Changing Direction

In the past decade, improving student success has emerged as a key federal and state policy objective that complements the traditional focus on increasing student access. This performance-based focus on success entails increasing both the year-to year retention and degree-completion rates for all students, but particularly for those groups of students who are most at-risk. Changing Direction: Integrating Higher Education Financial Aid and Financing Policy seeks to identify ways in which states can improve the chances of students succeeding in postsecondary education programs, and concludes with a brief discussion of what policies may be needed to achieve higher levels of student success.


Promoting Academic Momentum at Community Colleges

The expansion of the American community college has not been matched by the rapid, or even consistent, progress of all entering students toward postsecondary credentials. Instead, a significant proportion of students enrolled in community colleges appear “stuck” on the road to completion. This lack of progress is due to the complex ways in which social and educational inequalities affect specific students and the institutions of higher education designated to serve them. As a result, policymakers and practitioners face significant challenges in their efforts to promote academic momentum. Promoting Academic Momentum at Community Colleges: Challenges and Opportunities, written for the Community College Research Center, addresses how intersecting barriers affect student progress, and how to improve the pace of progress.


The Importance of Play

How important are play, unstructured time, and recess in the social and academic development of children? Recent school reform dialogue has focused on strengthening academic achievement and accountability mechanisms in America ’s schools. This ASCD article summarizes one of many studies documenting that the value of frequent breaks is supported by extensive anecdotal and experimental evidence. Recess, time for free play, and unstructured breaks from cognitive tasks are important components of well-designed academic programs, as they contribute the academic and social development of children.


Students Struggle with Information Literacy

Despite the assumption that today's students are technologically-savvy, a new report by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) says many fall short in demonstrating the information literacy skills necessary for success in college and the workforce. Based on responses from students nationwide to an information-literacy assessment tool developed by ETS, the study found that the majority of high school and college students lack the proper critical thinking skills when it comes to researching online and using sources. The tests are meant to measure students' abilities to overcome three challenges they typically have: the ability to identify trustworthy and useful information; the ability to manage overabundant information; and the ability to communicate information effectively. Mary Ann Zaborowski, executive director of product management with ETS, says students today are “the millennium children”. They've grown up around technology, but there's a startling gap in their ability to cognitively apply this technology in meaningful ways.


How Peer Relationships Affect College Enrollment

A study highlighted in the November 2006 issue of ResearchBrief examines how the peers of poor, urban, minority students influence student decisions to enroll in postsecondary programs including college, and how that influence differs from a sample of all high school graduates.  It found that high school graduates are significantly more likely to go on to postsecondary education and college if their peers support them and have similar plans for higher education. These effects are particularly strong for black and Hispanic youth with a low socioeconomic status. As highlighted by the author, this research establishes a correlation between peer influence and postsecondary engagement. However, the research cannot establish a causal relationship. Rather than peers pushing individuals to attend college, it could be that individuals interested in postsecondary education seek out peers with similar values.If we maintain our present policies, it is very likely that we will continue to grow apart, with greater inequity in wages and wealth, and increasing social and political polarization.


BONUS ARTICLE (for Education Week subscribers - paid subscription required)

More Minority Teachers Earn National Certification

The National Board for Professional Teaching Stardards’ decision to put programs into place to help primarily minority candidates in urban and rural settings to sign up and pay for national certification seems to be paying off. The number of minority teachers receiving this advanced teaching credential shot up this year, suggesting that information and assistance efforts may have started to better penetrate schools serving poor, minority children. The number of white teachers awarded national certification grew by four percent from 2005 to 2006. In comparison, the number of African American and Hispanic teachers receiving this credential rose by 24 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Native American teachers increased by 50 percent, with the largest percentage increase but the smallest numbers overall. African-American, Hispanic and Native American teachers are more likely to work in schools with minority populations and low-income families, so increasing the number of teachers from those groups is likely to mean more teachers with the respected credential are working in low-income, low-performing schools.

As the number of national-board-certified teachers grows, the word about the credential goes out more widely. The bonuses that are paid to nationally certified teachers in dozens of districts and some 30 states have also raised the credential’s profile. Yet those close to the board’s targeted initiatives believe those efforts have helped as well. Board officials have partnered with state education departments, teachers’ unions, businesses, and historically black colleges and universities, among others, to spread the message that accomplished minority teachers are needed, especially in high-need schools, and are in short supply.

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