CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Syracuse University’s new “Money Awareness Program” helps juniors and seniors who are struggling with debt persist to graduation. This initiative coincides with the relatively new federal credit-card law passed last spring, which encourages colleges to educate new students about credit cards and debt. On a related note, students who took out government loans to pay for their education at for-profit colleges had a 21% default rate (one in five borrowers) in the first three years they were required to make payments, about three times the level of four-year public and nonprofit institutions, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of government data released by the Department of Education. And starting in 2012, colleges seeking federal student-aid programs will be judged on how many students default within three years of starting repayment, instead of two. All of this is the impetus behind financial literacy programs cropping up on campuses nationwide.

Syracuse’s program combines financial literacy and financial aid, and students are handpicked for the program. “Staff members look for undergraduates in their sophomore year or beyond who have borrowed from multiple sources, whether that includes private loans or all possible federal programs.” When a student is selected the school pays lenders part of what that student borrowed and replaces it with university grants.

Students and their parents are notified to inform them of the program and so the student signs an agreement stating they will attend financial-literacy training. In the article below it cites that “There is no cap on the grant amount, but students usually get about $5,000 to $7,000 per year. Syracuse put $572,000 of its more than $160-million financial-aid budget toward the program this year, awarding grants to 77 students.”

Financial-literacy training can be one-on-one sessions, group sessions, or online. Topics differ each semester. The first was budgeting and this last fall was credit reports and credit scores. Syracuse plans on offering financial-literacy training to all its students this spring.

How can we adapt programs like the one at Syracuse University for K-12 so that students start to learn money management skills at an early age?

ARTICLE:

The Chronicle of Higher Education
December 6, 2009
To Get This Grant, Students Have to Take ‘Personal Finances 101′
By Beckie Supiano

Sierra M. Jiminez was on track to borrow more than $44,000—some $32,000 of it in private loans—just to pay for her first two years of college. Then, last winter, she got some surprising news. Syracuse University had canceled her $8,119 private loan for the spring semester and replaced it, not with another type of loan, but with a simple grant. And she could get similar aid for the rest of her time there.

The catch: She has to attend financial-literacy training each semester until she graduates.

Now a junior, Ms. Jiminez plans to borrow no more than $12,500 this year, all in federal loans, which have better terms.

To view this entire article visit www.chronicle.com

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

More than a million college freshmen take remedial courses each year and many drop out before getting a degree. Grade 13 refers to the unprepared college freshmen that many untenured professors encounter who teach remedial classes for our nation’s struggling freshmen students. As the article below iterates, some professors have expressed their exasperation with statements like, “I didn’t get a Ph.D to teach Grade 13!” Or “I just don’t know how to teach these students. They don’t need college, they need Grade 13!”

The 2009 ACT College Readiness Report cites that only 23 percent of high-school graduates have the core skills to earn at least a C in entry-level college courses (English, mathematics, science, and reading). This means that 77 percent of all graduating seniors will need to be placed in one or more remedial classes. David M. Perry and Kathleen E. Kennedy of the article below state that “If an institution is going to admit students who have only a basic grasp of core skills and knowledge bases, then it has a duty to educate them to a college level… Recession or no, Grade 13 students deserve to be educated by instructors who are trained to teach basic skills.” More than 60 percent of students enrolling at two-year colleges, and 20 percent to 30 percent at four-year colleges, take remedial courses.

Important Questions to Consider:

How can we fix the disconnect that exists between public schools and higher education?

How can we hold educators at all levels (elementary, middle and high) accountable and give them the tools they need to prepare students for college and career success? What can we do to ensure that all schools have access to transition programs for these different levels?

How can we end the need for pre-college remedial classes so that all students are ready for college level work upon graduation from high school?

ARTICLE:

The Chronicle of Higher Education
December 13, 2009
Teaching ‘Grade 13′
By David M. Perry and Kathleen E. Kennedy

Like the cicadas of August, faculty kvetching about the lack of student preparedness signals the beginning of fall and the start of another school year, and now as the first snows silently fall, the drifts of final projects and exams only muffle the grousing. Besides mourning the passing of a golden age of student skill, however, faculty members are now registering a historic and demographic development: the advent of Grade 13. The promise of No Child Left Behind is manifesting in the shaky proficiencies demonstrated by today’s college freshmen. According to the 2009 ACT College Readiness Report, only 23 percent of high-school graduates have the requisite skills to earn at least a C in entry-level college courses in the four general areas of English, mathematics, science, and reading. That means 77 percent of all graduating seniors have serious deficiencies in one or more areas. Some institutions only admit students who belong to the elite cadre, but for the rest of us, those numbers confirm that we in academe are faced with a real problem.

To view this entire article visit www.chronicle.com

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Balancing work and school has always been a challenge. So much so, that a new study by a nonpartisan nonprofit research group called Public Agenda titled, “With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them,” found that 71% of the young adults surveyed who had quit college stated work as a factor in their decision. The Chronicle of Higher Education cites these findings:

1. The top reason the dropouts gave for leaving college was that it was just too hard to support themselves and go to school at the same time.
2. The report also emphasized that colleges need to be aware that only about a quarter of those enrolled in higher education fit the common image of a college student living in a dorm and attending classes full time.

Today the New York Times presented details about the study from Hilary Pennington, a Gates Foundation education official, who said two big factors associated with degree completion were going straight to college after high school and enrolling full time. But, Ms. Pennington added, “Colleges need to be more accountable for making sure their students graduate…If you try to leave a cell phone system, they almost won’t let you leave, and I just wonder if there’s something we need to think about in higher education. We need a system where, if someone is struggling, if professors notice that somebody is missing a lot of classes, if someone doesn’t early register, they immediately go to student-life services, and someone reaches out.” When asked to rate 12 possible changes, the dropouts’ most popular solutions were “allowing part-time students to qualify for financial aid, offering more courses on weekends and evenings, cutting costs and providing child care. The least popular were putting more classes online and making the college application process easier.

With tuition fees rising, employed students will increasingly make up a large part of the higher education student body. Developing effective time management and study skills—starting in high school and even younger—benefits students not only when they get to college, but in the world of work and in their personal life. LifeBound’s book, Majoring in the Rest of Your Life: Career Secrets for College Students, is coming out in its fifth edition this January of 2010. The book, which is designed for college-bound seniors and freshmen in college, reveals insights from other students and recent graduates about what to expect from college and how to land the first professional job. To reserve an advance copy of Majoring in the Rest of Your Life, call toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

• What can we do at the high school level to help students acquire effective time management and study skills that can help them persist with their educational goals?
• How can we ensure that every community college adopts a student success program for their incoming freshmen?
• What else can we do to make college more adaptable to the realities of working students?

ARTICLE:

The Chronicle of Higher Education
December 9, 2009
Why Do Students Drop Out? Because They Must Work at Jobs Too
By Elyse Ashburn

Many college students have bills that mom and dad don’t pay. They have groceries to buy, kids to take care of, and cars to keep running. And they drop out because they have to work—more than any other reason, according to the results of a national survey of young adults that was released today.

To view this entire article visit www.chronicle.com

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

With community colleges experiencing burgeoning enrollment, the recent announcement by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to award a $12.9 million grant for improving remedial education in math and reading at community colleges across the nation, is coming none too soon. The money will be used to train more educators in remedial education, create online “gatekeeper courses” for students and develope new materials for remedial math learning, which adult learners tend to lack. “Using a mix of learning approaches, we can use technology to make learning more accessible to a wider range of students,” said Ruth Rominger, director of learning design for the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). “We can create learning environments that let students work through the courses in a way that is suitable for their learning styles.”

Here are relevant statistics from the article below:

• More than 60 percent of students in community colleges need some kind of remedial class–most often, math training–before they can take credit-bearing courses, according to recent studies.

• A study published this summer shows that community colleges spend more than $1.4 billion on remedial courses every year.

George R. Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, raises relevant questions regarding two of the biggest challenges for community colleges are: “how to improve success rates for the millions of underprepared students who come through their doors, and how to harness the power of technology to expand capacity and enrich the learning process”[?] This grant aims to help address these issues.

ARTICLE:

eCampus News
Ed-tech grants target remedial college courses
Nearly $13M in Gates Foundation funding will support faculty certification and a range of other programs for basic college classes
By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor

A Gates Foundation grant will create online “gatekeeper courses” for community college students.

Social networking soon could be used to help form a virtual community of campus educators charged with creating a national certification for teachers of remedial college courses, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced $12.9 million in new education technology funding for community colleges Dec. 3.

To view this entire article visit www.ecampusnews.com