and what to do with those who are not ready."

4. Guidance on Race-Based Factors Gets Polarized Response, by Mark Walsh - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/09/14race.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "The federal departments of Education and Justice jointly issued separate documents for K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions that outline both race-neutral and race-conscious practices that officials say may be used to advance racial diversity and avoid racial isolation."

5. The Unaddressed Link Between Poverty and Education, by Helen F. Ladd and Edward B. Fiske: http://nyti.ms/tNZk20 - "But let’s not pretend that family background does not matter and can be overlooked. Let’s agree that we know a lot about how to address the ways in which poverty undermines student learning. Whether we choose to face up to that reality is ultimately a moral question."

6. The Brutal Side of Hazing, by Charles M. Blow: http://nyti.ms/tGexyx - "His death refocuses attention on college hazing and illustrates just how pervasive and intractable the problem can be, how rooted it is into some organizations, how far some will go to belong and feel bonded and how some officials can seem to turn a blind eye — publicly disavowing and condemning while silently condoning."

7. At Forum on the Future, Leaders Dissect What Ails Higher Education Today, by Karin Fischerhttp://chronicle.com/article/At-Forum-on-the-Future/130087/ - "Henry S. Bienen, a former president of Northwestern University, concurred that fixing elementary and secondary education is a critical challenge for American colleges. Mr. Bienen, speaking on a panel Friday morning, said just 8 percent of the graduates of the Chicago public schools, on whose board he sits, are college ready. That's 8 percent, he noted, of an already-diminished population—only 57 percent of students who begin high school in the nation's third-largest city finish."

8. A superintendent calls school reformers’ bluff, by John Kuhn - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-superintendent-calls-school-reformers-bluff/2011/12/11/gIQABKBXoO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "NCLB has done one important thing: By disaggregating data, it has forced teachers and administrators like me to agonize over the outcomes of our neediest students. But after 10 years, it is clear that NCLB’s reforms haven’t spurred miracles, and it is time that the profound problem of inequality is addressed. The deck is stacked against kids who live in poverty not just because their schools are on average worse than others, but also because of the circumstances of their lives when they leave campus. It’s time that we admit that it isn’t just teachers holding back poor and minority students back. The problems are societal."

9. Study: Two-fifths of high school graduates are unprepared, by Daniel de Vise - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/study-two-fifths-of-high-school-graduates-are-unprepared/2011/12/12/gIQArZKnpO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "One-third of high school students complete the modern college-preparatory track, and another one-quarter graduate from career-preparatory programs. The remaining high school population, an estimated 40 percent, do neither. They are “a virtual underclass of students,” the researchers write, who finish high school with a transcript filled with watered-down general education courses and few prospects for success either in traditional college or in professional training."

10. The Underserved Third: How Our Educational Structures Populate an Educational Underclass, by Regina Deil-Amen and Stefanie DeLuca - http://www.soc.jhu.edu/people/DeLuca/documents/D_%20D_%20JESPAR.pdf - "This leaves over 40% of students falling within the underserved third group—lacking adequate college preparation and occupational training. This third group is disproportionately composed of lower SES, underrepresented minority, immigrantEnglish language learner, and first-generation college students. Among students who earn a high school diploma, less than half are college-ready; more than half take at least one college remedial English or math class (Goldberger, 2007; Parsad & Lewis, 2003). As the underserved third group transitions into college, they populate the bulk of such remedial classes and are among the ‘‘two thirds or more of community college students’’ who ‘‘enter college with academic skills weak enough to threaten their ability to succeed in some of their college-level courses’’(Bailey, 2009, p. 1). These students are structurally positioned to transition out of school destined to fail to access labor market rewards."

344. 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. Colleges Fail U.S. Financial Test, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/pAKXuh via @AddThis - "Institutions that score above 1.5 (on a scale of 3.0) are considered to be financially responsible; those below 1.5 but above 1.0 require some additional oversight, while those below 1.0 must post a letter of credit and face cash monitoring requirements from the department. An initial review of the list shows slightly more than 180 private nonprofit colleges with scores below 1.5, and about 100 of those with scores below 1.0. About 200 for-profit colleges -- many of them in fields such as cosmetology -- fall below the 1.5 threshold. A spreadsheet containing the institutions' scores can be downloaded here."

2. Speaker Madigan to block Quinn's veto on legislative scholarships, by Monique Garcia and Ray Longhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-speaker-madigan-to-block-quinns-veto-on-legislative-scholarships-20111012,0,3654355.story - “The governor feels strongly that the political scholarship program is in disgrace,” Anderson said. “It’s past time to abolish the political scholarships, which are ripe for abuse.” Lawmakers are allowed to award two four-year scholarships to public universities each year. They often break them apart into eight, one-year tuition waivers. They come with just one legal requirement: that recipients live in the same district as the lawmaker who doles them out. While some lawmakers form committees to award the scholarships, the program has been long abused, with waivers going to relatives, family members of campaign contributors and the offspring of lobbyists."

3. 25 Colleges With the Unhappiest Freshmen, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/25-colleges-with-the-unhappiest-freshmen/6888/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "How do you measure if a freshman is unhappy? An easy way is to look at a school’s freshmen retention rate, which indicates how many first-year students return for their sophomore year. The schools on this list have the lowest freshmen retention rates of the 650 top colleges that the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, an education think tank, used when compiling the college rankings for Forbes Magazine."

4. Mixed reactions to the new NCLB bill, by Nick Pandolfo - http://p.ost.im/p/eMkxwE -"Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming) announced new legislation to revamp the 2001 No Child Left Behind law yesterday, garnering some strong reactions from the education policy world."

5. Chicago Schools Slow to Embrace Longer School Days, by Julie Rasicot - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/13/08chicago.h31.html via @educationweek -"In the 405,000-student Chicago school system, the expanded-day initiative is driven by the fact that public school students in the nation’s third-largest district spend 15 percent less time in the classroom than the average American public school student, according to school district officials. Public schools nationwide provide an average of 6½ hours of instruction time per school day; Chicago offers about 5½. The district also struggles with a persistent achievement gap between African-American and Latino students and their white counterparts and a graduation rate below 60 percent."

6. State Puts Pressure on City Schools Over English Language Learners, by Sharon Otterman - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/education/13ell.html?hpw - "As a measure of the problem, he said, in 2010 only 7 percent of the city’s English language learners were found to have graduated on time and ready for college and careers. In the lower grades, 12 percent were proficient in English and 35 percent in math, well behind city averages. “These numbers are not acceptable,” Dr. King said. “We can’t leave so many students behind academically without access to college and career opportunities.”

7. For Colleges, Location Matters, by Jeff Selingo -http://chronicle.com/blogs/next/2011/10/12/for-colleges-location-matters/ - "Like real estate, location matters in higher ed. But unlike many homeowners, colleges looking for a better neighborhood can’t simply hang a “For Sale” sign and move to a more desirable place. That’s problematic for colleges in struggling small towns and declining manufacturing cities. It’s sometimes difficult for them to attract prospective students and faculty members, or keep entrepreneurial young alumni around to build new businesses. And as the economies of those towns deteriorate further, local officials have few employers to turn to for help. Often colleges are asked to take on demands well beyond their mission."

8. The problems with the PSAT and National Merit program, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-problems-with-the-psat-and-national-merit-program/2011/10/10/gIQA7w0pfL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "About 50,000 students qualify based on their PSAT scores, and that number is whittled down to about 16,000, who become semifinalists (the 34,000 others get letters of commendation). About 8,500 are named finalists, eligible for a scholarship of varying amounts, based on test scores as well as other criteria including academic performance. But here’s something you might not expect: the initial cutoff scores separating the possible winners from the definite losers are not the same in each state."

9. Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t), by Diane Ravitch - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-why-finlands-schools-are-great-by-doing-what-we-dont/2011/10/12/gIQAmTyLgL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "What makes the Finnish school system so amazing is that Finnish students never take a standardized test until their last year of high school, when they take a matriculation examination for college admission."

10. The 10 Colleges That Receive the Most Applications: US News List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/13/the-10-colleges-that-rece_n_1008663.html - "7 California schools appear on US News and World Report's list of the 10 colleges that receive the most applications. UCLA tops the list. St. John's University (a rare east coast contender) came in second."

289. Summer College News

Here are some links to today's stories
about college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Numbers to Say No, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/mSiquY - "By tracking data related to financial aid appeals, the financial aid office at Nazareth College found that students enrolled at the same rates (or even slightly higher rates) when their appeals were denied as when the appeals were accepted. That finding has emboldened the office to reject certain appeals and reallocate money to students whose decisions really do hinge on financial questions. It also highlights a trend of "frivolous" appeals by families who don't actually need the money."

2. For-Profit Debate Redux, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/oT9zsp - "But in the Senate, debate about the for-profit sector marches on, driven by Senator Tom Harkin. The Iowa Democrat held a roundtable discussion with some for-profit college critics -- and the leaders of two private-sector colleges, including DeVry Inc.-- on Thursday, a three-hour forum that seemed to indicate that he would pursue additional legislative regulation of for-profit colleges."

3. College-going inches up from Chicago high schools, by Sarah Karp - http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/notebook/index.php/entry/1199/College-going_inches_up_from_Chicago_high_schools - "The move also shined a bright light on the stark reality of how few graduates went straight to college. In 2004, only 43.5 percent of graduates enrolled in college the following fall. Since then, the percentage has gone up each year. Of 2010 graduates, 55.7 percent enrolled, up from 54.4 percent in 2009."

4. Politics K-12: New Initiative Targets 'School-to-Prison' Pipeline, by Nirvi Shah - http://t.co/UDpeoNU via @educationweek - "A new undertaking from the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education targets school discipline policies that end up pushing children into the juvenile-justice system for crimes and rule-breaking on campus—and keeping them from pursuing their education."

5. The Case Against Law School - Room for Debate, The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/07/21/the-case-against-law-school?hp - "Law school tuition is rising four times as fast as the cost of an undergraduate degree, which itself is soaring. Despite the high price, students are still flocking to law schools, even if it means going into heavy debt to enter a tight job market with few top-paying openings."

6. For-Profit Allies and Critics Discuss Ideas for Improving the Sector, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/For-Profit-AlliesCritics/128364/ - "The proposal met with support from Holly Petraeus, director of the Office of Servicemember Affairs in the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who said for-profits often view veterans and service members as "dollar signs wearing a uniform." ". . . . The sad truth is that a lot of them are signing up based on advertising and word of mouth," she said. If the colleges "wrap themselves in the flag and say they cater to the military, they get picked."

7. College presidents, students lobby to keep Pell Grant funding, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://t.co/1ynP8OW via @washingtonpost - "This week, dozens of university presidents, students and education advocates are on the Hill to persuade lawmakers to protect Pell Grants. Monday has been designated as “Save Pell Day” by the Education Trust, a nonprofit focused on closing education achievement gaps."

8. Hechinger Report New efforts to raise U.S. college graduation rates, by Jon Marcus: http://bit.ly/pqDTba - "The graduation problem isn’t generally evident at elite colleges and universities, both private and public, whose graduation rates are comparatively high. It’s concentrated at community colleges and lower-tier public universities, which enroll most of America’s students. Such institutions increasingly serve the fastest-growing segment of American college enrollment: low-income, nonwhite, non-native-English-speaking students who are the first in their families to go to college. Community colleges enroll much higher percentages of students who work full or part time and are considered at risk for dropping out—and who are also more likely to have children at home and have interrupted their education, in some cases for years. In addition, the vast majority arrive unprepared for college-level work, with 60 percent or more steered into remedial education, according to Thomas Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University."

9. Schools’ equity efforts are promising, by Ruth Adkins - http://www.portlandtribune.com/opinion/story.php?story_id=131119485031541300 -"However, with the new Cradle to Career coalition, an unprecedented collaborative effort is under way among schools, local governments, nonprofits and the business community. The goal is that by aligning existing city, county, and private programs and resources, we can, as a community, help give Portland’s children the best possible chance for success."