February 13, 2015: Education News We're Reading This Week

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February 13, 2015—Here are the best articles from education news this week.

Anthony P. Carnevale states, in this Inside Higher Ed article, that “”We’re headed for full employment” of bachelor’s-degree-holding workers.” January’s federal jobs report showed a 2.8 percent unemployment rate for those with at least a four-year degree.

This trend coincides with data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey, which shows that 44 percent plan to attend graduate school and 33 percent plan to pursue a doctorate or professional degree.

NPR takes a sobering but important look at the “college-access divide,” the reality of how growing up in a low-income family can severely affect your chances of getting to and graduating from college.

Weeks after President Obama’s introduction of the plan for free community college, Diverse writes about the American Community College Trustees Legislative Summit which contained its fair share of doubters. Questions over financial plausibility were raised at Tuesday’s event in D.C.

Fortune reports on the most popular STEM majors and how employers may soon be gifted with an array of young graduates from these fields.

In January The Washington Post published this article stating that the “Majority of U.S. Public School Students are in Poverty.” A closer look reveals that while half qualify for free and reduced lunch, many of those students do not live in families that live below the poverty line.

According to U.S. Department of Education officials, the Obama administration’s college ratings may be released sooner than expected in late spring or early summer 2015.

The Wall Street Journal, however, explains that technical and political complications may slow down the process. Undersecretary Ted Mitchell stated that funding may be tied to the new rating system only if the administration is comfortable with its initial assessment.

Twenty-six percent of community college students who transferred to a four-year university before completing the sufficient credits for an associate’s degree do not complete their bachelor’s, writes The Washington Post. Many, though, may have enough credits to receive an associate’s—but are never informed by a college advisor.

Through an effort to ramp up publicity and social media marketing, and possibly to reach typically underrepresented groups, Harvard has announced a nine percent jump in applicants. While a record 37,305 students applied to the Ivy League university this year, many have expressed frustration that a high percentage of those will almost certainly face rejection.

The Washington Post featured the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation with a focus on last week’s “Closing the Excellence Gap” summit.

Education Week also covered the event, with Caralee Adams highlighting the need for improvement in legislation.

“Breaking Down Walls,” a Cooke Foundation report on community college transfer students, was the subject of a new article in The Youngstown Vindicator.

A number of our “Closing the Excellence Gap” attendees were featured in articles about the summit, such as Lynette Breedlove in WKU News and Cleo Samudzi in the Maryville Daily Forum.