The Other 85 Percent

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education describes a program by the American Council on Education (ACE) to grow programs designed for veterans and to identify programs that “actually work.” The focus on veterans, outcomes, effectiveness, and the use of data for improvement is great. This initiative has the potential to benefit [...]

As readers of this blog are aware, I have been keeping track of the presidential candidates’ positions on higher education and watching for recognition of the other 85% – adult, part-time, financially independent students.
This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education is a report on the first day of the Democratic National Convention and adoption [...]

I have previously posted about the education positions of the presidential candidates and criticized both candidates for failing to address the needs of adult, part-time, and financially independent students—the other 85%.  In a comment to my August 4 blog post, one person suggested that I was expressing my “political loyalties” and asserting the other 85 [...]

Recently the Chronicle of Higher Education had two articles on the same day reporting on accountability issues being discussed at the annual meeting of the Association for Institutional Research.
http://chronicle.com/news/article/4552/colleges-must-prepare-for-new-wave-of-federal-oversight-speaker-warns?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/05/2972n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
In the first article, the speaker “expressed regret” that the relationships of colleges, accreditors, and federal regulators are being transformed and predicts a number of new data [...]

This article highlights a new federal requirement to “authenticate” that online students are who they claim to be. Ostensibly this is to curb cheating on tests. Never mind that no one has demonstrated that cheating is a bigger issue online than in the classroom. But what is happening, as reported in the [...]

This recent coverage of the 21st Century GI Bill reveals that veterans tend to enroll in community college and for-profit institutions because of cost, convenience, and because these institutions cater to their needs. The bill is a very good thing for veterans and is the right thing to do. It basically provides veterans [...]

This week one of the giants of higher education, and especially higher education for adults, the University of Phoenix, released its inaugural “Annual Academic Report.” The report covered student satisfaction ratings, scores on the Measurement of Academic Proficiency and Progress (MAPP), the Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS) and financial information. The university [...]

I have been following the presidential candidates and hoped that, per this article, Senator Obama had addressed higher education. However, the text of the speech reveals that this was about K-12, and references to either TRIO or GEAR UP was made in passing. Hopefully, as the campaign heats up over the next several [...]

Last week the higher education media reported on an important publication by Cliff Adelman, who has been cited previously in this blog.
Article 1
Article 2

I am pleased to see that others are concerned about the lack of focus on adult learners and look forward to seeing the data referenced in this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Thanks to CAEL and NCHEMS for teaming up to gather this data and draw attention to the needs of adult [...]