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Resources
Academic Programs in CE In the News
January 2008 2007 Archive Recent News |
In the News: 2007The UCEA staff members regularly compile a list of summaries and links to articles of interest appearing in other publications. Also, on the right side of our home page, in the Trends & Issues section, we highlight items of particular interest to our association membership. These are compiled in our Trends section. Note: links to online articles are provided as a courtesy to our visitors. These links may change as news organizations move articles to archives on their Web sites. Please visit the Web site of the appropriate news outlet for information and access to archived news articles. Higher Education Enrollment in New Orleans Has Increased Since Last YearA Brookings Institution report reveals that higher education enrollment in New Orleans continues to rebound, reaching 74 percent of pre-Katrina levels, up from 72 percent last fall. Enrollment this fall has increased the most at the city’s community college and two of the historically black universities. Yet other universities are struggling to replace the relatively large number of students who enrolled before Katrina but are now graduating. Read the full report at http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2007/08neworleansindex.aspx A Different Look at U.S. High School Graduation RateA working paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, “The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels,” uses multiple data sources and a unified methodology to estimate the trends and levels of the U.S. high school graduation rate. The report’s authors, James J. Heckman of the University of Chicago, and Paul A. LaFontaine of the American Bar Foundation's Center for Social Program Evaluation, assert that the true high school graduation rate is substantially lower than the official rate issued by the National Center for Educational Statistics; it has been declining over the past 40 years; majority/minority graduation rate differentials are substantial and have not converged over the past 35 years; and the decline in high school graduation rates occurs among native populations and is not solely a consequence of increasing proportions of immigrants and minorities in American society. State Department Publishes New Rules on Exchange ProgramsNew federal rules will streamline the process for imposing sanctions on institutions that sponsor foreign-exchange programs, but the groups that sponsor such programs complain that the regulations are overly broad and provide inadequate opportunities for due process. Under the rules, the State Department no longer has to find that alleged violations of regulations governing the Exchange Visitors Program are willful or negligent before imposing sanctions. The rules also allow exchange programs to be terminated if the department determines that they compromise national security or do not further its public-diplomacy mission. Read the article at http://chronicle.com/news/article/3672/state-department-publishes-new-rules-on-exchange-programs?at Foundation Hopes to Lure Top Students to TeachingThe Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton is creating a fellowship program that it hopes will lure top students into teaching and transform teacher education in the United States. The program will offer about 33 national Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellowships a year, with $30,000 stipends, for students to attend graduate education programs. Another part of the program will provide fellowships in selected states, beginning with Indiana, at universities that agree to remake their graduate education programs along certain lines. These include closer integration between the education colleges and colleges of arts and sciences, direct oversight of the education programs by university provosts, greater collaboration between education colleges and primary and secondary schools, more experience in schools for graduate students, and three years of mentoring after the graduates start teaching. Read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/education/20teaching.html?ref=education Congress Approves Bill Promoting Efficient, Renewable Energy on CampusesCongress gave final approval to a bill authorizing up to $750-million annually in federal assistance for renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects on college campuses. President Bush is expected to sign the measure. The assistance for campus projects, which would be the first of its kind from the federal government, is not authorized to begin until the 2009 fiscal year. For energy projects, the measure authorizes the Department of Energy to make $250-million in grants and $500-million in loans annually to colleges, public schools, or local governments. The bill establishes grants of up to $1-million each for energy-efficiency improvements to facilities and of up to $500,000 each for projects that test new techniques in energy efficiency and sustainable energy production. At least 50 percent of the total grant money must be awarded to institutions of higher education. For research, the bill authorizes $25 million a year for grants to colleges, or consortia including a college, for research and development on biofuel production in states with low rates of ethanol production; $25 million for grants of up to $2 million each to universities for research on renewable energy; $50 million a year for grants to projects involving engineering colleges to study harnessing energy from ocean waves and tides; and more than $184-million annually for industrial research centers based at colleges. Read the article at http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/12/1029n.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en More Colleges Using Differential Tuition to Meet Rising CostsMany universities are now deploying differential tuition, charging different prices to individual students based on their majors or levels. The model is becoming increasingly widespread as public universities struggle with diminishing state financial support and higher operating costs. Students pay an additional tuition fee for course in certain majors, such as business, which can propel grads into better-paying careers, as well as classes in certain other subjects, such as science and engineering, that cost the school more to deliver. Read the article at http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/dec2007/bs2007124_770986.htm Senate Panel Approves Bills That Would Increase Student Aid and Renew Higher Education ActThe Senate education committee approved a pair of bills on Wednesday that would slash government subsidies to student-loan companies, boost student aid, and set higher-education policy for the next five years. Read more at: New Study Sheds Light on Comparable Performance Measures across InstitutionsThe Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, released a report, "Institutional Versus Academic Discipline Measures of Student Experience: A Matter of Relative Validity" that shows that students studying the same discipline at different institutions have more similar academic experiences than do students studying different disciplines on the same campus. The report questions institutional comparisons that ignore academic program mix and discipline as well as campus performance comparisons that do not recognize pedagogical differences by academic major. The report uses data from the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, conducted in 2006 with nearly 60,000 undergraduates responding. Read more at: Tarheels at a DistanceThe University of North Carolina has announced the starting date of an online-education project that officials say could help the system become a national player in distance learning. UNC Online will open on July 1, allowing prospective students to enroll in distance courses on any of the system's 16 campuses. Many colleges have begun similar online-education projects on their own, but North Carolina officials hope to eventually expand theirs to enroll students from all over the nation. The goal is to match the success of for-profit institutions, like the University of Phoenix, at distance education, but to remain a nonprofit program. Read more at: Professional Doctorates Are Spreading Fast - as Are Concerns about Their Uneven QualityProfessional doctorates, also known as clinical doctorates, are spreading rapidly, especially in the health sciences. The rapid growth of knowledge and new demands on therapists made the new degree necessary. Professional doctorates also generally take less time than the Ph.D. - while a Ph.D. takes on average about 12 years to complete from the start of college, the new degrees, typically take six or seven years. Many professional associations, representing such disciplines as pharmacy, physical therapy, and audiology, advocate raising entry-level programs - those that prepare graduates to enter a profession - to the doctoral level. Read more at: Many Colleges Are Rejecting Women at Rates Drastically Higher than Those for MenMany colleges are facing a challenge to keep the number of men and women enrolled roughly equal in the face of a dramatically changing pool of applicants. Using undergraduate admissions rate data collected from more than 1,400 four-year colleges and universities that participate in the magazine's rankings, U.S. News has found that over the past 10 years many schools are maintaining their gender balance by admitting men and women at sometimes drastically different rates. Read more at: Education Department to Use FIPSE Budget to Finance Assessment of Student LearningThe U.S. Department of Education has announced that it will set aside $2.5-million in the budget for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, or Fipse, for a focused competition on student-learning assessment. The money, which will finance at least one grant, will help in developing methods to "measure, assess, and report student achievement and institutional performance at the postsecondary level," according to a notice that appeared today (June 20) in the Federal Register. Read more at: Liberal-Arts College Group Plans to Help Develop Alternative to Commercial RankingsA group of college presidents announced plans on Tuesday to help develop an alternative to commercial college rankings. At the annual meeting of the Annapolis Group, which represents 115 liberal-arts colleges, members agreed to develop a Web-based information system that would provide families with "easily accessible, comprehensive, and quantifiable data" on participating colleges. The organization said it planned to work closely with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and other education groups that have begun creating such a tool to provide prospective students with more transparent information. Read more at: Study Finds High-School Grades Are Best Predictors of College SuccessThe high-school grades of University of California students are better predictors of their success in college than are their SAT scores, according to new study by Saul Geiser and Maria Veronica Santelices of The Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, "Validity of High-School Grades in Predicting Student Success Beyond the Freshman Year: High-School Record vs. Standardized Tests as Indicators of Four-Year College Outcomes." The study examined the fates of nearly 80,000 students who entered the university system as freshmen from 1996 to 1999. In earlier work Mr. Geiser has analyzed how those students' freshman grades were related to their SAT scores and high-school grades. The new study moves forward in time, assessing the students' cumulative college grades and their four-year graduation rates. Read more at: Senators Ask Secretary Spellings to Refrain from Accrediation ChangesEighteen of the 21 members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee sent a letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings late Thursday in which they "respectfully" asked her to refrain from issuing those new regulations until Congress passes legislation to renew the Higher Education Act. Read more at: Study Shows that Study-Skills Courses Improve Student Retention and Degree CompletionA study by the Community College Research Center, "Do Student Success Courses Actually Help Community College Students Succeed?" shows that success courses are effective in helping students succeed. Community-college students who take courses designed solely to improve their academic and planning skills are not only more likely to stay in college than other students, but, five years later, are more likely to have earned a degree or transferred to a four-year institution. Sixty percent of students who enrolled in for-credit "success courses," classes that teach students skills for note-taking, test-taking and time management, had "academic success" during the study's five years, while just 40 percent of students who did not take success classes had the same success and had earned a degree or certificate, transferred to a state university or continued enrollment in a community college. Read more at: Give Legal Immigrants Same Opportunities in Higher Education, Says ReportThe Institute for Higher Education Policy in a new report released on Wednesday has urged policymakers to give legal immigrants the same opportunities in higher education as other U.S. citizens. In “Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants,” the report says the legal immigrant community faces federal, state, and institutional barriers in their attempt to enroll in and complete college. This may lead to negative consequences for the nation’s global competitiveness in the 21st century, adds the report. Read this article online. Report: adult higher ed. programs limitedNon-profit colleges and universities do not provide enough opportunities for adults seeking to obtain a college degree, according to research by Education school faculty. The research was released earlier this week as part of a report on the availability of higher education for adults. Read this article online. Forced To Quit School, She Never Gave Up On EducationYolanda Viggiano's thirst for learning took her back to high school in her 30s, to college in her 40s and to graduate school in her 70s. A high school dropout who left school to help her family through the Depression, she was so impressed by the second chance offered by adult education that she made it her career. Read this article online. K-State-Salina creates YouTube channelWhat began as an effort by one professor to get the word out about his summer courses has blossomed into a collegewide recruiting effort at Kansas State University at Salina. K-State at Salina created its own channel on YouTube less than a month ago and already has seen nearly 700 hits to its videos. YouTube is a free Web site where people can easily upload, view and share videos. Channels are created by YouTube members who publish a series of videos, like K-State at Salina. Read this article online. Pursuing lifelong dreamsRetiring from 31 years as a foreign service officer did not mean the end of working for John Beshoar, now 72. Mr. Beshoar, an economist by trade, figured he could play golf or travel, which he did during his Navy and civilian service, but then what? The Potomac Village resident knew he had to have a plan. Since he liked art history and going to museums, he figured a master's degree in art history would provide an opportunity to teach or write. Read this article online. Muddled Outcome on Transfer of CreditIf federal rule making negotiations were reported like baseball games, in the sports pages of the local newspaper — and let’s thank our lucky stars that they’re not — the outcome of Wednesday’s vote on transfer of credit policies during an Education Department negotiating session on accreditation would look, technically, like a loss for for-profit colleges and the national agencies that accredit them. Read this article online. A Failure to CommunicateNot quite three years ago Alaa Elgibali, a professor of Arabic and linguistics, was hired away from the American University in Cairo to transform the Arabic program at the University of Maryland's main campus here. He has expanded enrollment to 185 from 28 and is helping to develop more courses on the languages and cultures of the Middle East, which will be housed in a new regional-studies center. Read this article online. (Subscription required) Colleges Begin to Feel Political Fallout From Student-Loan ScandalAfter two weeks of steady revelations, the scandal in the student-lending industry has made a predictable move from the realm of New York prosecutors to the arena of Washington policymakers. With that, some colleges are preparing to fight back. In the most wide-reaching response to date, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings ordered an end to all access by outside companies to the department's computerized database of borrowers, saying she was no longer confident the system wasn't being misused. Read this article online. (Subscription required) Mapping the Misunderstood Population of Adult Students
A recovering alcohol and drug addict in her 30s. A former truck
driver who lived in his car for six months. And a single mother
with epilepsy. Each of them is part of an all-too-often invisible
class of Americans: adult college students. Adult students are not
well documented, are frequently left out of discussions of higher-education
policy, and are not fully understood by the colleges they attend,
says a report released this week by the Lumina Foundation for Education.
Read this article online. Lowering boom on high cost of higher education
About 20 parents sat in the Falls Church Community Center on a recent
sunny Saturday afternoon, scribbling notes and listening intently
to the presentation on how to pay for college. "It's just so
overwhelming; any help is welcomed," said Jayne Bryant, a single
mother from Oakton who is researching the college-application process
for her daughter, a high school junior. Read this article online. Oregon Senate Passes New Model for Higher EducationThe Oregon Senate Wednesday passed Senate Bill 334, the Shared Responsibility Model for higher education. The new model is an innovative approach to helping Oregonians attend college. The outcome from the new model will be more Oregonians receiving access to higher education, including middle-income families. Read this article online. UWM lands grant for continuing education
The School of Continuing Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
has received a significant grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation
to establish an Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning in Milwaukee.
The grant will build on the current partnership between the UWM
School of Continuing Education and the Guild for Lifelong Learning,
a university-supported, volunteer-run group with a long history
of high quality educational activities. Read this article online. Adult education program boosts skills, confidence
For sisters Bobbi Blunk and Angela Croy, the educational program
offered by their employer, The Waters of Duneland, a Chesterton
nursing facility, provides the chance to brush up on math skills
and learn some medical lingo. Blunk, of Chesterton, said she started
with eighth-grade math skills, but now is testing at the 12th-grade
level. Besides being able to better help the facility's residents
and their families, Blunk has found other benefits. Read this article online. Local view: Higher ed must change with the times
It's nearly June, the time when high school graduates finally earn
their diplomas. Times, however, are changing, and in 2007 high school
graduation needs to be considered a midway point rather than a final
destination to career development. While it used to be true that
a person could excel in a career with a high school diploma, today
it is a ticket to a low-wage job, renting rather than owning a home,
and even a potential need for public assistance. Read this article online. Adult education classes off-limits to illegals in Arizona
People who want to take adult education classes will have to provide
documents to prove they are in this country legally, state schools
chief Tom Horne said Friday. Horne said his decision follows a ruling
earlier in the day from Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard saying
it's up to Horne, as state superintendent of public instruction,
to decide how to comply with Proposition 300. Read this article online. Life-Long LearningThe day when you completed your last effort of education in a structured setting, in either high school or college, may have felt like the greatest day of your life at that time, but for some it’s only the beginning. The population of non-traditional students on college campuses across the county are far and few between, but thanks to a recent federal bill and progress toward additional programs at SUNY Fredonia, area residents who either never finished, or want to begin college, may be tempted to do so. Read this article online. Smith represents county on TAP's Lifelong Learning TaskforceWith changes in workforce demographics anticipated as a result of the baby boomer generation, a Lifelong Learning Taskforce, under the umbrella of Tecumseh Area Partnership, Inc., has been conducting research to examine gaps and barriers to lifelong learning for adults. The 27-member taskforce includes educators, employers, social service and government agency representatives from the state and 14-county WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) region. Read this article online. Looking for Dollars in Unusual Places
Surrounded by a dozen public-college presidents, Gov. Mitchell E.
Daniels Jr. proposed an ambitious plan in December to keep top students
in Indiana and attract world-class researchers to the state's universities.
The price tag: $1-billion. The cost to taxpayers: nothing. Read this article online. Education for those on the go
Cathy Case is a busy woman. As a nurse for LifeFlight of Maine,
she works 12-hour shifts and at any moment could find herself en
route to towns all around Maine to help the victim of a heart attack
or car accident. But somehow Case, 41, is able to get to nursing
class on time. Case is one of nearly two dozen nurses who are taking
part in a collaboration between Central Maine Medical Center in
Lewiston and Saint Joseph's College in Standish. The distance nursing
education program allows nurses who already have a degree to earn
a bachelor's degree through Central Maine Medical Center's nursing
program in Lewiston. Read this article online. Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational EffectivenessU.S. Chamber of Commerce:
The United States in the 21st century faces unprecedented economic
and social challenges, ranging from the forces of global competition
to the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers. Succeeding
in this new era will require our children to be prepared for the
intellectual demands of the modern workplace and a far more complex
society. Yet the evidence indicates that our country is not ready.
Despite decades of reform efforts and many trillions of dollars
in public investment, U.S. schools are not equipping our children
with the skills and knowledge they-and the nation-so badly need. Read this article online. The House's New Face on Higher Ed
When Democrats won control of Congress in November, the change promised
the return to power of some familiar names to many college leaders,
including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the once and
current chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee, and Rep. George Miller of California, who has been a
visible and vocal presence as the top Democrat on the House of Representatives
higher education subcommittee throughout this decade and now heads
the full Education and Labor Committee. Read this article online. Foundation gives $1 million vote of confidence to UCSC's nontraditional students
When Yvette Sanchez graduated from UCSC in June with bachelor's
degrees in both environmental studies and economics, it was a celebration
almost 20 years in the making Since 2005, the Osher Reentry Scholarship
Program at UCSC has been supporting students like Sanchez, between
the ages of 25 and 50 whose collegiate studies were interrupted
by circumstances beyond their control and who wish to complete a
four-year baccalaureate degree. Read this article online. Women Increasingly Likely To Be Leaders in U.S. Higher Education
Harvard University's selection of a woman as its new president is
part of a trend in U.S. higher education to open its leadership
posts to women. More women than ever attend universities, and slating
women for leadership positions in higher education is a natural
outgrowth of this pattern, says Catherine Hill, director of research
at the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Read this article online. Declining student numbers risk country's future, group warns
Canada's higher-education system could shrink by as many as 100,000
students in the next decade unless the country moves aggressively
to recruit more low-income and aboriginal students, a new report
warns. And this drop will come at a time when about 70 per cent
of jobs are expected to require diplomas or degrees, says the report
released yesterday by the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Read this article online. Learning all through life
The formula goes something like this: Go to college. Learn a trade.
Get a job. Get married. Retire. Live out your life in Florida. Omniscience
will arrive somewhere in the middle, right? Not if you think like
the few thousand Berkshirites who take adult education classes at
area colleges. Most of them look at enlightenment as if it were
food - they can't survive without it. Read this article online. Lifelong learning seen as trend
There was a time when most people figured they had completed their
education on those happy days when they picked up their high school
or college diplomas. But today that's no longer true. Today, people
who graduated from college 30 years ago are taking classes in everything
from Italian to modern film and traveling all over the world, learning
about other cultures. They are becoming, in other words, lifelong
learners. Read this article online. Smashing the glass ceilingContinuing education and professional development are more important in the 21st century than ever before as workers are required to adapt to an ever-changing work environment. Programs geared directly toward women are becoming more prevalent and available in Wisconsin and local experts urge women to take full advantage. Read this article online. Education funding seeing progressEducation is not only vital to the future of Ohio's children; it is a key component to the success of our state.While everyone has their own opinion about how our students should be educated and what money should go where, what is clear is that, as our economy has evolved, the importance of an education has increased tremendously. Instead of stopping after high school or college, lifelong learning has now become a reality to advance in today's workforce. Read this article online. President Bush and Congress Set to Increase Pell GrantsStudent aid was at the center of a race for one-upmanship here last week between the Democratic leadership in Congress and President Bush. First, the House of Representatives approved a spending bill for the rest of the 2007 fiscal year that provided a 6 percent, or $260, increase in the maximum Pell Grant award. Read this article online. Learning More While WorkingEven as organizations demand more and more performance from their employees, the additional training provided to those workers while on the job may be lacking or, in many cases, not even utilized.When it comes to the amount of additional education, learning and training (classes, resources, time, etc.) that organizations provide to their employees to perform their jobs better, half of organizations provide a high amount and the other half provide a low amount. n addition, three-fifths say the amount of learning that people take advantage of is low, based on global survey by NFI Research. Read this article online. A NIH for Education
Congressional leaders plan to funnel federal funds into educational
innovation geared to the cutting edge of the digital era. If successful,
their legislative effort—still being honed and yet to be announced—would
blaze fresh trails across the nation's education system, spawning
a broad range of new technologies, chiefly via cyberspace, to be
used in classrooms and offices. Read this article online. Bills seek stronger workforceHawai'i workers could set aside pretax earnings matched by their employer for job training and education, under a measure moving in the Legislature.The House Economic Development and Business Concerns Committee yesterday advanced proposals by Gov. Linda Lingle that aim to develop a competitive workforce, including establishing a so-called "lifelong learning account" program and tax credits for training employees. Read this article online. Imaginations soar outside the daily grindA glance at the number of courses offered by the various colleges in and around the city can initially be overwhelming – and often intimidating – for those who left school some years ago. There are literally thousands of courses available in any and every subject. And those courses wouldn't be listed if there weren't students willing to enroll. Many people who haven't even thought of school for decades have turned into continuing education junkies. Why are they suddenly rediscovering the joys of the classroom? Read this article online. NMSU to use iPods for distance education programIt's not hard to look around and spot someone with an iPod. The sleek digital devices have hard drives large enough for thousands of songs, photos, videos and even a college course complete with lectures and sample tests. New Mexico State University hopes to give airmen at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico a chance to continue their education through the iPod program while they're deployed. The university also hopes to one day expand the program to more U.S. troops. Read this article online. Learning Program Planned for Older GLBTsStonewall Communities, Inc., a nonprofit that advocates for older GLBTs and is planning a condo development for them in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood, is teaming up with Wheelock College to create a lifelong learning institute. Lifelong learning is a rapidly-growing social and personal growth movement for people over 50. Sometimes called "senior colleges" or "learning communities," lifelong learning institutes do not require a college education and there are no grades, tests, or requirements. More than 400 such institutes now operate throughout the United States, but none are designed expressly for and by older GLBTs. Read this article online. Distance Ed’s New Market — in SpanishReynaldo Pol, a coordinator of English as a second language courses for adults in a suburban Atlanta county, knows first-hand what issues language instructors in his corner of the world face. When he decided it was time to go back to school, Pol, a Cuban by birth who grew up in Puerto Rico and received his bachelor’s degree at Georgia’s Piedmont College, decided he wanted to look more broadly, beyond borders. Read this article online. Underrepresented Students Benefit Most From 'Engagement'Students who participate in collaborative learning and educational activities outside the classroom and who interact more with faculty members get better grades, are more satisfied with their education, and are more likely to remain in college. But the gains from those practices are even greater for students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, or who come to college less prepared than their peers. Read this article online. The Engaged E-LearnerThe 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement, released today, for the first time offers a close look at distance education, offering provocative new data suggesting that e-learners report higher levels of engagement, satisfaction and academic challenge than their on-campus peers. Read this article online. Age and RemediationRemedial education at community colleges frequently must serve both students fresh from high school and those who have been out of the classroom for years, if not decades. But do older and younger students respond differently to remediation? And should two-year institutions think about the groups differently when considering their needs? Yes and yes, according to a new report from the Community College Research Center at Teachers College at Columbia University. Read this article online.
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