Jan.15: Education News We're Reading This Week
Jan. 15, 2016—Here’s our weekly roundup of the biggest news you may have missed. This week, we released our True Merit report, advocating for an admissions preference for high-achieving, low-income students. Other education stories focused on college planning and pathways.
True Merit Media Highlights:
-
Coverage of our True Merit report included stories from NPR, National Journal, and Quartz.
- Executive Director Harold O. Levy has been interviewed on several radio programs. Listen to audio from The Takeaway, Sirius XM’s The Agenda, and The Jim Bohannon Show (interview starts at the 40-minute mark).
-
A few more of our favorite features are listed here.
Elementary and Secondary Education:
-
The Atlantic writes about efforts to provide stronger mentorship and counseling programs to high schools students for college and career guidance. College Advising Corps, which launched with the support of the foundation, is profiled by PBS NewsHour for “demystifying” the college application process through advising to low-income, first-generation students.
-
The percentage of high schools offering Advanced Placement (AP) courses declined between 2008 and 2012, finds the American Enterprise Institute. The declines are largely focused in “small, rural, and high-poverty schools.”
-
In an article commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Equality of Educational Opportunity” (also known as The Colman Report), produced by the Department of Education following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, EducationNext notes that “achievement gaps remain nearly as large as they were” when the report was published.
Higher Education:
-
The FAFSA application is open, and the Department of Education provides students with seven steps for filling out the online form.
-
According to Bloomberg, a new bill expected to be introduced during this congressional session would require “25 percent of a school’s annual endowment income for financial aid or lose tax-exempt status.”
-
The American Association of Community Colleges advises administrators on building a smooth transfer process for community college students.