Selective High Schools & College Access Apps

July 27, 2018 – Here’s our weekly roundup of education news you may have missed. Educators and advocates discuss selective high schools, paying for college, and graduate school success. Mobile apps and transfer students also receive media attention.

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Elementary & Secondary Education:

  • In the New York Daily News, Gregory McGinity writes that instead of fighting over limited seats at selective public high schools, the city should “commit to creating more excellent public schools, particularly more specialized high schools, and make sure they’re accessible to students of color and students from low-income families.”
  • A research brief from the Learning Policy Institute examines how student outcomes are influenced by equitable school funding, investments in teacher quality, and smaller class sizes.
  • There are 430,000 children in the nation’s foster care system. The 74 describes how new requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) are changing the way states support, transport, and report on their students in foster care.

 

Higher Education:

  • “The students who most need help paying for college are the least likely to seek it,” Education Week reports. Perhaps the new mobile-friendly Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be a “step forward,” states Carrie Warick in Inside Higher Ed.
  • Transfer students can also look forward to a mobile app that Phi Theta Kappa is developing. Nancy Lee Sánchez writes on a related topic in Forbes, stating: “Any four-year school serious about transfer should target high-performing community college students for recruitment.”
  • In The Conversation, researchers Robert Kelchen and Dennis A. Kramer II state that a bill can’t promise “debt-free” college if it doesn’t cover the full cost of attendance. As Inside Higher Ed reports, buying textbooks is sometimes more expensive than tuition at community colleges.
  • Jessica Calarco, an assistant professor of sociology at Indiana University, led a trending Twitter discussion on the hidden curriculum of graduate school. Calarco shares some of the essential advice on the scatterplot blog.

 

Cooke Foundation Highlights:

  • Lucy Marcil, a Cooke Scholar and TED Fellow, delivers a TED Talk on providing financial services to low-income families during doctor visits.
  • Cooke Scholar Samantha Pratt is awarded Teach For America‘s Social Innovation Award. The Miami Herald describes how Samantha’s experience as a teacher led her to create the KlickEngage app, a socio-emotional learning tool.
  • Karen Cueva received the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award in 2008, going on to complete graduate degrees at both the Julliard School and Harvard Graduate School of Education. She’s dedicated her career to “integrating the arts with social justice and education,” shares From the Top.
  • The Baltimore Times highlights how The Ingenuity Project has improved its recruiting and admissions practices, and will now use a Cooke Foundation grant to expand services and develop innovative practices in STEM.

 

Social Media Spotlight:

 

Header image: Cooke Scholars convene at last year’s Scholars Weekend event.