The Lumina Foundation for Education is supporting faculty-led, discipline-specific discussions within several states that seek to articulate what a student should know and be able to do by graduation. The meeting-intensive project is at times clouded with the kinds of bureaucratic buzzwords, like “rubric,” that can turn off educators and obscure the ways it might lead to tangible change. But proponents of the effort say it brings clarity to the work of academe and makes a stronger case for the value of a college education. “Quality in higher education is best represented by what students learn,” says Marcus Kolb, a program officer at Lumina. “We hope this will elevate student learning to the center of the conversation.” Indeed, statewide and national debates about higher education often focus on who gets into college and who gets out but not as much about what happens in between. Lumina is pursuing the question of what a degree means as part of its focus on increasing the number of Americans with college credentials. The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

All over the United States, community college enrollments have surged with unemployed and underemployed people seeking new skills. But just as workers have turned to community colleges, states have cut their budgets, forcing the institutions to turn away legions of students and stymieing the efforts to retrain the workforce.  Unemployment is highest among the nation’s lesser-educated workers, and for them, community colleges offer a critical pathway to new jobs: Classes are open, relatively cheap and often tailored to picking up job skills. The article was in The Washington Post.

WASHINGTON — The release of yet another report highly critical of for-profit higher education by yet another advocacy group in the nation’s capital barely qualifies as news these days — except that the report and the reaction to it so clearly underscore how critics and defenders of the colleges are talking past one another. The study, released Tuesday by Education Trust, largely repackages previously published data on higher education companies — their booming enrollments (particularly of minority and low-income students), escalating dependence on federal financial aid, relatively low graduation rates (compared to most public and independent four-year colleges), and high student debt and default levels — to suggest that the colleges are a breeding ground for another crisis of the magnitude of the subprime mortgage loan meltdown. (The report’s none-too-subtle title: “Subprime Opportunity: High Dividends, Low Baccalaureates at For-Profit Colleges.”) The article is in Inside Higher Ed.

Do you play any of the following sports?

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Bowling
• Cross Country
• Diving
• Fencing
• Field Hockey
• Football
• Golf
• Gymnastics
• Ice Hockey
• Lacrosse
• Rifle
• Rowing
• Skiing
• Soccer
• Softball
• Swimming
• Tennis
• Track & Field
• Volleyball
• Water Polo
• Wrestling

If yes, you may be eligible for an Athletic Scholarship to attend college. Over 600 U.S. colleges offer sports scholarships to athletes. Athletic Scholarships are awarded to an individual based on his or her ability to play in a sport. They can range from as little as $500 to as much as $30,000. Grants in aid, are awarded to individuals in return for competing on a college’s sports team. Read more…

More than a half-million students are using clickers this fall on several thousand college campuses, and the greatest impact may be cultural. These hand-held devices have altered, perhaps irrevocably, the nap schedules of anyone who might have hoped to catch a few winks in the back row, and made it harder for them to respond to text messages, e-mail and other distractions. In some classes, barely 15 minutes pass without the professor asking students to “grab your clickers” to provide feedback. Though the technology is relatively new, preliminary studies at Harvard and Ohio State, among other institutions, suggest that engaging students in class through a device as familiar to them as a cellphone — there are even applications that convert iPads and BlackBerrys into class-ready clickers — increases their understanding of material that may otherwise be conveyed in traditional lectures. This article is in The New York Times.

Four academics are being honored today as U.S. Professors of the Year for excellence in teaching by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Nominees were evaluated on their scholarly approach to teaching and learning, their involvement with students, their contributions to undergraduate education at their colleges and in their communities and profession; and their support from colleagues and current and former students. Each of this year’s four honorees received a $5,000 prize. The winners are Ping-Tung Chang, professor of mathematics, Matanuska-Susitna College; John Zubizarreta, professor of English, Columbia College (S.C.); Teresa C. Balser, associate professor of soil science, University of Wisconsin at Madison; and Russell O. Colson, professor of geology, Minnesota State University at Moorhead. This article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Scholarships are an attractive way to help manage college costs. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award. Hundreds of thousands of scholarships and fellowships from several thousand sponsors are awarded each year. The sponsors of these scholarships could be the —

• U.S. Government

• Intended College

• Private Organizations

• State and Federal Sources of Financial Aid Funds

• or even your High-School

A good way to gain knowledge is to start researching scholarships online or at the high school library before you seek help through consultants to do the work for you.

Students/Scholars worldwide can find grants, awards, scholarships and fellowships either by Region, Area Of Study, Location in the US or Type of Program Read more…

You are ready to take the SAT and soon decide to go to the college of your choice. But it may be true  that you really are not familiar with all of your options when it comes to paying for college.  Being eligible for scholarships or being entitled for one is a great way to cut college costs. If you decide to invest your time in a search for scholarships, it’s important to have an organized system to find, apply for, and win scholarship money.

Students and parents are often confused when in come to the details regarding scholarships - How to get a scholarship? Where to Apply? What is the Eligibility criterion or Which Colleges or Organizations offer what Types of Scholarship?

While we attempt to tackle all these questions one by one in subsequent posts, we will first try and get a clear picture to What exactly is a Scholarship -

What is a Scholarship?

According to Wikipedia, ‘A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education’. Additionally, Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.

College Scholarships originate from a variety of sources. But, the fact is, nearly all available financial aid comes from the Federal government or from Individual colleges (College-specific awards). There is other Private and Organization sponsored sponsorships also available. The Scholarship Is There, but You Have to Ask for It.

Note: Not all scholarships are loan free. Your award may probably consist of a combination of gift aid, loans or even a job. Each of these is very different from the others. Understanding the differences is important. However, scholarships — which don’t have to be paid back — get a huge amount of attention from students and their families. You won’t have to repay them (like loans) or work to maintain them (like work-study).

Read More on the Types of Scholarships available or you can qualify for at the time of choosing your college or admission.

More on Athletic Scholarships

Or Get Advice on how to Evaluate Which College is Best for you.

And Types of Colleges to Choose From in the US. Top 10 US College Rankings of 2010-11

Start Practicing for the SAT with these SAT Practice Questions

It is official. It is the Chinese who are now sending the largest number of international students to American Colleges. According to a report released today by the Institute of International Education, a New York-based non-profit that promotes exchanges between U.S. and overseas universities, America continues to be the top destination for Chinese students seeking higher education overseas.

China sent no students to the US from the 1950s until 1974/75. In 1998/99, China overtook Japan as the leading sender, and remained in the number one position until being overtaken by India in 2001/02. However this  year has recorded a 30% increase in Chinese Student enrollment in the United States with a total of nearly 128,000 students making it more than 18% of the total international student population. “With the one-child policy in China and a rapidly growing middle class, more and more parents are able to invest their considerable resources into securing a world-class education for their child”, said Pegy Bluementhal executive VP and COO of IIE.

Overall, of the 25 countries sending students to the Americas, the number is international students in the US increased by 3% to 690,923 during the 2009-10 academic year. Each of the top five host U.S. states, California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Illinois, saw increases in the number of international students they hosted.

The  Community College Transfer initiative, started in 2005, provided about $7 million over four years to eight four-year institutions — Amherst College, Bucknell University, Cornell University, Mount Holyoke College, University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Southern California- in an effort Community college students are able to transfer successfully transfer to some of the nation’s most selective four-year institutions.

From 2007 through 2010, nearly 2,000 community college transfer students enrolled in these eight institutions because of the project. Data shows that the transfer students assisted by this program had comparable grade point averages and graduation rates to those of native students at these eight institutions. Research shows that that high achieving low-income students graduate at higher rates if they go to more selective institutions. Read More in Inside Higher Ed.