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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.

"Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something.
To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds."  - Regina Brett
 
Volume 6, Issue 13 - June 26, 2016    
  
In This Issue
Upcoming Summer Break
It is customary for The SOURCE to extend to our loyal readership a brief summer break.  

Our next issue of Updates from The SOURCE will be published on August 7, 2016, when we will resume our bi-weekly distribution schedule.
Miscellaneous
06/20/2016: Adult Students Shifting to Four-Year Non-Profits, by Walter Pearson, The EvoLLLution - In the latest report from the National Student Clearing House, the enrollment in Spring 2016 had increased among those above age 24 only for those enrolling in four-year non-profits. The enrollment increased by 1.5 percent. The enrollment among adult students has generally been shifting downward, with the overall enrollment falling 3.4 percent. The downward trend is sharpest in the for-profit sector, dropping 7.7 percent. The two-year sector has seen enrollments fall 5.8 percent while four-year publics have declined 1.8 percent.

06/19/2016: Bryan Alexander and the Independent Scholar, by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed - If you know Bryan - and everyone seems to know Bryan - then you know that he is our generation's thought leader at the intersections of learning, technology, and postsecondary change. If you don't know Bryan - or if you have an event coming up that needs to be keynoted or facilitated - I highly recommend that you investigate the potential of securing Bryan's participation.

06/17/2016: These Graduates Beat The Odds, Now They Need A Job, by Gabrielle Emanuel, nprEd -  Research suggests that black and Hispanic college graduates are less likely to find employment than their white peers. And, when they do, they earn less over their careers.

06/14/2016: 38 Community Colleges Launch Entire Degree Programs With Open Educational Resources, by Marguerite McNeal, EdSurge - Achieving the Dream announced an initiative to remove some of the financial burdens that traditional educational resources place on students. Over the next three years, 38 community colleges in 13 states will build entire degree programs around open educational resources (OER). The goal of the "OER Degree Initiative" is not only to reduce financial burdens on students, but also to encourage faculty to teach in more engaging ways that encourage students to more actively participate in the use of OER.

06/2016: Innovate and Evaluate: Expanding the Research Base for Competency-Based Education, by Andrew P. Kelly and Rooney Columbus, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) - We found that existing research leaves important questions unanswered. What types of students enroll in CBE? How do students fare in CBE programs, and do particular groups do better than others? Are CBE graduates more attractive to potential employers?

Online Education
06/15/2016: OLC Study: 90% Students See Online Experience As Good As Face-to-Face, by Jarrett Carter, EducationDive - The Online Learning Consortium says 5.8 million students are enrolled in online higher education courses, and 90% of these students say their academic experience is as good, or better than an in-person class.

College Readiness
06/19/2016: Programs Help Students Stay On Track to Attend College, by Lindsay Jones, Southeast Missourian - The Missouri Department of Higher Education has several programs to help keep students on track. One is called Journey to College. Throughout the school year, participating high schools host events that help students learn what to do as they prepare for college admissions. Another, Apply Missouri, helps students determine which schools would work best for them and how best to apply. During FAFSA Frenzy, held in November, December and January, high-school seniors can get free, one-on-one advice on how to fill out financial aid forms.

06/11/2016: What First-Generation College Students Want, by Emily Deruy, The Atlantic - As policymakers and educators debate how to help high-schoolers from all backgrounds get to and through college, young people's ideas about the support they need to succeed are sometimes left out of the discussion. Yet conversations with students who are the first in their families to pursue higher education reveal seemingly small things that, added up, can make the difference between dropping out and graduating.

Remedial Education
06/10/2015: Paying Attention to Students' Psychological Strain Could Improve Outcomes, by Tara Garc�a Mathewson, EducationDive - Researchers in the College Transition Collaborative focus on problems caused by psychological friction, which, in turn, lead to lower academic performance, dropout, and decreased student satisfaction. One of their areas of focus is the issue of social belonging. An intervention targets a school's freshman class, separating out students who will get the treatment and those in a control group. The intervention digs into the psychology that contributes to the challenges faced by students in new environments.

College Completion
college completion
06/2016: Closing Gaps In Higher Education Attainment, What's Ahead - Although most higher education leaders agree that closing the gaps in higher education attainment is a bigger concern now than a year ago, nearly all also agree that college leaders can do more to close the gaps. Higher education leaders have varying views about the "single most important action" that will close gaps in attainment based on family income. Most believe that college leaders have insufficient incentives and resources to close the gaps.

05/2016: Crossing The Divide: An Emerging Typology Of Posterity Bridging For Opportunity Youth, by Cheryl Almeida and Lili Allen, Jobs for the Future, Responding to the moral and economic imperative to help this large group of young people move back into the civic and economic mainstream, Jobs for the Future developed a Back on Track Through College model. Aimed at transforming dropout recovery and reconnection programming, the model articulates three overlapping phases and accompanying features designed to put vulnerable young people on a path to a postsecondary credential and a good job: an enriched preparation phase (focused on collegeand career-ready skills), postsecondary bridging (focused on developing the mind-sets, academic and metacognitive skills, and study and work habits needed for postsecondary success), and first-year postsecondary supports (focused on helping young people overcome obstacles to persistence and completion of credentials).

Back to 'In This Issue'
Workforce Development
06/15/2016: Are Skills Gap Worries Easing?, IndustryWeek - About a third of manufacturers surveyed in a new PwC/Manufacturing Institute study say they are having no problem finding skilled workers. For others, it's a different story.

06/13/2016: Three Hard Truths That Will Save Higher Education, by Adam Enbar, Quartz - Computer skills have become essential for nearly 80% of middle-skill jobs, but according to a new report, nearly a third (32%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 have no work-related computer experience. The report, published by recruitment company Indeed, illustrates the mismatch between employers and job seekers: employers have more open positions requiring computer and technical skills than there are qualified candidates.

Technology Adoption
06/14/2016: LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Higher Ed, by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed - What might Microsoft's $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn mean for higher ed? It is clear that LinkedIn views higher education as a key vertical.  This strategy became apparent with the $1.5 purchase of Lynda.com in 2015. So what might the Microsoft acquisition change about LinkedIn through a higher ed lens?

Data Analysis & Assessment
06/15/2016: Use of Predictive Validity Studies to Inform Admission Practices, National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) - This paper explores the broader subject of predictive validity studies related to admission criteria and student outcomes. Because of the breadth of this subject, the focus of the paper is on the extent to which validity studies are being utilized on campuses around the country and the ways in which the studies are conducted.

06/2016: Degree Qualifications Profile Impact Study, by Natasha A. Jankowski and Laura Giffin, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) - To determine the effects of DQP use on institutional policies and practices, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) conducted a study of the more than 400 (n=425) institutions that used the DQP between the 2011 release and the October 2014 revision. The study explored how institutions engaged with the DQP and how working with DQP was associated with changes in curriculum, instructional practices, and assessment activities.

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Funding & Economics
06/18/2016: Is Student Loan Debt Really Stopping People From Buying Homes?, by Jillian Berman, MarketWatch - So what's really going on here? The findings of the two studies don't exactly contradict - one finds that student loan borrowers say they're delaying buying a home because of their payments and the other notes that young people with college debt are more likely to buy a home than those who never went to college. But the way the research is framed may change the way we view the results, said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank.

06/13/2016: Student Debt? Economy? What's Behind Drop In College Enrollment?, by Brian C. Mitchell, The Huffington Post - Ms. Long argues that the problem is the cost of college, reinforced at the outset by the announced sticker price advertised to incoming freshman. After years of festering as a persistent issue, the consumer price sensitivity to high sticker price now translates almost precisely into an unwillingness or perceived inability to pay and assume the debt necessary to graduate.

Transfer & Articulation
06/14/2016: Barriers to Transfer, by Alison Kadlec and Elizabeth Ganga, Inside Higher Ed - Though as many as 80 percent of community college students want to transfer, a study by the Community College Research Center, the Aspen Institute and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released in January found that only 14 percent of degree-seeking students earned a bachelor's within six years. And research has found many pitfalls in the process of transferring from a community college to a four-year school.

The SOURCE on Community College Issues, Trends & Strategies
is published by
 
The Roueche Graduate Center, National American University & Lorenzo Associates, Inc.,
950-C Hopkins Road - Williamsville, New York - 14221 - (716) 688-5484
 
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