January 2008

In its ongoing advocacy for increasing college opportunity for underserved students, Pathways to College Network staff, Ruth D. Sherman, contributed to an article in this month’s Diverse Magazine, “Helping Foster Care Youth Access College.” To read the article, go to: www.diverseeducation.com.

Cheryl Blanco, Pathways’ Executive Director, participated in two discussions in January that drew on PCN’s work. At the invitation of the Executive Director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), Cheryl joined two other speakers for a presentation and discussion of affordability as part of the Council’s monthly meeting. Cheryl also serves on the National Policy Advisory Group for the Achieving the Dream initiative and participated in its annual meeting.

Several Pathways partners have recently announced new leadership.
The American Council on Education (ACE) named Molly Corbett Broad as its next President earlier this month. Broad has held a series of senior positions in state university systems, most recently as president of the University of North Carolina System. She previously served as executive vice chancellor of the California State University System and the chief executive officer of Arizona’s university system.

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) named Dr. Philip R. Day as the Association’s new President and CEO. Day has more than 32 years of experience in higher education. Most recently, he served as the chancellor of City College of San Francisco, one of the largest and most diverse community college districts in the United States.

The National College Access Network (NCAN) has appointed Eric L. White as its new Executive Director. White has fifteen years of experience in nonprofit administration with particular emphasis on student opportunity and achievement. Recently, he served as President and Executive Director of the Darrell Green Youth Life Foundation, a full service, after school and summer tutorial program for urban/rural youth.

Top Ten State Issues Affecting Public Higher Education
The January edition of Policy Matters from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities lays out 10 top state issues that will likely impact public higher education across the nation. AASCU staff created the list based on an environmental scan of state policy activities in 2007, trend analysis, and events that will continue to shape the policy landscape.
[Read the report]

The Funding Gap, 2008
In its latest funding gap report, The Education Trust analyzes education spending patterns by state and concludes that our nation consistently spends fewer dollars educating students in its highest-poverty and highest-minority school districts than it does in districts with fewer of such students. Also included is an analysis of spending in school districts serving high numbers of English language learners. The report compares state and local spending from 1999 to 2005 and documents gaps between states making progress in addressing funding gaps and states that continue to shortchange students with the greatest needs.
[Read the report]

Transfer Access to Elite Colleges and Universities in the United States: Threading the Needle of the American Dream
Research funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, Lumina Foundation for Education, and Nellie Mae Education Foundation examines the economic, information, and cultural barriers that influence community college students’ prospects for transfer to selective institutions. Although nearly half of all undergraduate students are enrolled in community colleges and large numbers are from low-income families and minority groups, even the most talented low-income community college students have limited access and opportunity for transfer to selective four-year institutions.
[Read the report]

Aligning High School Graduation Requirements with the Real World: A Roadmap for States
Achieve, Inc. has released a new policy brief that captures the lessons learned by states that have implemented more rigorous graduation requirements. The brief addresses challenges of designing effective policy and offers strategies for implementation, communication, and coalition building. State policymakers and education leaders who may be considering actions to restore value to the high school diploma will find this brief of particular interest.
[Read the report]

Math Course taking Patterns and Achievement at the End of High School
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has released a new study, Mathematics Coursetaking and Achievement at the End of High School: Evidence from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. This research examines the relationship between the number and types of math courses taken in the 11^th- and 12^th-grades and the growth in math proficiency over that same time period. Discussed are the coursetaking sequences prevalent among today's high school students in the second half of high school, the socioeconomic characteristics of the students who follow these sequences, and the association between particular courses and sequences and math proficiency gains. In terms of learning in specific content areas, the largest gains in intermediate math skills were made by those who followed the geometry-algebra II sequence.
[Read the report]

Do Support Services at Community Colleges Encourage Success or Reproduce Disadvantage?
This exploratory working paper from the Community College Research Center discusses how the current structure of some community college student support services may inadvertently perpetuate and legitimate disadvantage. Using student interview data from two institutions, the study finds that although support services are considered open access for all students, only those students who enter college with sufficient social capital, defined as pre-existing social and cultural resources, are prepared to access and benefit from them. The study indicates that students with less social capital are more often unsuccessful in progressing toward a degree and often interpret their failure as a personal failure, rather than structural failure on the part of the institution.
[Read the report]