Education Strategy

Two University of Michigan professors found that inequality in educational attainment has risen more sharply among women than among men. For those entering college in the 1980s, the gap between men and women was small: about 2 percent more females in the top income group graduated from college than did males; and about 2 percent fewer females in the lowest income group graduated than did males. But for those entering college in the 2000s, the gender gap widened significantly especially at the top of the income distribution, with 13 percent more women than men in the highest income group graduating from college.

This female advantage in educational attainment is not a new phenomenon, the researchers point out. More women than men graduated from college in all birth cohorts since 1950.

Read full post…

As many colleges and universities open their doors to a new semester, many potential students may not be attending this year. Tuition rates for many state universities have increased dramatically this past year due to budget cuts, and many students cannot afford the tuition. With these challenges, higher education officials in the state of Washington and other Western states do have an affordable alternative. According to an article in The Columbian, the Western Governors University Washington offers students an affordable online alternative to the traditional state university and other for profit universities.

According to the article, WGU is a non-profit state endorsed online university. With a growing need for a more educated work force, WGU does help fill in the gap for students unable to afford the traditional college degree program.

Read full post…

For the past six months, Complete College America has been compiling data from 33 states to produce a report that paints for the first time ever a comprehensive picture of todays college student, the challenges students face and the reasons why they are not completing their degrees and certificates.

You wont want to miss the story in this mornings New York Times about the report and what it means.

Although President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan started a “college for all” campaign to achieve the goal of having the most college graduates in the world by 2020, recent studies allege that most undergraduates aren’t learning much during their first two years of college.

College Students Not Learning Much Despite Good Grades

The book was compiled from student survey responses, transcript data, and results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test taken by college students in their first semester and at the end of their second year, but Richard Arum and Josipa Roska’s Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses caused quite a stink when it was released earlier this year.

“They might graduate, but they are failing to develop the higher-order cognitive skills that it is widely assumed college students should master. These fin

Read full post…