Gates Fund Creates Plan for College Completion
“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to spend several hundred million dollars over the next five years to double the number of low-income young people who complete a college degree or certificate program by age 26…. The foundation hopes to hit its goal by 2025. If successful, the new postsecondary program would help an additional 250,000 people per year earn some type of higher-education credential.”
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Why Community Colleges Must Reach Lower
“Community colleges are the most democratic institutions in this country. From our classrooms you can go anywhere and be anything. But you first have to get there.”
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Two-Year Colleges Overwhelmed?
“57% of the 2,500 high-school seniors surveyed this fall by a scholarship-search group called MeritAid said they were considering less expensive, less selective colleges. The survey…found that 14% of the students had shifted their attention from four-year to two-year colleges…. Midyear budget cuts are forcing many of the institutions to lay off faculty members, cut class sections, and freeze enrollment…. As a result, when laid-off workers turn to community colleges to brush up on skills or switch careers, they often find that the classes they need are full.”
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Community College Students Need Better Financial Advising, Survey Finds
“All the tutoring in the world cannot save students who run short of the money they need to pay for college. This year's Community College Survey of Student Engagement affirms as much.”
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Higher Education: Special Interest or National Asset?
“The nation is at an unprecedented moment, one that higher education can seize as an opportunity to become a more crucial determinant of the direction taken by the United States.”
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Quick Facts
• The United States is the only country among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in which the current generation is less educated than the previous one, according to a recent report from the National Commission on Adult Literacy.
• American high-school-graduation rates peaked in the late 1960s, at about 80 percent. And today? Each year almost one-third of all public-high-school students — and nearly half of all black, Hispanic, and American Indian students — fail to graduate from public high schools with their classes, according to "The Silent Epidemic," a report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• A recent study from the Pew Center on the States notes with alarm that for the first time in this nation's history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars.
“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to spend several hundred million dollars over the next five years to double the number of low-income young people who complete a college degree or certificate program by age 26…. The foundation hopes to hit its goal by 2025. If successful, the new postsecondary program would help an additional 250,000 people per year earn some type of higher-education credential.”
Read More …
Why Community Colleges Must Reach Lower
“Community colleges are the most democratic institutions in this country. From our classrooms you can go anywhere and be anything. But you first have to get there.”
Read More ...
Two-Year Colleges Overwhelmed?
“57% of the 2,500 high-school seniors surveyed this fall by a scholarship-search group called MeritAid said they were considering less expensive, less selective colleges. The survey…found that 14% of the students had shifted their attention from four-year to two-year colleges…. Midyear budget cuts are forcing many of the institutions to lay off faculty members, cut class sections, and freeze enrollment…. As a result, when laid-off workers turn to community colleges to brush up on skills or switch careers, they often find that the classes they need are full.”
Read More ...
Community College Students Need Better Financial Advising, Survey Finds
“All the tutoring in the world cannot save students who run short of the money they need to pay for college. This year's Community College Survey of Student Engagement affirms as much.”
Read More ...
Higher Education: Special Interest or National Asset?
“The nation is at an unprecedented moment, one that higher education can seize as an opportunity to become a more crucial determinant of the direction taken by the United States.”
Read More ...
Quick Facts
• The United States is the only country among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in which the current generation is less educated than the previous one, according to a recent report from the National Commission on Adult Literacy.
• American high-school-graduation rates peaked in the late 1960s, at about 80 percent. And today? Each year almost one-third of all public-high-school students — and nearly half of all black, Hispanic, and American Indian students — fail to graduate from public high schools with their classes, according to "The Silent Epidemic," a report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• A recent study from the Pew Center on the States notes with alarm that for the first time in this nation's history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars.
Dr. Clifford Stanley, president of Scholarship America, took the opportunity last week to be a part of a terrific event in our own offices' backyard -- the first annual Celebration Of Education event in St. Paul, MN, held by a group of private scholarship providers to celebrate more than 100 students who received scholarships to further their education. As the St. Paul Pioneer Press put it:
"And may a warm sun and a few bright lights grace today's to-do in Rice Park, where five private organizations have called a party to encourage the 100-plus graduating seniors whom they've awarded college scholarships. There'll be food, music, short speeches by dignitaries such as Mayor Chris Coleman, school Superintendent Meria Carstarphen and Scholarship America CEO Clifford Stanley — and some remarkable young people who are the guests of honor. ...
"'We feel we're just doing what we should be doing,' says John Tillotson, a vice president with the financial firm Smith Barney. Tillotson has been involved for a dozen years with the scholarship program of the Optimist Club of St. Paul [which awards scholarships through Scholarship America's Dollars for Scholars program]. From his office overlooking Rice Park, Tillotson has been working for months on today's event, thinking, 'Let's celebrate what these kids have done. Let's celebrate what our local schools have produced, and let's celebrate the community gathering its resources to send these kids on to higher education.'"
You can read the full Pioneer Press article here; our congratulations to the students, and our thanks to everyone who helped them take another step toward their educational dreams.
Whether you're a homeowner or not, the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis is hitting you one way or another—including in the world of higher education financing and student loans. Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing about the impact of the credit crunch on the quality and availability of student loans, and both witness statements and a video of the hearing are available at the committee's Web site.
Scholarship America's Curt Trygstad recently told Miami's NBC 6 about some useful tips for students looking for financial aid. As noted forest philosopher Winnie-the-Pooh once said, "You can't always sit in your corner of the forest and wait for people to come to you ... you have to go to them sometimes," and these are just a few suggestions as to just how to get out of the corner and start looking. Read the full story here.
In addition, InsideHigherEd.com recently ran its own piece about ways to find financial aid, and how students can learn to maximize it. That story is right here, and we'd like to hear more from you. Students, parents, counselors, lend us your secrets: how do you find, apply for, and manage financial aid? Let us know in the comments.
In addition, InsideHigherEd.com recently ran its own piece about ways to find financial aid, and how students can learn to maximize it. That story is right here, and we'd like to hear more from you. Students, parents, counselors, lend us your secrets: how do you find, apply for, and manage financial aid? Let us know in the comments.
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