258. 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. Top paying jobs for class of 2011, by Kaitlin Madden - #cnn: http://t.co/8gbnaWV - "Now, in 2011, we can at last say that things are really and truly looking up for new college grads. According to the annual survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, overall, employers plan to hire 19.3 percent more new college graduates this fall than they did in the fall of 2010, the first double-digit percentage increase since 2007."

2. Private student loans vs. federal student loans, by Sandra Block - http://usat.ly/jowvoW via @USATODAY - "But while some private loan rates look appealing, you should never sign up for one until you've maxed out on federal student loans. And even then, you should scrutinize the terms of the loan contract before you borrow. Here's why:"

3. Thank You for the Scholarship, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/mpsBUb - "Now that budgets are tight and fund-raising is difficult, however, some see compulsory thank-you notes as a tool to help ensure that donors stay connected to the college and see the benefits of their contributions, potentially leading to future donations."

4. 'College For All' Campaign Getting a Second Look, by Catherine Gewertz - http://t.co/GGkW3Is via @educationweek - "Two thirds of the jobs created in the United States by 2018 will require some postsecondary education, but of those, nearly half will go to people with occupational certificates or associate degrees, according to data cited in the report."

5. Federal Committee: Net-Price Calculators Have Potential, and Pitfalls - http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/federal-committee-net-price-calculators-have-potential-and-pitfalls/33604 - "Because the calculators will not be standardized, the report argues, prospective students may have a hard time comparing different colleges’ costs. The report also raises concerns that the calculators won’t be used by the neediest students, nor will they accurately compute merit aid."

6. Analysis Finds Graduation Rates Moving Up, by Christopher B. Swanson - http://t.co/khUzhW6 via @educationweek - "A new analysis of high school completion from the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center finds that the national graduation rate stands at 71.7 percent for the class of 2008, the most recent year for which data are available."

7. Summer Do's and Don'ts for College Applicants, by Peter Van Buskirk - The College Admissions Insider (usnews.com) - http://t.co/QEwJ2fU - "If you are a rising high school senior, how will you spend your summer months? The following do's and don'ts provide guidance in making good and productive choices."

227. Unstack the Odds--Success, Part 1

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

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

14. Success, Part 1

When it comes to “success” in college, we usually think of graduation or completion of a program (e.g., certificate). Typically, the most selective colleges—that is, those schools having the highest admission standards, taking mainly students with strong grade-point averages, class-ranks, and ACT or SAT scores—graduate the highest percentage of their students. A key statistic for college success affecting graduation is retention rate, frequently defined as the percentage of freshman who return to start their sophomore year. To see the retention rates of students admitted to colleges with varying rates of selectivity, consult the ACT report National Collegiate Retention and Persistence to Degree Rates at this link: http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/retain_2009.pdf

Insofar as why students may not succeed in college, there are a number of reasons often cited. But a recent survey by Public Agenda, underwritten by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of over 600 young adults (ages 22 to 30) who had completed some college, belied common myths in suggesting the prime cause. According to its findings: “The number one reason students give for leaving school is the fact that they had to work and go to school at the same time and, despite their best efforts, the stress of trying to do both eventually took its toll. More than half of those who left higher ed before completing a degree or a certificate say that the ‘need to work and make money’ while attending classes is the major reason they left. Balancing work and school was an even bigger barrier than finding money for tuition. Those who dropped out are almost twice as likely to cite problems juggling work and school as their main problem as they are to blame tuition bills (54 percent to 31 percent).” (Jean Johnson, Jon Rochkind, Amber N. Ott, and Samantha DuPont, With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them: Myths and Realities About Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College, Public Agenda, December 2009, p. 5.) http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/theirwholelivesaheadofthem.pdf

Other “realities” cited were the following: “Young people who fail to finish college are often going it alone financially. They’re essentially putting themselves through school.” (Ibid., p. 9.)

“Among students who don’t graduate, the college selection process is far more limited and often seems happenstance and uninformed.” (Ibid., p. 12.) Indeed, the report found that “Those who did not complete are more likely than those who completed college to have selected their school based on convenience rather than academics.” (Ibid., p. 13.)

Tamar Lewin, reporting on this study in The New York Times, emphasized the importance of students’ financial and familial situation, saying this about the findings: “Among those who dropped out, nearly six in 10 were getting no help from their parents in paying tuition. Among those who got degrees, more than six in 10 have help from their family in paying tuition. About seven in 10 of the dropouts said they had no scholarship or loan aid; among those who got degrees, only about four in 10 went without such aid.”

Lewin further underscored the income and family backgrounds of these students, as she noted: “Among those who completed a degree, 72 percent had household incomes above $35,000. Among the dropouts, more than half had household incomes below $35,000. And while 7 in 10 of the college graduates had parents who had completed at least some college work, 4 in 10 of the dropouts had parents who had not gone beyond a high school diploma.” (Tamar Lewin, “Study Sheds Light on Students Leaving College Early,” The New York Times, December 9, 2009.) http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/agenda/?src=twt&twt=NYTimesCollege

213.Unstack the Odds--Black Males: A Crisis, Pt 4

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

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

6. Black Males: A Crisis, Pt 4

“He says the biggest revelation he had reading his own autobiography came in the parts about his father, who abandoned the family when Jay was 11. ‘It was still wrong, at the end of the day, that he left.’ Jay says, ‘but he did stick around at a time when it wasn’t cool or popular—he married my mom at a time when guys were just leaving, and you’d never even meet your dad. So it made me ease up a little bit in how I felt about him.”--Mark Binelli, “King of America: From Coachella to the White House, How Jay-Z Runs the Game,” Rolling Stone, June 24, 2010, p. 47.

Dakarai Aarons also commented on the release of the report A Call for Change, which examined data from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). As he stated: “The council's report suggests that the underperformance of black male youths is nothing short of a national emergency, and it calls for the convening of a White House conference.”

Aarons quotes Michael Casserly from an interview as saying, "This is not just an education issue, and it is not just an urban issue. It is a broader national issue that is going to require sustained and coordinated effort on the part of a lot of people.” (Dakarai Aarons, “Black Male Achievement in a 'State of Crisis,' Study Says,” Education Week, November 9, 2010.) http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2010/11/black_male_achievement_paints.html
Chauntel Riser, coordinator of the African-American Resource Center at California State University Fullerton (CSUF), put it this way: “So it’s not that they don’t want to, they just don’t know how to graduate . . . .” According to Christina Lunceford, assistant director of the Center for Research on Education Access and Leadership at CSUF, “We are in a crisis across the country especially with African-American males. There are not a lot of African-American males going to college and even fewer are graduating.” (Soyoung Kim, “Achievement Gap Persists in African-American Graduation Rates,” Neon Tommy, March 5, 2011.) http://m.neontommy.com/news/2011/03/achievement-gap-persists-african-american-graduation-rates

Regarding the graduation gap involving Black male college athletes, Lynn O’Shaughnessy offered a posting on the graduation rates of men’s basketball teams competing in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. She drew statistics from the annual report issued by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida and commented as follows: “The gap between white and African American players, however, grew by four percentage point[s] to 32%. Ninety one percent of white basketball players graduate, but only 59% of African-American basketball players graduate. Obviously, that’s unacceptable.” (Lynn O’Shaughnessy, “2011 March Madness: Best and Worst Graduation Rates,” The College Solution: CBS Moneywatch, March 15, 2011.) http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/2011-march-madness-best-and-worst-graduation-rates/4787/?tag=col1;blog-river

By contrast, among participants on teams in the 2011 Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, the graduation gap was much smaller between the races, as “. . . 92 percent of white players graduate, compared to 84 percent of black players, or a gap of just 8 percent.” (“Women’s NCAA Teams Outdo Men in Classroom,” The Huffington Post: College, March 16, 2011.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/womens-ncaa-teams-outdo-m_n_836240.html

199. 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. College coaches' fat paychecks stir controversy, by Chris Isidore - http://t.co/SJgHnBg via @CNNMoney

"The latest storm is in Lubbock, Texas, where Texas Tech football coach Tommy Tuberville is getting a 33% raise after just one year, to $2 million. The new contract is guaranteed through 2014.The school says it was making good on a verbal agreement made with Tuberville when he was hired. But the raise comes as many faculty members are going without raises, and the school prepares for expected cuts in state support."

2. Collective Bargaining Rights and Higher Education, by Maria Newman - http://nyti.ms/dFYehK

‎"Mr. Jaschik points out that most college faculty members nationally are not unionized. “A Supreme Court ruling has largely blocked faculty union organizing at private colleges, while state governments regulate collective bargaining in the public sector,” he writes. Unions are more prevalent in colleges and universities in the Northeast, Midwest and West, he said."

3. Roadblocks for ROTC? by Dan Berrett - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/epTDUE

"Opponents generally fall into two camps -- one opposing ROTC because of whom it excludes, the other because of what the military does (a third line of criticism arises from faculty concerns over the academic quality of ROTC programs)."

4. Professors in the Crosshairs, by Mary Hoeft - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/dHoim0

‎"Frequently, during class, he would turn to the young woman seated next to him and engage in a conversation. After asking him repeatedly to focus his attention on what I was saying, I finally asked him to switch seats. I made the request three times before he got up and moved. As he slowly walked across the room, I saw on his face what I had seen only one other time in my teaching career: hate."

5. HEARING: Preventing Abuse of the Military's Tuition Assistance Program - http://bit.ly/g9OyeW

"The hearing will examine the state of the Department of Defense's (DOD) Tuition Assistance Program, which provides tuition assistance benefits to active duty military personnel who wish to take classes while concurrently fulfilling their active duty service requirement. In Fiscal Year 2009, 376,759 service members participated in th...e program and DOD spent over $517 million on the benefit."

6. The Top Jobs For 2011: NACE Salary Survey - http://huff.to/dIRjRV

"College seniors studying accounting are in luck -- accounting firms are doling out more offers to members of the class of 2011 than companies in any other area, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' Winter 2011 Salary Survey. . . ."

7. Value of College-Admissions Test-Prep Classes Unclear, by Caralee J. Adams - http://bit.ly/fGQl1B

‎"Test-prep programs generally include three elements: a review of test content, practice on test questions, and orientation to the format of the test. In 2009, in cooperation with NACAC, Mr. Briggs reviewed three national data sets and found the average effect of commercial coaching is positive, but slight. Test-score bumps were more in the neighborhood of 30 points (on a 1,600-point scale at the time). . . ."

8. Can universities keep the minority students they woo? by Sarah Butrymowicz - Hechinger Report: http://t.co/Q9XFx2A

"But a study released last summer by the Washington D.C.-based Education Trust, which analyzed data from 456 colleges and universities, found a disturbing gap in graduation rates when disaggregated by race. At private institutions, 73.4 percent of white students earned their degrees within six years, while only 54.7 percent of black students and 62.9 percent of Hispanic students made it through the schools they started."

9. FAFSA frustrations? Financial aid expert online Thursday to answer questions, by Jenna Johnson - http://wapo.st/gB5pYC

"Starting at 1 p.m/ Thursday, I will be online to answer questions with Mark Kantrowitz, a leading financial aid expert and the publisher of Fastweb.com and FinAid.org. Mark has written three books about financial aid, including "Secrets to Winning a Scholarship." Please send us your questions now!"

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153. 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. Graduation Gap Bowl 2010 -http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/12/11/12_11_10_graduation_gap_bowl/

See the graduation gap on the football teams in upcoming bowls.

2. Deferral? Denial? Acceptance? A Daughter Tells Her Story, by Nicole Gerszberg - http://nyti.ms/eNZF6S

"This process has taught me a great deal. Not only did I learn how to package myself into “250 words or less,” but I also have a better sense of where I want to be in 10 years, what areas of study I would like to explore, and a lot about who I am."

3. In Over Its Head, by Elizabeth Redden - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/goaHgu

"How did Keuka College end up being a powerhouse player in China, with more than twice as many students enrolled there as in New York? Is it the little college that could or is it, per the account in the dissertation, the institution that got in over its head? These narratives are not mutually exclusive."

4. The Senate's Budget Approach, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gb9xZC

‎"To the relief of many college officials, both pieces of legislation would provide $5.7 billion to close a shortfall in the Pell Grant Program, ensuring that -- with the help of mandatory budget funds Congress provided in last spring's Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act -- the maximum grant would remain at $5,550."

5. Tweaks to GI Bill Move Ahead, by Jack Stripling - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gMFMne

"While the current law derives its maximum payout from the highest in-state public tuition in a given state, the new legislation would cap annual payouts at $17,500. Any expenses above that threshold could be covered by the Yellow Ribbon Program, which allows participating private colleges to enter into dollar-for-dollar matching agreements with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs."

6. Colleges With The Highest Graduation Rates - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/colleges-with-the-highest_1_n_796136.html#s206355

"On Harvard's heels are Yale University and the University of Notre Dame, with rates of 97 and 96 percent. Among public research universities, the University of Virginia had the highest graduation rate in 2008 at 93 percent, followed by the College of William and Mary and the University of California-Berkeley."

7. Stanford shares details of early-admit class, by Elizabeth Titus - http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/12/13/stanford-shares-details-of-early-admit-class/

"The University received a record-high 5,929 applicants, dropping the admission rate to 12.7 percent for Stanford’s “restrictive early-action program.” Applicants were up 6.5 percent from last year, when Stanford admitted 753 of its 5,566 applicants, or 13.5 percent. The University notified all early applicants of their application status via e-mail on Friday afternoon."

8. 14 Things You Didn't Know About College Students, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/HWVU1UG

‎"Did you know, for instance, that only 48% of undergraduates attend college full-time? This week The Chronicle of Higher Education assembled some statistics on undergraduates in such categories as household income, gender and where students are attending college that could change your perception of the typical college kid. Here are 14 facts about undergrads:"

9. Higher-Ed Groups Lay Out Strategies to Reach Obama's College-Completion Goal, by Eric Kelderman: http://chronicle.com/article/Higher-Education-Groups-Lay/125710/

"Changing how higher education is paid for "may be the hardest task of all, because it will mean abandoning well-understood and deeply ingrained practices that . . . serve to preserve the institutional status quo rather than creating incentives for vital changes, such as improved persistence and graduation rates, or cost containment," the report says."

10. Standardized snake oil, by Marion Brady: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/standardized-snake-oil---.html

"As a mountain of research makes clear, what ails them is primarily long-term poverty and the myriad problems poverty spawns. That’s a matter I’m not qualified to write about, but for those who think test scores actually mean something important, I’ll note in passing that Finland always ranks near the top, and their child poverty rate is less than 3%, while America’s rate is over 20% and climbing rapidly. Those who believe skilled teachers can level the education playing field enough to erase that difference in the quality of the material they’re given to work with aren’t just not in the game, they’re not even in the ball park."

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152. 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. The Case for Early Decision, by Robert J. Massa - http://nyti.ms/fuagT1

‎"Here’s what colleges typically don’t make clear: Although early decision is binding, no college will hold a student to a contract if a family determines that the financial aid package is inadequate, regardless of how much assistance the college offers or what the needs analysis-scholarship eligibility criteria suggests. That’s right. If the family says they can’t afford it, files an appeal and the college still doesn’t meet their expectations, they can withdraw their child’s application without penalty."

2. Did You (Or Your Child) Get an Early-Admission Decision? by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/gpxx4k

"In the meantime, though, I hope that those of you who applied — or had a child who applied — will use the comment box below now, or over the next few days, to tell readers what you’re hearing as you hear it. In the process, I’d like to give readers of The Choice the virtual experience of being around the kitchen table or at the computer as these decisions land. So please, tell us your stories."

3. Surprise: Alumni Love Their Colleges, by Allie Grasgreen - Inside Higher Ed - http://t.co/dz4hBVW

"The survey, which was commissioned by the American Council of Education, hinges on one finding in particular: that despite a harsh economic climate for recent graduates and a harsh political one for colleges in general, 89 percent of alumni say their degree was worth the time and money."

4. 10 Paying College Jobs That Look Good on Your Résumé - US News and World Report, by Alexis Grant - http://t.co/JsHgLGh

‎"Your best bet is to look for a job that's related to the career you're hoping to pursue, so you can gain relevant skills, contacts, and experience. If you don't know yet which career is right for you, use your college job to help you figure that out, says Lindsey Pollak, author of Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World. If you don't end up enjoying the job you choose, you can cross it off your list of potential careers.
These 10 jobs are great choices for students because they look good on a résumé, work around class schedules, and offer decent pay."

5. The 7 Most Important Classes to Take In College, by Rachel Dozier - http://j.mp/hUxJyc

"You’re not in school for the easy A’s. Here are seven classes that are not only fun but can help you down the road as well—no matter what your major is!"

6. Education Week: Study: States Must Move Faster to Close Achievement Gaps, by Mary Ann Zehr - http://t.co/BGp8XFI via @educationweek

"In Washington State, for example, the Center on Education Policy predicts it will take 105 years to close the gap between white and African-American students in 4th grade reading at the rate it’s going. By contrast, if Louisiana continues at the same pace in narrowing the gap between those same two groups of students in 4th grade reading, the gap will be closed in 12.5 years."

7. College, Jobs and Inequality - Editorial 12/14/10, The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/opinion/14tue1.html?_r=1&hp

"Over the past year, for example, the unemployment rate for college grads under age 25 has averaged 9.2 percent, up from 8.8 percent a year earlier and 5.8 percent in the first year of the recession that began in December 2007. That means recent grads have about the same level of

unemployment as the general population. It also suggests that many employed recent grads may be doing work that doesn’t require a college degree.
Even more disturbing, there is no guarantee that unemployed or underemployed college grads will move into much better jobs as conditions improve."

8. Emphasizing Sports Over Academics Sets Up Black Boys to Lose, by Richard Whitmire - http://t.co/r4Utc5k via @educationweek

"It’s perhaps understandable that high school boys ignore the odds and insist that academics don’t matter because they have a shot at the pros. But parents should know better. A community that pushes sports over academics is doing a terrible disservice to its children, who will find themselves in deep trouble when their athletic aspirations fail to materialize and they don’t have the academic background to do much else."

9. Md.'s Towson University conquers 'graduation gap' by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/8ffofsd via @washingtonpost

"In 10 years, according to school data, Towson has raised black graduation rates by 30 points and closed a 14-point gap between blacks and whites. University leaders credit a few simple strategies: admitting students with good grades from strong public high schools, then tracking each student's progress with a network of mentors, counselors and welcome-to-college classes."

10. Dearth of Blacks at Oxford and Cambridge, by D.D. Guttenplan - http://nyti.ms/hTf6ta

"According to Mr. Lammy, last year the whole of Oxford University admitted just one black student, and Cambridge University does not have a single black faculty member. . . . A spokeswoman for Oxford said that Mr. Lammy’s arguments “don’t stack up.” In a statement, the university said lack of success in secondary school was the biggest barrier to blacks’ admission, noting that “in 2009, 29,000 white students got the requisite grades for Oxford compared to just 452 black students.”
“Black students apply disproportionately for the most oversubscribed subjects,” it said, further reducing their chances of success."

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


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