A new issue brief from the Center for American Progress, Preparing Students of Color for the Future Workforce, applies a race equity, community-centered lens to understand how to prepare Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students for college and the workforce. Major themes emerged from community conversations, which have allowed the authors to identify gaps that obstruct Read more about Preparing Students of Color for the Future Workforce[…]
The Scaling Partners Network has released a Call to Action for the higher education sector to facilitate the transfer of credit between institutions. Anticipating a larger than ever wave of students transferring across higher education institutions due to COVID-19 and the economic recession, a diverse group of policy, advocacy, research and institutional membership organizations have Read more about Transfer and Applicability of Credit: Call to Action[…]
A working group that includes members from some of the country’s most influential education groups released new recommendations aimed at high school programs offering college credit. These programs, often dual-enrollment partnerships with local colleges, have grown in popularity, as have concerns about the rigor, costs and ultimate impact on college success. The group, convened Read more about Recommendations for Early College High School Programs[…]
Writing for The 74, Kate Stringer reviews a new randomized controlled trial that finds that one-on-one, in-person mentoring that starts in high school and continues through university study can have a significant effect on college persistence rates for low-income students. Excerpts from the article appear below: A college mentoring program aimed at getting low-income and Read more about Mentoring Program Posts 81% College Persistence Rate[…]
The College & Career Readiness & Success Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) has released a new brief, Evidence-Based Practices to Support College and Career Readiness in High School: Early College High School. Early-college high schools are a partnership between secondary and postsecondary institutions and businesses that allow students to earn both a Read more about AIR Examines Evidence on Early-College High Schools[…]
For the first time ever, any student anywhere can take top-quality courses online in every major freshman college subject, taught by professors from the most prestigious universities, that lead to full academic credit at 2,900 traditional colleges, such as Purdue, Penn State, Colorado State and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all absolutely free. There is no Read more about Free First Year of College … Really[…]
A new longitudinal study highlights the stark reality in the U.S. that class matters far more than academic achievement up to grade 12 in terms of graduating from college. Simply put, even the lowest achieving rich students have a higher likelihood of graduating from college than do the highest achieving poor students. In 2002, researchers Read more about Grad Gap Wider than Enrollment Gap Among Poor[…]
President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently rolled out a new plan to make the FAFSA (the federal tax form needed to apply for federal student aid for college) quicker, easier, and more accessible to more students. Following is a brief outline, from the White House website, of some of the major changes: Earlier, Read more about Obama’s New Federal Financial Aid Rules Allow Earlier Applications[…]
President Obama has announced the launch of a new College Scorecard, meant to help students and parents identify which schools provide the biggest bang for your buck. Designed with input from those who will use it most, the Scorecard offers reliable data on factors important to prospective students, such as how much graduates earn, and Read more about New Federal College Scorecard Focuses on Cost-Benefit[…]
Most colleges can’t keep their doors open without an accreditor’s seal of approval, which is needed to get students access to federal loans and grants. But accreditors hardly ever kick out the worst-performing colleges and lack uniform standards for assessing graduation rates and loan defaults, according to The Wall Street Journal. Those problems are blamed Read more about The Watchdogs of College Education Rarely Bite[…]
Doug Lederman at Inside Higher Ed has written an interesting piece about a new Brookings Institution model for college evaluation. The new model attempts to rank colleges in a “value-added” fashion that determines how much the college helped a given student improve toward career success. Many currently existing college rankings focus on elite colleges and Read more about A new model for college rankings[…]
Kevin Carey, director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, has a new book out this month called The End of College. This book was recently featured in the Washington Post. Carey casts a sweeping, if perhaps idealistic, vision of higher education in the future. First and foremost, it is one that is Read more about The University of Everywhere[…]
Forbes Education recently released their list of 15 key higher education issues for 2015. Many of these will be prominent this year as the Obama Administration nears the end of its eight year run. You can expect this blog to discuss these issues over the coming year: The arrival of a new year brings with Read more about Higher Education Issues: 15 for ’15[…]
Stuart Butler of the Brookings Institutions has some bold predictions for changes to higher education in coming years. He bases his predictions on signs that have become more evident in recent years, but as of yet have not significantly disturbed the four-year college education establishment. His 4 key predictions are: Tuition will begin to fall Read more about Reimagining College in 2015[…]
While there are still more questions than answers, the U.S. Department of Education the Department has released a draft framework for the ratings of colleges and is seeking public feedback. The new College Ratings framework is important. Secretary Duncan says, “As a nation, we have to make college more accessible and affordable and ensure that Read more about What we Know: ED’s Proposed College Rating System[…]
Khan Academy has a new resource for helping students and parents navigate the college admissions process. It includes video interviews and conversations with successful students from all walks of life and admissions officers and counselors at some of the nation’s top schools. One of the best features is “Making High School Count,” which talks students Read more about Free Resource for Students and Parents Preparing for College[…]