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Showing posts with label early college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label early college. Show all posts

Thursday, June 9, 2011

260. 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. Reformers, please listen to what parents want for schools, by Helen Gym - #cnn http://t.co/BiQ76Z2 - "I can tell you all of these things because as a parent, the true meaning of a quality school lies in a strong child- and family-centered educational mission that recognizes education as a "process of living" and school life as "real and vital" to our children and families, as American philosopher John Dewey wrote more than half a century ago."


2. Twitter finds a place in the classroom, by Dan Simon - #cnn http://t.co/ajdSMRx - "A technology enthusiast, Legaspi learned how to incorporate the social network into his 8th-grade curriculum while attending the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco earlier this year."I had an aha moment there," he said. "I said to myself, 'This is going to really engage my students.'"


3. An Overnight Train Ride to a Final Destination: by Sophia Gimenez - http://nyti.ms/kBrHkR - "No matter whom I talked to at Knox, I distinctly remember the sincerity and zeal that radiated from their character as well as an insatiable inquisitiveness that ignited inspiration with every word."


4. Car Sales and College Graduation, by Nate Johnson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/mraaEu - "The timely national release of top-line completion numbers would put a day on the calendar to spark a recurring national discussion about how we’re doing across state lines and relative to one another and to our ambitious goals. We can imagine states and colleges themselves vying to be among the top-performing institutions and using it in their marketing and recruitment efforts."


5. Hechinger Report Skip senior year and go straight to college?, by Scott Elliott and Sarah Butrymowicz: http://bit.ly/iTPYBc - "When the Indiana legislature passed the budget at the end of April, it also launched Daniels’ plan, which allows high school students who complete their core requirements by the end of their junior year to skip senior year and go straight to college.Money the state would have spent on senior year will become scholarship money — $6,000 to $8,000 for most students, depending on their school district."


6. Mich. Early College Builds Pipeline into Health Careers, by Christina A. Samuels - http://t.co/e9NM6mx via @educationweek - "It joined with the 18,600-student Dearborn school district and Henry Ford Community College to create Henry Ford Early College, a five-year program that allows students from area school districts to graduate with a high school diploma, an associate of science degree, and a certification in one of 12 allied health fields, such as surgery technology, radiology, or biotechnology, at no cost to their families."


7. Sen. Harkin Presses Education Dept. on Effectiveness of 'Gainful Employment' Rule, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Sen-Harkin-Presses-Education/127786/ - "The rule is "a modest first step, but I think its going to take a much more aggressive policy," said Mr. Harkin, who is chairman of the Senate education committee.The regulation, which was released last week, will cut off federal student aid to vocational programs whose students struggle to repay their debts. Under the rule, programs that fail to meet federal benchmarks for loan repayment and debt-to-income ratios in three out of four years will become ineligible to receive federal student aid."


8. Backlash: Are These End Times for Charter Schools? by Andrew J. Rotherham - http://t.co/HyxvUYa via Time - "First created in 1992, charter schools are public schools that are open to all students but are run independently of local school districts. There are now more than 5,000 of them educating more than a million students. Charter schools range in quality from among the absolute best public schools in the country to among the absolute worst. That variance in quality is proving a political Achilles heel for charter schools and is fueling a serious backlash."


9. 10 Least Expensive Private Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/10-least-expensive-privat_n_872917.html#s289000&title=Berea_College_910 - "Private colleges are generally more expensive than public ones. Although, many private colleges defray the cost of tuition with financial aid (on average as much as 50%), sometimes even that kind of discount is not enough to justify attending the school.However, some private colleges are just simply cheaper from the start than others."


10. Eye on Education, Part I: City school students, by Tim Louis Macaluso - http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/news/articles/2011/06/Eye-on-Education-Part-I-City-school-students/ - "During the last 30 years, Rochester's schools have become increasingly segregated, graduation rates have fallen, and the achievement gap between white students and their black and Hispanic peers has widened. Nowhere is the achievement gap more evident than with young black male students - something many people are calling a national crisis."



Tuesday, December 21, 2010

157. 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. Me, in 500 Words or Less, by Michael Campbell - http://nyti.ms/eqkrD4

‎"The essays are my chance to reveal myself as an individual with substance beyond scores and merit beyond my transcript. If I fail to do so, I will become little more than a statistic in the eyes of admissions. If I succeed, I may prove myself a worthy candidate for acceptance."

2. Goodbye DADT, Hello ROTC, by Dan Berrett - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hZMcLE

"It also effectively ends what has been a vexing problem for higher education, including at Columbia -- given our desire to be open to our military, but not wanting to violate our own core principle against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," continued Bollinger. "We now have the opportunity for a new era in the relationship between universities and our military services."

3. Spare the Rod, Pay the Prof, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/ig5ERr

‎"Instead, the university is offering to share tuition revenues from online students with colleges and departments that accommodate them. In the College of Arts and Sciences, professors — who are not generally given bonuses for developing new courses — are offered $5,000 to adapt a course to the online medium."

4. 'The Global Auction' by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fByZ2t

‎"Start asking hard questions about your reasons for going to college, which college is likely to offer you a high-quality education, and what your chances are of finding a job that meets your expectations after graduation. If you’re aiming high, be prepared for a long and intense competition that doesn’t end when you enter the job market. If you do not see yourself at an elite university, is it better to go for a two-year rather than four-year college education and then opt for further training while employed?"


"They showed their true selves. And in 2010, they accomplished monumental things. Below, see 11 inspiring college students, campuses, groups and professors who lead by example this year -- and may renew your confidence in younger generations."

6. 100-Headed Monster That Digests College Applications! by Ruth Starkman - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ruth-starkman/100headed-monster-digests_b_798907.html

‎"At large universities additional temporary readers, usually 100 or so, are hired on for the reading season from December to February. They are the first line of people reading your applications. These "external" temporary readers undergo several weeks of training before the reading process and continue to receive support from the fulltime admissions personnel after the reading starts. External readers are a hugely mixed group of people from high school academic counselors to alumni to retired or part-time faculty from many different universities."

7. Why Don't Professors Like to Teach? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/ThEkjhK

"The reason is simple, according to a policy paper by the Center For College Affordability and Productivity. Professors are rewarded for staying out of the classroom. The big money in the higher-ed world is in research. It’s definitely not in teaching a bunch of undergraduates Psych 101 or holding office hours."

8. Cutbacks Force Some Early Colleges to Close Down, by Mary Ann Zehr - http://t.co/ThIN94j via @educationweek

‎"Over the past two-and-a-half years, two such schools have closed in Georgia, and a District of Columbia high school greatly scaled back its school-within-a-school early-college program. In Ohio, Youngstown State University is transferring responsibility for an early-college high school on its campus to the nearby Eastern Gateway Community College because it can no longer afford to sponsor it."

9. Early Decision Up, Yet Still Small Part of Admissions Pie, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/Qr19mFc

"Early decision is when a student applies to his first-choice school and, if accepted, the decision is binding. Early action is similar to early decision, but the student doesn't have to commit immediately. She can still apply to other colleges and wait to make a decision until spring. About 18 percent of colleges offer early decision and 24 percent have early action plans, according to the 2010 State of Admissions Report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). These plans are more common at private colleges."


"Nearly two-thirds of respondents said the contents of individual award letters were clear and easy to understand, but more than half said that letters from different colleges were hard to compare. Almost seven-eighths of respondents said award letters should be standardized."

11. 30 Ways to Rate a College - by Alex Richards and Ron Coddington - http://chronicle.com/article/30-Ways-to-Rate-a-College/124160/

‎"That indicates a lack of agreement among them on what defines quality. Much of the emphasis is on “input measures” such as student selectivity, faculty-student ratio, and retention of freshmen. Except for graduation rates, almost no “outcome measures,” such as whether a student comes out prepared to succeed in the work force, are used."

Friday, December 3, 2010

145. 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. Grading Higher Education: Giving Consumers The Information They Need, by Bridget Terry Long: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2010/12_thp_cap/12_higher_ed_long.pdf

"The problem is that going to college is an expensive investment. The cost of four years of college can exceed $100,000, and over a quarter of four-year college students graduate with over $25,000 of student loan debt. Moreover, the college investment is a high-risk proposition. While the average return on a postsecondary credential is substantial, justifying the cost in most cases, there is no guarantee that a person will benefit. Only half of college entrants complete a bachelor’s degree and so many students forfeit the potential returns of such a degree."

2. The Long Road to College Access - Bridget Terry Long - http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/long06012001.html

"Although the Georgia plan has cost $1.2 billion over the last seven years, it has only increased enrollment by about 100,000 students. That means that, in the end, 80 percent of the funds went to students who would have gone to college anyway. At the same time, the program boosted University of Georgia state schools' average incoming SAT scores by about 100 points, making it more difficult for lower-scoring students to gain admission."

3. Who Benefits from Financial Aid? Bridget Terry Long - http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/long10012002.html

"Low-income families depend heavily on government support in order to make college a reality. This support comes through need-based policies, such as Pell Grants and Perkins Loans. Unfortunately, there has been a national shift towards merit-based aid and support, both of which increase affordability for the middle class."

4. Remedial Requirements Bridget Terry Long Researches Remediation - http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/2005/0901_long.html

"Their findings suggest that students in remedial courses are more likely to graduate, or transfer from two-year schools to four-year schools, than students with similar educational backgrounds who did not take remedial classes. The problem is that remedial courses can also prolong the time it takes for a student to get a degree—which can be a source of discouragement for many."

5. Why Your Child Won't Graduate From College in Four Years, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/Wpet5p7

‎"According to the report, about half of students who started college in 2003, had managed to graduate within six years. Another 15% were still attending college and more than a third had dropped out.The figures were a bit brighter for those who started at four-year colleges and universities. Fifty eight percent of these students graduated within six years."

6. Hechinger Report Deliberate efforts help Minnesota’s private colleges create (and keep) diverse student body, by Beth Hawkins - http://t.co/LNys5RK

"They’d do well to pay a little attention to some Minnesota success stories. For almost the tenth consecutive year the number of minorities enrolled in the 17 four-year, liberal arts schools that belong to the Minnesota Private College Council has increased [PDF]. This year, 17 percent of incoming freshmen statewide are minorities, as are nearly 23 percent of transfers."

7. Community College Spotlight Costs drive college decisions, by Joanne Jacobs - http://t.co/27yOGi7

"Hit by the recession the Murrays are contributing less to college savings and seeing lower returns on their college fund. The availability of financial aid is becoming a larger factor in the decision of where to send children to school, according to a 2010 survey by college admissions counseling service ApplyWise.com and media company NextStepU."

8. Hechinger Report Early-college programs rethink high expectations, by Sarah Butrymowicz - http://t.co/fKQfXs9

‎"Still, only about 11 percent of early-college graduates nationwide received associate’s degrees, far below the original goal of 100 percent. And the average early-college student graduates with just 22 credits, less than a year’s worth of college coursework."

9. What Is a College Degree Worth in China? - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/fxgcSd

"According to recent statistics, the average Chinese college graduate makes only 300 yuan, or about $44, more a month than the average Chinese migrant worker. In recent years, the wages of college graduates have remained steady at about 1,500 yuan a month. Migrant workers' wages, however, have risen to 1,200 yuan."

10. College Grad Rates Stay Exactly the Same, by Kevin Carey http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/college-grad-rates-stay-exactly-the-same/29394

"All in all, this confirms what we already knew: College works well for the kind of student who has been going to college for a long time: white middle- and upper-class children of college graduates who enroll full-time directly after leaving high school."


Friday, October 29, 2010

120. 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. Not So Need-Blind - Inside Higher Ed

‎"Bishop pointed to economic data showing that, since 1985, the cost of attending a private college has risen at more than double the rate of household income. Put another way, the share of a median household's income that was devoted to paying for higher education went from 22 percent in 1988 to more than 50 percent today. Those increases continue, with tuition and fee hikes this year ranging from 4.5 percent to nearly 8 percent over last year. "Families are more stressed than they ever have been before," said Bishop...."As I look out over the next 10 years, I'm deeply concerned," said Rick Bischoff, vice president for enrollment at Case Western Reserve University. "Would it be better to have a smaller percentage of high-need students and not 'gap' them?" he asked, referring to the practice of admitting some applicants without offering them sizable enough aid packages to realistically make it possible for them to enroll. "

2. Need Blind, but 'Gapping' -

"That's because only a small subset of colleges pledges to meet the full need of all students they admit. That means that for most institutions, "gapping" has become the norm. That's when a college admits a student, tells her that she probably needs $X to afford to enroll, and then provides a package that is less than $X -- sometimes considerably so. On need-blind status, the study found that 93 percent of public institutions and 81 percent of private institutions say that they are entirely need blind. An additional 6 percent of private colleges report that they are need blind until May 1, and then consider economic circumstances when evaluating students on the waiting list or who apply late. But the numbers change dramatically when colleges are asked if they meet the full financial need of accepted students. Only 32 percent of public institutions and 18 percent of private institutions say that they make such a commitment, the report says."

3. Nearly All Graduates of a Texas High School Earn College Credit, in Inside Higher Ed

"A new report by Jobs for the Future outlines how the Hidalgo Independent School District, which serves an economically depressed area along the Texas-Mexico border, was able to graduate more than 95 percent of its most recent high school graduating class with college credit. About two-thirds of its graduating seniors earned at least a full semester of college credit. The school district opened the Hidalgo Early College High School in 2005 with help from the University of Texas System and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Unlike many early college high schools that serve less than 400 students, the Hidalgo model serves all of the 900+ high-schoolers in the district. The high school has strong partnerships with South Texas College and Texas State Technical College, so that students can transfer onward to earn a postsecondary credential. John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Texas High School Project, said of the project, “Hidalgo [Independent School District] shows that obstacles impeding high school and postsecondary success can be overcome. The success of early college high schools is being replicated in districts throughout Texas. We need to create more Hidalgos in our country, more districts where the lessons of early college are spread to all students.”

4. Top 10 benefits of a college degree, by Elizabeth Fuller -

Please, read this list!

5. For athletes, concussions impact class: After 5th hit, ex-Penn FB player grappled with school, by Calder Silcox

"However, ending his collegiate football career didn’t halt the effects of his concussion. For weeks after the hit, Donnelly struggled with schoolwork — a challenging hurdle for a Wharton sophomore.“Doing work was hard,” he said. “I would get headaches when I would focus, when I would read. Class was pretty much the same thing.”Colin added that in the weeks after his concussion, he had trouble recalling what he’d just read or heard in class. At the advice of his doctors, he avoided school for an entire week, watching as the work piled up.“My short term memory was just foggy until I recovered,” he said. According to Kathy Lawler, director of neuropsychological resources at Penn, Donnelly’s situation is typical of most individuals who suffer head trauma.“You’ll be fine if you don’t do anything, but the minute you go to do something like read for an hour . . . ."

6. For-Profit Colleges Clean Up Their Acts ... Sort Of -

"Faced with mounting criticism, two of the largest for-profit colleges have announced reforms. Starting in September the 470,000-student-strong University of Phoenix stopped paying its admissions officers based on the number of students they sign up, eliminating an incentive some see for those officers to mislead applicants or pressure them to sign paperwork. The school will also put all prospective new students through a three-week, tuition-free “orientation” course designed to help them decide whether they’re ready for the commitments that come with their studies. In the past there have been reports of cash-strapped students talked into signing up when they may not have been ready—many may be behind financially or educationally, but they still end up on the hook for making school payments they can’t really afford. “The orientation program enables incoming students to make an informed decision about attending University of Phoenix and experience the rigors of the college classroom. . . ."

7. College Tuition: What Students Are Paying Today, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy -

‎"Bottom Line: If you are evaluating colleges, price tags are meaningless. It’s important to find out kind of price cuts individual colleges will offer your child. You’re more apt to find these schools if you cast a wider net. There are tons of price discounts out there and the best way for a child to snag them is to do well at school and take challenging courses. Grade point averages and the strength of a teen’s academic record are typically what colleges care about the most. In the meantime, if you want to see what college costs have been doing at individual schools, I’d suggest that you take a look at this nifty college cost tool from The Chronicle of Higher Education that shows the yearly tuition and fees for more than 3,300 individual colleges and universities since 1999."

8. Education Leaders Weigh in on Preparing Students for College Success, by Caralee Adams -

"The United States has slipped from the No. 1 spot in producing college graduates to 12th, in part, because the country was not paying attention, not working hard enough, not setting high enough goals, not getting teachers in the right places, and not having the right leadership, Caperton said. There should be a stronger partnership between K-12 and higher education. Too often, colleges have stood back and said, "Send me your students and we'll take them and expect them to be at a certain level," Caperton said. If colleges want better performance, there needs to be more collaboration with public schools and higher demands on students in teacher colleges, he said. Caperton pointed to College Board programs starting in the 6th grade that build students' skills in English and math so they are ready for the PSAT in 9th grade and Advanced Placement courses in high school."

9. For-Profit Colleges to Get New Federal Rules, by Tamar Lewin -

"The final regulations on these for-profit colleges cover 13 of the 14 program-integrity questions the department has plans to address. The one that remains is the “gainful employment” regulation that would cut off federal student aid to programs whose graduates borrow too much and earn too little to repay their debts. The department will hold hearings next week on the topic, and will meet with interested parties to discuss that regulation, which will be finalized next year, and go into effect in 2012."

10. Life After Test-Optional, by Eric Hoover

"At the College Board’s annual conference here, several admissions officers at “test-optional” colleges have shared some answers. Melissa Falk, associate dean of admission and financial aid at Muhlenberg College, said reading the files of a non-submitter requires more time than reading the files of other applicants. That’s because Muhlenberg requires applicants who don’t send their scores to submit a copy of a graded paper, and to participate in an interview, either in person or by telephone. “It adds another level of subjectivity,” Ms. Falk said. Typically, colleges that go test-optional must do a lot of explaining, to faculty members, alumni, high-school counselors, prospective applicants, and—last, but not least—campus tour guides. The message? “This doesn’t mean standards are diminished,” Ms. Falk said."

11. Who Needs Harvard? by Nancy Gibbs and Nathan Thornburgh

‎"You're the college counselor at a public school in a hothouse ZIP code, and you wish you could grab the students, grab the parents by the shoulders and shake them. Twenty thousand dollars for a college consultant? They're paying for help getting into a school where the kid probably doesn't belong. Do they really think there are only 10 great colleges in the country? There are scores of them, hundreds even, honors colleges embedded inside public universities that offer an Ivy education at state-school prices; small liberal-arts colleges that exalt the undergraduate experience in a way that the big schools can't rival. And if they hope to go on to grad school? Getting good grades at a small school looks better than floundering at a famous one. Think they need to be able to tap into the old-boy network to get a job? Chances are, the kid is going to be doing a job that doesn't even exist now, so connections won't do much good. The rules have changed. The world has changed."

12. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily for today's top stories on college admissions & financial aid in newsletter form -