319. 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. Seeking Your Back-to-School Questions on Admissions, by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/o0vwcR - "Readers of The Choice can submit questions for the authors’ consideration by using the comment box below. The answers will begin appearing on Monday and continue through Sept. 16."

2. St. Lawrence University: Study By SLU Profs Shows Students Get Higher Grades If Classes Start Earlier - http://bit.ly/oABsrf via AddThis - "She notes that while later class times predicted only slightly lower student grade-point averages, there is no question that later classes were associated with more drinking. Excessive alcohol consumption is the main negative influence on academic performance in college."

3. Is technology in the classroom a bust? by Davin McHenry - http://p.ost.im/p/eNqY7Q -"The New York Times ran a front-page piece this past weekend on the fact that test scores don’t seem to be getting a boost from the billions being spent on new technology in the classroom. The education-policy world has been all over the story, with some knocking The Times and reporter Matt Richtel. Others are saying the story is an important reminder that technology isn’t a cure-all."

4. Online Search Ads Hijack Prospective Students, Former Employee Says, by Josh Keller - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-search-ads-hijack-prospective-students-former-employee-says/33047 - "The entire process was designed to redirect students who wanted information on a public college to a for-profit college, Mr. Soloway says. “The expectation was that we were not to allow a call to end with a student until we had created three private-school leads.”

5. Back to School and Deeper in Debt, by Arianna Huffington - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/back-to-school-and-deeper-in-debt_b_951205.html - "Increasingly, graduating from college no longer means putting your education to work for you -- it now means being a virtual indentured servant to your education. Instead of propelling you into the future, more and more it means trapping you in the past."

6. Check this video out -- Financial Aid 101 Part 1 - http://t.co/4quu1OP via @youtube

7. Which Assets Matter Most in Financial-Aid Formulas? by Cameron Huddleston - http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/kiptips/archives/which-assets-matter-most-in-financial-aid-formulas.html

8. 6 Ways Colleges Are Behaving Badly, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy: http://www.thecollegesolution.com/6-ways-colleges-are-behaving-badly/#.TmgY4tDDwio.twitter via @AddThis

9. RT @usnews: Should I Use The Common Application? - College Admissions Q&As (usnews.com) - http://t.usnews.com/b9DBF

10. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ Today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/x7cmxSo

316. Labor Day 2011

Here are some links to recent stories about college access and success.

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. A School District Mimics Charters, Hoping Success Will Follow: http://nyti.ms/mTJJTk

2. Harvard's a Bargain--If You're From the UK http://t.co/9G2GMPk via @TIME

3. Legislative Update: Higher Ed Bill Headed to Governor's Desk - La Canada Flintridge, http://patch.com/A-lGkJ

4. Many U.S. schools adding iPads, trimming textbooks – USATODAY.com: http://t.co/cUAHsLR via @USATODAY

5. Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value: http://nyti.ms/os0ePQ

6. Before the First School Bell, Teachers in Bronx Make House Calls: http://nyti.ms/q5ewo8

7. Students Find Ways to Thwart Facebook Bans: http://nyti.ms/pqWPdI

8. The important college question that goes unanswered hometownlife.com http://t.co/icHuGkn via @Hometownlife

9. Push for a college degree based on misleading arguments (opinion) cleveland.com http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/push_for_a_college_degree_base.html

10. Can schools narrow the achievement gap? Lansing State Journal lansingstatejournal.com http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110904/NEWS05/109040512/Can-schools-narrow-achievement-gap-

11. Federal government role in K-12 eduction — equity and funding - Midland Daily News: Opinion: http://t.co/kpmjxPZ via @AddThis

12. VIEWPOINTS: Summer learning loss contributes to student underachievement al.com http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2011/09/viewpoints_summer_learning_los.html

13. The GI Bill: A passport to a better life - News - The Orange County Register http://www.ocregister.com/articles/-314706--.html

14. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/x7cmxSo

298. Summer 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 on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. Suicide attempts higher for veterans on campus, by Sharon Jayson - http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/mentalhealth/story/2011/08/Suicide-attempts-higher-for-veterans-on-campus/49808298/1 - "Nearly half (46%) of the 415 men and 110 women studied reported having had suicidal thinking sometime in their lives; 20% had suicidal thoughts with a plan. That compares to 2010 data from the American College Health Association, which showed 6% of college students reported seriously considering suicide."

3. Degrees of Wealth, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/r2wcRp - "But notwithstanding the apparent persistence of racial and gender-based handicaps, “obtaining a postsecondary credential is almost always worth it” for everyone, the researchers say. Broadly, people with associate degrees would typically earn around $1.7 million over their lives; those with professional degrees would earn $3.6 million. The degrees in between -- bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral (in that order) -- make up pretty even steps, each worth about $400,000 more than the last."

4. Tackling Urban Inequalities, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/qVQfEz - “When we look at poverty rates, graduation rates, crime rates, employment rates, one thing stands out,” Bloomberg said at the press conference. “Blacks and Latinos are not fully sharing in the promise of American freedom, and far too many are trapped in circumstances that are difficult to escape from.”

5. When it Comes to Earnings, Higher Education Isn't the Whole Story, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Pays-but-So-Does/128526/ - "Within each occupation, like health professionals or sales and office workers, the more education a person has, the more that person is likely to earn. But some occupations pay better than others, so less-educated workers in them can earn more than more-educated workers in a different line of work. That finding echoes the center's report on college majors, since college major is closely tied to occupation."

6. Smart college shopping saves time, money and the environment, by Oliver St. John and Jayne O'Donnell: http://t.co/t6bKTeq via @USATODAY - ". . . Parents and students plan to spend an average of $808.71 on apparel, electronics, dorm furnishings and food items this year, down from $835.73 last year, according to a National Retail Federation survey by consumer intelligence firm BIGresearch."

7. A conversation: Kopp, West, Smiley on Teach for America, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://t.co/zcFut19 via @washingtonpost - "I think of the degree to which we still put such low value on the lives and the opportunities for poor and working class kids of all colors, disproportionately black, brown and red. . . . It’s a moral disgrace when you look at the schools in our urban areas. Not just black, but brown and white poor and so forth."

8. Unigo Expert Network: Best Jobs for College Students - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/unigo/unigo-expert-network-best_b_918965.html - "College students being strapped for cash is no surprise, but it does beg the question of what jobs make the best fits for students? Should students make as much money as they can and graduate with as little debt as possible - or - take on internships or lower paying positions in their field of interest?"

9. The 10 Colleges With The Best Dorms - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/the-10-colleges-with-the-_n_919218.html#s322931&title=Bryn_Mawr_College - "Dorms are notoriously spartan, cinderblock affairs. However, some colleges definitely have better living quarters than others. According to the Princeton Review, Pennsylvania liberal arts college Bryn Mawr has the best dorms in the country, followed closely by Maryland's Loyola University. Check out our slide show of the colleges with the best dorms.

10. 7 Tools to Aid the College Admissions Process, by Ryan Lytle - US News and World Report - http://t.co/ORmUWFQ - "As technology advances, digital tools have become more prevalent in making this life-altering process more manageable. Here are just a few of those tools available to students and parents:"

291. Summer 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. Recession worsens racial wealth gap, by Ben Rooney - http://t.co/i7LDA0A via @CNNMoney - "The wealth gap in the United States has grown wider in the wake of the Great Recession, with black and Hispanic American households faring much worse than white households, according to a study published Tuesday.The study, from 2009 data compiled by the Pew Research Center, found the median wealth of white households was 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households."

2. 'Class Dismissed' by Serena Golden - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/nCdWHR - "What I learned — and what I wanted to convey in the book — is the unsettling truth that if people truly care about lessening poverty and economic inequality, they should forget about education."

3. A Partial G.I. Bill Fix, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/q22v8C - "Veterans currently attending private colleges and universities that charge more than $17,500 in tuition and fees won’t see their tuition spike next month after all, after Congress approved a change to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill on Monday night. But veterans using their benefits to attend public universities in states where they are not residents might still have to come up with thousands of dollars on their own to pay for their studies after Aug. 1."

4. Iron Cage of Accountability, By Douglas Dempster and Steven J. Tepper - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/raRUIO - "Surprisingly, 8 of the top 10 highest net-price schools are art schools (fine art, design, theater, dance) or music conservatories. In fact, almost every major private art school in America is listed in the top 5 percent of most expensive colleges in the United States."

5. Recession Study Finds Hispanics Hit the Hardest, by Sabrina Tavernise - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/us/26hispanics.html?_r=1&src=rechp - "The share of Americans with no wealth at all rose sharply during the recession. A third of Hispanics had zero or negative net worth in 2009, up from 23 percent in 2005. For blacks, the portion rose to 35 percent from 29 percent, and for whites, it rose to 15 percent from 11 percent. About a quarter of all black and Hispanic households owned nothing but a car in 2009. Just 6 percent of whites and 8 percent of Asians were in that situation."

6. 'It Gets Better,' Harvard Education School Tells Gay Teens, by Don Troop - http://chronicle.com/article/It-Gets-Better-Harvard/128397/ - "Adolescent bullying and harassment are central concerns of education schools, but the institutions rarely have an opportunity to speak directly to the perpetrators and victims. In a poignant video that will be unveiled on Tuesday, several students, staff members, and administrators of Harvard University's Graduate School of Education do their best to change that, describing the traumas they endured as gay and lesbian youths and the triumphs they have enjoyed since then as their careers and personal lives have flourished. The video is part of the It Gets Better Project, which the gay columnist Dan Savage started last September with his husband, Terry Miller, in the wake of a wave of suicides by teenagers who had been bullied for being gay or being suspected of it."

7. The 13 Best-Paying College Majors: PayScale List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/26/the-best-paying-majors-pa_n_909472.html#s316047&title=Petroleum_Engineering - "You've worked hard in your major, now how will your major pay you back? According to salary data site PayScale, engineers of many different stripes are poised to earn the most money over the course of their careers. At mid-career, the average petroleum engineer earns a whopping $155,000 per year (perhaps more if he or she went to Princeton). Below, check out which other majors pay off over time."

8. Campus Progress Presents The History Of The Pell Grant - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/campus-progress-presents-_n_908937.html -"Campus Progress has handily put together a history of the diminishing Pell Grant as a handy infographic. Can you believe that in 1972, the Pell Grant covered almost the entire cost of a student's education?"

9. Education summit begins today, by Dar Danielson - http://www.radioiowa.com/2011/07/25/education-summit-begins-today/ - "Duncan says is we are serious about closing the achievement gap, how we integrate technology into learning 24-seven is important as he says we have been “far too slow to move.” He says other countries are already moving ahead with the use of technology in education."

10. Possible cuts in Pell grants raises alarms in college sports, by Andy Gardner - http://usat.ly/p43snm via @USATODAY - "Pell Grants are usually part of a larger financial aid package for students, including athletes. They can be particularly important to athletes in sports outside of football and basketball where full scholarships are not typically awarded.The program, begun more than 30 years ago to help make college more accessible to low-income students, awarded more than 8 million students nearly $30 billion in aid in 2009-10. Grants are awarded on a need basis with the current annual limit of $5,500. The Department of Education estimated that 76% of those recipients had a total family income at or below $30,000."

127. 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. What's Gained, and Lost, When the College Search and Application Are Virtually All Online, by Sue Biemeret - http://nyti.ms/atoCpo

‎"Today’s students can conduct their entire college search online. It’s wonderful! You can learn about internship opportunities, e-mail a department head to ask about a specific major, download and complete an application, submit your transcript and even learn of your admission decision all online. Students can access their college application account anywhere there’s an Internet connection, making the process portable and convenient. You can carry your entire academic future on a jump drive. When technology works, it is pure music. However, when it doesn’t work, it is pure chaos.What do you do when the “Details and Accomplishments” section of your Activities page on the Common App disappears? Or when your Docufide transcript doesn’t show up in your electronic file at Nirvana U? Whom do you call?No one. You can’t talk to anyone about your online application. You can e-mail the support center and they’ll get back to you within 24 hours. . . ."

2. Technology and the Completion Agenda - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/cV5em9

"Data analytics is shorthand for the method of warehousing, organizing, and interpreting the massive amounts of data accrued by online learning platforms and student information systems — now as elemental to higher education as classrooms and filing cabinets — in hopes of learning more about what makes students successful, then giving instructors (and the platforms themselves) the chance to nudge those students accordingly."

3. Proficiency of Black Students is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected, by Trip Gabriel http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/education/09gap.html?_r=2&hpw

“What this clearly shows is that black males who are not eligible for free and reduced-price lunch are doing no better than white males who are poor,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the council. The report shows that black boys on average fall behind from their earliest years. Black mothers have a higher infant mortality rate and black children are twice as likely as whites to live in a home where no parent has a job. In high school, African-American boys drop out at nearly twice the rate of white boys, and their SAT scores are on average 104 points lower. In college, black men represented just 5 percent of students in 2008."

4. The 10 Most Diverse Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/the-10-most-diverse-colleges_n_778373.html#s173581

"The schools that scored closer to one on the index are those "where students are most likely to encounter undergraduates from racial or ethnic groups different from their own. "Racial categories include Hispanics, non-Hispanic African-Americans, non-Hispanic Whites, American Indians and Native Alaskans, and Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders."

5. 4 Weirdest Colleges You've Never Heard Of - http://bit.ly/avKrEn

‎"Here, HC lists four schools in the U.S. that you may have never heard of before, but now you’ll be glad you did."

6. Enlisting Armies of Compassion to Close College Gap http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-bridgeland/enlisting-armies-of-compa_b_777547.html

"Help in closing the college gap is certainly needed. Every year, more than 90 percent of low-income teenagers say they plan to attend college, but only half do. Only 20 percent who enter a two-year institution graduate within three, and about four in 10 students who enroll in four-year institutions will receive their degree in six years. At these rates, America's companies will continue to look abroad for skilled workers."

7. Scaling Education, by Shai Reshef - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shai-reshef/scaling-education_b_770566.html

"If we really want to accommodate everyone, especially working adults, we need to follow and build upon what the online universities have started. These universities were designed to be flexible, meeting the needs of the students and the marketplace. Both their schedules and their offered programs are built around these parameters. Additionally, online universities allow a greater number of students to enroll, given that there are no physical space restrictions. Therefore, the investments these institutions make are directly related to the number of students, not the number of buildings."

8. Why the U. of Chicago’s Story Matters, by Eric Hoover http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/why-the-u-of-chicago’s-story-matters/27695

"For one thing, Mr. Boyer describes the complex nature of the modern admissions office: in addition to evaluating applicants, it promotes the university and its virtues on a national (if not global) scale. And admissions outcomes (measured in application totals, admission rates, and “yield”) shape the public’s perceptions of colleges. In turn, those perceptions can enhance colleges’ literal and figurative fortunes."

9. Eight Ways to Avoid For-Profit School Scams RT @newsweek http://bit.ly/9DJEtD

"They accept any student who applies, selling themselves as a more convenient education with more flexible scheduling than traditional competitors. These schools now enroll 1.8 million students—a near-sixfold burst from just several years ago. The industry's leader, University of Phoenix, rivals the enrollment size of the State University of New York and has enough students (about 443,000) to make it one of the largest higher-education systems in the country. On one hand, this growth is good news for students: more options make it easier to find the massage-therapy certification that the local community college didn't offer or to take courses online instead of commuting to a classroom. But the profit motive can be a nasty thing: investigative reporters and government inspectors have caught for-profit colleges using all sorts of underhanded tactics that hit students in the pocketbook, from overcharging for classes to pushing applicants toward unnecessary education loans. . . ."

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