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."

115. 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. Your Comments on High-Octane Parents, and their Blessedly Decaffeinated Children, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/9uzzqd

‎"I’ve been moderating your comments on Dave Marcus’s essay, “A Father’s Acceptance: His Son Won’t Follow His Ivy Footsteps,” and I’m having a bit of trouble keeping up. So many of you have been prompted to tell heartfelt stories of your own families, and the divergent, oft-rocky paths taken by parent and child. It’s obvious that Mr. Marcus touched a nerve, and that many of you saw yourselves in what he wrote about his relationship with his son, Benjie. (By the way, Benjie reviewed the essay in advance and gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up, his father says.)By contrast, some of you had a dissenting view from Mr. Marcus, which we’ll get to in a moment.I can’t possibly do justice to all your comments — you’ve posted more than 70, and counting, and the entire stream is probably worth savoring over a cup of coffee — but I’ll try to touch on a representative sampling."

2. Student Debt and the Class of 2009 http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/classof2009.pdf

"College seniors who graduated in 2009 had an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up 6 percent from the previous year, according to data released Thursday by the Project on Student Debt. At the same time, unemployment for recent college graduates climbed from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent in 2009 – the highest annual rate on record for college graduates aged 20 to 24."

3. For-Profit Lobbying Escalates - Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/k3cOgYV

‎"As federal scrutiny of the sector has spread from the U.S. Department of Education's in-the-weeds negotiated rule-making process last winter to the high-profile series of hearings by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that began in June, for-profit higher education has responded by spending increasingly more on lobbying the Education Department, the White House and members of Congress. From the first quarter of the year (January-March) to the third (July-September), based on Inside Higher Ed's analysis of public disclosure data, for-profits' federal lobbying spending nearly doubled, from slightly more than $1.3 million to just short of $2.6 million."

4. Changing Course - Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/cRc7JE4

"Some nonprofit institutions that partner with companies on online education have been careful to emphasize their commitment to keeping a wall between the business and technology of online course delivery and the actual instruction. “Some things, we would never turn over to the private sector,” Philip Regier, dean of Arizona State University’s online programs, said earlier this month, after his institution announced it was going into business with Pearson to help boost its online offerings. But Blackboard and K12 are betting that remedial education will be an exception. About 75 percent of first-year students at community colleges need at least one remedial course, according to a report released earlier this year by the The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. And yet the percentage of students who end up moving beyond such courses is typically less than half. Under the circumstances, it might be hard for faculty to reject outsourced courses on territorial grounds."

5. Somewhere Along the Line - Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/8kzMErN

"A greater share of students who began at higher levels of remediation -- in other words, those levels closest to “college-ready” -- were “of traditional college age when they entered community college,” and they “aspired to more ambitious academic goals,” “enrolled full time during their first year,” “completed college-level coursework beyond the [remediation] sequence,” and “transferred or completed a degree or certificate. ”At the other end of the spectrum, few students who began at the lower levels of remediation “completed the last course in the remedial sequence or beyond.” Black and Hispanic students “were overrepresented” in these lower levels."

6. Average Student Debt: $24,000 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/22/average-student-debt-2400_n_772276.html

"The report reveals that northeastern states have the highest concentration of debt, with averages across states ranging from $13,000 to $30,000. The report looked at graduates of private and public non-profit four-year colleges. Institute for College Access & Success President Lauren Asher told the New York Times that the "consistent growth in debt over the last few years really adds up." She said students should consider federal loans over private loans as they come with more repayment options and borrower protections."

7. New Measurements For Success At Community Colleges? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/21/new-measurements-for-succ_n_771488.html

"Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System currently publishes degree attainment for first-and full-time students who graduate within four years. Those who support a new means of measurement argue that the IPEDS falsely deflates the success of two year institutions by failing to report on students who transfer to a four year college before graduating, as well as on students who never intend to gain a degree (i.e. individuals who seek a certificate or retraining)....The study found that 50 percent of students who passed English classes within their first two years graduated, compared with only 20 percent of students who failed such courses, and that 55 percent of students who passed math classes in their first two years attained a degree -- as opposed to a graduation rate of 21 percent for those who did not earn passing marks. The report's authors contend that such figures should encourage states to make a nuanced effort to increase graduation rates. . . ."

8. Students Applying to More Colleges and More Online, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/myyrqtW via @educationweek

"The 2010 State of College Admission Report shows that nearly 75 percent of students now apply to three or more colleges, an increase of 14 percent in the past two decades. The percentage of students who submitted seven or more applications reached 23 percent last year, up from 9 percent in 1990. Although most colleges reported increases in the number of applications for fall 2009, the largest proportion since 1996 (29 percent) reported decreases. The process is becoming electronic. About 80 percent of four-year colleges and universities received applications online for the fall 2009 admission cycle, up from 72 percent in 2008, 68 percent in 2007, and 58 percent in 2006."

9. Curious Case of ‘Catnip’ & the Common App http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/the-curious-case-of-‘catnip’-and-the-common-application/27589

"At the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s annual conference last month, several counselors discussed what they described as an increasingly common scenario: students using a fast-track application to apply to a college that’s a member of the Common Application. In such cases, high schools cannot electronically submit students’ supporting documents—transcripts, secondary-school reports, and letters of recommendation—to colleges. Why not? Because a member college isn’t able to download those documents until (or unless) a student submits his or her application through the Common Application’s Web site. In other words, a student can bypass the Common Application’s system by submitting a fast-track app, but that student’s counselor cannot do the same. In those instances, counselors say they must send supporting documents through the mail— and they must rely on students to tell them that they’ve filed a fast-track app in the first place."

10. When Choosing A College, What Really Matters? by Abby McCartney Choosing a College Unigo http://t.co/tXRts1I

"The process of matching yourself to a school is different for everyone, and I’m no expert. But I’ve been through it a few times now, with myself, my friends, my sister, and her friends, and we all made a lot of the same mistakes. So, whether you’re compiling an initial list or making a final choice, here are some tips from someone who’s been there before. Three things that do not matter as much as I once thought:"