Student Debt Levels Rising to Pay for College

As documented in a new report by the Pew Research Center, the costs of higher education continue to climb. The report states that, "For associate's degree and certificate recipients, the average loan increased to more than $12,600 from about $7,600 (all figures in 2008 dollars)."
 http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1807/increased-borrowing-college-student-loans-debt

New York Times Series -- Your Brain on Computers

In the latest article from their ongoing series about technology and data affecting how people think and behave, the New York Times discusses, "Growing Up Digital, Seemingly Wired for Distraction."  Interesting implications regarding students' attention spans and learning motivations are presented.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=growing%20up%20digital&st=cse

Community College Completion Is Not Enough -- It Also Matters What Students Learn

The Center for Community College Student Engagement has just released a report entitled, "The Heart of Student Success: Teaching, Learning, and College Completion," It centers on what the authors call, "deep learning, or broadly applicable thinking" which refers to reasoning, and judgment skills.  Read the story from the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/article/Community-Colleges-Must-Focus/125344/?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en
Read the executive summary: http://www.ccsse.org/publications/national_report_2010/36379tw/CCCSE_2010_exec_sum.pdf
Read the full report from CCSSE:
http://www.ccsse.org/publications/national_report_2010/36379tw/CCCSE_2010_national_report.pdf

Current Trends in Promoting and Marketing Colleges and Universities

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported about, "How to Build a Perception of Greatness."  They say,  "It's hard to bottle the buzz about a hot college. But these five suggestions can help."  Read on for some interesting suggestions:

http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Build-the-Perception-of/125374/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en 

Evaluating Programs for Community College Students--How Do We Know What Works?

This paper was prepared for the White House Summit on Community Colleges by Thomas Brock for MDRC.  MDRC is best known for mounting large-scale evaluations of real-world policies and programs targeted to low-income people.

http://www.mdrc.org/publications/571/paper.html