Scorecard Provides Data About Specific Community Colleges

Community Colleges Grades
Prospective students in California can now call up a scorecard for a variety of community colleges to see how they rate by such categories as persistence, completion, remediation, average length of time to accumulate 30 credits, and career technical information. Student profiles also are offered by gender, age, and ethnicity/race. This is one of the best summary data tools that I have seen for community colleges.

Credit Agency Issues Warning on Declines In College Net -Tuition Revenue

ARE COLLEGES READY TO ADJUST TO A NEW HIGHER EDUCATION LANDSCAPE?
Moody’s Investors Service on Friday released a report with grim news, particularly for public institutions: In a survey, 28 percent of public institutions, compared with 15 percent the year before, said they expected declines in their net-tuition revenue, increasingly the lifeblood of many institutions. For private institutions, the news was not quite as dire. Nineteen percent expected declines, compared with 18 percent last year, but that finding should come with a caveat: The Moody’s survey included only the institutions the credit-rating company evaluates, which means they are probably among the more financially stable private colleges out there. One has to wonder if American higher education is the proverbial frog in a slowly warming pot of water, not realizing that it’s about to be boiled alive. The post is from The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Bottom Line blog.

High School Senior Slump Will Not Change With Only Incremental Policies

Given the long standing and deeply rooted tradition of a high school  senor slump for students, the following clip from ECS suggests  only minor incremental steps are being taken:

Seven states and the District of Columbia have implemented initiatives for transition-to-college courses in high school: Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, according to this brief. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is working with its 16 member states to embrace a college-readiness agenda and has developed model transition courses available online to everyone. Tennessee offers a bridge math course, which this year is expanding to 9,000 students who will then be eligible to take a tuition-free math class for dual credit. Since 2006, California students have been able to take an Early Assessment test; all those deemed college ready are guaranteed enrollment at any California State University and 70 community colleges. Nationwide, the least has been done for students with the greatest needs. (Jobs for the Future)

For-Profit Colleges Fail To Deliver Code Of Conduct

FOR-PROFIT CODE OF CONDUCT NOWHERE TO BE FOUND
In 2011 for-profit higher-education companies unveiled plans to develop a voluntary code of conduct—a response to critics who argued for reining in an industry they considered prone to abuses of students. Today hardly any trace of the effort can be found. The Foundation for Educational Success, which was coordinating the effort, no longer exists, said Stephen White, vice president for communications at the Kaplan Higher Education Group, in an e-mail. Mark Spencer, director of corporate communications at the Career Education Corporation, also said the foundation does not exist. Both companies were original members of the foundation

Source: Carnegie Foundation

States Unsure About Algebra 2 For College Prep

States Aren’t So Sure High Schoolers Should Go to College
New laws in Texas and Florida de-emphasize Algebra 2, the math class required for admission to four-year colleges, placement into college-level math at two-year institutions, and an indicator of college readiness under the Common Core standards. Still, the advantage of state requirements that require advanced academics is that they clearly communicate what top colleges want. ECS’ Jennifer Dounay Zinth is quoted in this article. (National Journal, 11/21/13)

The Past And Future Of Land Grant Univerisities

Title: Precipice or Crossroads?: Where America’s Great Public Universities Stand and Where They Are Going Midway Through Their Second Century
Author(s): Daniel Mark Fogel & Elizabeth Malson-Huddle (eds.)
Publisher: State University of New York Press, Albany
ISBN: 1438444923, Pages: 362, Year: 2

Leon Cremonini, Teachers College Record

Precipice or Crossroads?: Where America’s Great Public Universities Stand and Where They Are Going Midway through Their Second Century, edited by Fogel and Malson-Huddle, takes a broad yet in-depth look at the Morrill Land-grant Act’s relevance—for yesterday, today and for the future. Through a set of independent essays, the book provides an exhaustive overview of what the Act has meant for generations of US students and scholars, how it contributed to national development and—perhaps most importantly—how its vision today transcends national boundaries to have the potential to be a “global ideal.” It is, perhaps, the latter that may be the key to averting the threats America’s great public research universities face.

At the heart of this book lies the question whether being an “affordable” public research university providing accessible higher education—the very paradigm of the Morrill Land-Grant Act—is still a realistic ambition. Are the threats of shrinking state funding, growing tuition fees and elitist institutional rankings making Morrill’s vision an unsustainable and outdated dream? “No” is the bottom-line answer this publication suggests. The challenges are not underestimated, but as a whole the book signals hope over gloom. It is clear, however, that hope can thrive only if we adapt to new realities. The key argument is that US public universities are still doing a great job in education, research and community service—equal if not exceeding their private counterparts—despite a growing resource gap as emphasized for example in Shulenburger’s chapter “Challenges to Viability and Sustainability: Public Funding, Tuition, College Costs, and Affordability.”

The book includes ten essays, plus an introduction and a foreword by the President of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, Peter McPherson. It covers the Morrill Act from different angles, which makes it an interesting and timely contribution to the debate on the societal relevance of public universities and their role in democratizing access. Starting off with a look at the history of the Land-Grant Act, this collection of essays follows a logical path. First, it zooms in on its role in improving access for traditionally underprivileged (black) students and developing studies otherwise considered “second class” yet essential for the nation’s development, such as agricultural sciences.

For-Profit Colleges Struggle To Persist And Expand

Private, For-profit Colleges See Unaccustomed Setbacks
For-profits colleges enjoyed booming enrollment and annual profits in the billions. But after years of criticism over purportedly fraudulent claims, high costs, and shady recruiting practices, the for-profits have seen deep enrollment declines and been forced to slash tuition. Some have shut down or announced layoffs, and states are stepping up enforcement against questionable practices by others. (Hechinger Report, 11/11/13)

New Report On College Readiness Progress

Washington, D.C. – November 20, 2013 – With all 50 states and the District of Columbia having adopted college- and career-ready standards, Achieve’s eighth annual “Closing the Expectations Gap” report, released today, shows how all states are aligning those standards with policies and practice to better ensure that all students are academically prepared for life after high school.   

“All 50 states deserve credit for confronting the expectations gap – that is the gap between what it takes to earn a high school diploma and what the real world actually expects graduates to know and be able to do,” said Mike Cohen, Achieve’s president. “But raising standards is just the start. Supporting teachers and leaders with the time and tools they need to change classroom practice is critical, and many states are doing just that. It is also important to align graduation requirements, assessments and accountability policies to college- and career-ready standards. This work is complicated and it will take time to get it right. Governors, chiefs and other state and districts leaders must continue to make the work a top priority; they deserve tremendous credit for leading on an issue that is so critical to the future of students, their families, communities, states and ultimately our country.”

Achieve conducts an annual policy survey that asks all 50 states and the District of Columbia whether they have adopted standards, graduation requirements, assessments and accountability systems aligned to the expectations of two- and four-year colleges and employers. The national survey of state education leaders has measured the same areas of reform each year since the National Governors Association and Achieve co-sponsored the National Education Summit in 2005. This year’s survey reveals the following results: 

Standards: All 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted standards aligned to the expectations of college and careers. 46 states and DC have adopted the Common Core State Standards, while four have state-developed CCR standards. For these standards to be realized in classrooms, they must be implemented with fidelity. Ensuring access to high-quality aligned instructional materials and supporting training and professional learning opportunities for teachers and principals is critical – as is deploying strong performance metrics to monitor implementation progress.

Graduation Requirements: Today, 19 states and the District of Columbia have adopted college- and career-ready graduation requirements. However, more than half the states in the country that have adopted the CCSS/CCR standards have not raised their graduation requirements to match those standards. This misalignment means that students may graduate unprepared for college and careers since they will not have taken courses that deliver the CCSS/CCR standards or demonstrated their mastery of the CCSS/CCR standards through competency-based methods. 

Assessments: Today, 19 states have or will administer college- and career-ready high school assessments capable of producing a readiness score that postsecondary institutions use to make placement decisions. The 42 states and District of Columbia participating in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) or the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium working to develop CCR assessments will face many key decisions in the months and years ahead, including how these next generation assessments can support aligned and rigorous instruction, how to ensure postsecondary use of the results, and how and whether to factor the results of new assessments into high-stakes graduation decisions for students. 

Accountability: A majority of states, 35, have now incorporated at least one of four accountability indicators that Achieve has identified as critical to promoting college and career readiness. No state meets Achieve’s criteria regarding the use of all indicators in its college- and career-ready accountability system, and overall state progress in creating accountability systems anchored in CCR has been slow – and often stalled – even with the adoption of new accountability systems under ESEA flexibility waivers. 

Cohen also pointed to the sharing of a common set of standards by 46 states and the District of Columbia that has produced unprecedented cross-state collaboration to address many implementation issues. He went on to say, “The next few years will be challenging for the college- and career-ready agenda and we have to stay the course. Those who are against the CCSS or CCR standards, better assessments, aligned graduation requirements, and accountability systems that value college and career readiness are, in fact, champions of the status quo. A status quo that graduates far too few and fails to prepare many who do receive a diploma for the real world.”

To see the report, go to www.achieve.org/ClosingtheExpectationsGap2013. 

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College Ready Assessments In High School Can Help Preparation

Readiness Assessment, Transition Curricula in Four States
Initiatives to implement college readiness assessments and transition curricula vary across states. This report describes those initiatives in California, New York, Tennessee, and West Virginia, then compares interventions nationally. Authors recommend strong collaboration between high schools and higher education institutions, as well as legislation to build support and momentum. Program designers need to weigh competing priorities concerning goals, populations served, and course content. (Community College Research Center) ; provided by ECS.

Non- Completion Can Be A Pathway To Success In Community Colleges