Northwest Education Law Blog : Northwest Education Lawyer & Attorney : Williams Kastner Law Firm : Tacoma, Seattle, Portland

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Kaplan University and the California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office reached an agreement this week which will allow community college students additional flexibility in completing their associate’s degrees and transferring credits. The plan allows the students to enroll in Kaplan online courses which have been preapproved by their community college and to apply credits from those courses toward their associate’s degrees. In addition, once community college students complete their associate’s degree, they may transfer credits from their associate’s degree toward a Kaplan online bachelor’s degree program. The agreement also provides significant incentives to community college students who take advantage of the new programs, including select price breaks on tuition and textbooks. For more information, click here.

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According to the Seattle Times, enrollment in Washington state’s 34 community colleges and technical colleges has reached 146,000, a 10% increase from fall 2008. [Seattle Times]

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Elgin Community College and Harper College are trying to save America's young people from becoming zombies. That's the message of a new online animated campaign run by the two Illinois community colleges. The video urges students not to be "mindless followers of the traditional college-search mindset" and to consider the low-cost alternative community colleges provide. The video shows those who borrow to attend expensive four-year institutions facing "a lifetime of mindless, brain-consuming misery" as zombies. [Inside Higher Ed]

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The U.S. Department of Education today awarded $11.3-million in grants to 29 projects in 20 states that will benefit working adults and displaced workers pursuing degrees or credentials at community colleges. The projects encompass a wide range of activities, including remediation, tutoring, counseling, and support services. Some projects will use distance learning to reach out to adult learners. The grants, which range from $200,000 to $500,000, are administered by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

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After flip-flopping on its admissions policy for nearly a decade, the North Carolina State Community College Board voted Friday to admit undocumented immigrants with one major catch: They must pay out-of-state tuition.

The 21-member board, consisting of a mixture of gubernatorially appointed members and state legislators, overwhelmingly approved the measure, effectively reversing a May 2008 decision to ban undocumented immigrants from the country’s third-largest community college system. This is the fourth time the North Carolina Community College System has changed its admissions policy for undocumented immigrants in nine years. Still, for formal approval, this measure must be voted on by the General Assembly, which does not meet again until next spring.

The revised admissions policy says that the state’s community colleges may only admit undocumented immigrants if they have graduated from a public or private high school in the United States. They must also pay out-of-state tuition -- more than $7,000 a year for a full load of 16 credits per semester. This is nearly five times the in-state tuition. Furthermore, undocumented students admitted to a community college may not receive state or federal financial aid.

“This is a hollow victory,” said Michael Olivas, a law professor at the University of Houston and expert on immigration and higher education law. “If students can attend but not establish in-state residency, then it’s just the status quo. These kids cannot afford to pay out-of-state tuition. The board has acted foolishly, and this is just bad policy. There are a number of kids who are otherwise residing in states like North Carolina who pay taxes and put into the system that are still not able to buy and take out of the system at the postsecondary level.”

There are only nine states that have approved legislation explicitly allowing undocumented immigrants to claim residency so that they may pay in-state tuition at their public colleges and universities. On the other end of the spectrum, South Carolina is the only state to explicitly ban immigrants who do not have legal residency from attending its public institutions. [Inside Higher Ed]
 

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Few parts of their jobs seem to annoy professors more than grading. The topic consumes gripe sessions, blog posts and creates plenty of professorial angst (not to mention student angst).

Cathy Davidson has decided that the best way to change grading is to take herself out of it. Davidson, a Duke University English professor, announced on her blog last week that she was going to give students the power to earn A's or some other grade based on a simple formula in which she wouldn't play much of a role.

Her approach? "So, this year, when I teach 'This Is Your Brain on the Internet,' I'm trying out a new point system. Do all the work, you get an A. Don't need an A? Don't have time to do all the work? No problem. You can aim for and earn a B. There will be a chart. You do the assignment satisfactorily, you get the points. Add up the points, there's your grade. Clearcut. No guesswork. No second-guessing 'what the prof wants.' No gaming the system. Clearcut. Student is responsible."

That still leaves the question of determining whether students have done the work. Here again, Davidson plans to rely on students. "Since I already have structured my seminar (it worked brilliantly last year) so that two students lead us in every class, they can now also read all the class blogs (as they used to) and pass judgment on whether they are satisfactory. Thumbs up, thumbs down," she writes.

"If not, any student who wishes can revise. If you revise, you get the credit. End of story. Or, if you are too busy and want to skip it, no problem. It just means you'll have fewer ticks on the chart and will probably get the lower grade. No whining. It's clearcut and everyone knows the system from day one. (btw, every study of peer review among students shows that students perform at a higher level, and with more care, when they know they are being evaluated by their peers than when they know only the teacher and the TA will be grading)."

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BANGALORE (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's $12 billion community college initiative could have an impact on the fortunes of for-profit education companies that offer associate degrees, but analysts say funding for the program is not big enough to make much difference.

Obama's 10-year program, unveiled last week, focuses on associate and vocational degree programs at government-funded community colleges and is aimed at getting people back to school and have them ready for "21st century jobs." Analysts said the program for community colleges could make them more competitive against firms such as Apollo Group Inc, Corinthian Colleges, ITT Educational Services Inc and Lincoln Educational Services Corp. However, they said the amount of money earmarked for the program would result in only a marginal increment in budgets for community colleges and have a small impact on these companies in the short term.

Analysts say community colleges lack facilities and flexibility that companies like Apollo offer. "One of the reasons Apollo was successful with its two-year programs was they make it so easy for someone to continue to work full time and enroll in school," Urdan said. "Community colleges are not good at that. They have a more rigid schedule." "We think for-profits will continue to outshine community colleges on student support services, flexible schedules, and lower teacher to student ratios," J.P. Morgan Securities' Andrew Steinerman wrote in a note dated July 14. [Reuters]

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The last few weeks have witnessed a truly remarkable discussion in Washington and on Wall Street surrounding for-profit higher education.

Reports (and sometimes rumors) about the prospect of tougher federal regulation of career colleges by the Obama administration have made the rounds among Wall Street analysts, driving the stocks of the largest, publicly traded companies in the sector down by more than 20 percent and prompting the U.S. Education Department two weeks ago to hold unprecedented conference calls with investors and analysts to try to reassure them that department officials did not have it in for for-profit colleges.

The biggest dust-up, though, came last month when the department announced that it would undertake a new round of negotiations over possible changes to federal regulations governing policy areas, such as incentive compensation paid to student recruiters, that are predominantly a factor among career colleges.

The announcement of the new regulatory review was made quietly (as is the norm) in the Federal Register, but after some analysts cast the review as big trouble for the industry and others began bombarding the department with calls seeking clarification, Shireman decided to hold the unprecedented conference calls.

Jeffrey Volshteyn, a vice president at J.P. Morgan, is among the analysts who thinks that “people are just reading way too much into this,” and that the department will “enforce the rules just like it always has,” for the for-profit colleges and all others.

Jeffrey Silber of BMO Capital Markets, who is among the longest-serving analysts of the career college sector, tends to agree with Volshteyn that the department is not taking particular aim at for-profit colleges. But he also said that the uncertainty about the department’s agenda for rule making (an agenda that will take shape, in part, out of public hearings that begin this week) and the general inclination toward regulation of a Democratic administration are likely to provide plenty of fodder for those who seek to keep for-profit colleges -- and their stocks -- on the defensive.

“Could you see increased regulation” of for-profit colleges? he asked rhetorically. “Sure, though probably on the margins. But this thing is not going to be resolved for months, and there’s no telling what kind of noise will be generated in the meantime.” [Inside Higher Ed]

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In his remarks, the president himself acknowledged that job training was not a “silver bullet.” But he said his new proposal, hailed as significant by education advocates, would greatly increase the number of people who earn the sort of two-year associate’s degrees that employers increasingly demand.

“In the coming years,” Mr. Obama said, “jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience. We will not fill those jobs, or keep those jobs on our shores, without the training offered by community colleges.”

Most of the $12 billion in Mr. Obama’s plan would go toward programs enticing community colleges to do more to lift graduation rates and better prepare students for jobs. Some would go to the modernizing of facilities as well, and some to the development of an Internet curriculum available to students everywhere.

Officials said that over the next 12 years, the plan would increase the number of community college graduates by a total of five million beyond the number who would graduate without it.

The new federal money would be spent over the course of a decade, starting with the fiscal year that begins in October. Officials said the cost of the legislation would be covered by savings from the president’s plan to end the role of private banks in the federal education lending system.

Representative George Miller, the California Democrat who heads the House Education and Labor Committee, said Tuesday that he would incorporate the president’s community college plan into the student loan bill, which Mr. Miller expects to introduce on Wednesday.

The loan legislation is facing an intense lobbying campaign by banks, making it one of several tough initiatives Mr. Obama is trying to push through Congress before the August recess. [The New York Times]

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Margaret West, a longtime adjunct at Edmonds Community College, in Washington State, was set to become the first part-time faculty member to lead the union at her college about a year ago when administrators decided not to renew her contract.

But the American Federation of Teachers reports that Ms. West — who worked for 21 years at Edmonds — is on the way to getting her job back.

The Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission ordered the college to stop discriminating against Ms. West in retaliation for her union activities, to immediately reinstate her in her old job or an equivalent one, and to give her back pay and the benefits she lost when her contract wasn’t renewed. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced grants to 15 community colleges and five states. The gifts total $16.5 million (with each college receiving $743,000 over three years), and are focused on strengthening remedial education programs to improve retention and graduation rates.
The foundation is seeking to empower institutions to tailor their instruction to struggling students, thereby increasing students’ chances of completing coursework and degree requirements. The program is called the Developmental Education Initiative.

State grants (to Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia) are intended to support implementation of new data collection systems that will help gauge the effects of these remedial programs. [The New York Times]

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If you’re thinking of heading off to a community college next year to either pick up an associate’s degree or save some money on your core credits for a bachelor’s degree, expect company. Similarly, if you’re planning to attend a for-profit career college to up your chances of landing a decent job, you are definitely not alone. During recessions, people typically flock to college, often choosing cheaper or quicker degree programs to help them get on their feet and be more competitive on the workforce. Enrollment is up at career colleges and community colleges are expecting a similar increase.

One group of students may actually see less competition, though. The number of students taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) this year is down, suggesting that fewer students may be planning to apply for graduate programs. [Career College Central]

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ORLANDO -- The increasing push by federal and state governments alike to tie financial support for colleges to their success in retaining and graduating students concerns officials at institutions with large numbers of students who are from low-income backgrounds or are the first in their families to go to college. It's not that they mind being held accountable, say officials at open-access four-year public universities, community colleges, and for-profit institutions; they just don't want to be punished for admitting and trying to educate those who have historically had the least access to higher education and who enter college with the most risk factors that tend to drag students down.

A study previewed this week at the annual meeting of the Career College Association here seeks to make the case that any assessment of colleges' success in getting students to the finish line must take into account the students' attributes when they start. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the study, which was financed by the Imagine America Foundation, which works on behalf of for-profit colleges, also asserts that commercial career colleges have more success graduating high-risk students than do other types of institutions. [Inside Higher Ed]
 

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U.S. News & World Report is on the verge of officially announcing a major expansion of its rankings Web site. The announcement will focus on the new "University Directory" that has been in beta. The directory has a broader focus than the rankings -- with extensive listings in distance education and adult continuing education, not just the four-year residential colleges that are the focus of the rankings.

Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News, stressed that the expansion of the magazine's education Web site was related to serving students. "The idea is to go beyond the four-year brick-and-mortar college," he said. Many adult students are enrolling online, and the approach the magazine takes to its rankings isn't meeting their needs. U.S. News, he said, recognizes that for many potential students, the colleges that top the rankings aren't the places they are considering and the new directory will help them. (Along the same lines, but still in development, U.S. News is exploring the idea of a community college directory and rankings, but the rankings are unlikely to be similar to those of four-year institutions, he said.)

At least initially, there are no plans to rank the adult and distance programs. "We just don't think the data are available," Kelly said. [Inside Higher Ed]

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Washington — Community colleges and the job-training programs they provide are already among the big winners under President Obama’s higher-education and economic-recovery policies. Now word comes from the White House that they may benefit again, reports The Swamp, a blog operated by the Washington bureau of the Chicago Tribune.

Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff, told the Democratic Leadership Council today that Mr. Obama would soon announce plans for a sizable increase in federal support for job-training programs at community colleges. “In the next couple of weeks, you will see a major announcement by the president on community colleges and job training,” Mr. Emanuel was quoted as saying. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]
 

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Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced a new $7-million grant program for community colleges to provide job training for laid-off autoworkers and other unemployed people.

The grants will provide seed funds for community colleges and other organizations to develop programs that help adults develop new career skills.

The new programs can offer services such as tutoring and academic and career counseling, or remove financial constraints for adults returning to college by assisting with child care, transportation, or textbook costs. The programs are meant to serve as national models that can be replicated elsewhere in the country.

The Department of Education expects by mid-September to award 28 grants of $300,000 to $750,000 each over a three-year period, with projects beginning on or about October 1. However, the new programs, which will be financed through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, or Fipse, must be sustainable beyond the grant period.

The grant application will be published in Friday’s Federal Register. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

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Washington — President Obama told a joint session of Congress in February that the United States should have the world’s highest proportion of college graduates by 2020. An author of a new report on how the nation fares in higher education compared with other developed nations says that the United States is not really that far back because of how other nations measure degree attainment.

However, there are still some challenges to meeting the president’s goal, said Arthur M. Hauptman, an independent higher-education consultant and one of the new report’s authors. The nation spends the most in the world per-student on higher education, with the lion’s share flowing to four-year institutions. Instead, more money should be focused on helping students complete community college, Mr. Hauptman said.

While the United States is second only to Norway in the percentage of its working-age population with a bachelor’s degree, it is ninth among countries in the proportion of two-year degrees that its residents hold. In addition, the report recommends, the money should be given to institutions based on their degree completions, not their enrollment. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]