Higher Education News

Education researchers play an invaluable role in formulating policy, from preschool to grad school, Secretary Arne Duncan told the attendees of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting in San Francisco this week where he laid out a vision for where assessment is going, and engaged researchers on the role they play in improving education. “You are the experts. You are the independent truth-tellers,” he said.

Duncan’s speech to AERA examined the major issues facing students, educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders in today’s education environment. Duncan noted that the role of the independent expert is not at odds with asking hard questions about the practical implications of research, as well as assisting practitioners to improve education outcomes. “Rigor is necessary but not sufficient. Relevance matters,” Duncan said.

In an effort to make education research more relevant, Duncan challenged the research community to consider two items:

1. To do a more complete job of asking comparative questions in research and evaluation.
2. To remain open to findings that contradict or compel a rethinking of the conventional wisdom.

Secretary Duncan also addressed standardized assessments, saying they are still a needed tool for transparency and accountability. “We should never, ever return to the days of concealing achievement gaps with school averages, no-stakes tests, and low standards,” he said. “A new generation of high-quality assessments must be a cornerstone of America regaining its educational leadership. And researchers, with rigor and relevance, must help lead forth that effort.”

Read the full text of Duncan’s speech: Choosing the Right Battles: Remarks and a Conversation.

A statement from a national council is intended to prompt policy makers and test designers to think more fully about the pitfalls of machine scoring.

Under the proposal, the university would report on its Web site the average grades in academic programs, to provide context and to thwart grade inflation.

A dispute involving an evolutionary theorist escalated from claims of fraud to accusations of violent behavior.

The result was a major victory for the Service Employees International Union's effort to organize the instructors across the Washington, D.C., area.

Students graduating from college this year overestimate their chances of getting well-paying, full-time jobs.

The Rev. Donald J. Harrington had come under fire for accepting lavish gifts from a former dean accused of embezzlement at the New York institution.

In an open letter, the San Jose professors worry that public higher education will suffer if scholar-student interaction is replaced with videotaped content.

Some colleges are limiting work hours before a new health law takes effect. In Michigan, that led to a labor complaint. National groups are speaking up, too.

In response to a Congressional proposal on NSF spending, a top official in the Obama administration says it would be a mistake to turn lawmakers into peer reviewers.

Cross-posted from Joining Forces.

With more than a million veterans returning home to our nation’s shores over the next five years, we have an unprecedented opportunity – and a civic obligation – to strengthen their pathways to success. To prepare for their return home and their transition back to civilian life, the Obama Administration sought – early on– to bring diverse government partners to the table, calling for an interagency planning effort to support Service members’ career readiness.

In response to President Obama’s call to action for a career-ready military in August 2011, the Veterans Employment Initiative Task Force was launched, under the leadership of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. This interagency effort has brought together a collaboration of federal agencies – including Education, the Small Business Administration, Labor, Homeland Security and the Office of Personnel Management, as well as our military services and National Guard and Reserves –  as partners, working together on the first major redesign of the military’s Transition Assistance Program in over twenty years to develop a comprehensive, outcome-based re-entry program now called Transition Goals, Plans, Success (Transition GPS).

Each of the partner federal agencies is contributing leadership and resources to activate the implementation of Transition GPS, in accordance with the VOW to Hire Heroes Act signed into law November 21, 2011. Key to this work has been the development of a core 3-day curriculum, career readiness standards, three optional tracks for transition (Higher Education, Technical Training, and Entrepreneurship), as well as options for learning in brick-and-mortar classrooms and online. Throughout their participation, Service members will receive individualized counseling and support in the preparation of a transition plan. The program also provides Service members who are exiting active duty with an education transcript, resume, access to labor market information, employment and housing opportunities, benefits information, mentoring resources, and other support services.

Based on lessons learned from as early as 1991 when Congress mandated that a Transition Assistance Plan be enacted,  this redesign is guided by the view that preparation for the transition from military to civilian life should begin upon entry to boot camp. Transition GPS is the way forward, ensuring that our separating military men and women prepare for educational advancement and career opportunities throughout their lives. With the availability of military training, courses, and online certificate and degree opportunities, Service members will design an individual education and career plan to guide their future, both during and after their term of duty.

Today, many colleges and universities provide academic credit for individual courses, full programs of study and prior learning acquired on ships, during combat and at base locations worldwide. In the next few years, Transition GPS will provide the pathways for veterans re-entering their communities with career-ready education and training for success in the workforce. Some will exit having earned their high school diplomas, GEDs, and/or their associates’, bachelors’ or masters’ degrees. Others will seamlessly continue their education or training following their military careers in quality, affordable educational programs, taking advantage of internships or apprenticeships to be fully ready for their chosen careers.

Federal agency partners working with Military and Veterans Service Organizations have committed to maximizing resources, aligning benefits for Service members, and reducing duplication and system inefficiencies to best facilitate Service members’ transition to civilian life. More than 60 percent of jobs will require some postsecondary education or training: we want all of our veterans to take advantage of the variety of benefits available to them, so that they can choose an educational program with good job prospects that will serve them well.

Our collective goal – aspiring for every veteran to have a seamless pathway to pursuing future employment opportunities with career-ready knowledge and skills for success – is ambitious, but Transition GPS is a key component in strengthening that journey. Whether a veteran needs financial planning, an educational program like Troops to Teachers, help on campus from an experienced counselor, claims assistance, disability or other medical services from the VA, guidance on accessing federal student aid or navigating college and university opportunities, or help from the SBA to set up a small business, we stand at an extraordinary moment in time to welcome our men and women home and serve  them and their families better than we’ve ever done in the past to prepare them for bright and prosperous futures.

Rosye Cloud is the Director of Policy for Veterans, Wounded Warriors and Military Families at the White House. Martha Kanter is the Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. 

Students in Robert Rivera-Amezola’s fourth-grade classroom in Philadelphia work collaboratively on a writing assignment. (Photo by Jason Miczek and provided courtesy of the National Writing Project.)

Writing is an important part of the Common Core State Standards in English language arts, but what about students learning to employ the digital tools so natural to them outside the classroom to express themselves in school? The challenges to “going digital” with writing instruction range from choosing the best methods to employ the latest technological tools to accessing quality in-service and joining communities of practice to staying current with the changing definition of a “literate” citizenry.

Fortunately, there is Digital Is — a forum for teachers to share and engage with other educators in the field of digital writing — to meet these challenges. Developed by the National Writing Project, a venerable source of professional development, curricular and instructional resources, research findings, and best practices based on experiences of K-16 educators, this free Web portal is serving thousands of educators, writers, and K-12 learners.

In “Writing and Learning in a Digital Age — Digital Is,” the Office of Innovation and Improvement’s Margarita Melendez conveys the multiple facets of this unique resource that is supported by funding from the Department of Education. Readers of the feature will also learn about two other OII-supported National Writing Project efforts that are providing teaching modules connected to the Common Core and a professional development program focused on rural school districts. Read the full piece: Writing and Learning in a Digital Age – Digital Is.

Inside a classroom at Chantry Elementary School in the small town of Malvern, Iowa, four 1st grade students are gathered around a table facing Becky Curtis. She is teaching them to read.

It appears to be a traditional reading intervention class. However, they are not alone.

A state away in Omaha, Neb., Mrs. Patty Smith is observing the small group via WebEx software and a webcam on an open laptop sitting on a table behind the students. Occasionally Mrs. Smith speaks with Ms. Curtis through a small listening device. The technology is allowing Mrs. Smith to communicate, see and hear the students’ responses and their teacher’s instruction.

They are part of Project READERS, a large-scale distance coaching study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). UNL is using technology to connect trained coaches with more than 200 teachers in over 40 rural schools in eight states, where reading-support experts would not be available otherwise.

Ms. Curtis is a special education teacher who volunteered for the professional development project to improve her skills and serve as a reading intervention specialist.

As they begin to read a story together, the students are hanging on their teacher’s every word, using their fingers to point and decode letters, repeating words, blending sounds, and improving their phonemic awareness.

Ms. Curtis is working with precision, making sure her pupils can hear patterns and the rhythm of stressed and unstressed pieces of compound words. They identify and repeat the smallest units of sound.

When incorrect, the students and Ms. Curtis repeat and persist until the sounds are exactly right.

This rural education R&D, using a high-speed broadband connection, appears less intrusive than traditional coaching with an additional teacher physically in the classroom. At no point is Ms. Curtis competing for her students’ attention.

UNL is investigating the effects of distance coaching using technology on rural teachers’ knowledge, practice and student outcomes. Early elementary school teachers also learn and apply methods for collecting and using data to make instructional decisions.

The large-scale study is part of work conducted at UNL’s National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed), which is funded by a five-year grant from the Institute for Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education.

Near the end of class, Ms. Curtis bursts into laughter, unable to contain the private conversation she is having with Mrs. Smith about her students and their responses to her instruction.

The children immediately log-in, asking “What did she say? What did she say?” With a smile on her face, Ms. Curtis removes her hand from her mouth to tell her students, “She said I was awesome you guys!”

There are high-fives all around as Ms. Curtis tells her students how well they were reading. Before class ends, Ms. Curtis unplugs her ear-bud from the laptop and asks the students to turn to face Mrs. Smith for a quick debrief conversation.

Their time is up and class ends for the day. As the children run from the room, it is obvious their secret is out.

From Omaha to Malvern they’re all learning together.

John White is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Rural Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education

A complaint faults the accreditor's actions at the City College of San Francisco and other community colleges throughout the state.

More than 40 percent of the time students spend reading is on social media, a new study finds.

If you are a high school senior who has yet to decide where you’re going to college this fall, you are most likely not alone. May 1st marks the National College Decision Day where the vast majority of U.S. colleges and universities require students to notify them of their decision to attend.

As you navigate the college decision process, the U.S. Department of Education provides tools for you and your family to make it easy to compare important information such as college costs, average student loan debt, and graduation rates across different institutions.

If you are a student or the parent of a college-bound teen struggling with this decision, here are a few tools that can help:

The College Scorecard

The College Scorecard includes essential information about a particular college’s cost, its graduation rates and the average amount its students borrow, all in an easy-to-read format. It is designed to help you compare colleges and choose one that is well-suited to your individual needs.

Net Price Calculator Center

The Net Price Calculator Center provides an easy tool to explore the net price of any given college- that is, the price after subtracting the scholarships and grants you are likely to receive. Then, you can easily compare estimated net prices across the institutions that you are considering.

Financial Aid Shopping Sheet

Many colleges and universities have adapted a Shopping Sheet which will be included in your financial aid package. The Shopping Sheet provides personalized information on financial aid and net costs as well as general information on institutional outcomes- all in a standardized format. This tool provides an easy way to make clear comparisons among financial aid offers that you may receive.

College Navigator

College Navigator is an interactive website that allows you to explore and compare features of different institutions, including programs and majors, admissions considerations, campus crime statistics and more.

For additional tips visit Federal Student Aid’s Choosing a School resources and follow @USEDGOV & @FAFSA on Twitter.

Now that you have the resources and the tools to pick the right college, you can let out a sigh of relief and show your campus pride with that coveted university sweatshirt. Congratulations!

Kelsey Donohue is a senior at Marist College (N.Y.), and an intern in ED’s Office of Communications and Outreach

The university's Arts & Sciences Council rejected a partnership with 2U, which had formed a consortium of top colleges to offer such courses.

The Education Department's decision to include same-sex parents' incomes on the student-aid form is a step forward, but tax unfairness persists.