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THE NEWS
ACADEMIC PREPARATION
State to offer free ACT tests to some juniors
By Lisa Schencker, The Salt Lake City Tribune
More than 26,000 Utah high school juniors will get to take the ACT college admission exam this school year for free during the school day. Statewide, 84 high schools will offer the test this school year and next to all their juniors as part of a state pilot program that many hope will promote college and career readiness. The exam is required for admission to most Utah universities and many others nationwide. Students at any high school already can take the ACT, but now, most Utah students have to choose to sign up for the test, which is typically offered on Saturdays and costs $33.
City students get taste of college
By Kate Smith, The Baltimore Sun
About 120 city middle-schoolers, many of whom had previously thought college might be out of their reach, spent the past three days visiting universities as part of a nonprofit group's summer program. Higher Achievement, which seeks to give middle school students the tools they need to gain admission to the city's top high schools, concluded its Summer Academy with a three-day "finale" college trip to Old Dominion University in Virginia and University of Maryland, Baltimore County. On Thursday, the students were reunited with their parents. Several students and their parents said that the visits helped them realize that attending college is a real possibility.
Educators, officials face 400% spike in autism
By Kate Ergenbright, The Texas Tribune
As the number of children believed to be autistic has skyrocketed in Texas and worldwide, much of the public debate has focused on the reasons for the rapid increase. But after a decade in which the state has seen a fourfold spike in diagnoses of the condition — to nearly 30,000 — the more pressing questions for policymakers are how to best educate afflicted students and how to pay for it.
POSTSECONDARY ACCESS SUCCESS
‘Gaps not inevitable’
By Doug Lederman, InsideHigherEd
In two new reports that the Education Trust released Monday, the advocacy group tries to hammer home the idea that big gaps in the academic performance of minority and white students are not an inevitability. It does so, starkly, by using its College Results Online database to compare the graduation rates of black and Latino students with their white peers at individual institutions, showing widely varying outcomes at colleges and universities with comparably prepared and composed student bodies.
Mayor Daley: Close ‘open-door’ admissions at Chicago City Colleges
By Fran Spielman, The Chicago Sun Times
Mayor Daley said Tuesday he wants to close the “open-door” admissions policy at Chicago City Colleges, arguing that remedial classes for students who can’t cut it carry a $30 million price tag the system cannot afford. “How can you take someone who has an 8th-grade reading level into a college? ... There’s a huge remedial program of $30 million they’re running now. That’s what they have to really evaluate ... if you want to make it a quality City College [system]. You need quality. That’s the key,” said Daley.
College students need remedial courses
By Laura Diamond, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About one in four freshmen who attended a Georgia college last year took remedial classes, according to data released Tuesday by the University System of Georgia. The system's 35 colleges spend about $22.3 million annually on these learning support classes in reading, English and math, said Virginia Michelich, vice chancellor for student achievement. More than 14,000 freshmen took these classes last year. Too many students enter college unprepared and need to take these classes before they can enroll in college-level courses.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Mexico will offer online-degree programs to citizens living abroad
By Marion Lloyd, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Mexican government will begin offering online college-degree programs this month to its citizens living abroad, many of whom are suffering the effects of stricter immigration controls in the United States. The project is being run by Mexico's Public Education Secretariat, which opened its own virtual university in August 2009. Since then, 33,000 students have enrolled in 15 different undergraduate majors at the National Open and Distance University of Mexico, said Rodolfo Tuirán, the country's under secretary for higher education.
New Wave of Iranians seek U.S. studies
By Yeganah June Torbati, The New York Times
Even as a teenager in Iran, Atefeh Fathi knew she would eventually study abroad. Now 30 and studying engineering at the University of Oklahoma, Ms. Fathi said that although she had applied to universities in Sweden and Canada, her first choice was the United States. Ms. Fathi is part of a wave of Iranians studying in the United States in numbers not seen in more than a decade. Since 1979, the number of Iranian students in the United States has taken an almost uninterrupted nosedive, bottoming out at fewer than 1,700 students in 1999.
A green project in Lebanon
By Brooke Anderson, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and sitting on some of Lebanon's most expensive real estate is a green space with no plans for development—at the American University of Beirut. In 2002, when the country's most prestigious private university devised its 20-year master plan, environmental sustainability was one of the key considerations. The administration decided that the entire middle section of the 61-acre campus would remain a forest of native plants and trees, a rarity in a region where colleges favor sprawling lawns and ornamental plants. Equally significant, the university decided that all building construction would have height limitations and be environmentally friendly.
REPORTS WORTH READING
Do States Have Certification Requirements for Preparing General Education Teachers to Teach Students with Disabilities? Experience in the Northeast and Islands Region
This report on teacher certification requirements in the Northeast and Islands Region finds that eight of the nine jurisdictions require some coursework in teaching students with disabilities for initial licensure of general education teachers. The report identifies eight content areas that one or more states and territories require teachers to study, including: (a) growth and development of exceptional children, which is required in seven jurisdictions; (b) instructional design, required in five jurisdictions; and (c) adapting, differentiating, accommodating, or modifying instruction, which is also required in five of the jurisdictions.
State Outlook: Fiscal and State Policy Issues Affecting Postsecondary Education
This overview includes a snapshot of current economic conditions and an examination of state budget pressures influencing postsecondary funding decisions. According to the report, while financial support for higher education has decreased, the demand for higher education continues to rise as students and workers alike seek successful and stable employment. The report further details the impact the current recession is having on state higher education institutions, including increased tuition, department and program consolidations, capped enrollments, and larger class sizes.
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HACU/EPI Student Retention Workshop
