Inequitable Access to Programs & Financial Barriers

Cooke Scholars discuss topics at Scholars Weekend 2018.

May 24, 2019 – Here’s our weekly roundup of education news you may have missed. K-12 coverage critiques the inequitable access to dual enrollment courses and commemorates the 65th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Articles also discuss the financial barriers students face in accessing and completing higher education including affordability, debt, and merit aid.

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Elementary & Secondary Education:

  • Opportunities for high school students to participate in dual-enrollment programs have expanded rapidly in recent years. However, “often the students who would benefit the most from the programs — low-income students and first-generation college students — never get the chance to participate,” states Jill Berman in MarketWatch.
  • To mark the 65th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the 74 Million compiles stories and testimonies from plaintiffs who risked so much in bringing the issue of school segregation to the Supreme Court.

 

Higher Education:

  • “To address the systemic tuition and non-tuition affordability challenges they face, students are forced to make unacceptable decisions about how to make ends meet, many of which can jeopardize their college success,” states a new report from the Institute of Higher Education Policy (IHEP). The report uses student stories to contextualize financial barriers to college success.
  • The Department of Education released preliminary data this week on debt incurred by college graduates in different academic programs at U.S. colleges and universities. The New York Times reports that this focus on the success of individual academic programs may “change the dynamics of the higher education market, which is currently dominated by institutional reputations.”
  • Bloomberg Government reports on a national trend of increased merit-based aid at public universities: “The end result is that [universities are] dedicating an increasing portion of funds to non-need-based aid—money that otherwise might go to students with genuine financial need.”

 

Cooke Foundation Highlights:

  • Cooke Scholar Gabriella Blatt writes in the Yale Herald about her experiences and frustrations with the university’s support of the Native American and Indigenous Studies department.
  • Cooke Young Scholars Summer Shabana and Autumn Rhodes are celebrated for their accomplishments in their respective local papers, The Villager and The Englewood Review.
  • We are proud to support CAMPUS, an academic and college preparation program designed to meet the specific needs of Loudoun County Public Schools students who are prospective first-generation college students in attaining higher post-secondary education.
  • Foundation research on community college student success is cited in The Daily Progress and Education Dive.

 

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Photo header: Cooke Scholars discuss topics at Scholars Weekend 2018.