276. 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 via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. 10 most affordable colleges http://t.co/kkcuJXB via @CNNMoney"Using a new interactive tool launched by the Department of Education, students and parents can search public and private colleges by not only their published tuition prices, but also by their "net price" -- the average costs after tuition, room and board, book fees and financial aid are all taken into consideration.The tool, called the College Affordability and Transparency Center, was mandated by education reforms passed by Congress in 2008, and is meant to reveal the true costs of going to college."

3. College Affordability and Transparency Center site is at this link: http://collegecost.ed.gov/catc/ "Use the options below to generate a report on the highest (top 5%) and lowest (bottom 10%) academic year charges for each sector. Tuition reports include tuition and required fees. Net price is cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid. Data are reported by institutions and are for full-time beginning students."

4. Throwing Out a State Vote, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/juzDxX - "A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Michigan voters did not have the right in 2006 to ban public colleges and universities from considering race and ethnicity in admissions.The 2-to-1 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was based on the idea that the referendum that voters approved had the effect of denying political rights to minority citizens in Michigan. State officials immediately announced an appeal, which will have the effect of keeping the Michigan ban on consideration of race in place for now."

5. College Bound: Gaps in Financial Outlook for High School vs. College Grads, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/SXOwmIW via @educationweek - "A new report shows 36 percent of high school graduates feel it is "very likely" they will be financially secure in their lifetime, while 55 percent of college graduates feet that way. When it comes to the first step to start funding a college education, just three in 10 high school graduates knew about the Free Application for Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA), compared with nearly seven in 10 college grads."

6. A ‘Sea Change’ in Admissions, by John Christensen - http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/a-sea-change-in-admissions/28421"Admissions directors spend so much time grappling with these issues that many of us feel more and more removed from working directly with high school counselors, prospective students, and their families—the work that once made our jobs enjoyable and rewarding. That aspect of the work is the core of admissions and should not change: finding the right match between a student and a college."

7. Federal Data Shed Light on Education Disparities, by Nirvi Shah - http://t.co/tZBzxGZ via @educationweek

8. Civil rights survey: 3,000 US high schools don't have math beyond Algebra I, by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo: http://t.co/aNqdT5Y

9. Some States Still Leave Low-Income Kids Behind;Others Make Gains, by Sharona Coutts & Jennifer LaFleur - http://t.co/K7EnY5K via @propublica

10. The bottom line: which top universities have the highest net price? by Daniel de Vise - College, Inc. - http://t.co/ziq06YM via @washingtonpost

275. 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. Uncle Sam calls out steepest college tuition hikes, by Annalyn Censky - http://t.co/2sDPQi9 via @CNNMoney - "For the first time ever the Department of Education released a list Thursday morning, ranking colleges with the steepest tuition hikes. The report lists the top 5% of schools with the sharpest tuition increases over a three-year period for several categories. By law, the worst offenders will now be required to submit special reports to the government, explaining why costs have gone up so dramatically, and how they plan to address rising prices."

2. Ed Dept today releases website identifying the nation's most expensive colleges - http://collegecost.ed.gov/

3. Naughty and Nice on College Price, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/lHtcVN - "The lists on the department's College Affordability and Transparency Center, 54 in all, are detailed, attempting to group institutions with their peers in nine categories (public four-year colleges, private four-year colleges, public two-year colleges and so on). In each category, the department created six lists: the most expensive and least expensive colleges, measured by the sticker price of tuition and fees; the highest and lowest net price (what students actually pay); and the percentage increases in sticker price and net price."

4. Ranking the Online Colleges, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/mTmY0V -"Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News, this week sent out a memo to more than 1,000 officials at online colleges and university-based online programs notifying them that, over the next few weeks, the publication would be soliciting data from their institutions with an eye to ranking programs that are delivered at least 80 percent online. The target for release of the inaugural U.S. News online program rankings is mid-October."

5. Costlier Community Colleges, by Derek Quizon - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/jsQaCV - "The report, from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, focuses on community colleges, which the center's officials see as a crucial part of the federal government's plans to increase the number of college graduates in the next decade. According to the report, there are nine states in which more than half of all undergraduate students are at community colleges. Four of those states -- Texas, California, Illinois, and Arizona -- also appear on the list of the 10 states projected to have the most high school graduates over the next decade."

6. Non-Degree Holders' Downbeat Outlook, by Derek Quizon - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/jXda3g - "The report, titled "One Degree of Separation: How Young Americans See Their Chances for Success," is based on a survey of 600 people ages 26 to 34 conducted by Public Agenda. The survey examined young people's attitudes toward education and prosperity. Results show that, compared to their degree-holding peers, young people without college degrees are more likely to be pessimistic about their future. They are skeptical of their ability to pay for college, and most of them don't understand the basics of applying for financial aid."

7. Tuition Comparison Site Begun by Education Department, by Tamar Lewin - http://nyti.ms/kiAa8S"The new lists, required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, show the institutions with the highest and lowest tuitions, the highest and lowest percentage tuition increases over the last two years, and the highest and lowest net price — that is, the actual price full-time students pay, including room and board, after financial aid like grants and scholarships are taken into account."

8. To Raise College-Completion Rates, Deal With Costs and Transfer Policies, Report Suggests, by Jennifer Gonzalez - http://chronicle.com/article/To-Raise-College-Completion/128090/ - "Too many college students won't make it to graduation because of rising tuition costs and ineffective transfer policies, says a new report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.The students most at risk are those who begin their college education at a two-year institution, usually out of financial necessity, says the report."

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

2. On Athletes and Aid, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/iBPqNc - "The report finds that 10 institutions violated the division’s financial aid regulations in 2010-11. Five of those colleges were found to have considered athletics participation in the awarding of leadership grants. The others were revealed to have had an unjustified difference in how they awarded aid to athletes and non-athletes. This is the highest number of violators since 2007-8, when 12 institutions were found to have committed financial aid violations."

3. States Target Early Years to Reach 3rd Grade Reading Goals, by Catherine Gewertz - http://t.co/FuPlF4O via @educationweek - "In drafting laws and designing initiatives, politicians and educators are relying on a growing mound of research that points to 3rd grade reading proficiency as a crucial milestone. One of the latest studies, released in April, found that children who aren’t reading on grade level by 3rd grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school by age 19 than peers who are. If those struggling readers are poor, they’re 13 times likelier to be high school dropouts than their reading-proficient peers."

4. Are Obama's higher education goals enough? - http://t.co/H9zUC2I - "In 1980 for instance, salary for those with a bachelor’s degree was 40 percent larger than those with a high school degree. By 2010 that it was 74 percent larger and if recent trends continue, by 2025 those with a bachelor’s degree will earn 96 percent more than those with a high school diploma."

5. Universities turn to outsourced instructors, by Didi Tang - http://usat.ly/lbvCA6 via @USATODAY - "But the teachers won't be on the university payroll.They work for St. Petersburg-based Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism training group, which has agreed to supply the university with instructors for the class via the Internet."

6. The Service of Democratic Education, by Linda Darling-Hammond - http://www.thenation.com/article/160850/service-democratic-education - "And remember, as Robert F. Kennedy observed: It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."

7. Matthew Lynch: Educating and Nurturing Homeless Students - http://www.educationnews.org/?p=158251 - "Homeless children deserve a quality education just like all students."

8. College Costs You're Not Considering, But Really Should Be - Unigo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/unigo/extra-costs-college_b_886009.html - "The cost of college is often considered to be some combination of tuition, room & board, textbooks, and a basic food plan. Inevitably though, a coffee here, a new shirt there, a lab fee for some goggles and a tablecloth-white jacket, and students are quickly finding themselves scrounging for some extra cash. Hear some of the under the radar costs that can add up quickly for incoming freshman."

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

2. Column: Why DREAM Act is right for U.S., young people, by Arne Duncan - http://usat.ly/knc93Z via @USATODAY - "Leaders in Congress have introduced the DREAM Act to create opportunities for patriotic young people to attend college even though they don't have documentation. They will have to go through a rigorous process to qualify for the DREAM Act. They must prove that they came to the United States before the age of 16, have lived here for at least five years, do not have a criminal record, are not removable from the country and possess good moral character. They will also need to earn a diploma or a GED certificate, and they must have earned admission to an institution of higher education or serve in the military. Once they're in college or serving in the armed forces, they will have the chance to earn legal status."

3. 'Times' Ticks On, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/jRX3Uo - "The Times Company, which has seen its annual revenues fall by about 30 percent in the last five years, has waded into the waters of higher education more deliberately than some of its peers -- most notably the Washington Post Company, which now pays for its journalism operations largely off the back of Kaplan Inc., one of the country’s largest degree-granting enterprises."

4. New Voice for Asian Students, by Allie Grasgreen - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/kymGhJ "Yet overall rates of growth do not fairly represent the complexity of Asian demography and educational attainment. The U.S. Census Bureau has identified 48 different ethnic groups within the AAPI racial category, and some fare far less well than others. For example, about half of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander students (such as Vietnamese and Native Hawaiian) will leave college without earning a degree; they are three to five times more likely to drop out than are East Asian (such as Japanese and Chinese) and South Asian (such as Korean and Indian) students."

5. Do We Need 20 Million More College Grads? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/2bvqanB via @cbsmoneywatch - "The report suggests that the country needs far more college graduates than it is currently producing. In fact, the country will require 20 million more college-educated workers by 2025. That’s 12 million more workers than the country is currently on target to produce."

6. Turnaround Schools, Education Week, June 28, 2011- http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/turnaround-schools/index.html - "In 2009, the federal government overhauled the Title I School Improvement Grant program, increased its value to $3.5 billion with money from the recovery act, and spelled out four turnaround options from which perennially failing schools would have to choose to get a share of the funding. (Roll over the chart at right for descriptions of each model and the breakdown of SIG money-receiving schools that chose to use it)."

7. Even for Cashiers, College Pays Off, by David Leonhardt - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/sunday-review/26leonhardt.html?_r=1&src=rechp -"The evidence is overwhelming that college is a better investment for most graduates than in the past. A new study even shows that a bachelor’s degree pays off for jobs that don’t require one: secretaries, plumbers and cashiers. And, beyond money, education seems to make people happier and healthier. “Sending more young Americans to college is not a panacea,” says David Autor, an M.I.T. economist who studies the labor market. “Not sending them to college would be a disaster.”

8. Teacher Evaluation System Examines Classroom Performance, by Sam Dillon - http://nyti.ms/l1etaX - "For classroom observations, nine criteria — “explain content clearly,” “maximize instructional time” and “check for student understanding,” for example — are used to rate the lesson as highly effective, effective, minimally effective or ineffective. These five observations combine to form 75 percent of these teachers’ overall ratings; the rest is based on achievement data and the teachers’ commitment to their school communities. Ineffective teachers face dismissal. Minimally effective ones get a year to improve."

9. Asian-American and Pacific Islander Students Are Not Monolithically Successful, Report Says, by Jennifer Gonzalez - http://chronicle.com/article/Asian-AmericanPacific/128061/ - "In fact, nearly half of all Asian-American and Pacific Islander students, known as AAPI students, attend community colleges, and many of their ethnic groups have some of the lowest high-school-graduation and college-degree-attainment rates in the United States."

10. Study: California Community College Completion Rate Low http://www.educationnews.org/?p=153831 - "The report shows that 70% of students who enrolled in a California community College still had not completed a degree or a certificate or transferred to a four-year school after 6 years. When the data was broken down by race, it showed that the number of Latino and black students who failed to achieve any of the above objectives was between 75% and 80%."

11. 8 Strategies for Starting Your College Application Process, by Peter Van Buskirk - http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-admissions-insider/2011/06/27/8-strategies-for-starting-your-college-application-process - "Over the course of the summer, I will devote this space to providing guidance regarding application preparations. The following are strategies for starting the process. In the coming weeks, I will focus on tips and strategies for refining your presentation."

12. Ask the Financial Expert: "How Does the Federal Financial Aid Process Work?" by Scott Goodman -http://wp.me/p1q4lk-sh - "For the federal government to determine a student’s financial aid eligibility, the student must first complete its aid application known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA requires specific income and asset information from both the parents and student. Independent students do not need to list their parents’ information."

272. 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. A Pre-College Summer To-Do List, by Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hyman - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/summer-to-do/ - "As the next class of college freshmen prepare to pack for college, I asked Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hyman, authors of The Secrets of College Success, to compile some tips for getting ready academically. What follows are excerpts. –Jacques Steinberg"

2. The Case for More College Grads, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/jqIUMu - "In their new report, "The Undereducated American," Carnevale and his co-author, Stephen J. Rose, acknowledge that "with many college graduates unsuccessful in finding work in the current economic climate, the temptation to reject postsecondary education as a viable economic option grows stronger, especially among working families for whom college costs are always a stretch." But they aim to use historical data to show that the analysts (and parents of recent graduates who may feel that way) are engaged in short-term thinking."

3. The Wrong Message, By Roy L. Beasley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/kamSC5 - "However, I have serious reservations about some of the policy inferences the authors draw from their findings that gaps in these skills between black students and white students grow larger during the first two years of undergraduate study."

4. For San Diego Schools, a Fear That Larger Classes Will Hinder Learning, by Michael Winerip - http://nyti.ms/jVlRLp - "San Diego’s decision to set a class size of 17 at its poorest schools was based on the most influential study in the field, the Tennessee STAR project. That research, done in the 1980s, concluded that students in small classes (13 to 17 children) outperformed those in regular classrooms (22 to 25) in kindergarten to third grades. The gains were biggest among poor minority children, and that advantage continued for years to come."

5. U.S. Will Need Another 20 Million Workers With Some College Education, Report Says - http://chronicle.com/article/US-Will-Need-Another-20/128059/ - "It finds that across the job market—even in positions that normally do not require a degree—education has benefits. But if the nation continues to underproduce college-going workers, it says, "the large and growing gap between the earnings of Americans of different educational attainment will grow even wider."

6. The Surprising Task of Getting Your Child Ready for College, by Tom Morris - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-morris/the-surprising-task-of-ge_b_882647.html - "Here's something you may not have thought about yet: What happens next fall at the first stage of the college adventure and in the semester after that will likely be in some way crucial for determining or charting out the possibilities for every subsequent opportunity your child will face."

7. More Central New York high school graduates picking community college, other affordable colleges, by Elizabeth Doran - http://t.co/M5bOY6m - "The college “was the furthest thing from my mind when I started applying to colleges,” Wilson said. “But the bottom line became how much is it going to cost me, and OCC became the best choice by far. I can take my general education classes there and then transfer after two years.”

8. As schools cut budgets, strains on counselors grow, by Christine Armario -http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/06/24/general-us-broken-budgets-a-counselor-apos-s-life_8533889.html - "In all, Wagner has to register 600 freshmen in this high school in a suburb north of Miami for their next year's classes, and help another 200 12th grade students through college applications and graduation. There are recommendation letters to write, crises to handle. On the one hand, she must monitor low performing students; on the other, she must shepherd a bevy of meticulous students at this A-rated school vying to get into the nation's most prestigious colleges.There's just not enough time . . . ."

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

2. My degree isn't worth the debt! http://t.co/txvYdC0 via @CNNMoney - "We talked to seven people overloaded with student loans. Here is Erik's story. (Click through the rest of the gallery for other profiles.) --The Editors"

3. No time to abandon black colleges, by Walter M. Kimbrough - http://usat.ly/jA8JFn via @USATODAY - "Since the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board ruling and the mass acceptance of African-American students, the percentage of blacks attending HBCUs has dropped markedly. Before Brown, more than 90% of African Americans of college age attended an HBCU. Today, it's 12%."

4. High schoolers join YSU Summer Honors Institute, by Virginia Shank - http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/558466/High-schoolers-join-YSU-Summer-Honors-Institute.html?nav=5021 - "Each year students attend classes, which are taught by YSU faculty, that span several disciplines including business, engineering, science, social sciences and the arts.To participate, students must be identified as gifted and talented and must have completed either 10th or 11th grade by the start of the program. This year, the $35 fee for each participant covered the cost of student lunches."

5. Slow Growing, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/l5HJoe - "Published tuition and fees at private colleges and universities will be an average of 4.6 percent higher this fall than last, according to a survey of 429 institutions by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. This marks the third consecutive year of hikes of about 4.5 percent. While that rate still outpaces the consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, it represents a drop-off from the 10 years leading up to the recession, when tuition rose by a national average of 6 percent."

6. Students With Disabilities at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions - http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011018.pdf - "Institutions reported enrolling approximately 707,000 students with disabilities in the 12-month 2008–09 academic year, with about half of these students reported enrolled in public 2-year institutions (table 2). While the reported number of students with disabilities is overestimated due to duplicated student counts, this estimate largely reflects unduplicated counts of students with disabilities; most institutions (94 percent) provided an unduplicated count of the total number of students with disabilities at their institution."

7. Get Into These 39 Top Colleges With Bad SAT or ACT Scores, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/7Hpe4Zh via @cbsmoneywatch - "Where can you find these schools? The best source is the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), which maintains a list of hundreds of colleges and universities with test-optional policies.To make your job easier, I’ve provided lists of the top nationally ranked schools in the liberal arts college and university categories that are test optional. Here they are:"

8. Private College Costs Rising 4.6 Percent, by Tamar Lewin - http://nyti.ms/jOL2FG - "The colleges’ average financial aid will increase by 7 percent. Last year, institutional aid increased by 6.9 percent and the previous year, 9 percent. In 2010-11, the published tuition and fees at private colleges and universities averaged $27,293."

9. Leaders of Historically Black Colleges See Key Role for Their Institutions in Obama's 2020 Goal, by Rachel Wiseman - http://chronicle.com/article/Leaders-of-Historically-Black/128022/ - "Seventeen percent of African-American students at a four-year institution attend a historically black institution, and those students are four times more likely to graduate than African-American students attending other institutions. HBCU's have been leaders in postsecondary education of underserved populations, but the panelists acknowledged that they must continue to aggressively pursue degree-completion goals."

10. When College Grads Move Home: Six Ways to Get Them Off the Couch, by Kayla Webley - http://t.co/yBGS99m via @TIMEMoneyland - "Things are not looking so good for this year’s college graduates. Unemployment among those under 25 is at a record-high, they have more debt than any graduating class in history, and starting salaries are plummeting. That’s right, mom and dad, according to a Department of Labor poll, some 85% of the class of 2011 will be moving back home at some point in their lives."

11. Achievement gap for Hispanic students hasn't narrowed in 20 years, by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo - http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0623/Achievement-gap-for-Hispanic-students-hasn-t-narrowed-in-20-years - "Since the early 1990s, “there’s been overall growth in reading and math for both whites and Hispanics,... but the gap really hasn’t closed,” says Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees NAEP."

12. Persistent achievement gap vexes education reformers: Six takeaways, by Amanda Paulson - http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/1214/Persistent-achievement-gap-vexes-education-reformers-Six-takeaways/Progress-on-achievement-gaps-sluggish - "No education issue has received more attention in recent years – but with less apparent progress – than the achievement gaps for minority and low-income students. The Center on Education Policy released a study Tuesday that looks at trends in all 50 states. Despite a few bright spots, the picture is bleak. Here are a few of the study’s major findings:"

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

2. Sad summer ahead for teen employment, by John Wisely and Christina Hall - http://usat.ly/jHcVz7 via @USATODAY - "The official teen unemployment rate is about 25%, but that figure doesn't count all the teens who aren't seeking work. When all teens are factored in, only 25% of them will actually have jobs. That level of discouragement or disinterest worries many economists."

3. Troubled life ended in violence, by Adam Ferrise - TribToday.com - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/mIoBnS - "Before Brandon Adkins was gunned down Saturday in the street, he had been shot at, attempted suicide, had his life threatened and was suspected of committing myriad crimes, including stealing a car, burglary and assault, according to police reports."

4. Now That You've Gotten In, by Lionel Anderson - http://nyti.ms/k44fM6 - "Now that you’ve gotten in, give some thought to staying in, excelling and, ultimately, graduating."

5. Education Week: Study Finds Gaps Remain Large for Hispanic Students, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/XzIegAW via @educationweek - "While growing numbers of Hispanic students have changed the face of American education over the past two decades, the gap between them and their white classmates in math and reading remains as wide as it was in the 1990s, according to a new federal study."

6. Oregon Legislature adopts goal of seeing 40 percent of Oregonians have a college degree, by Bill GravesOregonLive.com - http://t.co/6DWaFP8 - "The House voted 46-14 in favor of Senate Bill 253, which declares one mission of Oregon's education system is to ensure by 2025 that: 40 percent of all adult Oregonians have a bachelor's degree or higher, 40 percent have earned an associate's degree or post-secondary credential and 20 percent have a high school diploma or the equivalent. The bill goes next to Gov. John Kitzhaber, who will sign it into law."

7. Hunt is on for overseas college students, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/jAxCGs via @USATODAY - "But as more countries seek to cash in on the growing market for international students, the USA is losing ground. From 2000 to 2008, the number of students enrolled in a college outside their home country soared 85% to 3.3 million. During that time the U.S. share shrank, from 24% to 19%, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operative Development."

8. The Achievement Gap: Why Hispanic Students Are Still Behind, by Kayla Webley - http://t.co/ayrgeWS via @TIME - "The report analyzes tests given to fourth and eighth graders in math and reading in 2009. Overall, on a national level, Hispanic students scored about 20 points — or two whole grade levels — lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scale. (A common rule of thumb among education advocates is that 10 points on the NAEP scale is equivalent to one grade level.)"

9. Positioning young black males for success, by Michael T. Nettles - The Answer Sheet - http://t.co/iTQ9rsq via @washingtonpost - "One final note, at the symposium, the other recurring refrain we heard was that we don’t have a “child problem” we have an “adult problem.” That problem is the desperate need for all adults, parents, educators, policymakers and others to get involved and solve this crisis."

10. ANDREA NEAL: Effective summer reading programs can narrow the achievement gap - http://t.co/wh5FsEs - "The pioneering study on the subject was done in 1978 by Barbara Heyns, who followed 3,000 sixth and seventh graders in Atlanta, Ga. through two school years and the intervening summer. She concluded "the gap between black and white children and between low and high income children widens disproportionately during the months when schools are not in session."Similarly, a 1996 study found that middle-income students experienced reading gains during the summer while low-income students regressed."

11. Prioritizing Early Childhood Education: We Can't Afford to Wait, by Susan Ochshorn - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ochshorn/prioritizing-early-childh_b_880959.html - "A growing number of children in the United States are not ready for school. Studies show that at least half of the educational achievement gap between poor children and their more advantaged peers is evident in the kindergarten classroom."