News Links | May 22, 2014

SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS

Fostering the dream of attending college When Nikki Fayette first heard that she was moving to a group home in Elk she really didn’t want to go. The 17-year-old has been in foster care since she was 8, and she’s lived in Walla Walla, Dayton, Spokane and several other places. ... After missing half of her sophomore year, she enrolled as a junior in Riverside School District’s Alternative Program – and to her surprise she liked it. Now she’s graduating from high school and plans to attend Spokane Falls Community College in the fall. The Spokesman-Review, May 22, 2014 Cyber Security Major Now Available at Columbia Basin College Columbia Basin College has a new cyber security major, and today students in that program heard from professionals working in that field. KVEW, May 21, 2014 Clark College acquires land for north county campus Clark College has acquired 59 acres near the Ridgefield Interstate 5 junction that will allow it to take root in north Clark County with educational programs within a decade, college President Bob Knight told The Columbian on Wednesday. The Columbian, May 21, 2014 Whatcom Community College Students Design & Build Dramatic Ski to Sea Blossom Time Parade Float When Eric Fiore and his fellow Whatcom Community College student ambassadors put their minds to something, they clearly commit. The group of nine volunteers – alongside 10 English as a Second Language (ESLA) students and one Service-Learning student – have spent the last two months planning and constructing a 12-foot Orca-themed float, which will represent the college in this year’s Ski to Sea Blossom Time Grand Parade. Whatcom Community College (WCC) students have marched in the parade for the past couple of years, but to have a float is a first. Whatcom Talk, May 21, 2014 CBC student wins scholarship from former FBI agents While working as a waitress Monday night, Columbia Basin College student Alicia DeLay, 47, was asked by a female customer to tell her story. … But she was nervous, because she was going to have to make a speech Tuesday when she accepted a $2,500 scholarship that will help pay for the rest of her education. … That scholarship, paid for by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, is one of only nine awarded each year across the country. Tri-City Herald, May 21, 2014 Grant aims to place students more accurately High school graduates are to have another way of being placed into college-level classes, and possibly avoid remediation, thanks to a $150,000 grant from College Spark Washington given to the State Board for Community & Technical Colleges (SBCTC). The grant is to help three community colleges – Peninsula, Bellevue and Big Bend – use transcripts to place students in the appropriate levels of math and English classes, rather than relying on placement tests alone. Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader, May 21, 2014 Community colleges plan to offer quick competency degree The state’s community-college system is planning to offer an all-online, competency-based associate degree in business that students could earn at home in 18 months — or even earlier, if they’ve already earned some college credits. ... f the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) approves the plan in June, as is expected, the state’s community-college system would become a pioneer in the field of all-online, competency-based degrees, along with the University of Wisconsin system, which already offers them. The Seattle Times, May 20, 2014 Kirkland's Lake Washington Institute of Technology receives energy efficiency grants Lake Washington Institute of Technology has partnered with energy and facility services firm McKinstry to secure nearly $300,000 in grant money through the Washington State Energy Efficiency Grant Program. Kirkland Reporter, May 20, 2014 New LCC fitness center on pace for January opening The Myklebust Gymnasium and Fitness Center at Lower Columbia College is pumping some heavy iron these days. Work is on schedule — and on budget — for the college’s expanded athletic center, which is expected to open for winter quarter the first week of January. Longview Daily News, May 20, 2014

TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION

Education Dept. Pushes Back Release of College Ratings to Fall The Obama administration has delayed the release of its college ratings system until later this year, according to a blog post published by the Education Department on Wednesday. Inside Higher Ed, May 22, 2014 For-Profits' Fundamental Difference Let's stipulate up front that Bob Shireman is anything but an objective observer of for-profit higher education. For much of President Obama's first term, he made life a living hell for colleges in the sector through his aggressive pursuit of new regulations designed to ensure they were preparing their graduates for "gainful employment." Inside Higher Ed, May 22, 2014 Editorial: Students, taxpayers both deserve protection Colleges with higher loan default rates than graduation rates should not be eligible for federal lending programs, but they are. Sometime this month, the U.S. Department of Education will release tighter rules, but officials may first want to study an analysis of for-profit career colleges that shows the crackdown doesn’t go far enough. The Spokesman-Review, May 21, 2014 Applying or Aid May Be a Barrier for Returning Students, Too The paper considers students who receive a Pell Grant for their first year of college—who benefit, in other words, from filing their Fafsa the first time—and who earn at least a 3.0 grade-point average, an indication that “they’re well poised to continue in college,” said Ben Castleman, an assistant professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia and one of the paper’s authors. Those students would appear to have every reason to reapply for financial aid, but the researchers found that 18.5 percent of them did not. Close to half of that group did not return for their second year of college. The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 20, 2014 Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as “trigger warnings,” explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans. The New York Times, May 17, 2014

POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL

11 Years Late, Key Job-Training Legislation Finally Heads Toward Passage After many false starts, members of Congress have reached agreement on a bill to reauthorize federal job-training programs. The compromise bill, which could come to the Senate floor as early as next week, would streamline the nation’s system for work-force development, ending 15 federally funded programs and shrinking state and local work-force-investment boards. It would also apply a standard set of outcome measures to evaluate all federal job-training programs. The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 22, 2014 McCleary plaintiffs ask court to hold Legislature in contempt The plaintiffs in a landmark education-funding case told the state Supreme Court Wednesday that state lawmakers should be held in contempt for not making enough progress toward a 2018 deadline. The News Tribune, May 22, 2014 State Sen. McAuliffe reflects on 2014 legislative session McAuliffe told constituents recently that the proud moments ranged from improving college readiness by strengthening high school graduation requirements to allowing military service members in-state tuition. Everett Herald, May 20, 2014