Community College Times - Pa. colleges first to adopt VFA statewide (May 3, 2012) - Pennsylvania's 14 public community colleges will adopt the Framework of Accountability (VFA), as their accountability metrics, thus becoming the first statewide system to publicly endorse the framework launched last year by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC)...

The Atlantic - 'The Single Biggest Change in Education Since the Printing Press' (May 2, 2012) - Over the past few years, the tools that could make for really excellent online distance learning have emerged in a piecemeal fashion. We have reliably good videoconferencing, live video streaming, collaborative document editing, and so on...

Inside Higher Ed - Taking a Stand (May 2, 2012) - Individual faculty members regularly weigh in on public debates. They write op-eds. They speak out at forums. Typically they do so as individuals, and many professors go out of their way to say that they aren't speaking for their institutions...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - New Web Tool Helps Track Community-College Progress (April 30, 2012) - The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center and MPR Associates released a new free Web-based resource today that aggregates and explains the vast amount of publicly available data used to measure community-college students' progress and success...

Community College Times - Completion Arch simplifies finding data on student success(April 30, 2012) - The College Board has launched a website that provides quick and easy access to data that measure the success of community college students, from enrollment to college completion and career readiness...

New England Journal of Higher Ed - University Communities and the Next American Upgrade (April 30, 2012) - Knowledge is humanity's first and final frontier. From the Edenic exodus to flights beyond earth, our mythic narratives reveal that going where no one has gone before to learn what no one has known before drives us like no other quest...

Inside Higher Ed - Credit Hour (Still) Rules (April 30, 2012) - It's an understatement of near-epic proportions to say that policy makers and politicians are smitten with Western Governors University's brand of competency-based learning...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - 'Supersizing' the College Classroom: How One Instructor Teaches 2,670 Students (April 29, 2012) - In October, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, got a quirky request on YouTube. A hyperactive instructor in a plaid jacket posted a video inviting her to do a Skype interview with his "World Regions" geography class at Virginia Tech...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Distance-Learning Survey Shows Growing Concern for Student Services (April 24, 2012) - At community colleges, enrollment in online programs is growing at a faster pace than in traditional courses, and that means new challenges for administrators who must now provide student services and other support in a virtual realm. That's according to a new survey by the Instructional Technology Council...

Inside Higher Ed - The New Politics of Student Debt (May 3, 2012) - These days, Robert Applebaum is feeling vindicated. In January 2009, Applebaum, then a 35-year-old lawyer with more than $80,000 in student debt, created a petition calling for student loan forgiveness to stimulate the economy. It was greeted with a few weeks of buzz and plenty of scorn. Then, for more than two years, silence...

New England Board of Higher Ed - To Hold Down Student Loan Interest Rates, Congress Weighs Cuts to Health Law, Closing Tax Benefits for Oil and Gas Cos. (April 30, 2012) - On Wednesday, Senate Democrats introduced a bill (S. 2343) to extend the current interest rate on subsidized student loans for one year beyond the July 1 expiration date. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the cost of a one-year extension to be $6 billion, which the bill would pay for by ending a tax benefit for S corporations...

Journal Inquirer - College Students Honored (May 1, 2012) - Twenty-one students were honored by legislators recently at the College Academic Day celebration at the state Capitol. Students are selected by school leaders based on merit, scholastic achievement, and extra-curricular involvement. Area students honored were... Jesse R. Parrott of Manchester, a liberal arts and science major at Manchester Community College...

Hartford Courant - Manchester Director Challenges Cassano In 4th Senate District (April 27, 2012) - Republican board of directors member Cheri Pelletier announced Friday that she will will challenge Democratic state Sen. Steve Cassano for the 4th Senate District...Pelletier, a Manchester native, attended local parochial schools and Manchester Community College, where she earned an associates degree in 1990...

CT Mirror - Lawmakers say governor's initiatives not immune from cuts as deficits loom larger (May 2, 2012) - Though Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is trying to see the fiscal glass as half full, key legislators tied to budget talks conceded this week that many of Malloy's top initiatives may have to be scaled back, delayed, or cut altogether...

Inside Higher Ed - Delegating to the Proprietaries (May 2, 2012) - This is one of those "thinking out loud" posts, as opposed to some sort of fully thought out proposal. Constructive feedback is very, very welcome...

Inside Higher Ed - Reforms With Promise (May 1, 2012) -The Obama administration is right to make community colleges a cornerstone of its plan to close skill gaps and put people back to work. The nation's 1,200 community colleges enroll 6.7 million students, or nearly half the U.S. undergraduate population. They are key institutions in today's education-intensive economy...