College Grades: A Long Term Analysis

Where A Is Ordinary: The Evolution of American College and University Grading, 1940-2009
by Stuart Rojstaczer & Christopher Healy
College grades can influence a student’s graduation prospects, academic motivation, postgraduate job choice, professional and graduate school selection, and access to loans and scholarships. Despite the importance of grades, national trends in grading practices have not been examined in over a decade, and there has been a limited effort to examine the historical evolution of college grading. This article looks at the evolution of grading over time and space at American colleges and universities over the last 70 years. The data provide a means to examine how instructors’ assessments of excellence, mediocrity, and failure have changed in higher education.

 

Post Secondary Data Problems: Analysis And Solutions

The million-dollar question facing all higher education constituencies involves the concept of “value:” Which institutions provide it to which students in what quantities? Although existing data serve as important signals in the higher education marketplace, they do not adequately address the myriad concerns of the postsecondary community. For students, better data are needed to inform college choice and decision-making; for institutional leaders, better data are needed to improve programs and services; and for policymakers, better data are needed to drive funding decisions.

Through its work with the “Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery” (RADD) project, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) released today a new report, Mapping the Postsecondary Data Domain: Problems and Possibilities, outlining how existing national data sets can be amended, added to, or linked together. In an attempt to fill the gaps in our data infrastructure, the paper reviews recent efforts in the field to identify a common set of measures aimed at answering key questions, such as:

• Which students have access to which colleges?
• How many—and which—students complete college?
• How much does college cost, and how do students pay?
• What outcomes do students experience after college in the workplace and society?

The paper, along with its accompanying technical report, then maps these measures against current data systems like the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the National Student Loan Data System, and moves forward with identifying gaps in knowledge about postsecondary institutions, and proposing improvements that would fill those gaps. Recommendations include details that could inform the development of the Postsecondary Institution Ratings System (PIRS), complementing IHEP’s written comments on the PIRS that were submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in January 2014.*

“Our current postsecondary data systems were not designed with today’s needs in mind. They have many limitations, leaving them unable to answer core questions facing students, policymakers, or, even more, colleges and universities,” said IHEP President Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D. “We can no longer afford to leave vital questions unanswered.”

SAT Major Changes Announced By College Board

Please visit deliveringopportunity.org to read about the eight major changes to the SAT, and to find resources for higher education professionals and K–12 educators.

Performance Funding For College Completion-Version 2.0

Over the years, 32 states have implemented some form of performance funding. This brief distinguishes between PF1.0, which involves a bonus on top of regular state funding, and PF2.0, which typically retains enrollments as one funding driver. Based on studies of PF1.0 (PF2.0 is still in its early days), performance funding  led to changes intended to improve student outcomes, but those changes didn’t work. The brief reviews obstacles and unintended impacts, then offers possible solutions. (Community College Research Center)

Resources That Make You A Better Essay Writer

By Robert Morris

From the choice of a proper topic to accurate organization, writing an essay doesn’t come as easy as most people think. To make things even more difficult for students, their academic success and entire future is dependent upon the writing they complete.

In order to help you cover every step of essay writing properly, we will list some of the most useful resources that will make you a more effective writer and thinker.

Different types of essays

Before you start writing a paper, you need to understand that not all types of essays can be written with the same style, organization and techniques. For example, a college application essay requires a more personal style, contrast essays include more research and discussion, persuasive essays require an authoritative standing, descriptive essays should present a clear picture, and so on. The following resources will help you tackle every type of essay:

1. Roane State Online Writing Lab provides organized information about different types of essays. You can also read samples that will help you get a clearer picture for each specific essay you need to write.

2. College application essay writing – NinjaEssays.com will teach you everything there is to know about writing a creative and unique college application essay that will impress the admissions committee.

3. Writing Detective provides an online lesson on how to write contrast essays, after which you can test your understanding through the featured quiz.

4. ReadWriteThink provides interactive tools (such as the Comparison and Contrast Map and Persuasion Map) that will help you organize different types of essays properly.

5. Thesis Builder will help you write your persuasive essay, as well as get ideas on what to write.

About the topic and thesis

Now that you have an understanding of the different types of essays, you need tools that will help you come up with topics and theses.

1. Topic-O-Rama is a valuable source of ideas for topics. The tool will suggest lots of topics for your essay, and you can save the ones you like in a list of possible choices.

2. Thesis Generator 1.0 will help you complete the thesis of your essay. All you need to do is enter the topic, the main argument and a couple of reasons that support that argument; and voila- the generator will return three versions of a thesis statement for your paper.

3. Thesis Statement Generator is another tool that will turn the components you enter into a strong thesis statement.

Essay structure

The structure and organization of your essay is extremely important. In order to outline the paper properly, you need the right organizing tools.

1. The Essay Map tool at ReadWriteThink.org will help you organize your thoughts into a properly outlined essay.

2. Project Write MSU provides detailed graphic organizers which you can easily print and use to outline your paper.

3. The Essay Organizer from Essay Writing Wizard will enable you to organize the paper on your smartphone. The clear steps will guide you through the writing process effortlessly.

Grammar and Syntax tools

An essay cannot be great if you don’t pay attention to grammar and syntax issues and make it perfect from every aspect. MS Word’s spelling and grammar checker is cool, but you shouldn’t rely on it completely.

1. Grammarly is an instant tool that will proofread your essay and indicate the issues that require improvement.

2. UNLV Writing Center is a great source of tips that will help you avoid some of the most common mistakes students make in essay writing.

3. Purdue OWL is a well-known website that offers all information you need about general essay requirements, grammar, syntax, research, and citation.

Plagiarism checking tools

Most of your professors use advanced plagiarism checkers to verify the uniqueness of your essays, so you shouldn’t submit a paper without making sure it’s plagiarism-free.

1. Viper requires a download and installation process, which makes it slightly less convenient. The tool will check your essays quickly and indicate any signs of plagiarism.

2. PlagTracker is all you need if you’re looking for a safe and accurate plagiarism checker that doesn’t require any downloads.

Conclusion

Writing a stellar essay doesn’t require only ideas and writing talent. You need to learn what every type of essay requires and how you should organize its content. It will take a lot of practice before your academic writing becomes nearly perfect, but everything will be much easier now that you have the right tools to guide you through the process.

 

Robert Morris has worked in education for over 7 years as a teacher, school newspaper adviser, literacy consultant, curriculum writer. He provides teaching and learning materials. 

 

Men Of Color Left Behind In Community Colleges

AUSTIN, TX— Black males and Latinos report having higher aspirations to earn a community
college certificate or degree than their White peers, but only 5% of Black males and Latinos
attending community colleges earn certificates or degrees within three years, as opposed to
32% of White males. This fact, among many others, prompted the Center for Community
College Student Engagement to develop a special report released today: Aspirations to
Achievement: Men of Color and Community Colleges.

As community colleges across the country respond to mounting calls for dramatic improvements
in college completion, a necessary component of that work is to recognize and then close the
persistent and troubling attainment gaps across a diverse population of students. Page 2 of 4
The new report includes analysis of student engagement survey results for over 145,000 male
community college students and is accompanied by a video drawn from over 30 focus groups
with Black male and Latino students. It builds on a growing body of research about the
experiences of men of color in higher education and offers information community colleges can
consider as they work to create conditions that will lead to better outcomes for these students.

Despite their diverse life and educational experiences, male students of color in focus groups
agree on the importance of four factors as central to their success: building strong personal
connections on campus; being held to high expectations; encountering instructors who are
committed to their achievement; and being intensively engaged in the academic experience,
both in and out of the classroom. Although students agree on these factors, their responses
regarding the significance of race and diversity on campus are mixed across and within groups.

“Community colleges open their doors to all learners,” affirms Center Director Kay McClenney.
“However, open access is only the first step in attaining the equity ingrained in the mission of
community colleges. The more significant work is ensuring that all students have the support
needed to succeed.

http://www.ccsse.org/docs/MoC_Special_Report_press_release.pdf

Student Academic Work Should Be The Focus Of College Prep

By Will Fitzhugh, Concord Review

It is settled wisdom among Funderpundits and those to whom they give their grants that the most important variable in student academic achievement is teacher quality, but I have regularly pointed out that the most important variable in student academic achievement is student academic work.

Now, however, a small number of other dissenting voices have begun to speak. Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, in Academically Adrift have suggested that (p. 131) “Studying is crucial for strong academic performance…” and “Scholarship on teaching and learning has burgeoned over the past several decades and has emphasized the importance of shifting attention from faculty teaching to student learning…”

This may seem unacceptably heterodox to those in government and the private sector who have committed billions of dollars to focusing on the selection, training, supervision, and control of K-12 teachers, while giving no thought to whether K-12 students are actually doing the academic work which they are assigned.

In 2004, Paul A. Zoch, a teacher from Texas, wrote in Doomed to Fail:

“Let there be no doubt about it: the United States looks to its teachers and their efforts, but not to its students and their efforts, for success in education.”

More recently, and less on the fringe of this new concern, Diane Ravitch wrote in Death and Life of the Great American School System:

“One problem with test-based accountability, as currently defined and used, is that it removes all responsibility from students and their families for the students’ academic performance. NCLB neglected to acknowledge that students share in the responsibility for their academic performance and that they are not merely passive recipients of their teachers’ influence.”

There are necessarily problems in turning attention toward the work of students in judging the effectiveness of schools. First, all the present attention is on teachers, and it is not easy to turn that around. Second, teachers are employees and can be fired, while students can not. It could not be comfortable for the Funderpundits and their beneficiaries to realize that they may have been overlooking the most important variable in student academic achievement all this time.

In February, when the Associated Press reported that Natalie Monroe, a high school English teacher in Pennsylvania, had called her students, on a blog, “disengaged, lazy whiners,” and “noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS,” the response of the school system was not to look more closely at the academic efforts of the students, but to suspend the teacher. As one of her students explained, “As far as motivated high school students, she’s completely correct. High school kids don’t want to do anything…(but) It’s a teacher’s job…to give students the motivation to learn.” (sic)

It would seem that no matter who points out that “You can lead a student to learning, but you can’t make him drink,” our systems of schools and Funderpundits stick with their wisdom that teachers alone are responsible for student academic achievement.

While that is wrong, it is also stupid. Alfred North Whitehead (or someone else) once wrote:

“For education, a man’s books and teachers are but a help, the real work is his.”

As in the old story about the drunk searching under the lamppost for his keys, those who control funds for education believe that as long as all their money goes to paying attention to what teachers are doing, who they are, how they are trained, and so on, they can’t see the point of looking in the darkness at those who have the complete and ultimate control over how much academic achievement there will be—namely the students.

Apart from scores on math and reading tests after all, student academic work is ignored by all those interested in paying to change the schools. What students do in literature, Latin, chemistry, math, and Asian history classes is of no interest to them. Liberal education is not only on the back burner for those focused on basic skills and job readiness as they define them, but that burner is also turned off at present.

This situation will persist as long as those funding programs and projects for reform in education pay no attention to the actual academic work of our students. And students, who see little or no pressure to be other than “disengaged lazy whiners” will continue to pay the price for their lack of education, both in college and at work, and we will continue to draw behind in comparison with those countries who realize that student academic achievement has always been, and will always be, mainly dependent on diligent student academic work.

 

8 Ways Technology Can Improve Student Writing

BY Melissa Burns

Modern technology offers incredibly efficient ways to improve the skills, techniques, and creativity of writing. Many students are struggling with their academic papers without knowing that the Internet offers an immense number of tools that can help them become better writers. Some students use mind mapping tools, others hire online tutoring or professional editing services, and you can also find a convenient way to boost your writing skills online.

In the continuation, we will provide a list of the most useful tools you can use to improve the academic success you achieve with your papers.

1. Citation generator Writinghouse is your salvation from the stressful and boring academic referencing. Regardless of the referencing style your professor asks you to implement (Harvard, Chicago, MLA or APA), you can apply it automatically on Writinghouse. The best part is that the tool is absolutely free, so there is no reason to avoid formatting the paper according to your professor’s requirements.

2. The professional editing services at Help.PlagTracker.com will get the best out of your papers. No matter how great you are at writing, you could never correct all mistakes by yourself because everything in the content you wrote seems natural to you. When you order professional editing assistance at this website, your paper will be polished to perfection.

3. Criterion Online Writing Evaluation is an instructor-led writing tool that will help you plan, write and organize your papers. You will get immediate feedback on the progress of your paper, which you can use to improve the content and create its best version.

4. GradeMark is a tool that enables instructors to give valuable feedback to students. As a student, you can benefit from GradeMark through the five different types of feedback you will get:

• Originality report, which will help you make your content plagiarism-free;
• QuickMark Sets, which will allow your teacher or online tutor to insert comments within the paper. Having the comments in the appropriate place will help you understand where you made a mistake and how you can improve it;
• Voice comments for a highly-personalized feedback on your papers;
• Grading Rubrics that will help you understand what the teachers expect from you for the specific assignment;
• General comments that will enable your tutor or teacher to evaluate the overall quality of your paper.

5. My Access! is an award-winning writing and assessment solution that provides immediate feedback on your content, motivating you to write more. The program covers more than 1,500 topics in social studies, language arts, science, and math. When you create the paper, this tool will immediately provide you with feedback in the following categories: Language Use, Voice, and Style; Organization; Content and Development; Mechanics and Conventions; and Focus and Meaning.

6. Odyssey Writer is a convenient tool that makes the process of composing content much more efficient and less time-consuming. The tool will stimulate your desire to work on papers by making writing fun. Odyssey Writer will navigate you through the four writing phrases by using interesting techniques.

7. StoryBird will enable you to express your thoughts more creatively by helping you to create short stories inspired by beautiful art. You can also read other users’ stories on the website, as well as share your own creations.

8. TutorsClass is a tutoring platform where you can communicate with licensed tutors and ask for any type of academic help you need. When it comes to the quality of your writing, you will appreciate the feedback from a real educator who will prepare you how to get great grades from your teacher at school. If you don’t have any ideas about a particular topic and you need a little push, the professional tutor from this service will help you with valuable advice and feedback.

Conclusion: Technology will improve your writing!

Technology tools can come to the rescue whenever you’re stuck with your papers. Whether you need ideas or something to boost your creativity and effectiveness – you can find everything you could possibly need online. There is no need to search for a good tutor in your area and arrange awkward meetings in person when everything is much simpler and easier online. You can get feedback on your papers, find tools that will help you manage your time faster and get your papers evaluated online.

When you have all these resources to use, paper writing can become a fun and inspiring activity you won’t love to avoid anymore.

Melissa is a student of journalism. She is passionate about digital technologies and tries to implement them in the sphere of education.

The Problems With Huge Data For Postsecondary

By Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scientist, Educational Policy Institute

There seems to be renewed interest in the collection of student unit record in higher education. Back in 2008 during the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), a provision was added to the law that restricted the federal government from collecting student-based unit record data. This followed a multi-year dialogue about how to improve the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, better known as IPEDS, which collects massive amounts of data from every Title IV institution (i.e., institutions that are eligible to deliver federal financial aid). Data collected include student enrollment, retention, graduation, and even other areas such as institutional finances.

However, there was a huge revolt against the idea that the federal government would collect such private information about college students. The worry being that student unit record data, including student IDs, names, and addresses, would be poached by some non-government entity and used in a harmful way (like, Target would be in charge of the data!). For us policy wonks, we generally thought that this was kind of stupid on several accounts, the first being that there is enough encryption security firewall technology to band against this, and second, because the feds have individual data anyway through both the IRS and student financial aid systems. But let’s not quibble. The HEA language that followed was written by congressional devolutionists to ensure that the feds couldn’t have their hands on individual student records.Fast forward six years and much has changed, due in large part to President Obama’s call for a College Ratings System. Now there exists a renewed sense of what the federal government should be able to do, with one problem: they made it illegal to collect unit record data in 2008.

Last week, the US Department of Education held a one-day symposium on the technical issues related to the College Ratings System. When asked about how best to deal with some of these issues, many experts, including Virginia’s Tod Massa, stated that the federal government will require better data if they want to inform a federal rating system. In Massa’s words, “To the department, I say this: We need better data. Let me rephrase that: You need better data.”

Currently, IPEDS requires institutions to provide aggregate data on retention and completion (on time, 150, and 200 percent of time) for first-time, full-time students. It does not ask about part-time students and it doesn’t tell us anything about what happens with students who do not graduate or are possibly still enrolled. This is a considerable problem when many schools graduate less than 30 percent of their students. That leaves two thirds adrift in the data and adrift in public policy.

Several states have created data warehouses that track every student from kindergarten to and through college. Florida, for one, has one of the most comprehensive data warehouses in the nation and can track students who transfer to another institution. But even for states like Florida, the long-arm of the data system has its limits at the border. They are not able to track students who transfer to institutions in other states. The backdoor way of doing that now is through the non-profit National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), which tracks approximately 90 percent of higher education students. So, the state or institution can run a query through the NSC’s Student Tracker to find out if a particular student is enrolled at another out-of-state institution and if they graduated. The downside is that the variables available for query are limited. As well, most students, but not all, are trackable in the system. So the NSC works well, but is not a perfect solution.

The College Ratings System dialogue is a door opener for the US Department of Education to get the data they really want. To get at college ratings they need better data. To get better data, they have to change the federal law. Many members of congress, especially Republicans, are against this type of “federal intervention.”

However, on February 9, 2012, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Marc Rubio (R-FL) introduced the “Student Right to Know Before You Go” Act, a piece of legislation designed to build upon 1990s Student Right to Know Act, the original law requiring Title IV institutions to provide retention and graduation rates. The new legislation would require “more accurate and complete” data on these issues, including salary information of graduates. Three months later, to the day, Republican Duncan Hunter introduced a parallel bill in the House for similar legislation. When asked why now, Hunter said, “privacy is easier now. We’re at the point where you could have this information and aggregate it together with no privacy issues whatsoever.”

Both bills have sat in their respective committees. The impending presidential election in fall of 2012, followed by a record-low level of accomplishment by the 113th Congress (2013-14), kept this and many other bills from discussion or vote.

While there exist arguments against the creation of a federal unit record data system, there is no good argument that supplants reason. For the creation of prudent public policy, we need better data, which starts with a student unit-record data system that encompasses not only higher education, but starts at Pre-K and continues throughout the education continuum and into the workforce. The technology is available; we have a historically-proven ability to collect these data (e.g., IRS); and perhaps most importantly, it can happen without creating undue burdens on the institutions of higher education. In the end, the institutions are perhaps the greatest stakeholder in this matter, because they should want to and need to know what happens to the students that choose to leave their institutions.

Many questions remain, of course, including what happens with the National Student Clearinghouse? Who controls the data? And what variables and data are collected? But these are manageable issues that can be resolved with conferencing

It’s time to put politics and disingenuous diatribes against the development of a comprehensive, student-unit record data system aside. We need better policy, and better policy is only achievable through better data.

Educational Policy Institute
3172 Indian Plantation Drive
Virginia Beach Virginia 23456
United States

 

 

Savings From Part Time Hires Undercut by Admin And Other Hires

Colleges are relying more on part-time faculty to meet instructional demands and rein in costs, but increased hiring for other types of positions has undercut those savings, a new report by AIR’s Delta Cost Project finds. Co-author Donna Desrochers describes the findings. See AIR website.