391. 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. 'Good-enough’ university http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/setting-our-sights-on-a-good-enough-college/2011/12/16/gIQAyCK8yO_story.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "Help high schoolers keep perspective."

3. High seniors receive college scholarships Los Angeles Wave - Community News, Sports & Entertainment Lynwood Press http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/local/lynwood-press/Three-Firebaugh-High-seniors-receive-colege-scholarships-135757023.html -"LYNWOOD — Three seniors from Firebaugh High School here have been given full four-year scholarships through the QuestBridge National College Match program.QuestBridge is a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds with scholarship opportunities. . . ."

4. Reducing the black-white achievement gap by reducing black unemployment Economic Policy Institute http://shar.es/WnCTW

5. RT @fremonttribune It's time to starting gathering financial aid information http://bit.ly/tTu13Y - "If you or your child will be heading to college next fall, now is the time to prepare for applying for financial aid."

6. Toys wear out, gift of education lasts a lifetime - Chicago Sun-Times: http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/9482631-452/toys-wear-out-gift-of-education-lasts-a-lifetime.html#.Tu1e9TBpeN8.twitter via AddThis

7. Inconvenient Income Inequality: http://nyti.ms/uLWvcn - "Some recent surveys seem to suggest that many Americans are in denial about the seriousness of the gap between the rich and poor."

8. Florida A&M death puts focus on traditions – http://usatoday.com/ http://usat.ly/tTaX5N via @USATODAY

9. Half of U.S. schools fail federal standards – http://usatoday.com/ http://usat.ly/roQv42 via USATODAY

10. College prep: All I want for Christmas is acceptance http://t.co/2BUIIe1S http://shar.es/W1Yo4

11. Yale early admissions - http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/dec/17/early-admit-rate-increases-slightly/ - "Yale sent acceptance letters to 15.7 percent of its early action applicants for the class of 2016 on Thursday evening."

12. Lori Sturdevant: Achievement gap -- a disaster in slow motion http://t.co/wy2UiQMB http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/135762243.html

13. UC Berkeley Extends Financial Aid To Middle-Class Students Neon Tommy: http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/12/uc-berkeley-extends-financial-aid-middle-class-students#.Tu5Vpi1z0Us.twitter via AddThis - "Robert Birgeneau, UC Berkeley chancellor, announced Wednesday that the Berkeley Middle Class Access Plan (Berkeley MCAP) is aimed at families with an annual gross income between $80,000 and $140,000."

14. College savings made simple [The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa]: http://t.co/uemxeGeW via @AddThis

15. College students face shorter Pell Grants - http://shar.es/W1d7p - "As Congress passes a 2012 budget, student loans will get pinched next fall. Changes to Pell Grant program would hit African-American students hard."

389. 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. Diploma Rates Far Short of Goal, Report Says, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/tlKr21 - "From 2000 to 2009, the report noted, the percentage of adults with associate degrees or higher increased by just 3 percent. If that pace holds steady, by 2025 the United States will fall nine percentage points below the president’s goal, with 46 percent of adults holding college degrees. . . . The report also highlighted differences in completion rates by race, noting that while around 40 percent of all young Americans hold college degrees, nearly 70 percent of Asian-Americans do, compared with 49 percent of white young adults, 19 percent of Hispanic young adults and 29 percent of African-American young adults."

3. For-profits should get ahead of accountability push, experts say, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/rBPRxL via @AddThis - “They’re going to run you out of town anyway,” said Smith, who is senior vice president of academic strategies and development for Kaplan Higher Education. “Get in front and make it look like a parade.”

4. AYP Results for 2010-11 - http://www.cep-dc.org/ - "This report updates previous CEP research with data from the 2010-11 school year on the number of schools not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The estimated percentage of all U.S. schools not making AYP was 48% in 2011, an all-time high and an increase from 39% in 2010."

5. What Is College For? by Gary Gutting: http://nyti.ms/rGzWtl - "Most American college students are wrapping up yet another semester this week. For many of them, and their families, the past months or years in school have likely involved considerable time, commitment, effort and expense. Was it worth it?"

6. Our Universities: Why Are They Failing? by Anthony Grafton - http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/nov/24/our-universities-why-are-they-failing/?pagination=false - "Fewer than 70 percent of high school students graduate. Just over 70 percent of those graduates will enter some form of postsecondary education. But barely more than half of those who start BA programs will finish them in six years, and only 30 percent of those who start community college will win an associate degree in three years. After that point, most people don’t manage to graduate."

7. Education Secretary Overstated Failing Schools Under No Child Left Behind, Study Says, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/ugOmVJ - "Now a new study, scheduled for release on Thursday, says the administration’s numbers were wildly overstated. The study, by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington research group headed by a Democratic lawyer who endorses most of the administration’s education policies, says that 48 percent of the nation’s 100,000 public schools were labeled as failing under the law this year."

8. ‘Moneyball’ Meets Education, Part 2: Colleges Pool Data to Prevent Dropouts, by Marc Parry - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moneyball-meets-education-part-ii-colleges-pool-data-to-prevent-dropouts/34681 - "But what if you could perform that kind of predictive analysis based on student information and course records from many colleges, not just one? That’s the idea behind an ambitious project that is pooling more than 640,000 student records from six different institutions. Led by WCET, a group that promotes technology in higher education, the project aims to answer three main questions. What factors make some students drop out? What keeps others in college? What demographics make a difference?"

9. Boomers heading back to community colleges, by Matthew Daneman – http://usat.ly/vZMU22 via @USATODAY - "An increasing number of people ages 50 and up are headed to community college — 388,000 were enrolled nationwide in fall 2009, the most recent data available from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). That was up 6% from 2007 and more than 12% from 2005. Nationwide, people over the age of 50 typically make up between 5%-6% of community college enrollment, according to AACC figures."

10. George W. Bush Looks Forward After No Child Left Behind, by Andrew J. Rotherham - http://ti.me/sS7ErX via @TIMEIdeas - "The education debate about George W. Bush is loaded with irony. The same President who is attacked by the left for pushing through tax cuts that benefited the wealthy is being assailed by the right for education policies that focus on disadvantaged students allegedly at the expense of high-achieving ones. But Bush remains steadfast. He considers No Child Left Behind a piece of civil rights legislation, and while his party is running from his education record, some education leaders are starting to run toward his institute and its work."

11. Why strong afterschool programs matter to school reform, by Jodi Grant -http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-strong-afterschool-programs-matter/2011/12/14/gIQAvtUpuO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "Afterschool programs have long known that they can embrace the hours between the time school closes and parents return from work to provide children, especially those who don’t have access to other activities, with exciting, engaging experiences that will help them learn academic, social and professional skills. The research is clear: children in quality afterschool programs are more likely to come to school and stay in school, more likely to hand in their work and get better grades."

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."

382. 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. At White House Meeting on Affordability, a Call for Urgency, Innovation, and Leadership, by Collin Eatonhttp://chronicle.com/article/At-White-House-Meeting-on/130012/ -"Improving completion with the existing enrollment is not going to close the gap, we're going to have to get more students and get more students to complete—a good portion of them are going to have to be nontraditional students, those already in the work force."

3. Questions for the SAT's Top Cop, by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/s4deNW - "During the 2010-11 academic year, the office conducted about 9,600 investigations of SAT testing irregularities, including fire alarms going off during testing and reports of test taker impersonation. On test day, test takers must present their admission ticket as well as an acceptable form of photo ID. The name on the admission ticket must match exactly the name on the ID, and the ID must include a recent, recognizable photo. Test center staff members are authorized to refuse admission to any test taker with invalid or questionable ID. A list of acceptable forms of ID is available on the SAT Web site."

4. The 'Boy Problem' Examined, by Elizabeth Murphy Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tE7mzE via AddThis - "The female advantage is present across racial groups, as well, according to the data. In 1981, the most recent birth year calculated, white women have an 11 percent point advantage over white men, black women are at 9 percentage points and Hispanic women at 6 percentage points, according to the paper."

5. GAINS AND GAPS: CHANGING INEQUALITY IN U.S. COLLEGE ENTRY AND COMPLETION, by Martha J. Bailey and Susan M. Dynarski - http://www.nber.org/tmp/1823-w17633.pdf - "We find growing gaps between children from high- and low-income families in college entry, persistence, and graduation. . . . Sex differences in educational attainment, which were small or nonexistent thirty years ago,are now substantial, with women outpacing men in every demographic group. The female advantage in educational attainment is largest in the top quartile of the income distribution."

6. Districts see rise in homeless students, by Charlie Boss The Columbus Dispatch - http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/12/05/when-shelter-is-home.html - "It seems like in December and January, everything falls apart for a family,” said Pam Reveal, who oversees enrollment for Groveport Madison schools. “They lose their homes and jobs. A lot of them won’t go to a shelter unless they absolutely have to. Some have been sleeping in parking lots." The 5,822-student school district just southeast of Columbus has the highest rate of homeless students in Franklin County. About 8percent of the district’s students did not have a permanent address at one point last school year. That’s about 450 students, more than triple the number from the 2006-07 school year."

7. How to Rescue Education Reform, by FREDERICK M. HESS and LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND: http://nyti.ms/tntDvY - "Perhaps No Child Left Behind’s most enduring lesson is the value of humility — a virtue that must be taken to heart in crafting a smarter, more coherent federal role in schooling."

8. Employers Say College Graduates Lack Job Skills, by Lacey Johnson -http://chronicle.com/article/Employers-Say-College/130013/ - "The group surveyed more than 1,000 employers in various industries last month about whether job applicants possess the skills to thrive in the workplace. More than half of employers said finding qualified applicants is difficult, and just under half thought students should receive specific workplace training rather than a more broad-based education."

9. Guest post: A more relaxed approach to Early Decision, by Jeff Rickey - College, Inc. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-a-more-relaxed-approach-to-early-decision/2011/12/06/gIQAo1JXZO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Instead of making them wait to hear from us until the middle of March, we developed a plan that allows students to apply Early Decision at any time up until our Regular Decision deadline of February 1. Students declare their Early Decision intentions by completing and submitting the Early Decision contract, and, once that is received and the admissions application is complete, the application is evaluated and the student is notified, usually within a couple of weeks of completion."

10. Still Waiting: Black Male Achievement in America, by LaVar Young - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lavar-young/black-male-achievement_b_1121379.html?ref=education&ir=Education - "But, the statistics are tangible and certainly disturbing, and they start immediately at birth. For one, black infant mortality rates are more than twice that of whites, in a country that already has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world. As they grow into toddlerhood and childhood, the evidence mounts. Two-thirds of black children live in single parent households, which is three times that of white children. And one-third live in poverty, compared with one tenth of their white counterparts. In school, black males score lower on standardized tests, are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school, three times as likely to be suspended from school and less likely to go on to a two-year or four-year college."

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."

357. 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. Public Universities Seeking Out-of-State Students, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/vlYca7 - "In an article published on Sunday in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Eric Hoover and Josh Keller reported that public universities are escalating their recruitment of out-of-state students – students who not only bring geographic diversity to campus, but also pay higher tuition rates and improve a school’s bottom line."

3. Advocate for students chides colleges for policies on low-income students, by Doug Lederman Inside Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/11/01/advocate-students-chides-colleges-policies-low-income-students#.TrAGpcyFo4w.twitter - "Haycock and her group, which focuses on ensuring equitable education for students regardless of their race or socioeconomic status, have issued a series of reports criticizing college policies (overemphasis on standardized test scores, merit-based financial aid, etc.) that tend to benefit wealthy and white students over others. . . . Haycock (at left) did not hold back, painting a picture of increasing inequality in higher education in which, among other things, students from families in the highest quartile of family income are now 10 times likelier than those in the lowest quartile to have a bachelor's degree."

4. Emphasize the Ambitious: Q&A With Kati Haycock, by Joan Richardson - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/01/kappan_haycock.html via @educationweek - "That goal took over my life. What animated me was how we could turn around the performance of the groups of kids who were behind. I came to believe that what was happening in K-12 was important to making that change. I think of our work as helping to make our country better. When you consider the ideals upon which we were created, and you look at what the data tell us about inequality, it’s clear that our narrative as a country is far away from where we really are."

5. 12 Best and Worst 529 College Savings Plans, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/12-best-and-worst-529-college-savings-plans/7058/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "But, you may be wondering, how do you pick the best 529 plans and avoid the worst? Morningstar, the investment research firm, has made the task easier for you. In its new industry survey of 529 plans, Morningstar has selected the top five 529 plans, as well as the seven worst. Here is your 529 cheat sheet:"

6. New NAEP, Same Results: Math Up, Reading Mostly Flat, by Erik W. Robelen - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/01/11naep.h31.html via @educationweek - "One area of long-standing concern is the large achievement gaps among racial and ethnic groups, especially when comparing African-American and Hispanic students with white students. Although all groups have made academic progress over the past two decades, the achievement gaps have proved difficult to close.The 2011 reading and math results produced no statistically significant changes in the black-white achievement gap from 2009."

7. More States Flag Potential Dropouts With Warning Data, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/01/11earlywarning_ep.h31.html via @educationweek - "At minimum, researchers found that most existing systems flag what Robert Balfanz, a co-author of the study and the director of the Everyone Graduates Center, calls “the ABCs” of such systems:

• Attendance: Students who have missed either 10 percent of school days or 20 days total;

• Behavior: Students who receive two or more mild or more-serious behavior citations, which in most schools means detentions or suspensions; and

• Course performance: Students who struggle to keep up in key classes at different grades."

8. The Wrong Inequality, by David Brooks in The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/brooks-the-wrong-inequality.html?_r=1&hp - "In these places, the crucial inequality is not between the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent. It’s between those with a college degree and those without. Over the past several decades, the economic benefits of education have steadily risen. In 1979, the average college graduate made 38 percent more than the average high school graduate, according to the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke. Now the average college graduate makes more than 75 percent more. Moreover, college graduates have become good at passing down advantages to their children. If you are born with parents who are college graduates, your odds of getting through college are excellent. If you are born to high school grads, your odds are terrible."

9. In a Standardized Era, a Creative School Is Forced to Be More So, by Michael Winerip - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/education/no-child-left-behind-catches-up-with-new-hampshire-school.html?src=recg - "The intent of No Child Left Behind was to provide quality education for poor children, mainly in urban areas, but it has taken over everything. By next spring, 90 percent of New Hampshire schools are expected to be labeled as failing."

10. School Suspensions Among Boys May Be Linked to Lower College Attendance, by Dan Berrett -http://chronicle.com/article/School-Suspensions-Among-Boys/129593/ - "As the likelihood of suspensions increases, students' chances of making it to college decrease. Citing previous research, the authors note that one suspension lowers the chance of attending college by 16 percentage points, and of graduating from college by 9 percentage points. "We suggest that boys' higher tendency to act out, and develop conduct problems, might be particularly relevant to their relative absence in colleges," the authors write."

354. 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 start offering 'midnight classes' for offbeat needs, by Greg Toppo – http://usat.ly/tJVA6H via @USATODAY - "About two-thirds of community college students work full or part time, and colleges are finding that many of their students work late. Others simply do their best work at night, says Community College of Baltimore County (Md.) psychology instructor Joy Goodie."

2. Plan hopes to make student loans more forgiving, by Sandra Block – http://usat.ly/t0bw4p via @USATODAY - "The Obama plan doesn't provide any relief for borrowers who have private student loans, which are issued by private lenders and aren't backed by the federal government, Ryan says. Unlike federal student loans, private loans have variable interest rates that may shoot higher after the borrower graduates. They also lack many of the protections that come with federal loans. Borrowers who are having trouble repaying these loans have few options, other than seeking relief from the lender."

3. Trustees OK pact at YSU, by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/vUhave via AddThis - "Both unions, which represent the university's two largest groups of employees, had been working without contracts since their previous pacts expired in August. YSU-OEA had announced plans to strike in August but called it off in time for classes to start on time Aug. 27."

4. Robert J. Zimmer on the Value of a Liberal Arts Diploma, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/u3PzmX - “There are arguments about the value of liberal arts education. Tuition costs are a major concern. There are financial and political pressures on institutions to show immediate value,” Mr. Zimmer conceded. But, ultimately, he said, such concerns should not obscure the mission of liberal arts institutions: “to help students lead fuller lives and be better citizens.”

5. That Merit-Based Aid Offer Is Final, Universities Insist, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/uP6tYf - "At Purdue University, merit-based financial aid offers are final and nonnegotiable. “We put that on our Web site — in red,” said Pamela Horne, dean of admissions and associate vice provost for enrollment management at Purdue. . . . Ultimately, the panelists agreed that the purpose of merit aid was to help the institution “shape the class,” in Ms. Horne’s words. “People think merit aid is all about rewarding the student,” she said. “Let’s face it – it’s not.” Mr. Nondorf agreed. “Getting in is the reward for all that hard work,” he said."

6. The Student Loan Proposal: What It Might Mean for You, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/sHTQaM - "To help students avoid borrowing too much, the Obama administration is introducing a standardized financial aid offer form as part of a new “Know Before You Owe” campaign. This form helps students understand how much a college will cost, including how much debt they will have accumulated by the time they’ve graduated."

7. College Prices Continue to Surge Higher, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/college-prices-continue-to-surge-higher/7039/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Among states, California wins the dubious prize of boosting tuition by the greatest percentage. California residents watched helplessly as their tuition and fees jumped 21%. The states with the next highest rate hikes were Arizona (17%) and Washington (16%). States with low tuition increases included Connecticut and South Carolina that raised prices by 2.5%. Clearly, a major factor in mushrooming tuition at public universities is declining support from state governments."

8. College Costs Shifting to Families - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/26/464787uscollegecostsnlysis_ap.html - "It was a transformation that was, by historical standards, remarkably swift: The decade of the 2000s saw a fundamental shift in how Americans answer the question "Who will pay for college?" More than ever, students and their families must foot the bill at public universities. And that bill is higher than ever.Realizing higher education would be essential to succeed in the emerging economy, Americans aspired and flocked to higher education as never before over the last 10 years. But over that same span, the 50 states did less—much less, factoring in the increased demand—and asked students and parents to do more."

9. Clearing Up Some Confusion About the New Federal Student Loan Rules,by Ron Lieber - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/your-money/student-loans/explaining-new-federal-student-loan-rules.html?_r=1&hpw - "Many questions had to do with whether private loans, the kind that come from banks and often have higher and variable interest rates, are part of these changes. Nothing is changing with those loans. This is crucial, since many of the people in the worst sort of trouble — the ones you’ve read about with six-figure balances — often have both private loans and federal loans. Instead, only those with different kinds of federal loans — an estimated 5.8 million borrowers — will be able to consolidate them into one loan under the new plan and also save themselves a bit of money."

10. Editorial: The Wrong Fix for No Child Left Behind - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/opinion/the-wrong-fix-for-no-child-left-behind.html?src=rechp - "The revised No Child Left Behind Act that passed out of the Senate education committee last week goes too far in relaxing state accountability and federal oversight of student achievement. The business community, civil rights groups and advocates of disabled children are rightly worried that the rewrite of the law would particularly hurt underprivileged children."

11. How Much Student-Loan Debt Is Too Much? by Jeff Selingo -http://chronicle.com/blogs/next/2011/10/26/how-much-student-loan-debt-is-too-much/ - "More than half of the students at public and private four-year colleges are now graduating with debt, according to the College Board. The average per borrower at public colleges is $22,000; at private colleges it’s $28,100. It has been reported that the financial payoff of a bachelor’s degree is $550,000 over a person’s lifetime, so the average level of debt still seems like a good investment."

12. Why College Tuition Should Be Regulated, by Steven Goodman - http://ti.me/uEmjTD via @TIMEIdeas - "Since loans now comprise 70% of financial aid packages, the growing tuition burden falls squarely on student-borrowers who may have saved for college but who still can’t meet the high cost of attendance. Two-thirds of American undergraduates are in debt. This year, student loan debt will grow to more than a trillion dollars, outpacing credit card debt for the first time."

353. 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. Obama to offer help for students buried in debt, by Jennifer Liberto - http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/25/news/economy/Obama_student_loan/ via CNNMoney.com - "One of the proposals would push up the start date for more favorable terms on a special loan repayment program based on income, said White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes. Another measure would encourage graduates with two or more different kinds of federal loans to consolidate them and get a small break on interest rates. . . . Average student loan debt for the graduating class of 2009 at four-year nonprofit colleges was $24,000, including all private and federal loans, according to the Institute for College Access & Success."

2. See how much debt college will really put you in, by Blake Ellis - http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/26/pf/college_financial_aid/ via @CNNMoney - "Figuring out how much college is going to cost you is about to get much easier.At least that's what the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education are hoping to do with a one-page "financial aid shopping sheet." The sheet will clearly break down the amount of aid a student will qualify for at a particular college, as well as how much debt they will end up with once they graduate."

3. College costs climb, yet again, by Kim Clark - http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/26/pf/college/college_tuition_cost/ via @CNNMoney - "The sticker price of studying and living on campus at the average public university rose 5.4% for in-state students, or about $1,100, to $21,447 this fall, the College Board estimated. . . . The sticker price of living and studying for a year at a typical private college rose 4.3% to $42,224 this year."

4. Tuition and fees rise more than 8% at U.S. public colleges, by Mary Beth Marklein – http://usat.ly/tL8dPk via @USATODAY - "That increase is more than double the inflation rate of 3.6% between July 2010 and July 2011. Family earnings dropped across all income levels. And state funding per student declined by 4% in 2010, the latest year available, and 23% over the past decade, the report says."

5. Obama proposes changes to student loan programs, by Libby A. Nelson Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vkz5l3 via AddThis - "The majority of borrowers affected will be students who borrowed money under both the Federal Family Education Loan Program, when banks issued federal student loans and collected government subsidies, and the Direct Loan Program, under which the federal government lends money directly to students.The government began originating all loans through direct lending in 2010, when a provision to eliminate bank-based student lending was included in the administration’s health care overhaul. But many students who were enrolled at the time of the change have loans in both programs, meaning they make two payments."

6. Reports find student aid shift from states to federal government, by Kevin Kiley Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tkwJXL via @AddThis - "Sandy Baum, a policy analyst for the College Board and co-author of the reports, said the federal government is stepping in to fill a financial void created by states' decreased ability and willingness to fund public colleges and universities. “In a way, the burden of paying for higher education is shifting from the states to the federal government,” she said."

7. NCAA data show more athletes graduating from college, by Allie Grasgreen Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tHDuCL via @AddThis - "The two sports of greatest concern are also the ones that bring in the most money. While the football and men’s basketball graduation success rates this year either rose slightly or stayed steady, the rates are still significantly lower than the overall NCAA average of 82 percent. Male basketball players are graduating at a rate two points higher this year, at 68 percent, while the football GSR dropped 0.6 points to 68.6 percent."

8. Solving the Nation's Dropout Crisis, by Russell W. Rumberger, Education Week - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/26/09rumberger_ep.h31.html - "Past efforts to solve the nation’s dropout crisis have largely been unsuccessful. Government agencies and private foundations have collectively invested billions of dollars in dropout-prevention programs, comprehensive school reform models, and new charter schools. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation alone invested more than $2 billion in small high schools, yet research has identified few effective models. In a 2008 review of 22 dropout-prevention programs, the federal government’s What Works Clearinghouse did not find a single program proven to raise high school graduation rates, which is stunning."

9. Hechinger Report Companies, nonprofits making millions off teacher effectiveness push, by Sarah Garland: http://hechingerreport.org/content/companies-nonprofits-making-millions-off-teacher-effectiveness-push_6582/#.TqgVLnjBHSY.twitter via AddThis - "New education reforms often translate into big money for private groups. Following the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, states paid millions of dollars annually to companies to develop and administer the standardized tests required under the law. Companies also cashed in on a provision mandating tutoring for students at struggling schools. . . . In Florida, the state paid Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a for-profit textbook publisher, $4.8 million to develop classroom observation methods and nearly $4 million to the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit, to create a value-added model for grading teachers based on student test scores, according to state officials."

10. Irish Student-Athletes Again Rank Number One In 2011 NCAA Graduation Success Rates - UND.COM - Univ - http://www.und.com/genrel/102511aaa.html

11. Post Your Questions on the New Student Loan Developments, by Ron Lieber: http://nyti.ms/rGFakB - "On Wednesday, President Obama plans to announce a number of changes in the federal student loan program. The initiatives will allow people to consolidate federal loans in new ways and also make the repayment program that is based on borrowers’ incomes more generous. The White House has outlined some of the changes on its Web site. What questions do you have about how all of this will work?"

12. Counseling Parents, With Some Help From a New Calculator, by Beckie Supiano -http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/counseling-parents-with-some-help-from-a-new-calculator/29091 - "When prospective students visit campus, Mr. Gudvangen has found that most of the questions about paying the bill come from parents, since they’re the ones who understand the family’s financial position. “This is an odd time in families’ lives,” he says. “At some point, students probably need to know these things, but they probably don’t as high-school seniors.”

13. Rise in Sticker Price at Public Colleges Outpaces That at Private Colleges for 5th Year in a Row, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/article/Rise-in-Sticker-Price-at/129532/ - "For the fifth year in a row, the percentage increase in average published tuition and fees at public four-year colleges was higher than it was at private ones, according to the report, "Trends in College Pricing 2011." The report, released on Wednesday, examines annual changes in colleges' sticker prices, as well as the net prices students pay after grant aid and tax benefits are considered. A companion report, "Trends in Student Aid 2011," looks at the money that helps students meet those growing prices. (The pricing report looks at data through this academic year, while the student-aid report has information through 2010-11.)"

14. Institutions Charging More Than $50K for Tuition, Fees, Room, and Board -http://chronicle.com/article/Sortable-Table-Institutions/129527/ - "The 50K club is getting crowded: 123 institutions now charge $50,000 or more for tuition, fees, room, and board, according to data released by the College Board. That's up from last year, when 100 colleges and universities charged that much.Here are the institutions charging $50,000 or more:"

15. College Prices Up as States Slash Budgets, by Justin Pope - http://ti.me/uvSV9C via Time.com - "The states cut budgets, the price goes up, and the (federal) money goes to that," said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. "For 25 years we've been putting more and more money into financial aid, and tuition keeps going up. We're on a national treadmill."

16. Ravitch: ditch NCLB, not tinker with it -http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-congress-should-ditch-nclb-not-tinker-with-it/2011/10/25/gIQAtgkmHM_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost -

"The federal government does not know how to reform schools. Period. Congress doesn’t, and the U.S. Department of Education doesn’t. The fundamental role of the federal government should be to advance equality of educational opportunity. That’s a tall order. Congress should revive the commitments made in 1965, when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed: To use federal resources on behalf of the neediest students; to protect the civil rights of students; to conduct research about education; to report on the condition and progress of American education."

351. 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)

(I am traveling in Portland, OR; below are links I've located this past weekend.)

1. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/tvhFwZar

2. News: Kent State Implements Forever Buckeyes Program for Ohio High School Graduates http://t.co/nx9taM15 via @AddToAny

3. Don't fear the FAFSA - http://t.co/7IG7lsat: http://t.co/bTSXVdU1 via @AddThis

4. Educators, advocates, legislators target gaps in No Child Left Behind law http://t.co/gRl948rd via @Tennessean

5. The State of College Admissions http://t.co/edAEAVHm

6. College websites lack important info, review finds http://t.co/kFFc3wGn via @azcentral

7. The Value of Higher Education http://t.co/hiZGhT8N via @tweetmeme

8. Check out colleges in person, not just online - http://t.co/7IG7lsat: http://t.co/foW8QjYm via @AddThis

9. Private colleges getting boost from budget woes at public universities - http://t.co/A5PBTZOQ: http://t.co/qHstmgmL via @AddThis

10. College price calculator provides a new tool for prospective students http://t.co/VvskbgyT via @AddThis

11. The Importance of Focusing on Achievement Gaps http://t.co/Y2bRr9LT

12. More College Applicants, More Students Waitlisted http://t.co/nYWvgjCn (@GOOD stuff)

13. Private college enrollment drops at many Ohio institutions http://t.co/TcepystW http://t.co/FjA1fzxO

350. 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. Inside School Research: Study: Adolescents Can See Dramatic IQ Changes, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2011/10/intelligence_quotient_or_iq_te.html via @educationweek - "Yet a new brain-imaging study published this afternoon in the journal Nature finds that during adolescence, a fifth of children can gain or lose as many as 20 points in IQ, suggesting that the score may be less reliable at the same time it is likely being used to make educational decisions about a student."

2. Occupy the Classroom, by Nicholas D. Kristof - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/opinion/occupy-the-classroom.html?_r=1&hp - "But the single step that would do the most to reduce inequality has nothing to do with finance at all. It’s an expansion of early childhood education. Huh? . . . “This is where inequality starts,” said Kathleen McCartney, the dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as she showed me a chart demonstrating that even before kindergarten there are significant performance gaps between rich and poor students. Those gaps then widen further in school. “The reason early education is important is that you build a foundation for school success,” she added. “And success breeds success.”

3. High Demand for Science Graduates Enables Them to Pick Their Jobs, Report Says, by Paul Basken - http://chronicle.com/article/High-Demand-for-Science/129472/ - "Among its findings, the study, from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, shows that science and engineering graduates enjoy high demand in a variety of fields, with a bachelor's degree in a science major commanding a greater salary than a master's degree in a nonscience major.And, the new report says, English-speaking science graduates are much less likely than foreign-born science graduates to take a job in a traditional science career, which American graduates often view as too socially isolating."

4. Community-College Dropouts Cost Taxpayers Nearly $1-Billion a Year, Report Says, by Lacey Johnson - http://chronicle.com/article/Community-College-Dropouts/129475/ - "Students who drop out of community college before their second year have cost taxpayers nearly $1-billion annually, says a report released today by the American Institutes for Research. From 2004 to 2009, the study found, federal, state, and local governments spent almost $4-billion in student aid and appropriations to community colleges that benefited full-time, first-year students who never made it to graduation day."

5. ‘Fair Practices’ in Admissions, by Eric Hoover - http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/fair-practices-in-admissions/29027 - "Some people call them crucial enrollment-management tools for these uncertain times. Others call them big, bloated symbols of institutional priorities gone wild. Either way, more colleges are using them: wait lists. According to the 2011 “State of College Admission” report released today by National Association for College Admission Counseling, 48 percent of institutions surveyed used a wait list for fall 2010, up from 39 percent the previous year. Forty-two percent of colleges reported that they placed more applicants on wait lists last year than they did in 2009."

6. Scariest Student Loan Debt Numbers Ever: $100 Billion, $1 Trillion, by Brad Tuttle - http://ti.me/pK7u0N via @TIMEMoneyland - "For the first time ever, the total amount of student loans taken out last year in the U.S. topped $100 billion. And sometime this year, it’s expected that outstanding student loan debt will hit $1 trillion—also for the first time ever. . . . Students today are borrowing double the amount they did ten years ago—after adjusting for inflation."

7. No Child Left Behind Reaches Senate Floor As Sens. Paul, Harkin, Bennet Spar (VIDEO) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/19/no-child-left-behind-markup-rand-paul-tom-harkin_n_1020190.html - "Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) then spoke. "The senator speaks of the tragedy of this process," Bennet said, referring to Paul's remarks. "I'll tell you what a tragedy is. The tragedy is that only nine of 100 children living in poverty in this country in 2011 can expect to get a college degree. That's a tragedy." Bennet pointed to "the fact that when I became superintendent in the Denver public schools, on the 10th-grade math test there were 33 African-American students proficient on that test and 61 Latino students proficient on that test."
8. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/xt4njNy8

348. 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. Student loan debt hits record levels, by Dennis Cauchon – http://usat.ly/neJ8xx via USATODAY - "The amount of student loans taken out last year crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time and total loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion for the first time this year. Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago after adjusting for inflation, the College Board reports. Total outstanding debt has doubled in the past five years — a sharp contrast to consumers reducing what's owed on home loans and credit cards."

2. For-profit colleges focus of student loan issue, by Dennis Cauchon – http://usat.ly/nz5mEp via @USATODAY - "The federal government has promoted and subsidized loans as a way to help young people and workers get the education needed to succeed in a troubled economy. The government made or guaranteed more than 80% of the $1 trillion in loans outstanding and backed more than 90% of new loans this year. For-profit schools such as the University of Phoenix, DeVry University and hundreds of smaller institutions have been particularly successful in winning students and their federal aid by offering courses that focus on specific careers, often taught online and aimed at older, non-traditional students."

3. How to avoid defaulting on your student loans, by Sandra Block – http://usat.ly/oBR9h8 via @USATODAY - "While defaulting on any loan will trigger a lot of unpleasant consequences, defaulting on your federal student loan debt could be disastrous. Your wages may be garnished and your tax refunds withheld. Your credit score will be ruined, which will make it more difficult to borrow for a house or a car."

4. The Rapid Rise of Merit Aid, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/nV3X6m via @AddThis - "Many institutions – particularly those that are moderately selective – have embraced merit-based financial aid out of the belief that offering partial scholarships will help them attract paying students away from higher-profile peers. Numerous states, especially in the South, have put in place hefty aid programs based on academic merit to try to keep academically qualified students within the state’s borders for college. But many student aid experts roundly pan the approach for abandoning the historical goal of using financial assistance to draw into higher education those who would have been unlikely to attend otherwise."

5. It's Not Me. It's You. by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/pBbRh1 via AddThis - "Since the economic recession began in 2008, state revenues have not kept pace with state funding obligations, resulting in budget shortfalls in most states and cuts to most state services. When states cut appropriations to higher education institutions in the past, colleges and universities made up the difference through tuition hikes and belt-tightening. Both lawmakers and university leaders kept quiet, knowing that appropriations would return and that large tuition increases would likely be followed by smaller hikes."

6. Tuition assistance slashed by 75 percent for Marines, by Travis J. Tritten - Marine Corps - Stripes: http://1.usa.gov/n9E4nC via @AddThis - "The Marine Corps announced Tuesday it has slashed tuition assistance by 75 percent for servicemembers who take classes on their off-duty time. The change went into effect immediately and reduces the maximum education assistance available from the Department of Defense standard of $3,500 per year to just $875 per year for Marines — about enough to cover two university courses, according to a service-wide bulletin.The Marine Corps said the new rate is equal to the average class load taken on by Marines who use the tuition assistance program and is a more focused use of the service’s tuition funds."

7. 8 Ways to Search for Great Colleges, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/8-ways-to-search-for-great-colleges/6949/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "1. Decide whether you want to attend a college or a university. Choosing between the two main types of schools will significantly narrow your search. Here are posts that can help you understand the difference between these institutions:"

8. Questions Raised About 'High-Flyers' Study, by Nirvi Shah - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2011/10/are_high-achieving_students_be.html via @educationweek - "In this massive study of tens of thousands students, children who performed in the bottom third in reading or math in grade 3 had less than a 1 percent chance of being high achievers by grade 8. Even average students in grade 3, (between 40 and 60 percentile) had less than a 5 percent chance of becoming high achievers later," they wrote recently on their blog. A high achiever in grade 3 math was 17 times more likely to be a high achiever in grade 8 than your average grade 3 student, and 142 times more likely than someone who was performing in the bottom third of students in grade 3. The results were broadly similar for reading."

9. States, Districts Move to Require Virtual Classes, by Michelle R. Davis - http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/10/19/01required.h05.html via @educationweek - "The goal is to make sure students get an online-learning experience in a low-risk, supportive environment, Airhart says. “The reality is, when a student leaves us, whether they’re going to a four-year college, a technical college, or going into the world of work, they’re going to have to do an online course,” she says. “This helps prepare the students.” More districts and a handful of states are starting to agree with this notion. They’re requiring students to get some form of online learning on their résumés before leaving high school."

10. Parents Urged Again to Limit TV for Youngest, by Benedict Carey - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/health/19babies.html?hpw - "Parents of infants and toddlers should limit the time their children spend in front of televisions, computers, self-described educational games and even grown-up shows playing in the background, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned on Tuesday. Video screen time provides no educational benefits for children under age 2 and leaves less room for activities that do, like interacting with other people and playing, the group said."

11. Out With Textbooks, in With Laptops for an Indiana School District, by Alan Schwarz - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/education/19textbooks.html?hpw - "Unlike the tentative, incremental steps of digital initiatives at many schools nationwide, Munster made an all-in leap in a few frenetic months — removing all math and science textbooks for its 2,600 students in grades 5 to 12, and providing a window into the hurdles and hiccups of such an overhaul. . . . Munster is hardly the first district to go digital. Schools in Mooresville, N.C., for example, started moving away from printed textbooks four years ago, and now 90 percent of their curriculum is online."

12. Will new NCLB law be less test-obsessed? by Monty Neill - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/will-new-nclb-law-be-less-test-obsessed/2011/10/18/gIQAmIx5vL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Statewide tests will continue in grades 3-8 and once in high school in reading and math, and science once each in grades 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12. The bill would pave the way for multi-state consortium tests. Based on the consortium’s applications, the “new” exams will remain mostly multiple-choice and short answer, meaning they will trivialize teaching and learning just as current NCLB tests do."

13. Ravitch: Why ‘miracle schools’ aren’t really miracles - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-why-miracle-schools-arent-really-miracles/2011/10/18/gIQAM62RuL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "The lesson in all this debunking is not that poor kids can't learn. Of course, they can. Let me say that again, slowly: Yes, poor kids can learn and excel. But whether or not children are poor, education is a slow, incremental process. While it is true that a student may have a remarkable change in attitude and motivation and demonstrate large test-score gains in a short period of time, it is rare indeed when an entire school or district experiences a dramatic increase in test scores. Any huge change in scores for a school or a district in a short period of time ought to provoke skepticism and a demand for evidence, not a willing suspension of disbelief."

14. Miracleschools site, by Gary Rubinstein and Noel Hammatt - http://miracleschools.wikispaces.com/ - "Informally, a 'miracle' school is one that is significantly outperforming the nearby schools in its neighborhood despite working with the same student populations and the same limited resources. More formally, we think that a true miracle school would have the following eight characteristics:"

15. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily on http://paper.li/rottenbornj

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."

343. 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. Politics K-12: Senate ESEA Draft Bill Would Scrap Adequate Yearly Progress, by Alyson Klein - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/10/senate_esea_draft_bill_would_s.html via @educationweek - "The measure, which is already being decried by civil rights groups as a giant step backwards when it comes to accountability for poor and minority children, would scrap the 10-year-old law's signature yardstick, known as Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP. Instead, states would have to ensure that all students are making "continuous improvement" in student outcomes. . . . The draft would keep in place the law's requirement that states continue to report information on specific subgroups of students. And the law's testing schedule for reading and math—grades 3 through 8 and once in high school—would remain the same."

3. Bills Show Dueling Priorities on K-12 Spending, by Alyson Klein - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/12/07spending.h31.html via @educationweek - "Both bills strive to keep the maximum Pell Grant at $5,500. The Senate bill would do that by making changes to the Federal Stafford Student Loan Program. The bill before the House committee, by contrast, would make significant changes to the program’s eligibility requirements, according to a New America Foundation analysis. For instance, students who attend college less than part time would no longer be eligible for Pell Grants. And students would be able to take part in the program for only a maximum of 12 semesters, down from 18 now. In addition, the maximum family income that would automatically qualify a student for the biggest Pell Grant would be cut in half, to $15,000, from $30,000."

4. Bill Would Overhaul No Child Left Behind, by Sam Dillon - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/education/12educ.html?_r=1&hpw -"But for about 9 of every 10 American schools, it would scrap the law’s federal system of accountability, under which schools must raise the proportion of students showing proficiency on the tests each year. That system has driven classroom teaching across the nation for a decade."

5. Alumni Tutoring Effort Strives to Raise Diversity at Elite Public Schools, by Anna M. Phillips - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/nyregion/graduates-of-elite-new-york-city-public-schools-tutor-students-seeking-admission.html?src=recg - "For more than a decade, the number of black and Hispanic students scoring high enough to be offered a seat at the city’s specialized high schools has been on the decline. Last February, just 12 black and 13 Hispanic students were admitted to Stuyvesant High School, which had 3,287 students."

6. Pressure and Lack of Repercussions Are Cited in SAT Cheating - http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2011/10/12/pressure-and-lack-of-repercussions-are-cited-in-sat-cheating via Schoolbook - "Some teenagers believe that student integrity keeps cheating rates close to zero, while others say illegal score boosting is the norm. “After [students] are done with a section, they share answers in the bathrooms,” a Stuyvesant High School senior, Ahlam Rafita, said. “If the person is really good at math, they’ll finish it and can easily switch back to the reading sections.”

7. Poor kids still lose race despite better scores, by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/poor-kids-still-lose-race-despite-better-scores/2011/10/08/gIQAN9qTeL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.com - “We find that although low-income students have shown strong gains in the indicators that lead to admission to highly selective schools . . . higher income students have simultaneously made even stronger gains on these same indicators,” they say in their paper “Running in Place: Low-Income Students and the Dynamics of Higher Education Stratification” in the September issue of the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis."

8. NCLB bill: The problem with ‘continuous improvement,’ by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/nclb-bill-the-problem-with-continuous-improvement/2011/10/11/gIQA7nztdL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Instead of requiring all students to be “proficient” in these basic skills by 2014 (as NCLB demands), or to be “college ready” by 2020 (as the Obama Administration proposes), the Harkin bill will require only that schools show “continuous improvement” for all students, and for students from low-income families, those who don’t speak English, minority students, and students with disabilities (see page 52 of the draft bill)."