Archives for Articles of Interest
Budget cuts and California’s community colleges
- Posted by Sarah Ziegler on May 21st, 2009 in Articles of Interest
After the failure of California’s special election initiatives on Tuesday, lawmakers and Governor Schwarzenegger have resumed their debate over California’s budget, including massive proposed cuts to education. Today, the Chronicle reported on the effects these cuts may have on California’s community college system. If the Governor’s budget proposal is adopted, the community college system will lose roughly 11% of funding. Community college leaders say that will translate into an enrollment drop of least 250,000 students, more than all students served by the UC system combined.
The cuts come at a time when demand for community college courses is surging, with laid off workers returning for job retraining and other students looking to community colleges as a path to CSU and UC admissions. Community college districts in San Diego, Sacramento, and Merced have seen 10%, 30%, and 50% increases in enrollment numbers over the year before, respectively.
Read the California Community Colleges’ official response to the special election and budgetary crisis here and more about increased demand for community college courses here.
Reconsidering the PSAT’s role in National Merit Scholarships
- Posted by Sarah Ziegler on April 20th, 2009 in Articles of Interest
Today, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) detailed its follow-up conversations with the College Board, ACT, and National Merit Scholarship Corporation. NACAC engaged the testing organizations in response to a September report from its Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests, examining the role of standardized tests in college admissions. One of the crucial recommendations from the report involves reevaluating the use of PSAT scores as the sole initial selection criteria for awarding National Merit Scholarships. NACAC expressed concerns that this use of the PSAT is not an appropriate use of standardized tests and unfairly excludes socioeconomically disadvantaged students from competition for aid money.
In comments today, NACAC said that the responses it received from the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation did not go far enough to address concerns about the use (or misuse) of the PSAT, arguing that students should be allowed alternate ways to show “merit” than one standardized test measure. The University of California system pulled its support for parts of the National Merit Scholarship program over this same concern, citing that the use of the PSAT alone as a merit measure was not consistent with its admissions philosophy.
Read NACAC’s press release here and a report by the Chronicle of Higher Education here.
Grade Inflation and Student Expectations
- Posted by Sarah Ziegler on March 17th, 2009 in Academics, Articles of Interest
Inside Higher Ed recently highlighted new data about grade inflation published by former Duke professor Stuart Rojstaczer, founder of http://www.gradeinflation.com/ and the College Ranking Service. His recent findings, expanded to include an assortment of large and small, public and private, highly selective and less selective institutions across the country, show that average GPA’s have been rising at virtually all of the 70 colleges that were sampled. Private college average GPA’s rose almost 7%, from 3.09 in 1991 to 3.30 in 2006. Public college averages rose almost 6%, from 2.85 to 3.01. At some highly selective institutions, average GPA’s now top 3.5. Mr. Rojstaczer argues that these persistent increases cannot be explained fully by a corresponding increase in the quality of college-bound students, as average SAT or ACT scores have not kept pace with increased grades.
This issue of rising grades, and what grade inflation means to the rigor of higher education, is also connected to changing expectations among college students. The New York Times reported that students increasingly expect to be rewarded for their effort, even if that effort doesn’t produce an average or above-average product. The articles quotes a senior from the University of Maryland as saying, “If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point”? Some students, accustomed to earning high grades throughout their K-12 classes to gain admission to college, fear that low grades will prevent them from gaining admission to subsequent graduate programs.
See the full data for over 180 colleges’ average GPA’s here, and about Princeton’s efforts to curb grade inflation here.
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- Admissions Decision Time on Mar.24
- UC’s implement wait lists and hope to reduce enrollment cuts on Jan.21
- UC Application Season on Nov.03
- The Value of a College Degree on Aug.05
- Essay Writing: Start Early and Be Yourself on Jun.23
- Always Be Prepared: Making the Most of the College Experience on May.27
- Budget cuts and California’s community colleges on May.21
- NYU changes test policy for Class of 2010 on Apr.22
- Reconsidering the PSAT’s role in National Merit Scholarships on Apr.20
- Rankings and College Selection on Apr.17
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