Tag Archives: higher education

National Center for Education Statistics Releases 2010 Condition of Education Report

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An annual report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released in May signals growing trends in higher education. Highlights of the report imply a drastically different enrollment mix from previous generations. Undergraduate enrollment among women grew by 26% during 2008, compared to a 22% increase among men. The 2008 enrollment mix among genders was 57% female and 43% male. Overall enrollment grew by 43%, and the center predicts that enrollments will continue to grow, from 16.4 million undergraduates in 2008 to 19.0 million in 2019.

Persistence and progress in undergraduate education is difficult to track, according to the report, since students may transfer from 2- to 4-year institutions or among 4-year institutions. However, among those institutions reporting 6-year graduation rates, 57% of students completed degrees within 6 years of first enrolling. Degree attainment and transfer rates were different among public and private baccalaureate institutions, with far fewer (50%) students attaining a degree from the public institution where they started than students at private institutions (65%). However, in both public and private institutions, students who began their studies at doctorate-granting institutions were more likely to earn a degree either from their first institution or overall.

Overall completion rates for 2009 indicated that 31% of 25- to 29-year-olds had completed at least a bachelor’s degree.

Funding for Federal Higher Education Programs May be Reduced or Eliminated

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Today, the White House asked federal agencies to provide plans to reduce their budgets by 5 percent by eliminating the worst-performing programs. This request is part of the White House’s pledge to freeze spending unrelated to national security over the next three years.

Among the programs to be considered for reductions include several higher education related programs. 

At a news conference today, Peter Orsazg, President Obama’s budget director, singled out mathematics and science education, youth mentoring, and job training as potential higher education programs that may be reduced.  He noted that the federal government offers more than 110 programs focused on science, technology, and math education (STEM), 100 mentoring programs, and 40 employment programs.

According to Orszag, “this redundancy wastes resources and makes it harder to act on each of these worthy goals.”

Review of Released Common Core Standards Expected Soon in Washington

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Today State Superintendent Randy Dorn announced that the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) would begin review of the recently released Common Core State Standards during the next month before provisionally adopting the standards.

The Common Core State Standards were released earlier this week by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Offices.

Washington is one of 48 states along with two territories and the District of Columbia that agreed to consider adopting the English language arts and math common core standards. The adoption of the standards are also a part of Washington’s Race to the Top application.

OSPI is required to deliver a detailed report in January 2011 to the Washington State Legislature including a comparison of Common Core and the current State Learning Standards for reading, writing, and math, and an estimated time-line and costs to the state and districts to implement the standards.

OSPI cannot officially adopt the changes to the state’s learning standards until after the 2011 legislative session. With this in mind, the roll-out plan for the Common Core State Standards will not be implemented in public school classrooms until the 2012-13 school year and will not be fully tested in schools until spring 2015.

California Governor Threatens Veto if No Additional Funding for Higher Education is Realized

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Yesterday, California Governor Schwarzenegger promised the state’s colleges and universities that he will veto any state budget that does not include additional funding for higher education and the financial aid awards known as Cal Grants.

The Governor made this promise at a meeting with a dozen top administrators and student leaders from the University of California, California State University, and California’s Community Colleges systems.

Schwarzenegger proposed a $224 million increase in general fund spending for higher education for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Many in Sacramento argue that the Governor’s veto is premature, since the Governor has not yet released his revised budget which is expected in May.

Higher Education Presidents of the Western U.S. Meet to Discuss Business Model

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This week the University of Washington hosted a regional meeting of the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities to discuss future funding for public universities nationally.

The Presidents and other top leaders from approximately 30 colleges and universities in the Western United States discussed their common experiences and strategized about how to “reset” their finances.

Common among the discussion was the concern that higher education continues to be the first area to get cut by states facing lower revenues and paying more for other public services/programs.

Strategies proposed incorporated a wide range of ideas including increased federal funding for institutions to make-up for the gap in reduced state funds and a model in which each state could have one univesity funded by the federal government, eliminating the need for out-of-state tuition surcharges at those institutions.

At the state level several strategies were also proposed inlcuding asking state lawmakers to set aside a fixed percentage of the budget for higher educaiton, emphasizing the job-creation record of universities, promoting achievements such as green technology, and telling people what is at risk.

The meeting is one of five taking place across the nation in hopes of developing a national strategy for securing the future of higher education institutions.