387. 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. Child homelessness up 33% in 3 years, by Marisol Bello – http://usat.ly/t6ym1z via @USATODAY - "One in 45 children in the USA — 1.6 million children — were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness."

3. Valencia College wins first Aspen Prize, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/s4d4l4 via AddThis - “Valencia reworked many traditional processes that other colleges view as immutable,” according to an Aspen-produced pamphlet describing the 10 finalists for the award. By giving students earlier advising and orientation, as well as offering a “Student Success” course, the college has tried “new things where they’ll matter most, for the neediest students." The three-year, full-time graduation and transfer rate for minority students at Valencia is 43 percent, which outpaces the national average of 33 percent. And the completion rate for Valencia’s career programs has grown 44 percent over four years."

4. Congressman Targets Pay of For-Profit-College Chiefs Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vPEPcy via AddThis - "Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a speech to a consumer group today (see video below) that he had sent letters to the CEOs of 13 for-profit education companies, asking for the compensation agreements to help "determine whether salaries, bonuses, and other compensation are appropriately tied to the performance of students they educate, the vast majority of whom pay for their education with federal tax dollars."

5. Tackling colleges' Common Application, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57341025/tackling-colleges-common-application/?tag=mncol;lst;6 - "As the name suggests, the institutions share one application that is intended to make the admission process easier. The name Common Application, however, is somewhat misleading, because schools routinely ask students to answer extra supplemental questions on the document. A typical supplemental question requires applicants to explain why they are interested in their schools."

6. More Students With Disabilities Heading to College, by Nirvi Shah - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/14/14disabled_ep.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Earlier this year, a national study found that six years after high school, students with disabilities were less likely than peers to have attended any college—55 percent compared with 62 percent, though that includes students with all types of disabilities. Among people with intellectual disabilities, the rate of employment is just 9 percent."

7. Online Schools Score Better on Wall Street Than in Classrooms, by Stephanie Saul: http://nyti.ms/u1uQmd - "A look at the company’s operations, based on interviews and a review of school finances and performance records, raises serious questions about whether K12 schools — and full-time online schools in general — benefit children or taxpayers, particularly as state education budgets are being slashed. Instead, a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards."

8. Military Children Outdo Public School Students on NAEP Tests, by Michael Winerip: http://nyti.ms/vImAF1 - "They would find that the schools on base are not subject to former President George W. Bush’s signature education program, No Child Left Behind, or to President Obama’s Race to the Top. They would find that standardized tests do not dominate and are not used to rate teachers, principals or schools."

9. Colleges Mine Data to Tailor Students' Experience, by Marc Parry -http://chronicle.com/article/A-Moneyball-Approach-to/130062/ - "Today, half of students quit college before earning a credential. Proponents feel that making better use of data to inform decisions, known as "analytics," can help solve that problem while also improving teaching."

10. For Community Colleges, a Time to Shine, by Kevin Carey -http://chronicle.com/article/For-Community-Colleges-a-Time/130064/ - "The best community colleges, they found, were unusually focused and intentional when it came to structuring the learning experience. Large or small, the top two-years didn't just offer courses and wait for students to sign up. Lake Area Technical Institute, in South Dakota, for example, has 27 technical programs, each with a defined curriculum. Sixty-six percent of its students graduate within three years, far above the sector norm."

271. Review of 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. My degree isn't worth the debt! http://t.co/txvYdC0 via @CNNMoney - "We talked to seven people overloaded with student loans. Here is Erik's story. (Click through the rest of the gallery for other profiles.) --The Editors"

3. No time to abandon black colleges, by Walter M. Kimbrough - http://usat.ly/jA8JFn via @USATODAY - "Since the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board ruling and the mass acceptance of African-American students, the percentage of blacks attending HBCUs has dropped markedly. Before Brown, more than 90% of African Americans of college age attended an HBCU. Today, it's 12%."

4. High schoolers join YSU Summer Honors Institute, by Virginia Shank - http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/558466/High-schoolers-join-YSU-Summer-Honors-Institute.html?nav=5021 - "Each year students attend classes, which are taught by YSU faculty, that span several disciplines including business, engineering, science, social sciences and the arts.To participate, students must be identified as gifted and talented and must have completed either 10th or 11th grade by the start of the program. This year, the $35 fee for each participant covered the cost of student lunches."

5. Slow Growing, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/l5HJoe - "Published tuition and fees at private colleges and universities will be an average of 4.6 percent higher this fall than last, according to a survey of 429 institutions by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. This marks the third consecutive year of hikes of about 4.5 percent. While that rate still outpaces the consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, it represents a drop-off from the 10 years leading up to the recession, when tuition rose by a national average of 6 percent."

6. Students With Disabilities at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions - http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011018.pdf - "Institutions reported enrolling approximately 707,000 students with disabilities in the 12-month 2008–09 academic year, with about half of these students reported enrolled in public 2-year institutions (table 2). While the reported number of students with disabilities is overestimated due to duplicated student counts, this estimate largely reflects unduplicated counts of students with disabilities; most institutions (94 percent) provided an unduplicated count of the total number of students with disabilities at their institution."

7. Get Into These 39 Top Colleges With Bad SAT or ACT Scores, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/7Hpe4Zh via @cbsmoneywatch - "Where can you find these schools? The best source is the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), which maintains a list of hundreds of colleges and universities with test-optional policies.To make your job easier, I’ve provided lists of the top nationally ranked schools in the liberal arts college and university categories that are test optional. Here they are:"

8. Private College Costs Rising 4.6 Percent, by Tamar Lewin - http://nyti.ms/jOL2FG - "The colleges’ average financial aid will increase by 7 percent. Last year, institutional aid increased by 6.9 percent and the previous year, 9 percent. In 2010-11, the published tuition and fees at private colleges and universities averaged $27,293."

9. Leaders of Historically Black Colleges See Key Role for Their Institutions in Obama's 2020 Goal, by Rachel Wiseman - http://chronicle.com/article/Leaders-of-Historically-Black/128022/ - "Seventeen percent of African-American students at a four-year institution attend a historically black institution, and those students are four times more likely to graduate than African-American students attending other institutions. HBCU's have been leaders in postsecondary education of underserved populations, but the panelists acknowledged that they must continue to aggressively pursue degree-completion goals."

10. When College Grads Move Home: Six Ways to Get Them Off the Couch, by Kayla Webley - http://t.co/yBGS99m via @TIMEMoneyland - "Things are not looking so good for this year’s college graduates. Unemployment among those under 25 is at a record-high, they have more debt than any graduating class in history, and starting salaries are plummeting. That’s right, mom and dad, according to a Department of Labor poll, some 85% of the class of 2011 will be moving back home at some point in their lives."

11. Achievement gap for Hispanic students hasn't narrowed in 20 years, by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo - http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0623/Achievement-gap-for-Hispanic-students-hasn-t-narrowed-in-20-years - "Since the early 1990s, “there’s been overall growth in reading and math for both whites and Hispanics,... but the gap really hasn’t closed,” says Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees NAEP."

12. Persistent achievement gap vexes education reformers: Six takeaways, by Amanda Paulson - http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/1214/Persistent-achievement-gap-vexes-education-reformers-Six-takeaways/Progress-on-achievement-gaps-sluggish - "No education issue has received more attention in recent years – but with less apparent progress – than the achievement gaps for minority and low-income students. The Center on Education Policy released a study Tuesday that looks at trends in all 50 states. Despite a few bright spots, the picture is bleak. Here are a few of the study’s major findings:"

144. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Grief Interrupts an Idyllic Freshman Year, by Ann Derry - http://nyti.ms/hEfnhZ

"You can spend four years preparing for college, get into the college of your choice, set off on your big adventure, and yet your life can change permanently along the way."

2. Information Unstacks the Deck, by Dan Berrett - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gbv053

‎"Bridget Terry Long, professor of education and economics at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, says that, while the economic benefits of a postsecondary degree have been well documented, the escalating price tag and rates of default on student loans make the prospect of attending college an increasingly risky proposition. “Giving students and their families better information would enable them to avoid unworthy college investments that would leave them with substantial debt and little in the form of skills,” Long writes in her paper, "Grading Higher Education: Giving Consumers the Information They Need."

3. New Data, No Better Results, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/e6RpZO

"Men and women graduated at roughly comparable rates, but there were significant differences by race: 45.5 percent of Asian students had earned bachelor's degrees in six years, compared to 36.4 percent of white students, 16.9 percent of Hispanic, 16.7 percent of black, and 27.3 percent of mixed race students."

4. University of Phoenix Lays Off 700 http://www.freep.com/article/20101130/BUSINESS07/101130017/1002/business/University-of-Phoenix-lays-off-700-nationwide

"The Phoenix-based company expects new-student enrollments to decline roughly 40% in the current quarter, which ends Nov. 30, as it changes the way it compensates admissions counselors and introduces new student orientation meetings. The meetings are designed to ensure that a larger proportion of beginning students are qualified to complete their degree programs but also might result in some dropouts."

5. The 10 Brainiest Cities: Portfolio Study - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/the-10-brainiest-cities-p_n_790503.html#s196031

"Which American cities boast the most cerebral residents? According to Portfolio, Boulder, Colo. takes the No. 1 spot. Using new American Community Survey data, Portfolio assessed the average level of higher education obtained by the residents of 200 cities, coupled with their relative earning power of adults who live in them."

6. More Students with Disabilities Attending College, Volunteering, by Christina Samuels - http://t.co/3mpo08X via @educationweek

‎"The researchers compared student information gathered in 1990 to reports gathered in 2005. According to the report, within four years of leaving high school, 46 percent of young adults in 2005 were reported to have enrolled in a postsecondary school versus 26 percent in 1990. The gains spanned across a broad range of postsecondary programs: an 18 percentage-point increase in community college enrollment, a 13 percentage-point increase in postsecondary vocational, business, or technical school enrollment and a 9 percentage-point difference in enrollment at four-year universities."

7. A Mission to Transform Baltimore’s Beaten Schools, by Sabrina Tavernise - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/education/02baltimore.html?_r=1&hp

"Not everyone likes Dr. Alonso’s methods, and many find that his brassy self-confidence can grate. But few are arguing with his results. Since he was hired, the dropout rate has fallen by half, more students are graduating and for the first time in many years, the system has gained students instead of losing them."

8. Half of All First-Time Students Earn Credentials Within 6 Years, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/article/Half-of-All-First-Time/125585/

"By the end of the six-year period, 9 percent of the students earned certificates, 9 percent associate degrees, and 31 percent bachelor's degrees. The numbers are similar to those of the last cohort the department followed, which began college in 1995-6.
Among students who began at public two-year colleges, 9 percent earned certificates, 14 percent associate degrees, and 12 percent bachelor's degrees. Among those who began at four-year colleges, 2 percent received certificates, 5 percent associate degrees, and 58 percent bachelor's degrees."

• Follow the most important stories on college admissions and financial aid on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rottenbornj


• For links to articles on college admissions and financial aid, you can "friend" Joe Rottenborn at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544


• "Like" the MVCAP fan page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544#!/pages/Mahoning-Valley-College-Access-Program-MVCAP/284002915922


• You can join the group MVCAP Financial-Aid Friends at this page: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=126580419181


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

111. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. More youths with mental disabilities going to college http://usat.me/40667136

‎"In years past, college life was largely off-limits for students with such disabilities, but that's no longer the case. Students with Down syndrome, autism and other conditions that can result in intellectual disabilities are leaving high school more academically prepared than ever and ready for the next step: college. Eight years ago, disability advocates were able to find only four programs on university campuses that allowed students with intellectual disabilities to experience college life with extra help from mentors and tutors. As of last year, there were more than 250 spread across more than three dozen states and two Canadian provinces, said Debra Hart, head of Think College at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which provides services to people with disabilities.That growth is partly because of an increasing demand for higher education for these students and there are new federal funds for such programs."

2. Middlebury Dean Says SAT or ACT is 'Seldom a Deal Breaker' - http://nyti.ms/bhwqrV

‎"It’s not that they play no role in the process, but highly selective colleges don’t usually have “cut off” scores for accepting or rejecting applicants, and most have a fairly wide range of scores represented among their admitted students.Higher scores are better than lower scores, of course, but even the highest scores are by no means a guarantee of admission. And sometimes a lower score can be at least partially offset by other factors in the application, like coming from an underrepresented background, having a special talent that is desirable in the student body, or any of the myriad other factors that come into play in the decision-making process. At most of the colleges to which you apply, your scores will probably look a lot like those of other applicants, so it’s unlikely they’ll be a deciding factor in your candidacy."

3. The Thinking LMS http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/18/phoenix

"This is where the University of Phoenix is headed with its online learning platform. In an effort ambitiously dubbed the "Learning Genome Project,” the for-profit powerhouse says it is building a new learning interface that gets to know each of its 400,000 students personally and adapts to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of their “learning DNA.” Unlike analog forms of student profiling — such as surveys, which are only as effective as the students’ ability to diagnose their own learning needs — Phoenix’s Learning Genome Project will be designed to infer details about students from how they behave in the online classroom, McQuaig said. If students grasp content more quickly when they learn it from a video than when they have to read a text, the system will feed them more videos. If a student is bad at interpreting graphs, the system will recognize that and present information accordingly — or connect the student with another Phoenix student who is better at graph-reading."

4. Unusual Majors and What You Can Do with Them http://hercampus.com/career/youre-majoring-what-unusual-majors-and-what-you-can-do-them

"Puppetry? Gerontology? Egyptology? These aren’t just words that end in a “y” — they’re all unusual majors at different colleges across the country. But even though these majors may leave you tongue-tied, don’t let that scare you off as these lesser known areas of study can lead to pretty cool careers. That’s great, but you’re probably wondering, what exactly can they be used for after graduation? HC has tracked down some of the most unusual majors in the country and the potential jobs they have to offer."

5. The 10 Best Business Schools For Your Career -- http://huff.to/9y4UvO Huffpost

"The Princeton Review sought to find out by surveying 19,000 students at 300 business schools across the country. Check out the 10 schools that provide their students with the best career prospects below, and see the Review's many lists of of business school rankings here."

6. How Are High School Grads Adjusting to College Life? http://huff.to/cOXD3i Huffpost

"...Most students, said Tillman, are struggling first with a significant academic transition. Tillman advises them, "Do whatever it takes to get organized and keep on top of the material. This includes meeting professors during office hours, joining study groups, going to the writing center, getting tutoring or academic coaching." Tillman says you shouldn't be afraid to drop a course quickly if you know it is too difficult. On the health front, if students have been receiving support at home for ADD/HD, learning disabilities or any illness, they will need to self-advocate and consistently follow through with those supports and medication in order to be successful. Socially, adjustments can also be hard. Tillman recommends being proactive -- and patient. "Find your niche sociall by getting involved. Be open to meeting a lot of people in the beginning. Push through that loneliness and reach out. It will get better."

7. White House Hispanic Initiative To Host Ed. Summit Today http://t.co/MNdCsCg via @educationweek

"Three assistant secretaries for the U.S. Department of Education are lined up to speak today at an education summit about how to boost college attainment among Hispanics. The summit is being hosted here in the nation's capital by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The executive director for that initiative is Juan Sepulveda. Under the initiative, Sepulveda and other White House officials visited more than 90 communities in 20 states over the past year to gather information and ideas on how to improve the lives of Latinos. Today's education summit, held at the Organization of American States building, is meant to be a "next step" in connecting communities nationwide to improve the educational attainment and lives of Latinos, a press release for the event says."

8. Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab - http://nyti.ms/9sq79o

"Better known as the Browne Review after the inquiry’s chairman, John Browne, the former head of BP, the report called for the cap on tuition fees at British universities, now set at £3,290, or $5,275, a year, to be scrapped in favor of a free-market approach paid for by the students themselves — but only after they graduate and are earning more than £21,000 a year. “Students do not pay charges, only graduates do; and then only if they are successful,” the report said. “The system of payments is highly progressive. No one earning under £21,000 will pay anything.” Lord Browne added in an interview with the BBC, “If you choose to go into a job which doesn’t pay very much or if you choose to go out of the workforce to build a family, you won’t have to pay it back.”

9. What They're Reading on College Campuses http://chronicle.com/article/What-Theyre-Reading-on/124990/

"The Chronicle's list of best-selling books was compiled from information supplied by stores serving the following campuses: American U., Drew U., Florida State U., George Washington U., Georgetown U., Georgia State U., Harvard U., James Madison U., Kent State U., Pennsylvania State U. at University Park, San Francisco... State U., Stanford U., State U. of New York at Buffalo, U. of California at Berkeley, U. of Florida, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U. of Miami, U. of Nebraska at Lincoln, U. of North Dakota, U. of North Texas, U. of Oklahoma at Norman, Vanderbilt U., Washington U. in St. Louis, Williams College, Winthrop U., Xavier U. (Ohio)."

10. WSJ.com - Y U Luv Texts, H8 Calls http://on.wsj.com/c448MA

"A recent survey of 2,000 college students asked about their attitudes toward phone calls and text-messaging and found the students' predominant goal was to pass along information in as little time, with as little small talk, as possible. "What they like most about their mobile devices is that they can reach other people," says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C., who conducted the survey. "What they like least is that other people can reach them."