August+24,+2011+-+What+Cost+College?+Affordability



=Worthy of Note: August 24, 2011=

General Topics
The //SREB-State Data Exchange 2009-10 Indicators Report// contains the latest summary comparisons on tuition and fees and student financial aid funding in the SREB states. (@http://publications.sreb.org/2011/DEIndicators10_Dec10.pdf )  Detailed comparisons by institutional category and by institution are also available. ( @http://info.sreb.org/DataLibrary/tables/Tuition10.xlsx )
 * Two SREB Data Services products provide the latest comparisons on college affordability **

The //SREB Fact Book on Higher Education// contains a full chapter discussing and presenting college affordability trends, issues and data. The printed 2011 edition will be available fall of 2011. On line access to the 2009 edition is also available and will contain the 2011 updates when the need edition is released fall 2011. ( @http://www.sreb.org/page/1123/fact_book_on_higher_education.html )

__2011 Chapter Summary __


 * Graphs **


 * Average Net Price of Attending College After Scholarship and Grant Aid, Public Four-Year Colleges and Universities, 2009 ||
 * Annual Undergraduate Costs of College Attendance, United States (in 2009-10 dollars) ||
 * Percent of Income Required to Pay for One Year at a Public University, United States ||
 * Percent of Tuition, Fees, Room and Board Covered by Maximum Federal Pell Grant, United States ||
 * Student Financial Aid and Loan Trends, United States (in billions of 2009-10 dollars) ||
 * Minimum Debt Burden of College Graduates Earning Bachelor's Degrees, Public Four-Year Colleges, 2009 ||


 * Tables (all 50 states and D.C. organized by region) **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Median Annual Tuition and Required Fees for Full-Time Undergraduate Students ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Percent of Median Family Incomes Required to Pay Median Annual Tuition and Fees ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Median Annual Tuition and Required Fees for Full-Time Undergraduate Students at Public Universities, Colleges, and Technical Institutes or Colleges ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Federal Pell Grants ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Federal Campus-Based Financial Aid to Students ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Federal Student Loan Programs ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">State Scholarships, Grants and Other Financial Aid Funds ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">First-Time Students' Participation in Student Financial Aid and Loan Programs at Public Four-Year Colleges ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">First-Time Students' Participation in Student Financial Aid and Loan Programs at Public Two-Year Colleges ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Cost of Attendance and Net Price for Fall-Term, Full-Time, First-Time Degree/Certificate-Seeking Undergraduates Who Paid In-State or In-District Tuition, Public Four-Year Colleges and Universities, 2008-09 ||

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why Does College Cost So Much? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">David Leonhardt, New York Times, February 18, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman are economists at the College of William & Mary, a public university in Virginia, and the authors of "Why Does College Cost So Much?" If you want the brief version, you could look at an op-ed article by the two economists for Inside Higher Ed or a summary of the book compiled by the University of Washington. The professors also talked about the book in this short video.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Trends in College Spending, 1998-2008 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Delta Project // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The mission of the //Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity, and Accountability// is to help improve college affordability by controlling costs and improving productivity.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Delta Cost Project report //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Trends in College Spending 1998-2008: Where Does the Money Come From? Where Does It Go? What Does It Buy? //examines national college spending and resource trends in the years leading up to the current recession, with implications for what that means for "the new normal" in college spending.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What Does a College Degree Cost? <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> (pdf) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Nate Johnson, Delta Cost Project, 2009 // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What does it cost to provide a bachelor’s-level education? This question arises with increasing frequency and urgency as pressure mounts on policymakers and education leaders to increase the education attainment level in the United States.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Consensus around a single method for change may be neither possible nor desirable, given the range of different policy contexts in which the question comes up. A common language, however, could help keep discussions of the issue more focused than they often are. This paper suggests the beginnings of that language by briefly outlining five approaches to degree costs:
 * 1) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Catalog cost
 * 2) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Transcript cost
 * 3) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Full cost attribution
 * 4) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Regression-based cost estimates
 * 5) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Student’s cost of a degree

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This paper explores the first three approaches using accounting data from the State University System of Florida (SUS), at different levels of detail. Much of this analysis derives from projects undertaken for the system’s newly created Board of Governors as it sought to estimate the cost of ambitious degree targets in its first strategic plan. Other systems or institutions will be able to replicate these with more or less detail depending on the data available.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Center for College Affordability and Productivity <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Founded in 2006, The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) is dedicated to researching the rising costs and stagnant efficiency in higher education, with special emphasis on the United States. CCAP seeks to facilitate a broader dialogue on the issues and problems facing the institutions of higher education with the public, policy makers, and the higher education community.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">They define their mission rather broadly. “Affordability” means not only rising tuition and other costs to the consumer of education services, but more broadly the burden that colleges impose on society. “Productivity” refers not only to the costs and resources needed to educate students and perform research, but also to the measurement and quality of educational outcomes. CCAP is concerned about finding new ways to do things better – to improve affordability and productivity.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College Costs blogs are located here. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">And check out these articles, too: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How College Pricing Undermines Financial Aid <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">25 Ways to Reduce the Cost of College

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What Is the Price of College? Total, Net, and Out-of-Pocket Prices in 2007–08 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This Statistics in Brief describes the annual price of education among undergraduates enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions in 2007–08. The most recent administration of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) supplied the data.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Tamar Lewin, New York Times, December 3, 2008 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">According to the biennial report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Projecting out to 2036, tuition would go from 11 percent of the family budget to 24 percent of the family budget, and that’s pretty huge.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What it Costs to Go to College //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College Board // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Lots of things to consider here. Keep in mind that the actual price the average undergraduate pays for a college education is considerably lower than the published tuition and fees. This is usually due to grants and other forms of financial aid. Look at what it really costs to attend college:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Public four-year colleges charge, on average, $7,605 per year in tuition and fees for in-state students.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The average surcharge for full-time out-of-state students at these institutions is $11,990.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Private nonprofit four-year colleges charge, on average, $27,293 per year in tuition and fees.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Public two-year colleges charge, on average, $2,713 per year in tuition and fees.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Of course, that’s not the total price. You still have to live somewhere, eat, buy books and supplies, and do your laundry. Read more about additional college costs you need to consider. Read more….

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Rising Cost of Higher Education: The Effects on Access, Retention and Affordability //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Ryan Bien, Georgetown University, 2009 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">(Abstract only) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This analysis explores the rising costs of higher education and the residual affects on access, retention, and affordability. Higher education experts and economists analyze cost drivers and the data related to costs through various government and higher education reports and works. The complexity of driving factors created an environment rampant with finger pointing and confusion over causes and solutions. Further examination of cost figures, in comparison to limited federal student loan increases, illustrates the government's contribution to the cost gap……

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The (Un)Productivity of American Higher Education: From “Cost Disease” to Cost-Effectiveness //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Douglas N. Harris and Sara Goldrick-Rab, University of Wisconsin–Madison, December 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Productivity in academic degrees granted by American colleges and universities is declining. While there is some evidence this is caused by an uncontrollable “cost disease,” we examine two additional explanations. First, few popular programs and strategies in higher education are cost effective, and those that are may be underutilized. Second, a lack of rigorous evidence about both the costs and effects of higher education practices intersects with a lack of incentive to use cost-effectiveness as a way to guide decision-making. Rather than simply a “cost disease,” we argue that the problem is more a “system disease”—one that is partly curable.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In this paper, we test the hypothesis that productivity gains are possible, perhaps without losses to quality that might outweigh those gains. Our analysis follows an approach outlined by Harris (2009). Specifically, we examine the cost-effectiveness of higher education programs by drawing on evidence of impacts from prior studies and estimate costs by collecting additional data.

Tuition Costs
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Chart: College Tuition Will Not Stop Rising //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Dino Grandoni, The Atlantic Wire, // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Aug 16, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Here's a chart that helps explain why the value of a college degree has been so hotly debated. Moody's, in a study (PDF) on student lending, has found that tuition costs have more than doubled since 2000.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College Costs Across States //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Daniel Borzelleca, ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, April 13, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">After adjusting in-state, undergraduate tuition rates for inflation, the national average tuition costs increased from $2,695 in 1973 to $7,963 in 2010, an increase of 195%.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Relationship Between State Support and Tuition Levels at Public Institutions (pdf) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">University of Washington, April 12, 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This Planning and Budget Brief focuses on state funding trends that illustrate shift toward lower state support and higher tuition.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Debt to Degree: A New Way of Measuring College Success //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Kevin Carey and Erin Dillon, Education Sector, August 3, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Debt to Degree: A New Way of Measuring College Success //, Education Sector has created a new, comprehensive measure, the "borrowing-to-credential ratio." For each college, authors Kevin Carey and Erin Dillon have taken newly available U.S. Department of Education data showing the total amount of money borrowed by undergraduates and divided that sum by the total number of degrees awarded. The results are revealing. **Download the full report.**

Textbooks and Course Content Costs
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College Textbooks: Enhanced Offerings Appear to Drive Recent Price Increases //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">U. S. Government Accountability Office, July 2005 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College textbooks have grown at twice the rate of inflation, trailing annual tuition. **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Read the full report. **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Make Textbooks Affordable //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Student PIRGs // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The PIRGs are independent statewide student organizations that work on issues like environmental protection, consumer protection, and hunger and homelessness. For nearly 40 years students working with their campus PIRG chapters have been making a real difference in people's lives and winning concrete changes to build a better world.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Everyone knows that textbooks are expensive. Students spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks and course materials, which is about a quarter of the cost of tuition at a typical public university and nearly three-quarters of the cost of tuition at a community college. And costs are only going up - textbook prices have increased four times the rate of inflation since 1994!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">PIRG research points to such questions as:
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Why are textbooks so expensive?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What can we do about it?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How can students affect these questions?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Higher Education Retail Market Facts & Figures, February 2011 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">National Association of College Stores (NACS) // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Student Watch 2010: Student Attitudes & Perceptions //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> provides a larger look at student spending on course materials at all locations. According to the most recent Student Watch data, students report spending an average of $667 on required course materials in the past 12 months. This figure includes data from both full-time and part-time students. Full-time students reported spending an average of $693 on course materials compared to part-time student spending that averaged $531 in the past 12 months.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Student Spending on Course Materials **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The price of individual textbooks varies greatly, depending on subject matter and many other factors. For college stores, any book or other media that is required or recommended for class is a textbook. This is a much broader definition than is used by publishers or often assumed by college students. And it is a significant factor in the average price reported from the NACS Financial Survey data. Textbooks for college stores will include many books and materials not published as textbooks. A few examples of general books that could be sold as course materials would be Jane Austen novels for literature classes, biographies for history courses, or current paperbacks for sociology and political science students. This broader definition results in significant differences in estimates of textbook prices and the total textbook market, compared to estimates based only on "published textbooks."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Textbook Prices **


 * || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">2006-07 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">2007-08 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">2008-09 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">2009-10 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Average price for "new textbook" || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$56 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$57 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$64 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$62 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Average price for "used textbook" || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$50 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$49 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$57 || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: center;">$52 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">P//lease see definitions above for clarification.// ||  ||   ||   ||

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The 2009-10 average price reported above was based on the sale of 9.4 million new books sold in 130 U.S. college stores. That year's average price for a used book was calculated from the sale of 5.7 million books.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Independent StraighterLine Survey //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Burck Smith, StraighterLine (quote) // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Today we released the results of an independent survey of our students that we commissioned. The takeaways are that:
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Over 90% who sought college credit for completed StraighterLine coursework were successful.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Nearly 90% are enrolled in a degree program now or have successfully completed one after successfully completing a StraighterLine course.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Over 70% who completed a StraighterLine course felt it made them more likely to complete college.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Well over 90% would recommend the program to a friend (among those who successfully completed).

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">StraighterLine courses were found to be:
 * **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Equally or more rigorous **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> (79% indicated StraighterLine courses more or equally academically rigorous than other options for getting college credit)
 * **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">More convenient **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> (72% indicated StraighterLine more convenient)
 * **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">More affordable **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> (73% indicated StraighterLine courses cost less)

Instruction Costs
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Share of College Spending for Recreation Is Rising //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Sam Dillon, New York Times, July 9, 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">American colleges are spending a declining share of their budgets on instruction and more on administration and recreational facilities for students, according to a study of college costs. (Refer to Trends in College Spending, 1998-2008 cited above.)

Developmental Education Costs
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Costs of Developmental Education Report--January 2011 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> (pdf) //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Maryland Higher Education Commission // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The 2010 Joint Chairmen’s report required the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), in collaboration with the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, the University System of Maryland and Morgan State University to submit a report detailing the instruction costs of developmental education at each of the State’s colleges and universities, a review of best practices nationwide and at Maryland’s higher education institutions and a discussion of institutions that are most successful at providing quality developmental education programs efficiently as measured by student progression and cost.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Developmental Education Toolkit //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Community College Central, University of Texas, Austin, June 2008 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This toolkit is designed to help state and education leaders reshape policy to support the ongoing and increasingly vital efforts of community colleges to reduce the number of students entering college underprepared, and improve the success of underprepared students who enroll at their institutions.

Additional Fees Add Costs
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Great Fee Scam //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Richard Vedder, The Chronicle, July 29, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">(Blog and responses) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Welcome to higher education, the home of lots of new “mandatory fees. Question: would you feel more comfortable buying a used car from a well-established car dealer or from a university president? When I started in higher education more than a half of century ago, I would have quickly answered “university president.” Now I am not so sure.

Strategies for Change
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Winning by Degrees: The Strategies of Highly Productive Higher-education Institutions //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Byron G. Auguste, Adam Cota, Kartik Jayaram, and Martha C.A. Laboissiere, McKinsey & Company, 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Increasing the proportion of the adult population with a higher-education degree is critical to creating opportunities for individuals and sustaining the country's economic growth. Yet college attainment rates in the U.S. have remained nearly flat for the past 10 years, whereas they have continued to rise in most industrialized nations. Based on a recent analysis, we estimate that the U.S. needs to graduate roughly one million more people a year by 2020 to ensure that the country has the skilled workers it needs to maintain economic growth. **Read the full report.**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Clay Christensen refers to this report in his new publication, **//The Innovative University//**. See mention below.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education (pdf) Based on **//The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out//,** //Henry J. Eyring and Clayton M. Christensen. American Council on Education, February 2011// <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The language of crisis is nothing new in higher education. In1973 Clark Kerr, then Chairman of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, spoke at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education. Kerr cited recently published books on the state of the academy that included in their titles these descriptors: anarchy, bankruptcy, blind[ness], chaos, confrontation, crisis, death, degradation, destruction, embattle[ment], explo[sion], and fall. (He stopped after titles beginning with the letter “f.”) In the face of such extreme language, Kerr urged moderation and optimism: To those who see only gloom and doom, we can say that much that is good is occurring. To those who say that everything fails, we can say that much is, in fact, succeeding. To those who see only problems, we can say that there are possibilities available for their alleviation.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Today there is similar need for moderation and reason for optimism.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Education //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, Louis Caldera, Louis Soares, Center for American Progress and Innosight, February 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This report tackles these questions by treating the industry’s challenges, at their core, as problems of managing innovation effectively. It examines the industry of higher education through the lenses of the theories that have emerged from our research on innovation…. This report does not provide “the answer” to fixing higher education. The theory of disruptive innovation has significant explanatory power in thinking through the challenges and changes confronting higher education. Disruptive innovation is the process by which a sector that has previously served only a limited few because its products and services were complicated, expensive, and inaccessible, is transformed into one whose products and services are simple, affordable, and convenient and serves many no matter their wealth or expertise. The new innovation does so by redefining quality in a simple and often disparaged application at first and then gradually improves such that it takes more and more market share over time as it becomes able to tackle more complicated problems. **Read more and download the entire report.**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Linking Costs and Postsecondary Degrees: Key Issues for Policymakers //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Nate Johnson, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, July 8, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">(This is commentary but the site links to the paper, //Linking Costs and Postsecondary Degrees: Key Issues for Policymakers//.)

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In “Linking Costs and Postsecondary Degrees: Key Issues for Policymakers,” higher education policy consultant Nate Johnson offers practical advice for decision-makers who are struggling to rein in college costs while improving productivity. Johnson provides a step-by-step guide to different approaches for calculating costs, highlights the tremendous variability in cost across programs within institutions, and documents some of the “hidden costs” of higher education. Rather than cut budgets across the board, as many cash-strapped schools have done, Johnson argues that budget decisions should be grounded in clear and reliable data that prioritize performance and productivity.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Johnson offers five simple "rules of the road”………

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Challenge to States: Preserving College Access and Affordability in a Time of Crisis //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, March 10, 2009 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">On February 21, 2009, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education assembled a small group of policy experts to address the most critical issues confronting state higher education policymakers in the current economic downturn. This //Challenge to the States// is a brief statement of the policy experts. Dave Spence, President, SREB, was a participant on this work. The participants in the meeting have continued to guide the development of this statement. However, [|The Challenge to States: Preserving College Access and Affordability in a Time of Crisis] (full report) is the responsibility of the National Center.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Affordability and Transfer: Critical to Increasing Baccalaureate Degree Completion <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">//National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Policy, June 2011// <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Many students are not able to keep pace with rising tuition, because family earnings have lost ground over the past decade.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Tuition at two-year and four-year institutions has outpaced median family income in the majority of states—and in all states where community colleges are most critical to access to college opportunity and to the baccalaureate degree.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Student financial aid did not keep pace with tuition costs, exacerbating the college affordability problem.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Forty-four percent of low-income students (those with a family income of less than $25,000 per year) attend community colleges as their first college after high school.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The most underserved populations are among the least able to afford steeply rising tuition, least likely to enroll in college, and least likely to complete degree and certificate programs if they do enroll.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[|A Review of ‘Crisis on Campus’] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Staff, August 9, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mark C. Taylor, //Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities//. Knopf, 1st edition (August 31, 2010) 256 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0307593290. Reviewed by Danko Tarabar for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Very interesting thoughts including ideas about tenure and liberal arts colleges. Read the full review “[|Renovating the Ivory Tower].”

Open Access
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Open Courses: Free, But Oh, So Costly //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Marc Parry, The Chronicle, October 11, 2009 // <span style="color: #171717; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Online students want credit; colleges want a working business model.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Solving the College Affordability Problem //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Dan Lips, The Maryland Public Policy Institute ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">April 4, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Advocacy for free and open higher education system

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Open-Access Colleges Responsible for Greatest Gains in Graduation Rates //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">William R. Doyle, National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, February 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The largest gains in graduation rates over the past decade have been accomplished at open-access or nearly open-access colleges and universities. In addition, states could see even bigger increases if they directed their policies and supports toward improving graduation rates at these nonselective institutions.

Some Interesting Trends and Statistics
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">U. S. Department of Education <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College Affordability and Transparency Center <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">(A participatory Website) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Which Colleges Have the Highest and Lowest Tuition and Net Prices? // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Use the options here to generate a report on the highest (top 5%) and lowest (bottom 10%) academic year charges for each sector. Tuition reports include tuition and required fees. Net price is cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid. Data are reported by institutions and are for full-time beginning students.

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How much do career and vocation programs cost? // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Select a program and begin typing the name of a program (for example, “Cosmetology”) to generate a list of institutions that offer the program and the tuition and net prices they charge for the entire program.

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How fast are colleges’ costs going up? // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Select a type of institution to see which ones have the highest increases in tuition and fees and net prices (price of attendance after grant and scholarship aid). Data are for full-time beginning undergraduate students.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Trends in College Pricing 2010 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College Board, 2010 // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Trends in College Pricing //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> provides information on changes over time in undergraduate tuition and fees, room and board, and other estimated expenses related to attending colleges and universities. The report, which includes up-to-date data from the College Board's //Annual Survey of Colleges//, reveals the wide variation in prices charged by institutions of different types and in different parts of the country. Of particular importance is the focuses on the net prices students actually pay after taking grant aid into consideration. Because of the important role of grant aid, these net prices have not followed the same sharp upward path as the published prices. Data on institutional revenues and expenditures and on changing enrollment patterns over time supplement the data on prices to provide a clearer picture of the circumstances of students and the institutions in which they study.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Fast Facts: What are the trends in the cost of college education? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2010), Digest of Education Statistics, 2009 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">For the 2008–09 academic year, annual prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board were estimated to be $12,283 at public institutions and $31,233 at private institutions. Between 1998–99 and 2008–09, prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public institutions rose 32 percent, and prices at private institutions rose 24 percent, after adjustment for inflation.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The College Affordability Crisis and Endowments //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Burton Weisbrod, Evelyn Asch, and Jeffrey Ballou. Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Fall 2008 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Concerns about college affordability and rapidly rising costs have focused attention on fat university endowments. For the past 10 years, tuition and fees have risen annually 5.6 percent at private and 7.1 percent at public four-year universities. This rate has outpaced the inflation rate for consumer prices, which averaged just 2.7 percent per year. At the same time, student debt loads jumped 58 percent after inflation. Read more…

The Working College Student
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Understanding the Working College Student //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Laura A. Perna, University of Pennsylvania, Academe Online 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">New research shows that students are working more and juggling a multitude of roles, creating anxiety and lowering graduation rates

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Impact of Student Employment //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, June 8, 2009 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">As tuitions have risen and more and more undergraduates are enrolling later in life, nearly half of all full-time students and 80 percent of part-time students work -- numbers that are likely only to grow in the future.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">One of the two studies, which is based on data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, looked at how various amounts of on- and off-campus work directly influenced students' self-reported grades and indirectly affected their levels of engagement in academic activities.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A second study (in //Journal of Student Affairs, Work and Practice,// Gary Pike), working more than 20 hours a week has a negative impact on students' grades, whether the employment is on campus or off. Students who work 20 hours or less, on campus and off report roughly similar grades, as do students who do not work at all.

Monetary Payoff -- Or Not: Alternative Paths
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Is College Worth It? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Pew Research Center, May 15, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Executive Summary: This report is based on findings from a pair of Pew Research Center surveys conducted this spring. One is a telephone survey taken among a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. The other is an online survey, done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education, among the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public, and for-profit colleges and universities.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What's It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Anthony P. Carnevale, Jeff Strohl and Michelle Melton, Georgetown University, Center on Education and the Workforce (from the Press Release, May 24,2011) // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Using United States Census data available for the first time, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is helping Americans connect the dots between college majors and career earnings. In the new report, //What’s it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors,// this first-time research demonstrates just how critical the choice of major is to a student’s median earnings.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">While there is a lot of variation in earnings over a lifetime, the authors find that all undergraduate majors are “worth it,‟ even taking into account the cost of college and lost earnings. However, the lifetime advantage ranges from $1,090,000 for Engineering majors to $241,000 for Education majors.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">“The bottom line is that getting a degree matters, but what you take matters more,” said Anthony P. Carneval, the Center’s director. The new report analyzes 171 majors in 15 categories. It tracks earnings by majors and provides key breakouts on questions of race/ethnicity and the gender differences in earnings.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The report finds that majors are highly segregated by race/ethnicity and gender, with few exceptions. White men are concentrated in the highest-earning majors, while women tend to be concentrated in the lowest-earning majors.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Plan B: Skip College //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jacques Steinberg, New York Times, May 15, 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What’s the key to success in the United States? A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It’s time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so. Follow this NYTimes article with this blog: Job Prospects Uncertain for New College Graduates (//Jacques Steinberg, New York Times, May 19, 2011//).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Skip Senior Year and Go Straight to College? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Scott Elliott and Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report, June 8, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">When the Indiana legislature passed the budget at the end of April, it also launched Mitch Daniels’ plan, which allows high school students who complete their core requirements by the end of their junior year to skip senior year and go straight to college.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Money the state would have spent on senior year will become scholarship money: $6,000 to $8,000 for most students, depending on their school district.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">It’s an idea that divides educators. Some think senior year is too often ill-spent and not so necessary. But others think the answer is to strengthen, not abandon, senior year.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University, ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Jessica Godofsky, Cliff Zukin and Carl Van Horn, ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">May 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A new nationally representative survey of 571 graduates from four-year colleges and universities from the classes of 2006 through 2010 documents the difficulties young people encountered as they entered a volatile labor market that eventually plunged into a deep recession. While graduates are satisfied with their decision to complete a four-year degree, a large percentage reports they are struggling to find full-time, permanent jobs with benefits that will lead to fulfilling careers.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy details the findings from the survey, which was conducted by the Heldrich Center in April 2011

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Fast Facts: What is the average income for young adults? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2011), The Condition of Education 2011 (NCES 2011–033) // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 2009, the median of the earnings for young adults with a bachelor's degree was $45,000, while the median was $21,000 for those without a high school diploma or its equivalent, $30,000 for those with a high school diploma or its equivalent, and $36,000 for those with an associate's degree. In other words, young adults with a bachelor's degree earned more than twice as much as those without a high school diploma or its equivalent in 2009 (i.e., 114 percent more), 50 percent more than young adult high school completers, and 25 percent more than young adults with an associate's degree. In 2009, the median of the earnings of young adults with a master's degree or higher was $60,000, some 33 percent more than the median for young adults with a bachelor's degree.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Education Pays 2010 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">College Board, 2010 // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Education Pays //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, published every three years, presents detailed evidence of the private and public benefits of higher education. It also sheds light on the distribution of these benefits by examining both the increases and the persistent disparities in college participation and completion. In the three years between the publication of //Education Pays 2007// and //Education Pays 2010//, median earnings for four-year college graduates increased more rapidly than those of high school graduates and the gap between the unemployment rates of the two groups grew. In addition to earnings comparisons, the report documents differences in lifestyles, health, and other outcomes for people with and without college education. Differences in enrollment and completion patterns across demographic groups highlight the reality that gaps in educational attainment are explained by a combination of money and other factors.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">‘The Edupunks Guide’ Offers DIY Path to a Credential //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Marc Parry, The Chronicle, August 11, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">A new e-book seeks to help learners use online resources to chart alternative paths to affordable credentials. The free book, called //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Edupunks’ Guide to a DIY Credential //, is directed at low-income students. But its author, Anya Kamenetz, said in a blog post that she also hopes to reach professors and administrators who want to take advantage of “the latest technology, social media, and collaborative learning” to cut costs while improving education.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Download the e-book //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Edupunks’ Guide to a DIY ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Credential //here.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Diplomas Count 2011 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Beyond High School; Beyond Baccalaureate <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Meaningful Alternatives to a Four-Year Degree //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Education Week, June 9, 2011 // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">WASHINGTON—June 7, 2011—A new national report from //Education Week// and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center finds that the nation’s graduation rate has increased significantly, following two consecutive years of declines and stagnation. With this dramatic turnaround, the nation’s graduation rate stands at 72 percent, the highest level of high school completion in more than two decades. The report shows that the nation’s public schools will generate about 145,000 fewer dropouts than the previous year. These new findings offer reason to believe that the past decade’s unprecedented efforts to combat the nation’s dropout crisis are starting to produce results.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The report investigates options between diploma and four-year degree; explores multiple pathways to college and career; and provides individualized graduation reports Issued for all 50 states and D.C. Read the Executive Summary here.

Are Community Colleges an Answer?
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">A Comparison of College Affordability Indexes among City, Suburban, Town, and Rural Public Community Colleges //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Lee Rusty Waller, Louis C. Glover, Madeline Justice, Academic Leadership Online Journal, Spring 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Although average community college tuition and fees have outstripped inflation, these tuition and fees have increased at a slower pace than have tuition and fees at public 4-year colleges. Accordingly, community colleges have emerged as an affordable alternative for students considering the pursuit of postsecondary education and workforce training. Though tuition at public community colleges is generally less than tuition at public 4-year colleges and universities, discrepancies appear to exist in the cost of attending community colleges in urban areas, suburban areas, and rural areas. Differences based on the degree of institutional urbanization appear to have an impact on the accessibility and affordability of community colleges. While geographic location is expected to have an impact on accessibility, geographic locations may also have an unexpected influence on community affordability.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This study focused on the following two research questions:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What was the extent of college affordability indexes (CAI’s) for public US community colleges by urban centric codes of city, suburban, town, and rural?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Did significant differences exist in college affordability indexes (CAI’s) assessed between and among public community colleges based on the urban centric codes of city, suburban, town, and rural?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[|Six Keys to Saving by Starting at Community College] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Ron Lieber, New York Times, April 8, 2011 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">When Rich Johnston started college in the 1970s, four years at a standard university was out of the question financially. So he worked, knocked off two years of community college credits in 19 months and then worked some more. He makes a good case for spending the first two years in a community college.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[|Community Colleges as Debtbusters] //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Dean Dad, Inside Higher Ed, // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">April 10, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This blog offers commentary on the Lieber article above.

The Public Feels the Stress
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Slip-Sliding Away: An Anxious Public Talks About Today's Economy And The American Dream //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Scott Bittle and Jon Rochkind with Amber N. Ott, Public Agenda, February 3, 2011 // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">(A Public Agenda Study done with funding from the //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Annie E. Casey Foundation //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">) // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Public Agenda, an innovative public opinion research and public engagement organization, works to strengthen our democracy's capacity to tackle tough public policy issues. Nonpartisan and nonprofit, Public Agenda was founded by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in 1975.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Feb. 3, 2011 - - Despite signs of recovery from the Great Recession, 4 in 10 Americans find themselves living lives of constant economic struggle and worry, not just about paying their bills today, but about whether they'll keep a middle-class life in the long term, according to a new Public Agenda survey.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The survey, conducted with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, shows how widespread the struggle remains to make ends meet in America. Four in 10 Americans (40 percent) say they're struggling "a lot" in the current economy[1], while fewer than 2 in 10 say they're not struggling at all. Another 4 in10 fall somewhere in the middle.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The economically struggling are [|more likely to be concerned about long-term issues] like paying for college and being able to retire than losing their job or paying immediate bills, the survey found. They're also more likely to gravitate toward solutions like making college affordable[2] and preserving Social Security and Medicare than tax cuts or reducing the federal deficit.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Higher Education Funding Disconnect: Spending More, Getting Less //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jane V. Wellman, Change Magazine for Higher Learning, November/December 2008 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Wellman offers a keen and thorough picture of the impact of higher education funding on the growing gap between the rich and poor.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The U.S. Senate Finance committee wants to know why institutions that are reported to average 20 percent annual increases in the market value of endowments of $500 million or more still need to raise tuition and fees every year. And the Internal Revenue Service is preparing for intensive audits of more than 400 institutions, looking at revenue-generating activities housed within them and how those activities fulfill the public or charitable purposes of the institutions. Meanwhile, legislation has been proposed in Massachusetts to levy state taxes on the Commonwealth’s wealthiest non-profit private institutions.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Media and policy attention to the wealthiest sector of higher education might cause the public and policy makers to think that most colleges and universities are awash in money—and looking only at the Ivy League and the biggest public research universities, it would be hard to argue that they’re mistaken. But the focus on revenue masks the bigger story in higher education finance in America, which is a story of growing gaps between rich and poor institutions, greater clustering of low-income students in poorly financed institutions, and disinvestment in teaching. Any one of these trends by itself would be disturbing; the three together spell real trouble for our future capacity to reverse America’s decline in postsecondary performance.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">She offers a little optimism noting that for the first time in many years, there are more than a handful of institutional and policy leaders who are moving from analyzing the problem to doing something about it.

National Common Core and Next Generation Assessments
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Common Core State Standards Initiative: The Standards <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Building on the excellent foundation of standards states have laid, the Common Core State Standards are the first step in providing our young people with a high-quality education. The standards clearly communicate what is expected of students at each grade level. This will allow our teachers to be better equipped to know exactly what they need to help students learn and establish individualized benchmarks for them. The Common Core State Standards focus on core conceptual understandings and procedures starting in the early grades, thus enabling teachers to take the time needed to teach core concepts and procedures well—and to give students the opportunity to master them. Download the English Language Arts and Mathematics Standards.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Transitioning to the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Assessments (pdf) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Willard R. Daggett, Susan A. Gendron, Daniel A. Heller, International Center for Leadership in Education, 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The implications of these advocated changes are nothing short of a retooling of American education. A new, next generation assessment program will accompany the Common Core State Standards. These assessments range far beyond the usual multiple-choice and short-answer questions. This kit, and the International Center for Leadership in Education, can provide invaluable guidance, support, and leadership in the process of moving from the current system of teaching, learning, and assessment to the more demanding requirements of the Common Core State Standards and next generation assessments.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Online Enterprises Gain Foothold as Path to a College Degree //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">By Tamar Lewin // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Some recent entrants into the field of online education offer grounds for both concern and hope.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Western Governors University: Weekly Prompts From a Mentor <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Straighterline: A Way to Speed the Pace <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">University of the People: Open Courses, Nearly Free <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Learning Counts: Receiving Credit for Job Experience <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">A Short-Lived Test, Even With Coaching