NCAA Cracks Down on Prep Schools and Angers Some
By Pete Thamel, The New York Times

The N.C.A.A. quietly passed legislation last week to continue its fight against prep schools that require minimal academic study. In perhaps its most significant move to deter diploma mills, the N.C.A.A. will limit high school students to one core course that would count toward college eligibility after a student’s four-year high school graduation date.

Dropout Rate High Among Disabled
By Kevin Landrigan, The Nashua Telegraph

Nearly half of all students with disabilities drop out before graduating from high school, giving New Hampshire one of the highest rates in the nation.

Saved by the Later Bell
By Lisa Prevost, The Boston Globe

Ten schools in Massachusetts are testing a first-in-the-nation initiative to extend learning time. Believe it or not, the students (after initial grumbling) seem to like it, and so do their parents.

Montessori Schools Look to Future
By Carla Rivera, The Los Angeles Times

In the Montessori approach a classroom of free-roaming children, unfettered by the teacher's intervention, is the perfect learning environment. But that philosophy has been both a draw and a challenge for Montessori education, which is marking the centennial of its founding by looking back on its achievements while moving to more sharply focus its future.

Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops
By Winnie Hu, The New York Times

School officials have said laptops originally purchased to prepare students for a technology-driven world have been abused by students, do not fit into lesson plans, and showed little, if any, measurable effect on grades and test scores at a time of increased pressure to meet state standards.

Fighting Over (Too Few) Funds
By Doug Lederman, InsideHigherEd

The comparatively dismal state of educational attainment for American Indians is well-established: They are almost twice as likely as other Americans not to have graduated from high school, significantly less likely to have any higher education, and half as likely to have a bachelor's degree.

Student Loan Probe Expanded to Include Alumni Associations
By Amit Paley, The Washington Post

The New York attorney general has broadened his investigation into the student loan industry to discover whether university alumni associations are steering graduates toward a major loan company in exchange for payments from the lender.

Schools Try Radical Ways to Help Students Pay for College
By Tom A. Peter, The Christian Science Monitor

Amid the climate of skyrocketing college tuitions and convoluted aid programs, a handful of universities are introducing simple and transparent financial aid programs. Among them: across-the-board tuition cuts, loan caps, and completely eliminating tuition for some.

University Fee Increase Wins Approval
By Deana Poole and Kimberly Miller, The Palm Beach Post

A proposed fee increase at three state universities was shipped Wednesday to Gov. Charlie Crist, who continued to voice concerns about increasing the cost of higher education.

Universities Reject Europe Fears
BBC

University heads in the UK have rejected warnings that the European Commission is trying to wrest control of higher education from member states.

Post-'92 Universities "More Effective" Than Older Colleges
By Debbie Andalo, The Guardian

New universities are more academically effective than those in the research-led Russell group, the results of a controversial study revealed today.

Preparations for New College Campus Underway
The Telegram

A request for expressions of interest was released today seeking consultants to design a new facility for the Labrador West campus of College of the North Atlantic.

Training and Learning Spending Stagnant in Canada
By CNW Group

Canadian organizations spend an average of more than $850 per employee on training, learning and development (TLD), but this level of investment has remained stagnant for the past decade, according to the Conference Board's Learning and Development Outlook 2007.

Universities Hit by Record Enrolment
By Elizabeth Church, Education Reporter

Canadians are flocking to universities in record numbers and their levels are expected to keep climbing as an increasing portion of the country's population enrolls in undergraduate and graduate programs.

Follow-up Survey of Graduates
Statistics Canada, The Daily

Two out of five graduates from the class of 2000 who had left school owing money to government student loans had completely repaid their debt five years after graduation.

Breaking Through the Barriers to College: Empowering Low-Income Communities, Schools, and Families for College Opportunity and Student Financial Aid
The Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis (CHEPA)

Rather than promote access, college admissions and financial aid processes often create a series of barriers that the poorest student must overcome to get to college. This report is the result of a three-year research initiative conducted by CHEPA, Financial Aid and College Access, to analyze the financial aid process for low-income students and their families. Working with students, counselors, parents, community members, and policy advocates, CHEPA identified six challenges related to these processes. These challenges lend themselves to strategies to empower communities, schools and families to break throught he complexity and confusion of financial aid and college access.

Students Entering and Leaving Postsecondary Occupational Education: 1995-2001
The National Center for Education Statistics

This report uses data from the 1995-96 to 2001 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study to examine three questions concerning students pursuing postsecondary certificates or associate’s degrees in career related fields (referred to here as occupational students): (1) who enters postsecondary occupational education, (2) to what extent do occupational students persist in postsecondary education and attain their credential goals, and (3) what are the labor market outcomes for occupational students who earn credentials?

The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher.

To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.