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Updates from The SOURCE on Community College  
Issues, Trends & Strategies
 
Published by
 
The Roueche Graduate Center, National American University
in partnership with Lorenzo Associates, Inc.

"Gray skies are just clouds passing over."  - Duke Ellington   
 
Volume 5, Issue 22 - December 13, 2015   
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Miscellaneous
12/09/2015: 6 Destructive Myths About Teams in Higher Education, by Patrick Sanaghan and Jillian Lohndorf, Academic Impressions - Higher education will face daunting and complex challenges over the next decade, and campuses will need high-performing teams, especially a high-performing senior team, in order to face those challenges.

12/07/2015: Select a Community College by Asking Common Questions, by Erinn Figg, U.S. News & World Report - Many community colleges offer vocational or educational pathways to equip students with the specific qualifications they need to transition to a vocation or a university partner.

12/07/2015: House and Home, by Josh Logue, Inside Higher Ed - A study released Friday found significant proportions of community college students at a variety of institutions around the country reported high levels of food and housing insecurity. Thirteen percent said they experienced some form of homelessness while a student and more than half said they had experienced at least some level of food insecurity.

12/06/2015: First Things First, by Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed - Economic precarity takes a different cast at a commuter college than at a residential one. (Yes, some community colleges have dorms, but even now the normative community college student is a commuter.) In a residential college, dorms and dining halls are in place, and the dining halls often have meal plans. Consideration for homeless students might mean keeping the dorms open during vacations.  But at a commuter college, cafeterias tend to have shorter hours and be a la carte, and dorms don't exist. It's harder to get a handle on the situation.

12/05/2015: Missouri Lawmakers Propose Lifting Gun Ban at Colleges, KMBC.com - Two Republican Missouri lawmakers have proposed legislation to allow the concealed carrying of firearms on college campuses, adding to a national debate over how to prevent campus gun violence after a fatal shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.

12/05/2015: What's in a Name for Community Colleges in Southern Nevada?, by Steve Sebelius, Review Journal - There are many people who have spent a good deal of time working on changing the names of the community colleges in Southern Nevada. They take the issue very seriously. It's very important to them. Sadly, they're wrong. And it's long past time we tell them to move along.

12/04/2015: Is Higher Education Doomed?, The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Letters to the Editor - If the last year or so of national news reporting is any sign, the academy seems to be seriously faltering and at risk of crumbling into ruin. Stories about skyrocketing costs, worthless degrees, crumbling infrastructure, corruption, campus violence, and an increasingly dispassionate and part-time professoriate abound. Taken collectively, these stories might suggest that the system of higher education is in a moribund state and certainly the most ardent naysayers of this system would like the American public to believe so.

12/02/2015: All Colleges Aren't the Same, by Daniel Luzer, Washington Weekly - When trying to understand trends in American higher education journalists and reformers face a difficult task. This country's academic system is so incredibly diverse that even word "college" is a source of confusion.

12/01/2015: California's Higher-Education Crisis, by Alia Wong, The Atlantic - Tens of thousands of this year's UC applicants won't be admitted to any campus - and at most of the schools, a majority of applicants will get rejection letters. That applies to both in- and out-of-state students; even some of the brightest and most qualified of the bunch won't make the cut.

11/27/2015: Government's College Scorecard Misleads Students, by Scott Alford, The Hill - The first fatal flaw of the scorecard is its dependence upon incomplete and mismatched data. Unlike private rankings and scorecards which try to present that most holistic data possible, much of the government statistics are based exclusively on data received through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
                   
To view our entire Miscellaneous Resources section, click here.
Statistics
12/08/2015: What Skills Do Employers Say They Want in Online Job Postings?, by Monica Herk, Committee for Economic Development - Approximately
60-70% of all job openings are now posted online, and over 80% of openings require a bachelor's degree or higher.  What can these job listings tell us about the skills that employers are demanding?

To view our entire Statistics-Oriented Resources section, click here.
Online Education
12/04/2015: Online Classes Appeal More to the Affluent, by Sindya N. Bhanoo, The New York Times - In a study published in the journal Science, Mr. Hansen and his colleagues reported that people living in more affluent neighborhoods were more likely to register and complete MOOCs. Each increase of $20,000 in neighborhood median income raised the odds of participation in a MOOC by 27 percent, the researchers found.

12/03/2015: Faculty Role in Competency Programs Still Evolving, by Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology - Faculty leadership may not be as strongly felt in competency-based education (CBE) programs as it ought to be. Only 15 percent of CBE faculty and staff members are tenured or on the tenure track and only about one in five (19 percent) participate in shared governance activities. What this suggests is that CBE programs don't have the kind of independent faculty oversight common to more traditional instructional formats.

To view our entire Online Education section, click here.
College Readiness
12/08/2015: For Some, a Path to College Instead of Jail, by Larry Miller, The Philadelphia Tribune - The new pre-trial felony diversion pilot program is called Future Forward. It's aimed at providing individuals who have been charged with a non-violent felony an alternative to incarceration. The groundbreaking program is designed to increase access to educational opportunities and reduce recidivism.

12/01/2015: Next Gen High Schools Need Next Gen College Counseling, by Abigail Swisher, EdCentral - For many high schoolers, the challenge extends beyond the quality of high school instruction. Many students (primarily those who are already underserved in other respects) do not have adequate access to advising resources that help them plan, prepare for, apply to, and fund any kind of postsecondary learning. That is why an integral piece of creating Next Generation High Schools will be investing in Next Generation Counselors. And until they do, schools may not see the fruit of other investments for college-readiness.  

12/2015: Improving College Access in the United States: Barriers and Policy Responses (NBER Working Paper No. 21781), by Lindsay C. Page and Judith Scott-Clayton, The National Bureau of Economic Research - Socioeconomic gaps in college enrollment and attainment have widened over time, despite increasing returns to postsecondary education and significant policy efforts to improve access. We describe the barriers that students face during the transition to college and review the evidence on potential policy solutions.

To view our entire College Readiness section, click here.
Remedial Education
11/19/2015: Bridging the Gap Between K-12 and Community College, by Stephen M. Smith, Hobsons - Hobsons, in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) made a commitment to action at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to explore opportunities and challenges that exist in creating effective success bridges between K-12 and community college. Through this collaboration, Hobsons and AASA seek to identify critical barriers to success that students face as they transition from high school to community college and to equip both K-12 and community college administrators with tools and resources to meet their respective needs.

To view our entire Remedial Education section, click here.
College Completion
college completion
12/08/2015: Will the Department of Labor Kill Obama's College Completion Push?, by Thomas P. Jandris, The Hill - Helping nontraditional graduate students succeed requires that colleges and universities behave differently. This means new roles for faculty, who are expected to leave the ivory tower and bring the classes to the students - delivering instruction on-site with employers, or in ad hoc classrooms convenient to working students. It means a greater dependence on adjunct faculty who have the sort of real-world experience adult learners value, and can impart the skills and competencies that employers demand.

12/03/2015: Percentage of Adults With Degrees Increases, by Amy Scott, Marketplace - The U.S. Census Bureau released a trove of new data Thursday from the American Community Survey. Among the findings: In 2014, 30 percent of adults 25 and older had a bachelor's degree or higher. That's up from about 28 percent five years earlier. For the first time, women were more likely to have a bachelor's degree than men. 
 
To view our entire College Completion section, click here.
Back to 'In This Issue'
Workforce Development
12/02/2015: Carrying A Torch, by Paul Bradley, Community College Week - Welding technology programs, equipped with state-of-the art technological tools, are sprouting up on campuses around the country. Rubio might have lamented a shortage of welders - "we need more welders and less philosophers," he said - but community colleges are striving to fill the gap.

12/2015: Reaching for Opportunity, by John Austin,  Michigan State Board of Education - In the Michigan economy of 2015, a high school diploma is no longer the ticket to a good job, but there are jobs available for IT specialists, engineers, nurses, programmers, technicians, scientists, welders, and skilled tradesmen and women. Michigan has to prepare more of its citizens, young and old, for these opportunities; both to meet the needs of employers who have good jobs available in Michigan today and to be the job creators of tomorrow.

09/01/2015: Why We Desperately Need To Bring Back Vocational Training In Schools, by Nicholas Wyman, Forbes - The latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that about 68% of high school students attend college. That means over 30% graduate with neither academic nor job skills.
                       
To view our entire Workforce Development section, click here.
Technology Adoption
12/09/2015: Turning Course Materials Into a Digital Magazine, by David Raths, Campus Technology - Instructors are experimenting with the Flipboard news reader to present up-to-date course materials in a magazine-format mobile app.

12/06/2015: 11 EdTech Advances That Will Not Happen by 2020, by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed - What are are the educational technologies that are perpetually "just around the corner?" Which edtech advances do we constantly hear about as "imminent", but that always seem to fail to arrive?

To view our entire Technology Adoption section, click here.
Data Analysis & Assessment
12/03/2015: Foundations Look to Pay the Government for Data Collection It Can No Longer Afford, by Lydia DePillis, The Washington Post - Since 2009, there is some consultant-generated data suggesting a recovery in employer-provided training, but nothing comprehensive. The Bureau of Labor Statistics last surveyed employers on the question back in 1995. And even people who study the issue disagree over what's going on.

12/02/2015: How Data From Your LMS Can Impact Student Success, by Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology - Higher ed IT leaders share 8 ways to make the best use of the data coming out of the campus learning management system.

To view our entire Data Analysis & Assessment section, click here.
Back to 'In This Issue'
Funding & Economics
12/05/2015: Women Struggle More Than Men to Pay Off Student Debt, by Jillian Berman, MarketWatch - The study also found that women of all races held debts totaling at least 80% of their income and that white women's student debt loads were 92% of their income on average. Men of all races also had debt worth at least 60% of their incomes on average one year after leaving school, the study found.

12/02/2015: Transforming Higher Education, by Steven M. Gillon, HuffPost, College - We face a paradox in the 21st century: We desperately need an educated workforce to fill jobs that are increasingly skilled and technological; yet we are making earning a college degree less attainable. There are millions of people whose potential will remain unrealized because they are denied access to affordable education. They will never have the chance to be moved by an inspiring teacher, or motivated by curious peers, because the price of admission is too high.

12/01/2015: Low-Income Latino Students Less Likely to Take on Student Debt, Attend College: Report, by Nicole Akoukou Thompson, Latin Post - Wealth inequity has surged over the past several decades, resulting in 1 percent of households controlling 42 percent of U.S. wealth. Also, nearly 50 percent of wealth accumulated over the past three decades has gone directly to pockets of the top 0.1.

To view our entire Funding & Economics section, click here.
Transfer & Articulation
11/02/2015: State Associate's Degree Attainment: The Potential of Reverse Transfer, by Jason Taylor, Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) - National data show that the majority of students who transfer from a community college to a 4-year college or university do so without an associate's degree (Hoachlander, Sikora, & Horn, 2003), and the many of these students never make it to the bachelor's degree (Shapiro, et al., 2013). Yet, many of these students earned the credits needed for an associate's degree. The Credit When It's Due (CWID) initiative is focused on developing reverse transfer programs and policies to confer transfer students associate's degrees when they meet the degree requirements.

To view our entire Transfer & Articulation section, click here.
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