Grim Outlook For University Of California System

From La Times:

Reporting from San Francisco — The University of California regents Wednesday heard grim predictions on how proposed state budget cuts would affect students and faculty even as officials sought to soften the blow by slashing spending at the UC headquarters and shifting the savings to the system’s 10 campuses. “The painful truth is that we are at the point of compromising educational quality,” UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal told the Board of Regents. He was among several campus leaders who gave the board forecasts about reduced class offerings and staff layoffs that are likely next year. Among other areas, some key required courses may be offered only once a year, making it harder for students to graduate on time, Blumenthal said. (more…)

Report Looks At Student Debt Issues Beyond Default

Two out of five student loan borrowers were delinquent at some point in the first five years after they started repaying their loans, according to an Institute for Higher Education Policy report. Almost a quarter of the borrowers used an option to postpone payments to avoid delinquency. The study offers a picture of student debt beyond those who default.

Cal State Will Begin Remediation In The Summer

Cal State will require most entering  first year students to begin remediation in the summer. They will offer summer school, on line , and other modalities to these students. This may be the beginning of a national trend.

1. What is Early Start?
Under Early Start, beginning in 2012, entering freshmen that are not proficient in math or “at risk” in
English will need to start the remediation process before their first term. By 2014 students will need
to have started their work on becoming ready for college‐level English.
2. Why an Early Start program?
The CSU is mandated under the state’s Master Plan for Higher Education to serve the upper third of
high school graduates and about half of these men and women do not have college level skills even
though they are fully eligible to attend our campuses including a grade point average of 3.0 or above,
test scores and completion of the A‐G curriculum.
The issue of college preparedness is not a new issue for higher education and certainly not CSU with
over 50% of fully eligible freshmen arriving on CSU campuses without being proficient in math and/or
English. Early Start is simply another effort by CSU faculty, academic leaders, staff and others to help
make sure that these admitted students get this important work done sooner rather than later and to
increase their likelihood of completing their degree in a timely manner.
3. What is different than current CSU policy?
Current CSU policy, as reflected in Executive Order 665, was adopted in the late 1990’s and requires all
entering freshmen to complete their remedial work in the first year of CSU enrollment. Early Start does
not change that timeline; but it does facilitate students’ beginning this work prior to the first term for
which they have been admitted to a CSU campus, so they are better prepared to succeed in their
college courses.
Annual reports are provided to the legislature regarding this policy, the trends on student
preparedness, how many students complete remediation, the demographics of these students, and
the number that were not successful. The most recent report was released this month. All annual
reports including the one released earlier this month can be accessed on our website at:
http://www.calstate.edu/budget/fybudget/legislative‐reports/20110201‐Final‐First‐Time‐
Freshmen.pdf.

Low Income Students At For-Profit Institutions Pay The Most For College

Low-income undergraduates enrolled full time at for-profit institutions had the highest average net price after grants as well as the highest average out-of-pocket net price when compared with low-income students enrolled at other institutions. The average net price after grants was $21,300 for low-income students at for-profit institutions but ranged from $7,800 to $17,900 at other institutions. Similarly, the average out-of-pocket net price was $11,700 among low-income students at for-profit institutions but the average for those enrolled elsewhere ranged from $6,000 to $9,800.” ( from ECS)

Source: What is the Price of College? Total, Net, and Out-of-Pocket Prices in 2007-08. U.S. Department of Education (December 2010). Accessed January 28, 2011 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011175.pdf.

State College Savings Plans A Big Gamble For Parents

Washington, D.C. — As college costs have continued to rise, states have offered families a way to save for their child’s education. Private savings accounts, known as 529 savings plans, allow a family’s investment to grow tax-free until a child is ready for college.

Yet according to Education Sector Policy Analyst Chad Aldeman in Why 529 College Savings Plans Favor the Fortunate, a new Chart You Can Trust, parents might as well gamble with their college savings. Most state college savings plans are little more than a roll of the dice, Aldeman argues.

Among the key findings:

• College costs have skyrocketed over 80 percent in the last decade. As states decrease their contributions to public universities and colleges, increasingly, families are turning to 529 college savings plans to pay for higher education.
• Today, every state sponsors at least one 529 plan, and families have more than 10 million accounts, assets of which have increased from $14 billion to $135 billion in the last decade.
• Timing is critical for 529 investors. These plans rely on the power of compounding stock market returns to finance higher education. But market rises and falls create huge winners and losers, based solely on luck and timing. (See Chart 1, below).
• Assuming they saved the same amount each year, a student entering public college in 1997 could have paid for as much as 4.27 years of college, while a student entering in 2008 could only afford less than a year.
• Although 529 plans are intended to help all students afford higher education, in reality, wealthy taxpayers are much more likely to benefit. For wealthy families, the tax advantages of financing college expenses through a 529 plan can amount to as much as a 39 percent advantage over a traditional taxable account. For middle income families, that advantage is 35 percent, but for lower-income families it is just 22 percent.

As states decrease their investment in higher education, more of the burden of paying for college will shift to individuals and families. And helping families afford higher education is a worthy public policy goal. But based on the data assembled in this Chart You Can Trust, Aldeman asks whether 529 plans remain the best way to meet that goal.

Read Why 529 College Savings Plans Favor the Fortunate.

Georgia Hope Scholarships Cut Except For Top Students

Georgia’s Hope scholarship was the flagship merit student aid program, but lottery funding has not kept pace with growth of demand and costs.

Senate Passes HOPE Bill with Some Changes
The HOPE scholarship would cover all tuition for Georgia’s high school valedictorians and salutatorians through an amendment the Senate approved to the overhaul of the lottery-funded program. House Bill 326 would cut the amount of the scholarship for all but the very brightest students and make other changes to keep the program from going broke. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 03/08/11)

College Coaching Is Effective For Student Retention

STANFORD –Student coaching significantly increases the likelihood that college students will stay in school and graduate, according to a new study released today by researchers at Stanford University School of Education.

The study, conducted by Stanford University Associate Professor Eric Bettinger and doctoral student Rachel Baker, reviewed the academic records of more than 13,500 students from eight colleges and universities across the 2003-4 and 2007-8 academic years. The researchers compared randomly selected, demographically balanced groups of coached vs. non-coached students, and found a 10 -to 15-percent increase in retention and graduation rates among those in the coached group. Bettinger and Baker measured student outcomes using data provided by InsideTrack, a national student coaching company.

“The results are clear:  coaching had a clear impact on retention and completion rates,” Bettinger said.  “And not only does coaching improve the likelihood students will remain in college, but expenditures on coaching are much smaller than the costs of other methods to encourage persistence in college.”

Bettinger and Baker announced their findings Thursday through the National Bureau of Economic Research’s website.  Following a randomization process, 8,000 of the students received one-on-one coaching and 5,500 did not. The universities participating in the study provided data on student persistence after six, 12, 18 and 24 months.  Degree completion data was also provided for a subsample of students in the earlier sample year.

Other research results included:

• Increased retention rates in the coached groups across all of the time frames following the students’ enrollment:

  After six months, the coached student group led the non-coached group in retention by about 10 percent. After 12 months, the coached group led by nearly 12 percent.  The coached group also led at 18 months and 24 months, by 15 and 14 percent, respectively. The results were consistent when the researchers controlled for age, gender, SAT or ACT scores, high-school GPA, and scholarships and grants.

• Graduation rates were 13 percent higher for coached students in the subsample where completion rate information was available.

“The research about the effects of coaching has implications for institutions of higher learning and for the policymakers at the state and national level who are grappling with improving retention and graduation rates,” Bettinger said.

Bettinger, who has studied the effects of financial aid on college retention, also found that student coaching appears to be cost effective.  For instance, Bettinger said, a $1,000 increase in financial aid typically increases persistence by three percentage points, while a two-semester investment in one-on-one coaching costs about the same and increases persistence by five percentage points.

“Coaching not only works, but it appears to be one of the more cost effective ways to produce better retention and graduation rates,” Bettinger said.

For more information about the research results, please see “The Effects of Student Coaching: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Advising,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper at http://ed.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/bettinger_baker_030711.pdf. The paper is also available to NBER subscribers at http://www.nber.org/papers/w16881.

K-12 Education Expanding Virtual Education

  Postsecondary virtual education may get a boost from the expansion in k-12

VIRTUAL EDUCATION BOOM HITS THE STATES
A combination of higher proficiency standards and tighter budgets are prompting school and state officials to look more closely at online education. All but two states now offer online courses to at least some students. In most cases, online courses are blended with in-school courses. But 27 states allow students to attend virtual schools full-time. The information is from Stateline.

California Community Colleges Need Higher Priority For Career Education

In view of the urgent need to improve the economy and increase educational attainment in the state,

the potential of the Career Technical Education function of the California Community Colleges is not

receiving sufficient attention, says a new report released today by the Institute for Higher Education

Leadership & Policy at Sacramento State University.

The report, The Road Less Traveled: Realizing the Potential of Career Technical Education in

the California Community Colleges, found that CTE can be an important vehicle for helping to

meet the state’s completion, workforce, and equity goals. But a lack of priority on awarding

technical certificates and degrees and the absence of clear pathways for students to follow in

pursuing those credentials have held the programs back.

“The mission and importance of CTE are not well understood by policymakers and other

stakeholders, and as a result we don’t have the structures and policies to take full advantage of

these programs,” said Nancy Shulock, director of IHELP. “We think there are some important

steps to be taken that would allow the colleges to help more students complete the occupational

programs they are pursuing, and that would better meet the needs of the state as well.”

Recent studies show that a large share of California’s future jobs are “middle skills” jobs

requiring an occupational certificate or vocational associate degree and that many of these jobs

have the prospect of more substantial earnings than those of traditional academic degrees. Yet,

in spite of large enrollments of CCC students in vocational courses, few students earn

vocational credentials.

Of the 255,000 degree/certificate-seeking students (defined as taking more than six units in the

first year) entering the CCC in the 2003-04 academic year, only 5% earned certificates and 3%

earned vocational associate degrees within six years. Many more students than that made

considerable progress and earned 30 or more college-level credits, but the progress did not

translate into certificates or degrees.

Researchers studied patterns of student enrollment and progress in four high-wage, high-need

fields (information technology, engineering technology, engineering and nursing) as a basis for

drawing some conclusions about the CTE mission area as a whole and to explore reasons for

the low award of technical credentials. They found that even in these technical fields most of the

associate degrees earned were in interdisciplinary studies rather than in a technical field.

“There appears to be a perceived lack of value to technical associate degrees and certificates

which may account for students not pursuing these credentials,” said Shulock. “Unfortunately

the general degrees students are receiving do not signal to employers that a student has

expertise in a field and therefore do not serve students well who want to enter the workforce.”

Researchers also documented a huge variety of choices of certificates and degrees in the same

or similar fields even in a single college and widely differing program requirements across

colleges. This raises the possibility that fewer choices and more consistency might make it

easier for students to enter and complete occupational programs.

“This report rightly points out that we have an opportunity to do a much better job of using the

resources in our community colleges to help create a stronger workforce in California,” said

David Rattray, vice president, education and workforce development, Los Angeles Chamber of

Commerce. “The employers I work with would definitely benefit from more structure to certificate

and associate degree programs. We would attract more students into these programs and help

them be better prepared for high-paying jobs when they finish.”

The report offers specific recommendations to strengthen the CTE mission including

reexamining the structure and function of occupationally-oriented associate degrees now that a

new set of associate degrees for transfer is being developed under last year’s SB 1440. Also

recommended is that the system consider offering fewer, more consistent CTE programs that

clearly meet regional needs and that students formally declare a program of study and colleges

ensure that students have access to the classes they need for those programs.

“http://www.csus.edu/ihelp/PDFs/R_Road_Less_Traveled_02_11.pdf

Columbia University Research Summaries Provide Basis For New Policy Thinking

The Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University, has released a series of exciting papers that all developmental education leaders should review. The papers cover a wide range of topics, to include developmental math pedagogy, assessing assessment systems and acceleration in developmental education. For a full list of the new publications, visit the CCRC Web page.