More Start, Fewer Finish College
Posted on October 2nd, 2011 by Mary Lord
Despite decades of steadily climbing college enrollment rates, the percentage of students earning a degree or certificate on time has barely budged, a new study reveals. By including older and part-time students, the Complete College America report paints a more comprehensive picture of the gap between college aspirations and outcomes than federal data typically has captured.
Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on More Start, Fewer Finish College
Tags: college completion, Complete College America, Education Policy, Public Policy, Time Is The Enemy
After months of negotiations, the Senate education committee will take up a comprehensive bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The markup is scheduled for Oct. 18. Meanwhile, the House has broken the reauthorization bill into bite-sized pieces and is expected to deal with the big issues of accountability and teacher quality this fall. 
Flanked by students, teachers, state education leaders, aPresident Barack Obama announced a plan to let states and districts waive some of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law’s most onerous requirements. In exchange, however, states would have to adopt certain reforms — including teacher evaluations that take student test scores into account.
In a Sept. 12 Capitol Hill bid for increased federal funding, a panel of representatives from industry and non-profits mapped out their goals for the future of afterschool, informal education in the U.S. Among them, an enthusiastic Fernando Laguarda of Time Warner Cable explained the company’s programs and efforts, while also outlining the daunting tasks that lie ahead in a time of increasing budget constraints.
The federal government spends $3.5 billion a year, all told, on 252 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs spread across 13 agencies. But “perhaps somewhat surprisingly,” there’s no wasteful overlap, a White House official says. 
What prompts today’s undergraduates to pursue STEM majors rather than business, law, the arts, or other fields of study? Job prospects? Passion? How about you, and what they’re learning in your classroom? According to a new study, college students decide to concentrate in science, technology, engineering, and math in high school or before – and more than half cite “a teacher or class” as their top reason. 
The Common Core State Standards just took a big step toward becoming classroom practice. Some 44 states and the District of Columbia adopted these new standards in English language arts and mathematics over the past year. Now, STEM teachers are getting the first details of the key content students must master when common assessments roll out in 2014.
Attention, STEM majors. The nation needs more middle and high school science teachers — and there are several new initiatives to encourage you to sign up for training. Indiana’s Valparaiso University, for instance, just received a $500,000 federal grant to train science undergraduates as educators. The program will include paid summer internships and student-teaching stints. 
States will soon be able to opt out of No Child Left Behind though qualifying for special waivers offered by the Obama Administration. Citing a failure by Congress to make any progress on reforming the controversial legislation before the upcoming school year, the Department of Education will offer waivers to all 50 states, which will be expected to meet certain criteria in order to qualify.
