This was the title of a talk by Syracuse professor Vincent Tinto.He has been studying for many years the lack of college success at broad access colleges. He has completed a large scale study of community colleges and universities to find keys to sucess under the headings: expectations, support, feedback, and involvment. The study focusses on learning communities through student engagement from the classroom up.Study groups linked around first year courses are crucial. Students get together before and after class- eg social and intellectual connections help. Clasess must be linked and not just one at a time for learning communities to be most effective. So he recommendes courses links like develpmental english, a core content course like history and a general studies seminar for a cohort learning community.
Tinto"s papers are on his website -vtinto@syr.edu

Labels: College Success, support for college

Congress and the Clinton administration have expanded dramatically the tax credits for college costs. But they are used only by families with income high enough to use them. Congress should redirect some of the $5 billion spent on tax credits to enlarging the Pell grant for low income students. Such changes would allow pell grants to exceed $6,ooo which is close to the average tuition at the average 4 year public college. Pell grants have eroded significantly over the past 30 years. Now that congress and the Bush administration have recently increased pell grants, it is time to break the policy mode and go after the tax credits.

Labels: college costs, income, support for college, wealth

The College Board just reported that the average price for a college education once again rose faster than the inflation rate this year, particularly at public four-year institutions.

According to the College Board's annual tuition survey, the increase in tuition and fees this year at the nation's public four-year institutions sustained the trend that has persisted for three decades. The College Board's tuition survey, "Trends in College Pricing," and the survey on financial aid, "Trends in Student Aid," are both available on its website.

Importantly, no one who is considering attending college should do so without a clear understanding of the financial implications. Too many students – prospective or existing—suffer not only sticker shock AFTER they’ve committed, but angst with the whole process of securing aid and making timely payments.

A student cannot be college-ready, if they are not ready financially. We offer prospective students very basic, yet helpful tools at our partner website -- MyCollegePuzzle.

Labels: College Readiness, College Success, support for college

Howard Block writes equity research on education companies for Banc of America Securities. He is one of my former PhD students.

Block’s prior work under me has lent him a somewhat unique perspective on education equities. He recently wrote a lengthy report on the dangerous combination of search advertising and college admission. Its theme dovetails quite nicely with my work on K16. I may reference Block’s report in a few of my entries, such as this one:

The process of deciding whether to attend college, let alone selecting the proper institution, is a complex process that should not be mediated by a search engine or directory site. Nonetheless, students, particularly non-traditional students, are increasingly relying on search engines in order to make these decisions. As an unfortunate consequence, Block does not expect graduation rates to improve from the current low levels.

The availability of public graduation rate data is extremely limited, and there is typically a lag of six to eight years between the time a cohort group enters school and when their graduation rate data is made available. However, Department of Education (DOE) data from 2004, which was made available one year ago, provides some helpful insight.

The graduation rate for students who completed their Bachelors degrees within 150% of the normal time was 57% for the 1998 cohort year. (Knapp, L.G., Kelly-Reid, J.E., and Whitmore, R.W. (2006). Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2004; Graduation Rates, 1998 & 2001 Cohorts; and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2004 (NCES 2006-155). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.)

However, further examination of the data indicates that graduation rates by institution type were
53% at public schools,
64% at private non-profits, and
a disappointing 25% at private for-profit institutions.

The reasons for low graduation rates are myriad, as are the many ways of classifying them. Students who are:
ill-prepared academically or are considered not ready for college,
ill-prepared financially or lack the support for college,
Ill-prepared socially or lack the skills to prosper away from home.

Another less-cited factor is that too many students are in the wrong schools – schools that may not offer the preferred or most suitable academic program, social setting or environment. And that is one of Block’s primary points – increasing use of search engines to select a college is going to result in more flawed selections and ultimately more dropouts. More on this topic later.

Labels: College Success, ready for college, support for college