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Levels of ICT Integration among Teacher Educators in a Teacher Education Academic College




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Perceptions of Teacher Educators Regarding ICT Implementation in Israeli Colleges of Education

ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in teacher education poses new challenges to faculty and students. This study was carried out to examine factors facilitating and hindering ICT implementation in teacher education institutes in Israel. Findings from our study, administered at two points in time, revealed that providing technological-pedagogical support to teacher educators and their perceptions and beliefs regarding ICT usage were consistent with being either facilitating or hindering factors in the integration process in colleges of education. Professional development of teacher educators in ICT skills and guidance in applying advanced technologies are additional facilitating factors. Resources, mainly time and infrastructure, were mostly a hindering factor with adverse influence on ICT integration. Three levels of successful ICT integration indicated successful implementation: teacher educators’ level, students in their practice, and the organization level in terms of policy.




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Going Behind the Scenes at Teacher Colleges: Online Student Knowledge Sharing through Social Network Technologies

Aim/Purpose: The present study aims to describe existing peer-to-peer, social network-based sharing practices among adult students in teacher colleges. Background: Ubiquitous social network sites open up a wide array of possibilities for peer-to-peer information and knowledge sharing. College instructors are often unaware of such practices that happen behind the scenes. Methodology: An interpretative, qualitative research methodology was used. Thirty-seven Israeli students at a teacher college in Israel participated in either focus group discussions of (N = 29) or in-depth interviews (N = 8). Contribution: Whereas knowledge sharing has been a main focus of research in organizational and information sciences, its relevance to educational settings has thus far been underscored. Recent research shows that peer–to-peer knowledge sharing is wide-spread among teenage students. The current study extends that work to an adult student population. Findings: The findings show that knowledge sharing of this type is a common and even central feature of students’ college life and study behavior. It takes place through a variety of small and larger social network-based peer groups of different formations, including mostly college students but at time also practicing, experienced teachers. Sharing groups are formed on the spot for short term purposes or are stable, continuous over longer time periods. The contents shared are predominantly lesson summaries, material for exams, reading summaries, and lesson plans. They are used immediately or stored for future use, as students have access to vast data bases of stored materials that have been compiled throughout the years by students of previous cohorts. Teacher students mentioned a range of reasons for sharing, and overall regard it very positive. However, some downsides were also acknowledged (i.e., superficial learning, exclusion, attentional overload, and interruptions). Recommendations for Practitioners: College faculty and teaching staff should be cognizant and informed about these widespread peer-based knowledge sharing practices and consider whether perhaps changes in teaching formats and task assignments are required as a result. Future Research: Future research should extend this work to other higher education settings, cultures and countries, and should map the perceptions of higher education teaching staff about peer-to-peer, online knowledge sharing.




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An Examination of Computer Attitudes, Anxieties, and Aversions Among Diverse College Populations: Issues Central to Understanding Information Sciences in the New Millennium




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Building an Informing Business School: A Case Study of USF’s Muma College of Business

As the complexity of a system grows, the challenge of informing the stakeholders of that system grows correspondingly. Nowhere is that challenge more daunting than in business education, where globalization, technological innovation, and increasingly complicated regulations continuously transform the business environment facing graduates and practitioners. Informing science theory proposes that different levels of complexity require different channels if effective informing is to be achieved. The paper first examines how two important sources of complexity—the diversity of clients and the ruggedness of the business landscape—are changing, and how these changes demand vastly more interactive informing channels if impact is to be achieved. Using an exploratory case study methodology, it then takes a detailed look at how one institution—the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business—has introduced a variety of new channels, many of which enable informing flows without necessarily directing them, to adapt to these environmental changes. It then considers both outcomes related to these individual informing channels and college-wide outcomes related to a broad and deep mosaic of informing flows. Finally, it considers the question of the resources required to support these new channels and the relationship between resource acquisition and channel introduction. The proposed framework for looking at business school informing channels can be applied by administrators, faculty members, and key stakeholders in understanding, evaluating, and planning programs and activities supporting informing in a complex environment. Ultimately, the informing business school framework may also provide a means for communicating impact to business school accrediting agencies (such as AACSB).





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How Do I Avoid the Money in My Bank Disqualifying My Children From Financial Aid for College?

If you’ve sent kids to college, you’ve probably heard of FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). FAFSA offers federal government aid via loans, grants and work-study options. It determines how much financial aid your children will get for college based on your family’s income and assets. As a parent, that includes your income, investment […]

The post How Do I Avoid the Money in My Bank Disqualifying My Children From Financial Aid for College? appeared first on Clark Howard.




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The Top 5 Benefits of Community College

Once you’ve decided to continue your education past high school, the next step is choosing where you want to go to school. From less debt to smaller class sizes, community colleges have more to offer than you may realize. In this article, I’ll look at five key benefits of community college you should consider before […]

The post The Top 5 Benefits of Community College appeared first on Clark Howard.




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Merging Jinnah hospital and SMC: Confused Sindh Medical College students call off protest for now

Say they want ‘hard facts’ on the matter.




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Aitchison College resignation: A wake-up call for educational integrity

Should institutions be indebted to political agendas, or be upholders of academic freedom and intellectual inquiry?



  • The Way I See It

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Oregon gets top billing in College Football Playoff's opening rankings

A season full of surprises didn't produce many when the first set of rankings on the road to college football's new 12-team playoff came out Tuesday.




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NCAA lifts eligibility ban in allowing Canadian Hockey League players to compete at U.S. colleges

The NCAA Division I Council on Thursday approved a rule allowing players with Canadian Hockey League experience to compete at U.S. colleges starting next season, a landmark decision that has the potential of shaking up the NHL's two largest sources of developmental talent.




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Hands off the Electoral College

With Donald Trump's crushing victory this past Tuesday, schemes to get rid of the Electoral College are off the table -- for the next several years, at least.





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Dave Says: Saving for College

Dear Dave, What percentage of our income should we save for our kids’ education? We know you recommend setting aside 15 percent for retirement, but do you have a similar rule that applies to paying for college? Andrew Dear Andrew, I don’t really have a rule, or percentage, for how much you should save toward a college fund. If you’re following the Baby Steps, I recommend getting 15 percent of your income going toward retirement before saving for college. After you’ve got your retirement savings...




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Jeff Ellis Selected to Join the SEAOC College of Fellows

In early September, the Structural Engineers Association of California inducted Jeff Ellis, S.E., director of strengthening at Simpson Strong-Tie, into its prestigious College of Fellows. The organization’s highest honor, the SEAOC College of Fellows recognizes members for their distinguished service and outstanding contributions to structural engineering.




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BCA Architects Selected to Modernize Long Beach City College

After successfully completing the Programming and Schematic design phases of the project in collaboration with the Long Beach City College District team, user group and bond management team BCA Architects continues their partnership with the LBCCD.




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Perkins Eastman Principal Elected to AIA National College of Fellows




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Comcast Smart Solutions Deploys AI Video Analytics in the City of College Park

Comcast Smart Solutions is also providing ongoing data analysis and has a dedicated team for support.




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Waldorf College

Booth #1254

Waldorf College online degree programs can give you the educational tools needed for a career in occupational safety. From the fundamentals of construction safety to accident investigation, our online education courses offer the knowledge essential to becoming an efficient safety professional. Learn and grow with Waldorf today!

Click here for more information from Waldorf College

Product information is provided by manufacturers. This publication has not independently tested manufacturers' products and cannot assume responsibility for the validity of product claims.




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High-Tech, Human Touch to Shape College Student Dining Experience

Collegiate Hospitality’s campus partnership is not only about nutritious meals and warm dining experiences, but it is also about providing potentially life-shaping programs that help campus programs to shine. 




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Shaw Sports Turf Named Official Synthetic Turf Provider of the College Football Playoff

Through this partnership, Shaw Sports Turf will showcase its innovative, differentiated products throughout the event spaces leading up to the 2024 national championship game, slated for January 8, 2023, at Houston’s NRG Stadium.




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Shaw Floors to Sponsor 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship

With this sponsorship, Shaw Floors’ Pet Perfect innovations and branding will be featured throughout the “Pet Perfect Puppies at the Playoff” activation within Playoff Fan Central. 




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Five Graduate from Groundbreaking Alabama Flooring Installation Course at Drake State Community & Technical College

The Floor Covering Education Foundation (FCEF), in partnership with the Alabama Community College System (ACCS) Innovation Center, Drake State Community College, and the Industry Task Force, announced the completion of its first pilot cohort for the Flooring Installation Technicians course.





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Some colleges are targeting financial aid to middle-class families

Many middle-income families are frustrated by the cost of higher education, feeling they earn too much for financial aid, but not enough to pay for it themselves.




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Penn GSE, the School District of Philadelphia, Foundations, Inc. and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education Partnering to Create an Innovative and Scalable College and Career Readiness Model for Students

The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) has been awarded $3.5 million, part of a larger $8 million grant from Education Initiatives, to partner with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) to launch The Academy at Penn, an innovative five-year, cohort-based college- and career-readiness model for high school students. Foundations, Inc. and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) were also awarded through the grant as part of the larger partnership. The close collaboration involves working together to design, implement, and evaluate the project.




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Transport Begins for College Entrance Exam Papers

[Domestic] :
The nation’s annual college entrance exam will be distributed across the nation from Monday to Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT).  The education ministry said the CSAT question and answer sheets will be transported to all 85 test zones across the nation starting ...

[more...]




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Seoul City to Enforce Traffic Control Measures on Annual College Entrance Exam Day

[Domestic] :
The Seoul Metropolitan Government will enforce comprehensive measures to control traffic when the annual college entrance exam takes place on Thursday. According to city officials on Monday, work hours at public offices in the city will start an hour late at 10 a.m. Thursday to prevent exam-takers from ...

[more...]




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Transport Ministry Restricts Aircraft Operation during College Entrance Exam

[Domestic] :
The transport ministry will restrict the takeoff and landing of all aircraft for about half an hour on Thursday to prevent distractions during the English listening portion of the annual College Scholastic Ability Test. The ministry said Tuesday that the restrictions will be in place from 1:05 p.m. to 1:40 ...

[more...]




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Students to Check Venues ahead of College Entrance Exam

[Domestic] :
Students taking this year’s College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT) on Thursday are set to meet for venue checks on Wednesday. Test takers are required to visit their test sites Wednesday to check the locations and receive their admission tickets.  They need to check their admission tickets to be sure ...

[more...]




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Public Institutions, Banks Change Work Hours Thursday for College Entrance Exam

[Domestic] :
The country is taking steps to make sure the College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT) proceeds smoothly on Thursday, with local governments and companies adjusting their schedules to reduce traffic congestion. Banks will open later than usual, operating from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The government has also ...

[more...]




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How The Pandemic Changed The College Admissions Selection Process This Year

Lisa Przekop, director of admissions at University of California, Santa Barbara, says that many high schoolers this year wrote their application essays about depression and anxiety during the pandemic.; Credit: Patricia Marroquin/Moment Editorial/Getty Images

Mary Louise Kelly | NPR

College-bound high schoolers are making their final deliberations ahead of May 1, the national deadline to pick a school. That day will mark the end of a hectic admissions season drastically shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many colleges dropped standardized testing requirements, and because some high schools gave pass/fail grades and canceled extracurriculars and sports, admissions counselors had to change how they read and evaluate applications.

"[It was] definitely the craziest of all my 36 years, without a doubt," says Lisa Przekop, director of admissions at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The UC school system received the most applications in the United States.

Like many others, Przekop says all of her staff has been working remotely throughout the pandemic. But if pivoting to working from home wasn't a challenge enough, Przekop says the school saw an increase in applications of 16%.

"On top of all that, we had to devise a way of doing our admissions selection process without the use of SAT or ACT scores," she says. "So any one of those things would have been a major change, but to have all of them at the same time was beyond anything really that I could've imagined."

Przekop spoke with All Things Considered about how what counselors looked for in applications this year changed, what topics they saw in admissions essays and how the process might have actually improved in spite of the pandemic.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.


Interview Highlights

Has it all added up to more time spent on every individual application?

Quick answer, yes. Things are much more nuanced now. And although a student may have, for instance, planned to do certain activities, well many of those activities were canceled. The other big difference was students were a lot more depressed this year, obviously. Everybody's more anxious, including students. They're applying for college which is stressful in and of itself. And so what we found is a lot of students used their essays to talk about depression, anxiety, things like this. To read essay after essay after essay about depression, anxiety, stress — is taxing. And so we really had to encourage staff to take more breaks as they were reviewing. So it definitely slowed the whole process down at a time when we had more applications to review.

Can you give any insight into what you are basing your decisions on this year?

Absolutely. Maybe in the past I would've focused on that GPA right away. Now when I'm looking at that academic picture, I have to look at the fact that did the student challenge themselves as much as they could have? Were the courses even available? Do I see any trends in their academic performance? If their spring term of last year, their junior year, was all pass/no pass, can I safely assume that they did well in those courses? And that's where you really had to rely on what the students shared in their essays to try to piece that together.

Are you noticing greater diversity in the students applying to UC?

In terms of ethnic diversity, yes, we are seeing that. In terms of diversity of experience — for instance, first generation students and students with lots of different socioeconomic backgrounds — we're definitely seeing that. I'm seeing students who are very committed to the environment more so than i've seen before. I'm seeing students who are more politically aware and active than I've seen before. So I'm definitely seeing a pattern of behaviors that look a little bit different than students in the past.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Warren, Sanders Call For Expanding Food Aid To College Students

Sen. Elizabeth Warren holds a news conference in March. She and Sen. Bernie Sanders are leading the push to introduce a bill Tuesday that would make pandemic-related food benefits for college students permanent, and create grants for colleges to address hunger.; Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Elissa Nadworny | NPR

Democrats in the House and Senate are introducing legislation Tuesday that would make pandemic-related food benefits for college students permanent. The push is being led by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent,

In the December relief package, Congress increased the number of low-income college students eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or SNAP) benefits for the duration of the pandemic. That included students who are eligible for work study, have an Expected Family Contribution of zero dollars, or qualify for a maximum Pell Grant on their federal financial aid form. According to The Century Foundation, this expansion affects about 3 million college students.

The legislation proposed Tuesday would make these changes permanent, including requiring the U.S. Education Department to notify students they may be eligible for SNAP when they fill out their student aid applications. The bill would also require the Department to collect data on hunger and food insecurity, and would create a $1 billion-a-year grant program for institutions to address hunger on campus.

"Far too many college students struggle to meet their basic needs while they get their education and the pandemic has made this problem even worse," Warren said in a statement to NPR. "As students take on a mountain of student loan debt, they shouldn't have to choose between paying tuition and eating."

The push comes amid new research that shows 39% of two-year college students are facing food insecurity; for students at 4-year schools the number affected is 29%, according to Temple University's Hope Center for College, Community and Justice.

Before the pandemic, in 2019, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report on humger among college students, concluding that over a third of students don't always have enough to eat, and that federal systems already in place, including SNAP, could do a better job of helping them.

Many colleges have increased food benefits for their students, creating or expanding emergency grants, food pantries and other forms of assistance. State legislatures in several places including Virginia and Massachusetts have also moved to address issues of hunger on campus.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Colorado Becomes First State To Ban Legacy College Admissions

; Credit: /Rob Dobi for NPR

Elissa Nadworny | NPR

When someone applies to college, there's often a box or a section on the application that asks if they have any relatives who attended the university —perhaps a parent or a cousin. This is called "legacy," and for decades it's given U.S. college applicants a leg up in admissions. But no longer in Colorado's public colleges.

On Tuesday, Colorado became the first state to do away with that admissions boost, when Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed a ban on the practice into law. The governor also signed a bill that removes a requirement that public colleges consider SAT or ACT scores for freshmen, though the new law still allows students to submit test scores if they wish.

Both moves are aimed at making higher education access more equitable. According to the legislation, 67% of middle- to high-income students in Colorado enroll in bachelor's degree programs straight from high school, while only 47% of low-incomes students do. There are also major differences when it comes to race, with white students far more likely to enroll in college.

Legacy admissions have long been a target for reform. In a 2018 survey of admissions directors by Inside Higher Ed, 42% of private institutions and 6% of public institutions said they consider legacy status as a factor in admissions. Some of the nation's largest public universities do not consider legacy, including both the University of California and the California State University systems. However, private colleges in California have reported using legacy as a way to encourage philanthropic giving and donations.

During the pandemic, many colleges backed off on using SAT and ACT scores in admissions. Research has shownand lawsuits have argued -- that the tests, long used to measure aptitude for college, are far more connected to family income and don't provide meaningful information about a student's ability to succeed in college. Wealthier families are also more likely to pay for test prep courses, or attend schools with curriculums that focus on the exams.

As pandemic restrictions loosen up, and in-person testing resumes, some universities have begun to re-incorporate the SAT and ACT into their admissions. But others have made the temporary changes permanent. This spring, the University of California system agreed to continue a test-free admissions policy through 2025. California sends the largest number of high school students to U.S. colleges, and if the UC system no longer uses the tests, its unclear whether those students will be interested in applying to other schools that do require them.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Spring Numbers Show 'Dramatic' Drop In College Enrollment

; Credit: LA Johnson/NPR

Elissa Nadworny | NPR

Undergraduate college enrollment fell again this spring, down nearly 5% from a year ago. That means 727,000 fewer students, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

"That's really dramatic," says Doug Shapiro, who leads the clearinghouse's research center. Fall enrollment numbers had indicated things were bad, with a 3.6% undergraduate decline compared with a year earlier, but experts were waiting to see if those students who held off in the fall would enroll in the spring. That didn't appear to happen.

"Despite all kinds of hopes and expectations that things would get better, they've only gotten worse in the spring," Shapiro says. "It's really the end of a truly frightening year for higher education. There will be no easy fixes or quick bounce backs."

Overall enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs has been trending downward since around 2012, and that was true again this spring, which saw a 3.5% decline — seven times worse than the drop from spring 2019 to spring 2020.

The National Student Clearinghouse attributed that decline entirely to undergraduates across all sectors, including for-profit colleges. Community colleges, which often enroll more low-income students and students of color, remained hardest hit by far, making up more than 65% of the total undergraduate enrollment losses this spring. On average, U.S. community colleges saw an enrollment drop of 9.5%, which translates to 476,000 fewer students.

"The enrollment landscape has completely shifted and changed, as though an earthquake has hit the ground," says Heidi Aldes, dean of enrollment management at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, a community college in Minnesota. She says her college's fall 2020 enrollment was down about 8% from the previous year, and spring 2021 enrollment was down about 11%.

"Less students are getting an education"

Based on her conversations with students, Aldes attributes the enrollment decline to a number of factors, including being online, the "pandemic paralysis" community members felt when COVID-19 first hit, and the financial situations families found themselves in.

"Many folks felt like they couldn't afford to not work and so couldn't afford to go to school and lose that full-time income," Aldes says. "There was so much uncertainty and unpredictability."

A disproportionately high number of students of color withdrew or decided to delay their educational goals, she says, adding to equity gaps that already exist in the Minneapolis area.

"Sure, there is a fiscal impact to the college, but that isn't where my brain goes," Aldes says. "There's a decline, which means there are less students getting an education. That is the tragedy, that less students are getting an education, because we know how important education is to a successful future."

To help increase enrollment, her team is reaching out to the high school classes of 2020 and 2021, and they're contacting students who previously applied or previously enrolled and stopped attending. She says she's hopeful the college's in-person offerings — which now make up nearly 45% of its classes — will entice students to come back, and appeal to those who aren't interested in online courses. So far, enrollment numbers for fall 2021 are up by 1%. "We are climbing back," she says.

A widening divide

Despite overall enrollment declines nationally, graduate program enrollments were up by more than 120,000 students this spring. That means there are more students who already have college degrees earning more credentials, while, at the other end of the spectrum, students at the beginning of their higher ed careers are opting out — a grim picture of a widening gap in America.

"It's kind of the educational equivalent of the rich getting richer," Shapiro says. "Those gaps in education and skills will be baked into our economy, and those families' lives, for years to come."

The value of a college degree — and its impact on earning power and recession resilience — has only been reinforced by the pandemic. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans with a college degree were more likely to stay employed during the pandemic, and if they did lose a job, they were more likely to get hired again. Unemployment rates were higher for those without a degree or credential beyond high school.

"Almost all of the income gains and the employment gains for the last decade have gone to people with higher education degrees and credentials," Shapiro says. "Those who are getting squeezed out of college today, especially at community colleges, are just getting further and further away from being able to enjoy some of those benefits."

In the National Student Clearinghouse data, traditional college-aged students, those 18 to 24, were the largest age group missing from undergraduate programs. That includes many students from the high school class of 2020, who graduated at the beginning of the pandemic. Additional research from the Clearinghouse shows a 6.8% decline in college-going rates among the class of 2020 compared to the class of 2019 — that's more than four times the decline between the classes of 2018 and 2019. College-going rates were worse for students at high-poverty high schools, which saw declines of more than 11%.

For the communities and organizations tasked with helping high school graduates transition and succeed in college, the job this year is exponentially harder. Students have always struggled to attend college: "It's not new to us," says Nazy Zargarpour, who leads the Pomona Regional Learning Collaborative, which helps Southern California high school students enroll and graduate from college. "But this year, it's on steroids because of COVID."

Her organization is offering one-on-one outreach to students to help them enroll or re-enroll in college. As part of that effort, Zargarpour and her colleagues conducted research to help them understand why students didn't go on to college during the pandemic.

"Students told us that it's a variety of things, including a lot of just life challenges," she says. "Families being disrupted because of lack of work; families being disrupted because of the challenges of the illness itself; students having to take care of their young siblings; challenges with technology."

The biggest question now: Will those students return to college? Experts say the farther a student gets from their high school graduation, the less likely they are to enroll, because life gets in the way. But Zargarpour is hopeful.

"It will take a little bit of time for us to catch up to normal and better, but my heart can't bear to say all hope is lost for any student ever."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Aspiring Teachers Get New Help Paying For College

; Credit: shuoshu/Getty Images

Cory Turner | NPR

New rules kick in today that will help aspiring teachers pay for college and complete a years-long overhaul of the federal TEACH Grant program — from a bureaucratic bear trap that hobbled thousands of teachers with unfair student loan debts to a program that may actually make good on its foundational promise: to help K-12 educators pay for their own education in exchange for teaching a high-need subject, like math, for four years in a low-income community.

"The changes announced today deliver much-needed improvements to the TEACH Grant," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. "Respecting and honoring teachers who serve students with the greatest needs also requires that we ensure these educators receive the support to which they are entitled from this important federal program without having to jump through unnecessary hoops."

In Dec. 2018, the Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos committed to overhauling the program and, last summer, posted its more flexible revisions. Among those changes that go into effect today, teachers will no longer have their grants automatically converted to loans if they fail to submit annual certification paperwork. Instead, with eight years to make good on a four-year teaching requirement, teachers won't have their grants converted to loans until completion of the required service is no longer feasible.

The rule changes to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program were outlined by the U.S. Department of Education nearly a year ago but only go into effect today. And they are the culmination of a story that began several years ago, when the Government Accountability Office, followed by an NPR investigation, revealed that the program's strict paperwork requirements — what Cardona calls "unnecessary hoops" — were tripping up teachers who were keeping their end of the deal.

In accordance with the program's old rules, if a teacher did not submit annual paperwork on time documenting their teaching service in a qualified school, their TEACH Grants were automatically converted into loans that must be paid back with interest. Teachers who tried to appeal this conversion were given little recourse and told the process was not reversible.

Kaitlyn McCollum was teaching high school in Tennessee when her federal TEACH Grants were turned into more than $20,000 in loans simply because she had narrowly missed a paperwork deadline. In the spring of 2019, her debts were erased as part of the department's overhaul.

"We won," she told NPR. "We raised our voices and they finally heard us. Disbelief followed by a relief like I have not felt before."

While the program's flaws date back to its beginning, in 2008, it was the Trump administration that agreed to a remedy and apologized to teachers.

"We've put teachers who didn't deserve this stress, this pressure, this financial burden in a position that is frightening and confusing," the Education Department's then-acting undersecretary and acting assistant secretary, Diane Auer Jones, told NPR in 2019. "It seems like a small thing to do to say, 'I'm sorry,' but I'm very sorry. And we want to work to fix it and correct it."

In Aug. 2020, NPR reported that, since the program's overhaul began, more than 6,500 educators had successfully petitioned to have nearly $44 million in loans turned back into TEACH Grants. For teachers who could prove they had already completed their required service, their debts were simply discharged. For teachers still serving, the conversion meant they could resume the deal they made with the department and work to keep their grant money.

The new regulations also give teachers more options for pausing their service obligation, create a formal reconsideration process for any teacher who believes they've had their grants converted unfairly, and expand the scope of the program to include not only low-income communities but also high-need, rural areas where recruiting and retaining teachers can be difficult.

The Biden Administration says it wants to expand the TEACH Grant, making it more generous. If passed by Congress, the American Families Plan would increase the grant for college juniors, seniors and graduate students from $4,000 a year to $8,000 and would also make it available to many early childhood educators. In a release, the Education Department said it expects these changes would increase the number of TEACH recipients by more than 50 percent, to nearly 40,000 in 2022 — welcome news to school leaders in remote and high-need communities that sometimes struggle to entice new talent to the classroom.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Colleges and Universities Should Take Action to Address Surge of Enrollments in Computer Science

U.S. colleges and universities should respond with urgency to the current surge in undergraduate enrollments in computer science courses and degree programs, which is straining resources at many institutions, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Minority-Serving Colleges and Universities Are Positioned to Serve as a Greater Resource for Meeting U.S. STEM Workforce Needs, But Increased Attention and Investments Are Needed

Higher education leaders, policymakers, and the private sector should take a range of actions to strengthen STEM programs and degree attainment in the nation’s Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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National Academies Join Colleges and Universities to Launch Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have joined with over 40 colleges, universities, and research institutions to launch an Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education.




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Mentoring Could Improve Diversity and Inclusion in STEMM But Needs More Attention in Colleges and Universities, Says New Report, Which Identifies Effective Mentoring Practices

U.S. colleges and universities should take a more intentional, inclusive, and evidence-based approach to mentoring students in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) – a shift that could engage and help retain a broader group of students in these fields, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Historically Black Colleges and Universities Take Center Stage as the Nation Responds to COVID-19 and Systemic Racism

Most U.S. colleges and universities are struggling to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Historically Black Colleges and Universities — known as HBCUs — are facing their own unique challenges.




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Colleges and Universities Should Strengthen Sustainability Education Programs by Increasing Interdisciplinarity, Fostering Experiential Learning, and Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Colleges and universities should embrace sustainability education as a vital field that requires tailored educational experiences delivered through courses, majors, minors, and research and graduate degrees, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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National Academies Offer Guidance on Student Behavior and COVID-19 Testing for College Administrators Ahead of 2021 Spring Semester

Two new rapid expert consultations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offer lessons learned from the 2020 fall semester regarding COVID-19 testing and guidance on student behavior, as college administrators plan for the 2021 spring semester.




college

Colleges and Universities Need Campuswide Culture Change to Better Support Students’ Well-Being and Address Mental Health Problems

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine calls on U.S. colleges and universities to take comprehensive, campuswide approaches to more effectively address mental health and substance use problems among students and to develop cultures that support well-being.




college

How College and University Leaders Are Getting Their Campuses Vaccinated

For the first time since the pandemic struck, many colleges and universities are bringing students back to campus at full capacity. Their administrators are turning to new strategies and incentives to get students vaccinated against COVID-19.




college

To Improve Research Collaboration Among Land-Grant Universities, Congress Should Facilitate Participation of Historically Black and Tribal Colleges and Universities, Says New Report

Congress should take action to facilitate the participation of all land-grant colleges and universities in multistate research projects, says a new report. Funding disparities have prevented many historically Black and tribal colleges and universities from fully collaborating with other land-grant institutions.




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New Report Proposes Criteria the Department of Defense Could Use to Determine Whether a College or University that Hosts a Confucius Institute May Receive DOD Funding

Confucius Institutes are Chinese government-funded language and culture centers located worldwide. A new report proposes a set of criteria for the U.S. Department of Defense to consider in developing a waiver process that would potentially allow U.S. institutions of higher education to receive DOD funding while hosting a Confucius Institute.




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Cogeneration puts New York college on the leading edge of sustainability

Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC) has served upstate New York for more than 50 years. 




college

Gen Z ditching college for trade school

There is a growing trend in the skilled trades, with more people turning away from the traditional four-year college path.