Guest Blogger:
Sara Goldrick-Rab
Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies & Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Scholar at the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education


The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program was established by Congress under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, to benefit current and prospective teachers. This new grant is available as of the 2008-09 school year. It provides $4,000 per year to students willing to commit (as recent high school graduates) to earning a degree in education and then going to teach full-time for 4 years in high-poverty schools in a specific subject area.

On the face of it this looks like a good program-- incentives for more individuals to become teachers, teach in low-income communities, financial assistance that does not have to be repaid, etc.

But beware: If a student does not fulfill the terms of the grant it is automatically converted into an unsubsidized loan, with interest accruing starting when the loan began.

One can easily imagine many ways a student could fail to fulfill the terms of the grant.
Here are but a few examples:

1. The 18 year old student might change her mind about becoming a teacher (all you have to do to be eligible is to "plan on completing coursework necessary to begin a career in teaching")

2. She might not be admitted to a school of education. This is easy to imagine at a school like UW-Madison, where our admissions occur only after a student begins college and are quite competitive.

3. She might not succeed in the program (you have to maintain a 3.25 GPA each semester)

4. She might not find an appropriate teaching job in her local area and thus be forced to move away from home, or even out-of-state. (There is a clause for this: "There are, however, graduate degree alternatives for teachers or retirees with experience in a teacher shortage area" but the options aren't spelled out)

5. Once she's teaching, she could be laid off (new teachers are especially vulnerable to this).

6. The school at which she's teaching might change in composition, such that it is no longer considered "high-poverty." (It seems the criteria will be based on % free lunch)

For these reasons and many more, the student's "grant" of up to $16K might suddenly become an unsubsidized loan amounting to far more with interest included (something along the lines of $40K over a 10 year period).


Yet to sign up for the program the student only signs a simple form-- since it's not a loan there is no promissory note clearly spelling out terms and conditions. This is thus not like a loan forgiveness program.

We should be very concerned about the potential impacts of this highly misleading program on uninformed students. Apparently while this has passed Congress, it is not out of the Education Department's rule-making process yet. There is time to act. This program should be retooled into a loan forgiveness program -- if a student succeeds, she ends up paying nothing--if she fails, at least the loan was subsidized, and at least she knew what she was getting into...

Kevin Carey of Education Sector has presented a good summary of University of Texas research that links student engagement with higher grades and college completion- http://www.educationsector.org/; "Deal or No Deal". Engagement studies focus on how often students make in class presentations, prepare two or more drafts of assignments, and work on papers that require integration of ideas and information. Higher engagement in classes helps overcome weak academic preparation for community colleges. These are nationwide studies from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement http://www.ccsse.org/.

Labels: academic preparation, College Completion

Achieve has now entered the largest state to help with alignment of secondary and postsecondary standards and assessments-www.achieve.org. But it will not be easy in California to make headway because the three higher education systems are so separate and business support is shallow. Achieve's best success has been in states like Indiana and Kentucky where there is some overall state leadership in higher education. California ia the reverse with three stove pipe sytems, community colleges, Cal State and University of California.
Achieve has some excellent publications and knows what it is doing, but getting leverage on higher education has been difficult. Achieve stresses placement tests and revising secondary school course content, not just statewide declarations about standards alignment.

Labels: curriculum alignment

Each year the Community College Survey of Student Engagemnt is full of good data and advice: http://www.ccsse.org/. Conducted by the University of Texas it asks students about their experience at community colleges and provides basic data.For example, fewer than half of students met with an adviser in the first four weeks of college. Only, 36% were satisfied with their orientation course. But two thirds of community college students attend part time and two thirds of the faculy are part time. The report is full of how engaged students are in their classes, and how to make classes more engaging.
Students are engaged in synthesis (57%), and appling theories(50%). But 64% report that memorizing facts or ideas is emphasized in their classes. 61% are in remedial courses, but 36% have still not taken a placement exam after four weeks. There is clearly something wrong with the first four weeks at many colleges and it results in less college success and lower college completion

Labels: College Completion, college sucess

A new study of college retention relationships suggests that for low income students academic success has a very important impact on college persistence and attainment, and is more important than increasing financial aid. The study at the University of Nevada Reno is one case and hardly conclusive as published in the January 21, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education ; http://chronicle.com/. BUT IT IS INTERESTING BECAUSE OTHER STUDIES SUGGEST GIVING MORE FINANCIAL AID IS THE PRIORITY COMPARED TO MORE ACADEMIC SUPPORT SERVICES for low income students.
The the real issue is that there are numerous factors that cause college success and completion. Take a look at the site at the top right of this blog to see the bigger picture :http://mycollegepuzzle.com/ .

Labels: College Completion, College Success, college sucess

Achieve has published an outstanding guide for states aligning high school curiculum and standards with college standards- http://www.achieve.org/. It is entitled Aligning High School Graduation With the Real World, and specifies 18 steps that must be completed. It covers the key parameters, accountability, incentives,implementation, building support, and communication. I have never seen anything this logical or systemic. Some parts are too brief in this 29 page document such as professional development for secondary school teachers. But all the key elements are here, and it highlights that numerous interconnected actions must be created to make college preparation and college completion likeley. I wish there had been some estimates of state costs for following this road map.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation

Higher Educations' charmed life continues because 86% of the public blames the student or the high school for college dropouts which are as high as 75% in community college and over 50% at some 4 year colleges. College is like the military says the public and should not be easy. And despite excalating tuition, the public believes the burden is on the student to make sacrifices and be more disciplined. So, the colleges can escape accountability and feel little pressure to improve instruction or student services from an uninformed public.
Pat Callan and John Immerwahr expolore this issue in the January 11, article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, . They wonder how long the pubilcs "good will' will last, given a gradual erosion in public support. But unless there is more understanding of the issues in this blog, not much will change soon given the general level of satisfaction with higher education.

Labels: College Completion, college information

Education Week"s new Quality Counts gives grades to states for college transition policies beginning on page 37. http://www.edweek.org/. State policies average a C ,but the trend line is up. The leading state such as Ma, Mi, and Ga have implemented several policies that Edweek thinks are effective. Only 15 states have a defintition of college readiness that is specific in terms of what content should be learned. Only, 3 states require a college preparation curriculum to graduate from high school .
College transition is increasingly on the state policy agenda, but follow through and passage is still slow.

Labels: College Preparation, curriculum alignment

My second review is the US Education Departments College navigator site www.nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator. It has data on 7,ooo public and private institutions using 16 criteria that cover many aspects of colleges including the setting, security, and major foci. The pop up boxes are useful on clarifying the terms and concepts included.
The site has so much information that it is difficult to use if students do not know what they are looking for, and are undecided about whether they should go to college at all. Moreover, it does not caution students enough concerning the time and study requirements ,if the student is working and has family obligations. Navigator is best for students who have some specific ideas about going to college.
Another website http://www.mycollegepuzzle.com/ shown at the top right of this blog is for the other end of the spectrum-broad access postsecondary education for students who are less clear on their choices ,and the demands of college success and college preparation. This site encourages prospective college students to consider several different factors and elements that could influence their individual college outcome. I plan to commenting on each of the elements or pieces of the college puzzle in future posts.

Labels: college information, College Preparation, College Success

There are a number of websites that designed to help students compare colleges , but they all have serious limitations. It is hard to provide everything in a single website , so students need to use several. My first review is "The University and College Accountability Network"-www.ucan-network.org. This is provided by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and has 6oo colleges.
It has good graphics and data on SAT scores and ethnicity of students. But it is basically restatements of PR from the colleges own websites, with little about job placement and real campus life.
This website is mostly for selective colleges. Our website www.mycollegepuzzle.com at the top right of this blog is for the other end of the spectrum-broad access postsecondary education. Click on it to see the difference concerning college preparation and needed elements for college success

Labels: College Preparation, college sucess

The ACE report featured in my last blog, "Apples and Oranges in a Flat World" has the USA all over the place in various comparisons with other developed nations in terms of participation and attainment in post secondary education. The basic trend is USA still increasing, but at a rate not fast enough to be impressive. But the USA starts from such a high base of participation that it will take a while for more countries to surpass us in participation. But the k-16 problem in the future is ominious becasue of so many USA high school dropouts. For USA adults ages 55-64 , US is first in population that has" attained upper secondary education." But for the ages 25-34 group, US is tenth.
Go to http://www.acenet.edu/ and specify item 3111576

Labels: College Success Studies, ready for college

The American Council on Education has published a unique guide to understanding the status of USA postsecondary education compared to other developed countries. It is a laypersons guide called Apples and Oranges in a Flat World at http://www.acenet.edu/, specify item 311576. Yes, the US has slipped from first to seventh in college completion anong young adults in recent years compared to several countries.But some countries count completion as a vocational certificate,and the US includes only associate degrees that ordinarily take 2 years. So, the guide helps sort through these structural and conceptual differences that make international comparisons a risky business.
The overall outcome, however, is a US that is flat in terms of college attainment, while most other countires are increasing and closing the gap with us. For example, the number of bachelors degrees in science and technology in the US is increasing, but not keeping pace with gains in most other countries.

Labels: College Completion, College Success Studies

The American Council on Education has released a new report on Minorities in Higher Education, www.acenet.edu/. It shows progress in minority enrollment growth between 1994 and 2004- 49%! But the enrollment rate for men increased only 2% compared to 6% for women. The largest percentage increase for minorities was at private for profit institutions. Minorities earned 118% more masters degrees from 1994 to 2005. So there is some good news out there despite the persistent gap between minorities and whites/Asians in enrollment , and low college completion rates for minorities in community colleges. This is just a sampling of findings in the report.

Labels: College Completion, College Success Studies