Inside Higher Ed - Enrollments Grow, but More Slowly (March 28, 2012) - As the recession took hold of the U.S. economy in late 2008, Americans did what they often do in bad economic times: went back for more schooling. That's why the last report from the federal government about college and university enrollments showed a sharp increase (of 7.1 percent) in the number of students in postsecondary institutions in fall 2009. The upturn -- and the accompanying tuition dollars -- helped soften the economic downturn's impact for many colleges...

Community College Times - A clearer picture of student success (March 27, 2012) - New federal data support what community colleges have long argued: A broader window to track their enrolled students will show they are more successful than is generally thought...

New England Journal of Higher Ed - The Student Experience Brought to You by ... Students (March 27, 2012) - Choosing a school is only the first step in planning an academic career. After making a selection, students must match interests and passions with an academic program and make important decisions about which courses to take and when to take them. Yet many students struggle with these choices and have little knowledge of the long-term consequences of their decisions...

Inside Higher Ed - Not Quite Complete (March 27, 2012) - The college "completion agenda" is running behind schedule, at least in substantially boosting the national proportion of degree-holders. But from a policy and public-relations perspective, the foundation-led campaign has been a home run...

The Atlantic - What's More Expensive Than College? Not Going to College (March 27, 2012) - If you want to feel optimistic about the state of things for unemployed, disengaged, and dissatisfied youths in America, here's a way. Spin a globe. Stop it with your finger. If you touch land, the overwhelming odds are that the young people in that country are doing much worse...

Community College Times - In Conn., a new approach to math (March 27, 2012) - Connecticut community colleges are using Achieving the Dream's systemic process of institutional improvement to revise developmental math using STATWAY...

Inside Higher Ed - Class Problem (March 26, 2012) - The YouTube video of a Florida Atlantic University student losing control last week in a classroom and threatening her classmates has gone viral, disturbing many who teach in college classrooms...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Accreditation Is Eyed as a Means to Aid Adjuncts (March 25, 2012) - Can a quality education be provided by any college that relies heavily on adjunct instructors it subjects to lousy working conditions...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - 'Social-Media Blasphemy' (March 25, 2012) - Dean Terry has 400 friends on Facebook, but he wants some virtual enemies. Mr. Terry, who is director of the emerging-media program at the University of Texas at Dallas, says a major flaw of the popular social network is that it's all sunshine and no rain...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - More Students Are Enrolled in College and on Financial Aid, Annual Report Shows (March 27, 2012) -The number of students enrolled in college and the proportion who receive financial aid are both increasing, as are graduation rates, slightly, according to a report of 2010 data published on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education...

Journal Inquirer - Sweet beauty (March 28, 2012) - Erika Biagioni, a senior at Windsor High School, rushes to finish decorating her cake Tuesday during a competition held by the Connecticut affiliate of Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America at Manchester Community College...

Phi Theta Kappa Foundation - Key Visions (March 2012) - I recently returned from Washington, D.C., and the final convening of the 21st- Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges. This April, during the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Convention, the Commission will release its long-awaited report, including recommendations on how our institutions must re-imagine and reinvent themselves in order to address the unprecedented challenges faced by our nation...

CT Mirror - Governor reacts diplomatically to education vote (March 27, 2012) - One day after legislators substantially watered-down his proposed education reforms, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy opted for a resolute, if diplomatic, approach to the revisions by the Education Committee...

CT Mirror - State to boost importance of science standardized tests, though critics say not enough (March 24, 2012) - Sixth-grader Miguel Marrero loves science. It's no accident that he attends the Mauro-Sheridan Science, Technology and Communications Interdistrict Magnet School. But most of Miguel's school day is devoted to English and math classes, in large part because they are the subjects that the state's standardized tests focus on, and because they are the main focus of the federal law No Child Left Behind...

Inside Higher Ed - Ask the Administrator: The Non-Academic President (March 27, 2012) - I work at a comprehensive community college. The president has announced his retirement and a search committee is being formed. Several of the faculty and staff have mentioned nominating a candidate who might be a great fit for the position, but he has no graduate degree and limited direct experience in higher education...

Inside Higher Ed - Calling all Academics: April 2 as the Day for Higher Ed (March 27, 2012) - We've all read it and clearly we all have an opinion on it. And as much as we wring our hands and see the writing on the wall (they came for the k-12 teachers, and we said/did nothing [and in fact in many cases added our voices to those who would seek to undermine them], and now they are coming for us), we collectively do very little to change the perception that the general has about people teaching in higher education...

Community College Times - Faculty Learning Circle helps teachers connect with each other, students (March 23, 2012) - What do cosmetology, radiography, biology and theatre courses all have in common? Textbooks. Textbooks filled with an often overwhelming amount of technical information, unfamiliar vocabulary and challenging textual structures...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - For Have-Nots, the Rockier Road to a College Degree Increases the Appeal of Alternatives (March 21, 2012) - In public forums about the drastic changes that higher ed may undergo in the coming years, one question inevitably gets asked of those advocating market disruption: Would the alternatives to the traditional degree pathway be good enough for their own children...