Watch College, Inc. Tonight � The Quick and the Ed

Watch College, Inc. Tonight � The Quick and the Ed

Watch College, Inc. Tonight

by Kris Amundson

Tonight, Frontline presents “College, Inc.” This hour-long program will look at the rise of for-profit colleges–the fastest-growing (and most controversial) segment of the higher education sector.
ES Research Director Kevin Carey is one of the national experts weighing in. Here’s a preview of what he’ll say:
“One of the ideas the Department of Education has put out there is that in order for a college to be eligible to receive money from student loans, it actually has to show that the education it’s providing has enough value in the job market so that students can pay their loans back,” says Kevin Carey of the Washington think tank Education Sector. “Now, the for-profit colleges, I think this makes them very nervous,” Carey says. “They’re worried because they know that many of their members are charging a lot of money; that many of their members have students who are defaulting en masse after they graduate. They’re afraid that this rule will cut them out of the program. But in many ways, that’s the point.”
Check your local listings. Here in Washington, it will air at 9 p.m. on PBS.

Let’s Do Something About High Schools

by Chad Aldeman

Bedford High School, located in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2006 while graduating 240 students, more than 90 percent of entering freshmen. According to all existing accountability systems, this was a successful school. Of their 2006 graduates 56 percent (13 percent higher than the state average) entered an Ohio college or university right out of high school, but once there they averaged just a 2.38 GPA in their first term. A whopping 73 percent were required to take remedial, not-for-credit courses. This was considered a successful school despite publicly available data suggesting its graduates were not prepared for success in college.
At the other end of the spectrum were schools that failed to meet federal accountability rules, typically because one or more subgroups could not meet performance targets, but that, on the whole, graduated students that

QUICK Hits

by Forrest Hinton

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day. The content of these Hits is not necessarily endorsed by the organization or any particular team member.

• Is it ethical for for-profit colleges with high student loan default rates to recruit students from homeless shelters and welfare agencies? (h/t Huffington Post)
• What’s Andy Rotherham saying about charter schools today? Don’t miss his two-part series on the NYT and Michelle Rhee. (Eduwonk)
• Duncan, Spellings, Ravitch, and Vander Ark answer the question: As states prepare their Race to the Top applications, what is more important: Obtaining union buy-in or implementing bold reform ideas? (National Journal Online)
• Are our teachers and students prepared to live “the data-driven life?” (Joanne Jacobs)
• To mail or not to mail? Why some universities are refusing to play the promotion game hosted by U.S. News rankings… (The Washington Post)