education new york online education new york online education new york online
Search
Today's Info Policy News
Weekly Archive
Information Policy
about
contact us
site map
Search

We'd like to hear from you! Please report broken links OR submit comments, suggestions and questions.

email:
  comments:
 

   

With the exact phrase
With all of the words
With at least one of the words
Without these words
 
Within these fields         
 
Date range limit

      Pick Date
 
Item(s) found: 75
CITY'S SAT SCORES SINK
Date CapturedWednesday August 29 2007, 6:38 AM
NY Post reports, "In a year that saw more students and more minorities than ever taking the most popular college-entrance exam, education leaders pointed to the upswing in participants as both a positive trend and also a contributing factor to the overall decline."
STANDARDS AID CUNY STUDENTS
Date CapturedMonday August 20 2007, 7:15 AM
NY Post op-ed contributor Alfred Posamentier, dean of the School of Education at City College-CUNY opines, "To allow students to enter a course without proper preparation is to do them a major disservice, setting them up for failure. It's best avoided with a proper admission requirement. An increase in standards at CUNY blocks no one from a college education, since anyone with a high-school diploma can qualify for admission. Those who cannot meet the new mathematics standards can simply enroll at one of CUNY's community colleges, where they can prepare to meet the standards."
School Translators Can Help Parents Lost in the System
Date CapturedMonday August 13 2007, 8:37 AM
NY Times reports, "Forty-two percent of the parents of children in the school system [New York City schools], the country’s largest, are not native English speakers, and communicating with them is an immense challenge. That is especially the case at a time when the system is offering ever-increasing school choices but is also requiring students to go through a complex admissions process for high school and certain programs. So prodded by advocates for immigrants, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein created a unit three years ago to translate a never-ending flow of school documents, like press releases, report cards and parent surveys, into the eight languages most commonly spoken in New York, after English: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, Arabic, Urdu, Korean and Haitian Creole. It has since expanded to an office with 40 employees and a $4.5 million budget, and is the largest of its kind in any school system in the United States, said Kleber Palma, the unit’s director."
New test rules fail CUNY's mission
Date CapturedSunday August 12 2007, 7:50 AM
NY Daily News op-ed contributor William Crain, professor of psychology at The City College, CUNY opines, "CUNY should totally revamp its admissions policy. It should give test scores only the weight they merit, and should use them as part of a holistic assessment that includes students' high school grades, talents and motivation. And it should look for ways to give more students a chance to enter the college of their choice. For generations, CUNY shone as a beacon of democratic opportunity. It can do so again."
CUNY Plans to Raise Its Admissions Standards
Date CapturedSaturday July 28 2007, 8:57 AM
NY Times reports, "In 2008, freshmen will have to show math SAT scores 20 to 30 points higher than they do now to enter the university’s top-tier colleges — Baruch, Brooklyn, City, Hunter and Queens — and its six other senior colleges. Students now can also qualify for the bachelor’s degree programs with satisfactory scores on the math Regents examination or on placement tests; required cutoffs for those tests will also be raised. Open admissions policies at the community colleges will be unaffected."
College Board Tries to Police Use of ‘Advanced Placement’ Label
Date CapturedWednesday July 18 2007, 8:21 AM
NY Times Tamar Lewin reports, "Developed 50 years ago for gifted students in elite high schools, the Advanced Placement program now exists in almost two-thirds of American high schools. In May, about 1.5 million students took 2.5 million Advanced Placement exams, hoping to earn college credit and impress college admissions offices, which often give applicants extra points on the transcript. But with so many more APs — real and fake — admissions officers have difficulty assessing them, especially since admission decisions are made before the May exams."
RACE-BIAS FLAP IN ELITE-HS TEST PREP
Date CapturedMonday July 16 2007, 6:23 AM
NY Post reports, "A free course offered by the city Department of Education to train students to ace admissions tests at elite public high schools like Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech has been quietly enforcing separate standards for blacks and Latinos compared with whites and Asians for the past decade, The Post has learned. Asian and white students had to be 'free-or reduced-lunch eligible' to qualify, according to department guidelines - meaning a white or Asian student from a family of four with an annual income above $37,000 was too rich for the program. Black and Latino students had no such family-income requirements."
Colleges Pull Out of 'U.S. News' Rankings
Date CapturedSunday June 24 2007, 7:18 PM
Day to Day, June 22, 2007 · A group of liberal arts colleges has announced that they will stop participating in the annual U.S. News and World Report college rankings. Opponents say the rankings mislead students. Doug Bennett, president of Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., talks with Anthony Brooks.
ELIOT'S ODD ED. REFORMERS
Date CapturedThursday May 31 2007, 9:05 AM
NY Post opines, "Under Goldstein, CUNY accepts every New Yorker with a high-school diploma who wishes to attend. Not everyone starts at the senior-college level, but everyone can earn a spot - over time, with hard work. He's shown the way. Will Spitzer's panel follow? "
Evaluating 'No Child Left Behind'
Date CapturedFriday May 11 2007, 8:35 AM
The Nation contributor Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education at Stanford University writes, "Perhaps the most adverse unintended consequence of NCLB is that it creates incentives for schools to rid themselves of students who are not doing well, producing higher scores at the expense of vulnerable students' education. Studies have found that sanctioning schools based on average student scores leads schools to retain students in grade so that grade-level scores will look better (although these students ultimately do less well and drop out at higher rates), exclude low-scoring students from admissions and encourage such students to transfer or drop out. Recent studies in Massachusetts, New York and Texas show how schools have raised test scores while 'losing' large numbers of low-scoring students."
Point is right on admissions
Date CapturedTuesday April 24 2007, 9:29 AM
Times Herald-Record opines, "The announcement from the U.S. Military Academy last week that it is looking at ways to change the racial balance in its admissions process is a good move, albeit one that has challenged all selective colleges and that is ripe for political grandstanding. West Point is competing in a college admissions arena that has changed significantly over the past few years, with more well-qualified students amassing superb resumes, often directed by admissions coaches who specialize in making each student irresistible to schools."
Colleges must learn to teach
Date CapturedSunday April 08 2007, 10:05 AM
Times Union THOMAS TOCH and KEVIN CAREY write, "Ironically, our global dominance in research and persistent mediocrity in undergraduate education are closely related. Both are the result of the same choices. The 17 institutions atop the Shanghai rankings are driven by professional and financial incentives that favor research and scholarship over teaching. Funding from the federal government, publish-or-perish tenure policies, and college rankings from the likes of U.S. News & World Report all push universities and professors to excel at their research mission. There are no corresponding incentives to teach students well. Take the U.S. News rankings. Ninety-five percent of each college's score is based on measures of wealth, fame and admissions selectivity. As a result, college presidents looking to get ahead focus on marketing, fundraising and recruiting faculty with great research credentials instead of investing their resources in helping undergraduates learn and earn degrees."
Pact eases student transfers in Connecticut state colleges
Date CapturedFriday March 30 2007, 8:56 AM
Newsday reports, "Students at Connecticut's two-year community colleges can more easily transfer to four-year state universities under an agreement signed Thursday. Officials of the two-year and four-year public higher education systems signed a partnership that guarantees admission to state universities for community college students who meet specific guidelines."
Admissions Jockeying Starts Earlier in New York
Date CapturedThursday February 22 2007, 7:08 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN writes, "But some educators say greater school choice primarily benefits students with savvy, motivated parents who are able to spend time figuring out the best schools to list on applications, and puts at a further disadvantage the children with little support at home. 'I think it may in the long run offer more opportunity for better education for kids who aren’t getting it,” said Norm Fruchter of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. “But any choice program or effort gets initially monopolized by people who have the advantages of access and information and the ability to move on what their kids need.'”
New York City Education Department Becomes an Open Book
Date CapturedTuesday January 16 2007, 5:37 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "After four years of landmark changes to the school system, the Department of Education is preparing to turn over mounds of data related to its most radical reforms to independent researchers, The Post has learned. A list of top priorities for the new Research Partnership for New York City Schools includes examining the controversial academy for training principals, empowerment schools, and changes to the high-school admissions process."
Most colleges continuing to admit early
Date CapturedMonday January 15 2007, 8:03 AM
Philadelphia Inquirer reports, "After Harvard University announced plans in September to eliminate its early-admission program because it appeared to slight students from lower-income families, many in the higher education community expected other schools to follow. Princeton University did. So did the University of Virginia. But the imitation stopped there. The University of Pennsylvania and its other Ivy League sisters refused to budge. So have other selective private schools, such as Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr and Dickinson. Tossing out early-decision programs wholesale won't magically swing open the doors of higher education to low-income students, because not all schools have the same circumstances as Harvard and Princeton, said Robert J. Massa, vice president of enrollment and college relations at Dickinson College in Carlisle."
Inner-city Buffalo students 'nudged' toward college
Date CapturedFriday January 12 2007, 11:23 AM
Buffalo News reports, "African-American high school students in Buffalo are getting a nudge toward higher education under a new initiative at Hilbert College. The small liberal arts college in Hamburg is partnering with two Buffalo churches to bring high school juniors to the Hamburg school. The students will stay for three weeks during the summer, get a dose of campus life and receive tutoring to sharpen the academic skills they will need for college."
SAT: Why Memorize What You Can Rock?
Date CapturedSaturday January 06 2007, 10:39 PM
NPR reports, "There's a new way to study for the SATs. Rather than a cursory glance at a vocabulary list, this study guide sets SAT words to music. To sample a few of the songs, click on titles."
Admissions Form Stirs Debate at U. of Chicago
Date CapturedSaturday January 06 2007, 3:24 PM
NPR reports, "University of Chicago students are proud of the quirky questions on their school's application. Many are wary of the university's plans to also use an online form accepted by more than 300 schools."
New York encouraging ACT to challenge SAT
Date CapturedWednesday December 13 2006, 4:26 AM
AP reports, "New York is pushing wider use of the ACT college entrance exam in the Northeast to compete with the SAT exam, which has long dominated in the region, a top state senator said Tuesday."
Adjusting a Formula Devised for Diversity
Date CapturedWednesday December 13 2006, 3:41 AM
NY Times reports, "After a federal appeals court barred Texas from explicitly counting race in admissions to its colleges, the state struggled to find another way to diversify the student body. Nine years ago, it came up with an elegantly simple formula: all students whose grades ranked them in the top 10 percent of their high school classes would automatically be admitted to any campus, including the flagship here."
Critics Aim to Overhaul Texas' Top 10 Percent Law
Date CapturedTuesday December 12 2006, 8:49 AM
NPR reports, "Supporters of the law say it has promoted economic and racial diversity in higher education, but critics say it's an unfair disadvantage to kids in competitive high schools."
Preparing too much?
Date CapturedSunday December 10 2006, 7:52 AM
Newsday reports, "Dane Scott, who heads an ethics center at the University of Montana in Missoula, doesn't quite know what to make of the college-application process. It encourages students writing essays to get help from parents, teachers and pricey independent counselors. 'What does it mean,' he asks, 'when a personal essay is written by a group of people?' That quandary increasingly preoccupies admissions offices."
After Council Balks, Bronx Schools Project Is Withdrawn
Date CapturedThursday December 07 2006, 3:22 AM
NY Times reports, "The small schools have been widely criticized for taking fewer special education students and children with limited English proficiency than other schools. The city’s admissions rules allow officials in the small schools to control admission to their freshman class, giving preference to students who express interest by attending open houses or information fairs. Any remaining slots are distributed to applicants randomly by a computer system. "
Regents poised to adopt strict rules on for-profit schools
Date CapturedTuesday December 05 2006, 4:48 AM
AP reports, "The Regents plan will require a transition period before the schools are granted final authority to award degrees. The state will make sure the programs are rigorous enough. Remedial classes will be clearly differentiated from credit-bearing courses and stronger admissions policies will make sure students have accurate information about each school, the job market and their job placement programs, according to Johanna Duncan-Poitier of the state Education Department."
So Many Schools, So Few Options:How Mayor Bloomberg’s Small High School Reforms Deny Full Access to English Language Learners
Date CapturedWednesday November 29 2006, 7:08 AM
Key findings: ELLs Are Not Given Full and Equitable Access to All Small High Schools, Parents of ELLs and Students Reported Barriers in the High School Admissions and Enrollment Process, The Small School Policy for ELLs Appears to be Forcing ELLs to Remain in Large High Schools that Do Not Have Services to Meet Their Needs , Small Schools are Not Being Created in Queens, in which the Largest Number of ELLs Reside. A joint report by: The New York Immigration Coalition & Advocates for Children of New York In collaboration with: Chhaya Community Development Corporation Chinese Progressive Association Chinese-American Planning Council Council of Peoples Organization Haitian Americans United for Progress Make the Road by Walking Metropolitan Russian American Parents Association November 2006.
Public Colleges as ‘Engines of Inequality’
Date CapturedThursday November 23 2006, 3:22 AM
NY Times opined, "The obvious first step would be to boost the value of the federal Pell Grant program — a critical tool in keeping college affordable that the federal government has shamefully ceased to fund at a level that meets the national need. But larger Pell Grants can’t solve this crisis alone. Policy changes will also be required in the states, where public universities have been choking off college access and upward mobility for the poor by shifting away from the traditional need-based aid formula to a so-called merit formula that heavily favors affluent students. The resulting drop in the fortunes of even high-performing low-income students — many of whom no longer attend college at all — is documented in an eye-opening report released recently by the Education Trust, a nonpartisan foundation devoted to education reform."
Open Campuses
Date CapturedThursday November 16 2006, 3:54 AM
Washington Post opined, "Any doubt about the benefits of attracting foreign students should be erased when weighed against the fact that other countries have started their own programs to aggressively recruit these same smart students. This week a delegation of college presidents, led by education and State Department officials, is in Asia on a mission to recruit foreign scholars. America can't afford not to put out the welcome mat."
Detours on the Road to Greater College Graduation Rates
Date CapturedSunday November 12 2006, 4:24 PM
The Louisiana Weekly contributor Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League writes, "According to the American Council study, African-Americans are the most likely to drop out of college than any other minority group. Of students who entered college in the 1995-1996 academic year, only 36.4 percent of Blacks received a degree, compared to 42 percent of Hispanics, 58 percent of Whites and 62.3 percent of Asian Americans."
The Writing Section? Relax
Date CapturedSunday November 05 2006, 8:02 AM
NY Times contributor Nancy Hass, contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio writes on SAT exams, "Despite its perceived shortcomings, some administrators, even those not willing to embrace it fully, believe it has long-term value. 'We are supportive of the College Board creating it, because we think it sends a good message,' says Mr. Furstenberg [dean of admissions at Dartmouth] . 'It communicates to high school teachers and students that writing is important and is looked at carefully.' Even if, it seems, it’s not."
Chancellor Cites Favoritism at a New York School
Date CapturedSaturday November 04 2006, 7:31 AM
NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said the school’s practices were a 'stark and different' example of the kind of favoritism that he has been trying to eliminate from the city’s array of coveted schools and gifted programs. Officials say an examination of the school’s most recent kindergarten admissions documents shows that school officials were looking not only at students’ performance, but also at how involved their parents were likely to be."
SAT, ACT See Number of Test-Takers Rise
Date CapturedWednesday October 18 2006, 8:24 PM
JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writer reports, "The SAT and ACT college entrance exams each report the number of students taking their test this month is up sharply from a year ago, a likely sign more students are trying both exams to boost their admission chances. About 520,000 students have registered for the Oct. 28 sitting of the ACT, a 17 percent increase from last year, according to the latest figures. The number of students who took last Saturday's SAT was about 660,000, compared to 570,000 last October."
Union College makes SAT history
Date CapturedWednesday October 18 2006, 5:11 AM
Times Union reports, "After years of debate, Union administrators decided such standardized tests were "a prestigious but flawed instruments" with demonstrated biases based on racial, gender, socioeconomic and cultural factors, according to Dan Lundquist, Union's dean of admissions and financial aid. The tipping point for Union's decision to drop the standardized test requirement for admission came amid widely reported SAT scoring errors in the past year and a continued refrain from the anti-test movement."
A Late Start, but Not a Bad Start if the Student Is Finally Ready
Date CapturedWednesday October 18 2006, 3:26 AM
NY Times reports, "There are 200 Ada Comstock students — one of every 13 Smith students — ranging in age from their early 20’s into their 60’s. They have all kinds of reasons for having stumbled off the well-trod paths of life. Some, like Rita McCoubrey, 23, of Santa Ana, Calif., had babies in high school; others, like Ellie Crews, 53, of Seattle, married husbands who insisted that their careers came first, and so they raised children into adulthood."
It's hard to ax the boss
Date CapturedSunday October 15 2006, 7:47 AM
NY Daily News reports, "But despite the tough talk, Klein's [New York City Schools chancellor] ability to fire a principal - even one who has signed a 'performance agreement' to become an empowerment principal - is severely limited by labor law, civil service rules and contractual agreements."
Regulations put resolve to the test: Home-schooled New Yorkers need GED
Date CapturedSunday October 08 2006, 8:14 AM
Times Union reports, "All athletes must be declared eligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Living in New York doesn't make it any easier for home-schoolers. New York is the only state that does not accept a home-school diploma as proof of graduation. Because there is no other way to certify a substantial equivalent of a four-year high school diploma, home-schoolers are required to take and pass the General Education Development test in order to meet the NCAA's graduation requirement."
Colleges making SAT, ACT optional
Date CapturedSaturday October 07 2006, 12:46 PM
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, "Fair Test, a Cambridge, Mass., group critical of standardized testing, says about 730 campuses make exams optional for all or a substantial share of their students, up from 280 schools about a decade ago."
Infringement and Sales of Student Admissions Data
Date CapturedFriday October 06 2006, 9:52 AM
PR Newswire reports, "The evidence revealed that XAP sold certain information such as social security numbers, names, addresses, and dates of birth for at least 600,000 students. CollegeNET's claim was also based upon the false or misleading statements made by XAP to colleges and universities that student data would not be sold."
Early Admissions Aren't the Problem
Date CapturedThursday October 05 2006, 7:07 AM
Washington Post Op-Ed contributor Amy Gutmann, president of U of Pennsylvania writes, "To end or not to end early admissions: That is the question that colleges and universities are debating once again. The passion is great, but the stakes are small and the debate is a distraction from a far more important matter: the urgent need of all but a handful of colleges and universities to improve financial aid for students from low-income and middle-income families."
Demoting Advanced Placement
Date CapturedWednesday October 04 2006, 3:34 AM
NY Times JOE BERGER writes, "The high school years have been distorted enough by the frenzied rounds of college visits, applications and S.A.T. cram courses. At an evening forum last week to acquaint Scarsdale parents with the faculty proposal, critics of A.P. courses asked: Is our mission to steal a head start on college? Or should we be cultivating habits of mind like tolerance of ambiguity, persistence in the face of setbacks, the ability to work with others on complex problems? Nevertheless, questions from parents signaled some considerable anxiety about dropping a program that has reliably gotten Scarsdale students into top colleges."
The US doesn't need more college grads
Date CapturedMonday September 25 2006, 6:41 AM
Christian Science Monitor contributor George C. Leef, executive director of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, N.C. writes, "Above all, the US should stop worrying about the percentage of its younger citizens who have college degrees vs. the percentage in other countries. The truth is, most of what people need to know in order to be successful in life is not learned in formal educational settings. The job skills that help workers advance in their careers are usually learned on the job."
Unfair Advancement
Date CapturedThursday September 21 2006, 3:52 AM
NY Times Op-Ed contributor Rodney Labrecque, head of Wilbraham & Monson Academy, a college preparatory school opined on Advanced Placement (AP) tests, "Even if Advanced Placement were an effective high school education tool, there is little evidence to think it would be a useful yardstick for admissions. A 2004 study of the University of California system found that 'the number of Advanced Placement and honors courses taken in high school bears little or no relationship to student’s later performance in college.' (Not surprisingly, the College Board, which administers the tests, rebutted this conclusion.)"
Columbia Alters Financial Aid for Low-Income Students
Date CapturedTuesday September 19 2006, 7:16 PM
NY Times KAREN W. ARENSON reports, "Columbia officials said that even though the campus already has the most socio-economically diverse student body in the Ivy League, the move to replace loans with grants for low-income students will enhance that diversity further."
Early Admissions
Date CapturedMonday September 18 2006, 3:31 AM
The Washington Post opined on Harvard's changed admissions policy, "As other schools ponder whether they can afford to follow the example of Harvard and Delaware, they would do well to note the widespread reaction of parents, teachers and guidance counselors who see the decision as a step toward easing the anxiety, tension and premature pressure that has come to permeate the process for too many students."
Skip the Test, Betray the Cause
Date CapturedMonday September 18 2006, 3:29 AM
NY Times Op-Ed contributor Colin S. Diver, president of Reed College opined, "An institution that, commendably, seeks to enroll more minority and lower-income students can do so by giving less weight to SAT or ACT scores, either across the board or in selective cases. But concealing the applicants’ test scores is just willful blindness."
Harvard Ends Early Admissions, and Guess Who Wins
Date CapturedSaturday September 16 2006, 1:06 PM
NY Times reports, "Harvard officials argue that the program gives yet another leg up to well-off students, who don’t need to compare financial-aid offers from numerous colleges and who often attend high schools where counselors help put together applications. After the announcement, many people within education urged other colleges to take a similar step."
No Worm for the Early Bird
Date CapturedFriday September 15 2006, 8:26 AM
Wall Street Journal opined on early admissions, "This week, Harvard University announced a plan to drop its "early admission" program in order to encourage more economic and racial diversity in its applicant pool. That the Crimson gatekeepers are trying yet another strategy to promote campus diversity will surprise no one."
A plan to inspire achievement
Date CapturedWednesday September 13 2006, 3:35 PM
Daily Herald reports on Utah Scholars program, "The goal is to encourage students to take more rigorous academic courses in high school. Students who succeed in the program will be designated Utah Scholars at graduation -- a title that will be noted on transcripts and which will help them qualify for higher levels of college financial aid."
Harvard Ends Early Admission, Citing Barrier to Disadvantaged
Date CapturedTuesday September 12 2006, 2:58 AM
NY Times ALAN FINDER and KAREN W. ARENSON report, "Harvard will be the first of the nation’s prestigious universities to do away completely with early admissions, in which high school seniors try to bolster their chances at competitive schools by applying in the fall and learning whether they have been admitted in December, months before other students."
SAT becoming less important
Date CapturedSunday September 10 2006, 10:27 AM
Buffalo News former editor Murray Light opined, "No matter what admissions option college officials claim, a student submitting a record of very good SAT scores is bound to have an edge over those who have passed on taking the exam or who have not scored too well on the exam. The competition for acceptance in colleges is greater than ever and every bit of positive fodder certainly helps admissions officers make their decision."
“Slow migration” towards more ACT test takers, Princeton Review says
Date CapturedSunday September 03 2006, 8:54 AM
Boca Raton News reports, "But why are so many students taking the ACT? Deutsch [Vice President of the Princeton Review] stated many reasons. One in particular affected students nationwide when The College Board mis-graded hundreds of SAT test scores. Another is the largest decline in SAT scores in more than 30 years. 'Students are looking for alternatives,' he said."
At 2-Year Colleges, Students Eager but Unready
Date CapturedSaturday September 02 2006, 9:17 AM
NY Times reports, "Aside from New York City’s higher education system, at least 12 states explicitly bar state universities from providing remedial courses or take other steps like deferred admissions to steer students needing helping toward technical or community colleges. Some students who need to catch up attend two- and four-year institutions simultaneously. The efforts, educators say, have not cut back on the thousands of students who lack basic skills. Instead, the colleges have clustered those students in community colleges, where their chances of succeeding are low and where taxpayers pay a second time to bring them up to college level. The phenomenon has educators struggling with fundamental questions about access to education, standards and equal opportunity."
Promise Abandoned: How Policy Choices and Institutional Practices Restrict College Opportunities
Date CapturedFriday September 01 2006, 9:25 AM
Kati Haycock, Director of the Education Trust and author of the report writes, "Though college leaders may not have intended this, higher education — especially the four-year college sector — has become a mechanism for reinforcing social class, rather than a vehicle for fostering social mobility. That’s bad for low-income and minority families. And it is bad for America."
Financial aid records of college students examined in terrorist search
Date CapturedThursday August 31 2006, 6:52 PM
USA Today Greg Toppo writes, "Project Strike Back is virtually unknown within the higher education community, even among top financial aid and admissions officials. The program was mentioned in a September 2002 Education Department report to Congress, noting that it had been initiated. And a May 2004 Government Accountability Office report on data mining noted that the program compares Department of Education and FBI data 'for anomalies. Also verifies personal identifiers.'"
SAT blues: Standardized test scores don't show the whole picture
Date CapturedThursday August 31 2006, 9:38 AM
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle opined, "There are many ways to judge a student's abilities, from letters of recommendation and grades to personal essays and extra-curricular activities. Students, parents and college admissions officers shouldn't get hung up on SATs. Passing tests shouldn't be an end-all."
Students’ Paths to Small Colleges Can Bypass SAT
Date CapturedThursday August 31 2006, 8:28 AM
NY Times TAMAR LEWIN reports, "Half a century ago, the SAT was a tool for opening college access to students who did not come from elite schools, a steppingstone to academic meritocracy. But many admissions officers now see the test as a barrier to low-income students and those who do not speak English at home. Test scores, college officials say, present a skewed picture both of poor students who have had little formal preparation, and wealthy ones who spend thousands of dollars — not to mention evenings, weekends and summers — on tutoring."
Free college-prep exams for New Yok City students
Date CapturedTuesday August 22 2006, 8:08 AM
Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "In addition to helping kids get into college, Klein said, the test and its results will also serve to help teachers and parents to know the areas where each student is struggling and extra attention is needed. The College Board says that similar arrangements in other cities dramatically increased the number of students taking the test and better prepared them for college."
ELITE SCHOOLS UNDER FIRE
Date CapturedMonday August 21 2006, 7:03 AM
NY Post editorial opined on academic achievement and enrollment at CUNY and elite schools, "Lowering admissions standards at elite public high schools - in other words, admitting students who are not able to handle a deliberately difficult and challenging workload - will hardly prepare those students for academically elite colleges and universities."
Idaho must consider key issues for community college system
Date CapturedFriday August 18 2006, 10:15 AM
Idaho Stateman Op-Ed contributors Gary Michael and Kevin Learned, co-chairs of the Higher Education Committee of the Idaho Business Coalition for Educational Excellence, an organization of nearly 70 top business leaders from across Idaho opined, "The Idaho Legislature has appointed an Interim Committee on Community Colleges "to analyze postsecondary education in Idaho and to make recommendations to the next Legislature." The Idaho Business Coalition for Education Excellence (IBCEE), an organization of current and retired CEO's from throughout Idaho, applauds this effort and looks forward to the committee's recommendations. In our view, a community college network will greatly benefit many post high school students and, ultimately, Idaho employers who depend on a sustained, diverse and well-trained work force."
RPI and Skidmore among 'New Ivies'
Date CapturedTuesday August 15 2006, 8:20 AM
The Record reports, "The guide uses criteria based on admissions statistics and interviews with administrators, faculty and alumni. The categorization signifies the respective schools competitive status as rivaling Ivy League colleges."
CUNY Seeing Fewer Blacks at Top Schools
Date CapturedThursday August 10 2006, 2:03 AM
NY Times KAREN W. ARENSON reports on equitable access to CUNY, "Laura M. Schachter, the dean for diversity and compliance at Hunter, said that many qualified black and Hispanic students did not know much about Hunter and did not apply. 'It is our job to make them aware,' she said."
Sullivan County Community College says cuts imminent without $1M from county
Date CapturedFriday August 04 2006, 9:10 AM
Times Herald-Record reports, "Some of the possible impacts: closing the Monticello Center, closing the Elderhostel program, cutting work-force education and training, slashing sports programs, leaving an admissions position vacant, not filling positions in nursing and culinary arts and not going ahead with planned health-care programs."
How to apply to Empire State College
Date CapturedSunday July 30 2006, 3:20 PM
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle writes, "Empire State College has everything from undergraduate degrees in 11 areas of study from the arts to science, mathematics and technology; to six master’s degree programs, including three Master of Arts in policy studies programs, a Master of Arts in liberal studies, a Master of Business Administration degree and Master of Arts in Teaching program for career changers."
26,000 applicants set record for Binghamton U
Date CapturedThursday July 27 2006, 8:59 AM
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports, "'Increased applications speak to the fact that Binghamton's reputation is growing, and more and more students are considering us as an institution,' said Brian Hazlett, BU's associate director of admissions."
Black Student Enrollment at UCLA Plunges
Date CapturedMonday July 24 2006, 10:46 AM
NPR reports, "The number of black students at UCLA has been falling for years, partly due to a ballot measure that ended racial preferences in admissions. School leaders now say something has to change."
Senator Subpoenas College Board President Over SAT Errors
Date CapturedWednesday July 12 2006, 7:06 AM
NY Times registration. Karen W. Arenson reports, "In response to those errors, the committee’s chairman, State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, introduced a bill calling for increased oversight of college admissions testing. It was passed by the Senate in June, but not by the Assembly. The senator plans to reintroduce it."
The Disability Gap
Date CapturedThursday July 06 2006, 2:41 PM
HuffingtonPost.com reports, "Nationwide, under 2% of students have learning disabilities severe enough to qualify for extra time on the SAT. In private school Manhattan, the percentage is substantially greater. And that means dramatically higher scores."
Tufts gets creative on admissions
Date CapturedThursday July 06 2006, 9:46 AM
Boston.com reports Boston Globe story, "The university will ask applicants to show original thinking and imagine, for example, an alternative version of history: What if civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks had given up her seat on the bus? Or, they could be asked to write an off-the-wall ministory with the title, 'My roommate is a space alien.'"
Magnet Schools and Student Achievement
Date CapturedFriday June 30 2006, 8:48 AM
Author: Dale Ballou, Ellen Goldring and Keke Liu. This study estimates the impact of attending a magnet school on student achievement for a mid-sized Southern district, using admissions lotteries to sort students into “treatment” and “control” groups. Study finds a positive magnet school effect on mathematics achievement until add controls for student demographics and prior achievement. This suggests that despite random assignment in the lotteries, treatment and control groups differ with respect to student characteristics that have an independent impact on achievement. The most likely explanation is differential patterns of attrition among lottery winners and losers.
No diploma? No problem; college doors open
Date CapturedMonday June 12 2006, 10:47 AM
Sit down, SAT
Date CapturedWednesday June 07 2006, 9:03 AM
Some Allowed to Sit Out the SAT (Washington Post registration)
Date CapturedThursday May 25 2006, 8:03 AM
Admissions Officials Lament Practice of Signing On With More Than One College (NY Times registration)
Date CapturedSaturday May 20 2006, 7:58 AM
Senator Proposes Creating Board to Oversee College Admissions Tests (NY Times registration)
Date CapturedSaturday May 20 2006, 7:49 AM
COLLEGE BOUND; A weekly guide to higher education
Date CapturedSunday May 07 2006, 9:00 AM



Back to Top of Page