Ready Or Not? Recent Innovations In Higher Education

READY...
Ivy Tech Community College will be offering a new one year associate degree program for high performing students from low income families.  They hope to improve graduation rates by providing a more cost effective approach to higher education for highly motivated students with strong G.P.A.s.  Four year schools are similarly offering three year degree programs with the same idea in mind.
http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-and-education-news/articles/new-degree-programs-at-community-colleges-10050601

OR NOT...
National Public Radio (NPR) reported a story from York College, Pennsylvania about the underpreparedness of recent college graduates. The school is developing new curriculum to help students be ready with the interpersonal skills and social behaviors expected in employment settings.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127230009&ft=1&f=1001

Internal Problems Create Controversy For Middle States

Inside HigherEd reported about problems within the Middle States organization.  This internal power struggle involves finance and hiring issues.  Read about it:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/20/middlestates

Center for Global Advancement Of Community Colleges (CGACC), A New Organization To Promote Community Colleges And International Education

The Center for Global Advancement of Community Colleges (CGACC) is dedicated to increasing global knowledge and understanding of U.S. community colleges, bridging cultures through awareness, serving as a resource, advancing institutional internationalization efforts, and partnering with national and international entities to expand and enhance educational opportunities.
http://cgacc.org/

Community Colleges Pledge To Keep Access And Opportunity While Improving Completion Rates, Despite Budget Cuts

Government and foundation leaders push agenda to improve completion rates, but budget cuts are eroding the very programs the experts say are vital.  The American Association of Community Colleges and other leading education and policy organizations signed what they deemed “a call to action” – a commitment to improve student completion rates by 50 percent over the next decade.  Read about it in an article from Inside HigherEd:   http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/17/completion

Higher Education in New Jersey and the State Budget Crisis

New Jersey college administrators fear devasting effects as a result of State funding cuts.
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/pdf/state/nj-college-presidents-call-christies-higher-education-cuts-devastating.pdf

College Career Service Centers Assist Students Dealing With Gloomy Job Prospects

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education points to Career Service Centers as one way for colleges to help recent graduates navigate a difficult job market.
http://chronicle.com/article/Career-Service-Centers-Strive/65332/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en

Helping Students Complete Their Programs Of Study

At the American Association of Community Colleges conference, six national associations focused on community colleges are planning a joint statement  pledging a "unified effort" to increase completion rates.  Read the article about this movement from Inside HigherEd:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/19/completion

U.S News and World Report's Latest Issue On Higher Education

The May 2010 issue of U. S. News & World Report has articles about student loans, careers for tomorrow and their school rankings. To see their report about online education with links to other sections:  http://www.usnews.com/sections/education/online-education/index.html

Helping Students Become "Career Ready"

As reported in Inside HigherEd, a new paper just released by the Association for Career and Technical Education describes the three essential areas of preparedness needed for today's college graduates.  Academic skills, employability skills and technical skills, which all work together for success in the workplace. 
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/14/definition
and
http://www.acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Publications_and_Online_Media/files/Career_Readiness_Paper.pdf

The Business Of Higher Education--New In The Bankier Library

A new three volume reference set entitled, The Business of Higher Education, is available for use in the Bankier Library.  Arranged by topical areas, there are articles relating to: leadership and culture, management and fiscal strategies, and marketing and consumer interests.  The link to the catalog record in the online catalog is: http://library.brookdalecc.edu/record=b1122471~S0

The Comprehensive College Baccalaureate Association

The Comprehensive College Baccalaureate Association, (formerly the Community College Baccalaureate Association) strives to promote better access to the baccalaureate degree on community college campuses, and to serve as a resource for information on various models for accomplishing this purpose.  Their newsletter is available via email delivery.
http://www.accbd.org/

Struggle To Save N.J. Stars Makes National Headlines

The Chronicle of Higher Education has the following story about N.J. Stars:
http://chronicle.com/article/New-Jersey-Community-Colleges/64971/

Important Roles For Community Colleges During The Economic Recovery

"Community Colleges as Economic Saviors" is a recent article from universitybusiness.com describing how community colleges have developed programs to help students, businesses and local communities rebound from tough economic times.
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pmg/ub0310/index.php?startid=34#/36

Community Colleges Need To Assert Themselves In Washington

The following story was reported by NPR about how community colleges have fared with the recent legislation enacted by Congress.  They're in a "Catch 22" situation when it comes to federal legislaltion.  "They don't have a voice because they don't have resources, and they don't have resources because they don't have a voice," states Sara Goldrick-Rab, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125225059

Our Reality--Many Students, Less Money

Inside HigherEd reports on a new survey of 128 community college district chancellors and campus presidents, conducted by the League for Innovation in the Community College and the Campus Computing Project.  It found that two-year institutions are caught in a vise of growing student demands for enrollment and continuing financial strain due to diminished state funds.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/30/survey

State Budget's Dramatic Cuts-- N.J. Stars Program Eliminated For New Students Next Year

Here, from the 2011 Budget In Brief, is the bad news for New Jersey community colleges and their students:

Community Colleges
Operating support for county colleges is reduced by $14.3 million. This level will support the amounts required to maintain New Jersey’s eligibility for federal stimulus funding for higher education. Community colleges will continue to receive funds from the Supplemental Workforce Fund for Basic Skills to offset the cost of remedial courses provided by the institutions.

Tuition Assistance
State assistance is provided to college students through a myriad of aid and scholarship programs. The
largest of these, the Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) program, is a need-based entitlement program that supports
tuition costs for needy New Jersey students who attend New Jersey colleges and universities. For fiscal 2011, anticipated growth in the program will not be funded. Similarly, the Proposed Budget does not fund anticipated growth in the Part-Time Tuition Aid Grant program. In addition, the TAG awards for first-time recipients at Independent Institutions will be reduced to the comparable State college award level.  A slight reduction of 8.7% is proposed for the Educational Opportunity Fund. An allocation of $37.6 million will
remain available to provide higher education opportunities to students who come from low-income families in
economically distressed areas of the state.

NJ STARS I and NJ STARS II are merit-based scholarships that are awarded to high achieving students who attend a New Jersey county college and then continue at a four-year New Jersey college or university. For fiscal 2011, no incoming freshman will be accepted into the NJ STARS I program. No current STARS
scholarships will be affected by the funding reduction.

To see the complete Budget In Brief:  http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/omb/publications/11bib/BIB.pdf

Discussing Dollars For Community Colleges

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which has been on the legislative back burner while Congress has been debating health care reform, is finally getting some attention.  The most significant part of the bill for many in the two-year sector is the American Graduation Initiative (AGI), $12 billion in federal grant funding for which community colleges can compete.  To read about in Inside HigherEd:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/11/acct

To read about the legislation from the House Committee on Education and Labor (which was voted on and passed September 2009)
http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/07/student-aid-and-fiscal-respons.shtml

To read about the still pending legislation from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
http://help.senate.gov/

Important New K-12 Education Standards Just Released

The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association have just released new sets of educational standards which apply to 48 states, including New Jersey.  The Common Core State Standards Initiatives cover classrooms from kindergarten -- where children should know their numbers up to 100 -- to high school -- where students should be able to write and research texts and narratives, and be able to use the Internet to produce, publish and update their work.  To read more:


http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/groups_release_academic_standa.html
 
To see the Core College and Career Readiness Standards:
http://www.corestandards.org/Standards/index.htm

Community Colleges Expand Degree Offerings

Edison State College, a Florida community college in Fort Myers, is planning to create an independent university offering baccalaureate and graduate degrees, arguing that existing four-year institutions in the region are not helping enough of the two-year institution's low-income and minority graduates continue their educations.  To read about their efforts to expand their degree offerenings as well as similiar initiatives by other community colleges:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/09/edisonstate

School Reform Needs New Direction--Noted Educator Changes Position On K-12 Initiative

Noted educator Dr. Diane Ravitch, once a supporter of No Child Left Behind, has reversed her opinion of this federal program.  She now believes that the United States is headed in the wrong direction and should heed examples of the best schools from other countries.  In a March 3, 2010 article in the New York Times she said, "Nations like Finland and Japan seek out the best college graduates for teaching positions, prepare them well, pay them well and treat them with respect.  They make sure that all their students study the arts, history, literature, geography, civics, foreign languages, the sciences and other subjects.  They do this because this is the way to ensure good education.  We're on the wrong track."  To read the full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/education/03ravitch.html?scp=2&sq=diane%20ravitch&st=cse