376. 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. The other student loan problem: too little debt, by Justin Pope - Boston.com - http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-27/news/30447871_1_student-loan-higher-education-report-cheaper-community-colleges via @ArchiveDigger - "Students who take extreme steps to avoid debt at all costs, they say, may get stuck with something much more financially damaging than moderate student loan debt. They may not wind up with a college degree. To pay for college and minimize borrowing, students are working longer hours at jobs and taking fewer credits. They’re less likely to enroll full-time. They’re living at home. They’re “trading down’’ to less selective institutions with lower prices, and heading first to cheaper community colleges with plans to transfer later to four-year schools. Those may sound like money-savers, but in fact each is a well-documented risk factor that makes students less likely to graduate."

3. Study Links Academic Setbacks to Middle School Transition, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/28/13structure.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "The study, part of the Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series at Harvard University, found that students moving from grade 5 into middle school show a “sharp drop” in math and language arts achievement in the transition year that plagues them as far out as 10th grade, even risking thwarting their ability to graduate high school and go on to college."

4. Impact of Alternative Grade Config's on Student Outcomes through Middle and HS, by Guido Schwerdt and Martin R. West - http://www.edweek.org/media/gradeconfiguration-13structure.pdf - "Taken as a whole, these results suggest that structural school transitions lower student achievement but that middle schools in particular have adverse consequences for American students. Especially when considered along those of other recent studies (e.g. Bedard and Do 2005, Cook et al. 2008, Rockoff and Lockwood 2010, Schwartz et al. forthcoming), our findings clearly support ongoing efforts in urban school districts to convert standalone elementary and middle schools into schools with K-8 configurations."

5. With Blocks, Educators Go Back to Basics, by Kyle Spencer - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/nyregion/with-building-blocks-educators-going-back-to-basics.html?_r=1&hpw - "Studies dating to the 1940s indicate that blocks help children absorb basic math concepts. One published in 2001 tracked 37 preschoolers and found that those who had more sophisticated block play got better math grades and standardized test scores in high school. And a 2007 study by Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Hospital, found that those with block experience scored significantly better on language acquisition tests."

6. Virtual schools are multiplying, but some question their educational value, by Lyndsey Layton and Emma Brown - http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virtual-schools-are-multiplying-but-some-question-their-educational-value/2011/11/22/gIQANUzkzN_story.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter - "K12 Inc. of Herndon has become the country’s largest provider of full-time public virtual schools, upending the traditional American notion that learning occurs in a schoolhouse where students share the experience. In K12’s virtual schools, learning is largely solitary, with lessons delivered online to a child who progresses at her own pace."

7. 5 reasons for-profit colleges will survive, by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/5-reasons-for-profit-colleges-will-survive/2011/11/27/gIQApBvy2N_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "For-profit colleges often have better graduation rates for the same kind of students. U.S. Education Department data show students with two or more key risk factors, such as delayed enrollment, no high school diploma or full-time job, have only a 17 percent chance overall of getting a two-year or four-year degree. Their chances are 24 percent at for-profit schools. That’s not a big improvement, but they are doing it with fewer tax dollars."

8. Haven for struggling kids, by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/haven-for-struggling-kids/2011/11/23/gIQAuwx2oN_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "As a country, we do a better job with our best students — the kind found in abundance in the Washington suburbs — than we do with our worst. Most students in the bottom halves of our classes drop out before high school graduation. We are a mostly middle-class country, but our substantial minority of poor youths must deal not only with gaps in their reading, writing and math skills but terrible conditions at home."

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)."