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ARE COLLEGE STUDENTS LEARNING? Jonathan Zimmerman of New York University writes in the L.A. Times: Heres the big open secret in American higher education: Most institutions have no meaningful way to measure the quality of their instruction. And the president didnt ask us to develop one, either. Instead, he suggested that the federal government tie student aid to colleges success in reducing tuition and in helping students move forward. In a follow-up speech at the University of Michigan on Friday, he called for a college score card that would rank institutions according to cost, graduation rates and future earnings.

The shadow of the APS cheating scandal is apparently hard to escape. Especially if you know how to use Google.

From the Connecticut Post:

BRIDGEPORT A consultant brought in by Interim Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas to help fix the school district left days after she arrived when it was learned she was caught up in one of the nations largest cheating scandals.

Millicent Few, the former human resources director for the Atlanta school system, spent two days in the district, according to Vallas, who said he let her go Tuesday.

She is not going to remain on the transition team. She is gone. She may be the most skilled person on the planet but I dont need any controversy, said Vallas.

Few, who was with the Atlanta system for a dozen years, resigned in July with a number of other system leaders amid a widespread standardized-test cheating scandal that reportedly involved 178 teachers and principals and 44 schools. According to a Atlanta School District investigation by the state of Georgia and released in June 2011, Few, on two occasions, ordered those under her supervision to illegally destroy and alter public documents in order to hide evidence related to test cheating and misconduct.

In published reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Few denied to investigators that she tampered with documents or ordered anyone else to do so.

Vallas said Few was recommend by Elizabeth Arons, a New York-based human resources consultant for school districts who also does work with the Gates Foundation Human Capital Reforms. The cheating scandal was brought up, but Vallas said he was told Few was outstanding and was an innocent casualty of the cheating controversy. He said he has since done more online research.

The newspaper articles and the online network suggests otherwise, although we cannot attest to the veracity of those accusations, Vallas said. I felt and we mutually agreed her services would not be in her best interest at this time.

Vallas said that he will have to step up the search for a permanent human resources director. This time Ill do a Google search, Vallas said.

Yesterday I described how you can use College Results Online to help you generate a promising list of college. If you missed it, here it is:

Heres another idea:  Head to The Center for College Affordability and Productivity, which is the think tank that generates Forbes magazines annual college rankings.

On the centers site you can find the schools that Forbes thinks are the best, as well as other lists that are broken down by region, type of schools and more. Forbes ranks 650 colleges and universities.

The Forbes rankings measure these five areas:

•   Student satisfaction (A big factor is RateMyProfessor.com evaluations.)
•   Post-graduate success (Graduates salaries compiled by PayScale.com.
•    Student debt (How much students owe upon graduation.)
•    Four-year grad rate (Most students dont graduate in four years.)
•    Student competitive awards (Includes Rhodes, Fulbright, Watson and more.)

Here is where you can find an exhaustive explanation of the methodology.

What I like about the magazines rankings is it can help you uncover colleges that you didnt know exist. When you look at the master list, lots of prestige schools rise to the top, but so do little-known institutions that do extremely well. In contrast, some hot brand names like Cornell, USC,  Penn, NYU and Washington University in St. Louis dont fare nearly as well as youd expect if you believe that the rankings over at US News are gospel. (Please dont!)

Schools that fared better in the Forbes rankings than some of those heavy hitters included such institutions as:

• Centre College (KY)
• St. Michael’s College (VT)
• Transylvania University (KY)
• St. Norbert College (WI)
• Westmont College (CA)
• University of Redlands (CA)
• St. Olaf College (MN)
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges (NY)
• University of Minnesota at Morris

By the way, the University of Minnesota at Morris is a public liberal arts college which gives in-state tuition ($12,o91) to all students! The school in Morris edged out the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Here are all the ways the Forbes slices and dices the master list. This is a screen shot so you will have to go to the site to access these lists.

The lists that I particularly like are the ones broken down by region because most students do not stray outside their region. Im using the Midwest list as example because these schools are often a better value than those on the coasts. Also, there isnt as much competition to get into wonderful schools in the Midwest because few families outside the region even know about them! Its the same story in the South.

I bet it didnt take you long to stop recognizing the Midwestern schools on this list. And thats why I shared it. There are amazing schools in this country that just need discovering. What you should resist doing is believing the No. 1 is better than No. 19 and No. 25 has to be than No. 50. Just use these lists as idea generators!

If youre a real numbers person, you might also want to check out the centers component rankings list, where you can tease out such things as the schools where the students are happiest with the teaching, earn the highest salaries upon graduation and more.

Bellevue football coach Butch Goncharoff has applied to coach at Orange Lutheran in California, the Los Angeles Times is reporting. .

Goncharoff told Eric Sondheimer Tuesday he has applied for the job, telling the reporter, “It’s a great area and a great situation. I wouldn’t have applied if I wasn’t interested. We’ll see what happens.”

I just caught up with Goncharoff, who said he has never applied for a new job since being hired at Bellevue. He just wanted to go through the process.

“I’ve never gone through the process before,” said Goncharoff, who has won nine state titles in 11 years. “There’s nothing about Bellevue I’m displeased about. It’s awesome. The community is great. The school is great. My situation is unbelievable. I just want to put myself out there, take a look at it.”

He added, “I’ve never said I’m leaving. I’m just going through the process for whatever that’s worth.”

The achievement gap between low-income students and their more affluent peers has grown by roughly 40% since the 1960s, according to a recent study by researchers at Stanford University. Another study from University of Michigan researchers shows a 50% increase since the late 1980s in the imbalance between rich and poor students completing college. Furthermore, researchers say they expect the gap to widen amid the effects of the economic downturn.

It is a well-known fact that children from affluent families tend to do better in school. Yet the income divide has received far less attention from policy makers and government officials than gaps in student accomplishment by race.

Now, in analyses of long-term data published in recent months, researchers are finding that while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period.  Additionally, the gap also exists at the college level.  In a study conducted by The University of Michigan, researchers looked at two generations of students, those born from 1961 to 1964 and those born from 1979 to 1982. By 1989, about one-third of the high-income students in the first generation had finished college; by 2007, more than half of the second generation had done so. By contrast, only 9 percent of the low-income students in the second generation had completed college by 2007, up only slightly from a 5 percent college completion rate by the first generation in 1989.  Some experts maintain that the recession over the past few years has not only impacted the gap but will continue to widen it.

Read the entire article here at NYTimes.com with additional information about the research data.

Schoodoodle.com carries a wide selection of resources to improve teaching and learning in preschool through high school.  Also, browse our materials designed to help parents support the learning process at home such as  Parental Involvement resources,  resources for home school kids, early childhood, standardized test prep, and learning games for kids.

“A 20-percent increase in tuition would make higher education for a student like me nearly impossible. If financial aid was to be opened up to middle-class white students, it would make education for me a lot easier than packing on the loans and having a second job. Right now I work as much as possible and I take out as much as I can in unsubsidized loans.”

Justin Nygard

Sophomore, undeclared

“The hope is that I’ll gain a scholarship. My plan used to be to do a ROTC scholarship, but now ROTC has stopped doing all of their scholarships. They won’t do that until next year, and by next year, we won’t have the money to put me through school. As it is, I’ve got a transfer degree, but if tuition increases I won’t be able to finish up my education.”

Timothy Vo

Sophomore, Chinese

“It just means a lot more student loans. I’m already going to try to graduate as fast as humanly possible, so I’m probably going to be taking as many credits as I can without having to pay the extra tuition for credits. I’m going to try my hardest to get out by summer of next year instead of doing a senior year, because I cannot afford to keep going to this school.”

Keena Bean

Junior, undeclared

“It would be a big impact. It’s disappointing that our state isn’t prioritizing education more, and that the school has to pass the burden of everything that they have to buy to the students because that’s the only way that they can pay for it.”

Bradford Walzer

Junior, political science