Cooke Chronicle: Dec. 9, 2016

Posted December 9, 2016 | By Cooke Foundation Staff

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Dec. 9, 2016 – Here’s our weekly roundup of education news you may have missed. International test scores reinforce the need to continue improving supports for high-achieving students with financial need. Higher ed stories focus on affordability and student support.

 

Elementary & Secondary Education:

  • EdBuild reviews why ensuring equitable funding and resources to high-poverty schools is essential to their students’ success.
  • Recent results of the Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS) are “the latest source that makes the case that our general neglect of advanced learning has a price,” writes Jonathan Plucker for The Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
  • Results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) were also released this week, and despite what EdSurge calls “less encouraging outcomes,” Bloomberg highlights the decreasing correlation of socioeconomic status and school performance in the U.S.

 

Higher Education:

  • As high school graduation numbers decline, will colleges be inspired to improve supports for low-income, minority, and nontraditional students? The Hechinger Report outlines student population statistics and The Chronicle of Higher Education describes the strategies Pennsylvania is pursuing in order to adapt. As noted in Philadelphia magazine, many of the state’s institutions lack in socioeconomic diversity.
  • Despite recent advocacy efforts for year-round Pell Grant funding, the latest congressional appropriations bill does not restore summer Pell funds, reports Inside Higher Ed.
  • “We must address concerns that college is becoming increasingly unaffordable, just as increasing globalisation and technological advancement are making higher education ever more essential to achieving success, both individually and nationally,” reads a Times Higher Education commentary by Martha Kanter.

 

Cooke Foundation Highlights:

  • “A lot is written in the education press about the notion that application fees, even reasonable ones, do actually keep some kids from applying to college–especially lower-income kids and first-generation college-goers.” Read or listen to USACollegeChat’s most recent podcast, inspired by a Cooke Foundation issue brief, for tips on finding fee waivers.
  • Executive Director Harold O. Levy is quoted in The Atlantic, where he speaks to the value of early college programs in high schools.
  • In Time, Cooke Scholar Liz Dong writes about the experience of being undocumented in the current political climate.

Social Media Spotlight:

Cooke Scholar and ScholarCHIPS founder Yasmine Arrington speaks with Rev. Al Sharpton: