Reports & Articles 

03/17/2015: Report Touts Positive Impact of Community Colleges, by Angela Denk, Chicago Tribune, Daily Southtown - Illinois' 48 community colleges are a financial boon for their regions and the state and provide multiple other benefits as well, according to a recent report by the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University. Using information from fiscal years 2011 and 2012, the report found that a community college graduate can expect to earn $570,000 more over the span of a 40-year career than those in Illinois who do not have a degree.

03/16/2015: Education Is Not Great Equalizer for Black Americans, by Seth Freed Wessler, NBC News - Gaps in wealth, not in education, between black and white families may be the most powerful force locking Americans into their social class.

03/15/2015: Public Matters: A Response to Kevin Carey, by Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed - Kevin Carey's new book, The End of College, has some of the trappings of the old public intellectual model, except that it puts academe at the "before" part of the story, rather than the "after."  It's a sprawling book with a loose narrative and a broad topic, clearly intended more to start debates than to settle them. It has the appeal and the flaws of the form.

03/12/2015: Keeping Adjuncts Engaged Is Key to Helping Community-College Students Stay on Track, by Katherine Mangan, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Faculty - Professional development is more important than ever for adjunct professors at community colleges, according to speakers at the annual meeting of the League for Innovation in the Community College.

03/12/2015: Higher Education Isn't In Crisis, by Janet Napolitano, The Washington Post - Imagine, if you will, an American business that other countries, from China to Saudi Arabia, seek to emulate. A business that routinely accounts for the advances in science, medicine, technology, arts and humanities that have established the United States as the most innovative nation in the world.

03/11/2015: Barnes & Noble Invests in Peer-to-Peer Study Marketplace, by Tara Garc�a Mathewson, Education Dive - Barnes & Noble will promote Flashnotes.com as part of an alliance agreement, offering more students the opportunity to buy and sell their original, course-specific study materials.

03/10/2015: Falling Community College Enrollments Sign of Improving Economy, by Reid Creager, The Charlotte Observer - A Western Piedmont Council of Government study shows a decline in 2013-14 enrollment numbers for four area community colleges.

03/10/2015: Senator Seeks Limits on State College 4-year Degrees, by Gabrielle Russon, Orlando Sentinel - Stricter rules are needed to prevent state colleges from awarding more bachelor's degrees, a Florida senator said Tuesday. Currently, 24 of the 28 Florida two-year schools offer a total of 175 four-year degrees. Last year, state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, pushed for a moratorium to halt any new programs from springing up.

03/10/2015: Bill Takes Aim at 'Fifth-year' High School Programs, by Associated Press, The Register-Guard - Oregon lawmakers are considering a bill to alter or eliminate fifth-year programs designed to help high school students be successful in college. The programs allow some students to defer getting a high school diploma. Instead, they take additional courses at a community college in a so-called fifth year of high school.

03/10/2015: Jill Biden's Push to Redesign the Higher-Ed Experience, by Tony Wan, Ed Surge News - "Community colleges do not choose and pick their students; we work with all students to help them become who they aspire to be." So shared Dr. Jill Biden, Second Lady of the United States and a community college professor of over 20 years. Her keynote capped off a morning session organized by the Gates Foundation at SXSWedu, "Re-designing Higher Education for Student Success," which explored the question: How is today's college experience different than that of decades ago?

01/2015: Realizing STEM Equity and Diversity Through Higher Education Community Engagement, by Ira Harkavy, Nancy Cantor and Myra Burnett, Netter Center for Community Partnerships, UPenn - Systemic and transformative change is needed to realize STEM equity. Specifically, this paper discusses the need to build upon current efforts to develop and implement an ambitious STEM education and workforce development strategy grounded in a higher education-community engagement approach focused on broadening participation and equity. Our paper concludes with a series of recommendations, derived from the two international workshops, which, we believe, have powerful implications for significantly enhancing STEM equity, driving broader participation, and producing better science.

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Reports & Articles

03/16/2015: Engaging Faculty in Online Education, by Karen H. Sibley and Ren Whitaker, EducauseReview - By drawing on direct experience, facilitating learning from peers, and exploring engagement practices, Brown University's online development team is creating an online learning "adoption wave" among faculty.

03/13/2015: Coursera's Stiglitz: MOOC Revolution is Just Beginning [SXSWedu 2015], by Roger Riddell, Education Dive - One of the biggest stories in higher ed and online learning over the last few years has been the rapid rise, and subsequent trip along the hype cycle, of massive open online courses. Despite their potential, MOOCs have faced questions ranging from their impact on higher ed's existing business model and their own sustainability to their ability to generate meaningful credentials taken seriously by employers.

03/03/2015: Prepare For 'The End Of College': Here's What Free Higher Ed Looks Like, NPR Ed - Carey envisions a future in which "the idea of 'admission' to college will become an anachronism, because the University of Everywhere will be open to everyone" and "educational resources that have been scarce and expensive for centuries will be abundant and free."

To view our entire Online Education section, click here.

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Reports & Articles

03/11/2015: Unpacking What "College And Career Ready" Really Means, by Rachel Morello, StateImpact Indiana - It's one of the most common expressions in modern-day education lexicon. Most states - including Indiana - boast "college and career ready" academic standards, and emphasize preparation for both pathways as the end goal of a student's K-12 education.

To view our entire College Readiness section, click here.

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Reports & Articles

03/12/2015: Too Many in Michigan Not Ready for Skilled Work, by Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press - "Michigan's talent and workforce development efforts are severely hampered by all of these people being left behind," Michigan League for Public Policy Vice President Karen Holcomb-Merrill said in a statement released with the report, "Willing to Work and Ready to Learn: More Adult Education Would Strengthen Michigan's Economy."

03/10/2015: As Demand for Welders Resurges, Community Colleges Offer Classes, by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times - In recent decades, welding - like other blue-collar trades that once provided high-school graduates with a reliable route to the middle class - seemed to have about as promising a future as rotary phones. But many of these once-faltering occupations are finding new life in Texas and the Gulf Coast region, where an industrial revival built around the energy boom continues to spawn petrochemical plants and miles of new pipeline despite the plunge in crude oil prices.

03/11/2015: Connecting Students to the Labor Market: The Talent Development Network, by sgarmise, Urban University - How can we better connect higher education to employers to the benefit of students, businesses and the city?

03/11/2015: Addressing Disconnect Between Student Skills and Employer Needs, by Caralee Adams,  Education Week, College Bound - What students are learning in school and what employers need on the job often are two different sets of skills. That much was largely agreed upon by the educators, business leaders, and technology experts gathered here this morning at a SXSWedu session. When it came to whom to blame and how to solve the disconnect-fingers were pointed in all directions and the ideas were endless.

02/13/2015: AspenWSI Solicits Feedback On An Approach To Measuring The Effectiveness Of Serving Employers, The Aspen Institute - The Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative solicits feedback and suggestions from workforce stakeholders on a proposed new way of measuring WIB's effectiveness in serving employers, which is a new required metric under WIOA. This new metric promises to be an improvement on the old WIA measure of employer satisfaction in several ways.

To view our entire Workforce Development section, click here.