Women need a push to choose STEM majors
Recruiting community college women into STEM majors isn’t rocket science, according to Donna Milgram, who’s studied the issue at eight California community colleges. Personal encouragement from instructors or counselors is needed to get women to consider predominantly male science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs, Milgram, executive director of the Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS), [...]
Mechatronics: It’s not your dad’s shop class
It’s not your father’s shop class at high schools in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley. Students now take an Engineering Explorations class that eventually could prepare them to study mechatronics engineering at Virginia Western Community College, reports the Roanoke Times. There’s demand for trained workers who understand electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and information technology, says Dan Horine, [...]
College prep for all, but a D will do
Eight years ago, under pressure to qualify more Latino and black students for college, Los Angeles Unified’s school board voted to make the college-prep courses required by state universities a graduation requirement. That policy goes into effect for ninth graders this fall. Fearing massive dropouts, district officials propose to let students graduate with 25 percent fewer [...]
‘You didn’t graduate from high school? Start college today!’
A high-poverty, nearly all-minority district near the Texas-Mexico border, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo had a high dropout rate. Now dropouts and high-risk students are finishing high school while they start career training. All students can take rigorous “early college” courses and the college-going rate doubled in three years, according to a new report from Jobs for the Future. Superintendent Daniel [...]
Early college opens the door
Early College High School Week starts today. More than 75,000 students nationwide earn free college credit at early college high schools. Hidalgo, a small South Texas district, gives all students the chance to earn college credits.
California tackles remediation challenge
California’s second-tier state universities and community colleges are taking on a huge remedial challenge, reports the Sacramento Bee. In the California State University system, which accepts the top third of high school graduates, 57 percent required remediation in English, usually writing, or mathematics, usually algebra. At community colleges, 85 percent are unprepared for college-level math and 70 percent [...]
To and through college
To raise college completion rates, students must work harder in high school and reach out for help in college, says Kai Drekmeier, co-founder of InsideTrack, in a Hechinger Report interview. Drekmeier’s company provides coaching for college students, but those who need help the most are the least likely to ask for it until it’s too late, he [...]
A head start on college, careers
Chicago will open five early college high schools that give students six years to earn a high school diploma, an associate degree (or two years of college credit) and job credentials that will put them “first in line” for an interview at high-tech companies. Partnering with employers that need skilled workers is an up-and-coming version [...]
Early tests give students time to boost skills
Cut down on college remediation by testing students’ college readiness in high school, editorializes the Boston Globe. It’s dispiriting to open a community college’s course catalog and see page after page of course descriptions on math fundamentals, including fractions and percentages. . . . about 60 percent of incoming students at the state’s 15 community [...]
Dual enrollment draws wide range of students
More than a million high school students are taking at least one college class through “dual enrollment” programs that let them earn high school and college credit at the same time, I write on U.S. News. Unlike Advanced Placement courses, which are geared to high achievers, dual enrollment is usually open to a wide range of [...]
