Thursday, August 28, 2014

News Links | August 28, 2014

SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS

Highline College joins ‘Make it in Washington’ to help state manufacturers
Highline College has joined a partnership of state organizations on an initiative to help state manufacturers “Make it in Washington.” In addition to the college, partners include the Innovate Washington Foundation, Washington Department of Commerce, Impact Washington, Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, Washington State University, and Shoreline Community College.
Waterland Blog, August 27, 2014

Big Bend Community College success rate increasing
Big Bend Community College has improved on the success rate of its students over the last couple years, boasted college President Terry Leas last week, speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon in Grand Coulee Wednesday.
Grand Coulee Star, August 27, 2014


New Bellevue College student trustee to remain humble
Stassney Obregon had just enough time to apply to the Bellevue College Board of Trustees before the 19-year-old student had to return to the Phillipines to see her ailing father. ... Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made the appointment on June 20, and Obregon replaces student trustee Takhmina Dzhuraeva when she attends her first board meeting Sept. 10.
Bellevue Reporter, August 26, 2014

TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION

College presidents want to help graduates find jobs but believe their institutions are struggling to do so, according to a recent survey by Gallup and Inside Higher Ed.
Inside Higher Ed, August 27, 2014

 
FBI Raids 2 Campuses of Shuttered For-Profit College
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Tuesday raided two campuses of Anamarc College as well as the home of the shuttered for-profit institution’s owners, the El Paso Times reported. The agents searched one of the college’s two campuses in El Paso, Tex., and its campus in Santa Teresa, N.M. The college closed in June because of financial troubles. It offered programs in medical fields and at one point enrolled more than 1,200 students on three campuses. FBI officials said they were executing search warrants at the three locations, but the nature of those searches was not immediately clear.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 28, 2014


Generation Later, Poor Are Still Rare at Elite Colleges
As the shaded quadrangles of the nation’s elite campuses stir to life for the start of the academic year, they remain bastions of privilege. Amid promises to admit more poor students, top colleges educate roughly the same percentage of them as they did a generation ago. This is despite the fact that there are many high school seniors from low-income homes with top grades and scores: twice the percentage in the general population as at elite colleges. A series of federal surveys of selective colleges found virtually no change from the 1990s to 2012 in enrollment of students who are less well off — less than 15 percent by some measures — even though there was a huge increase over that time in the number of such students going to college.
The New York Times, August 25, 2014

How to Get Girls Into Engineering? Let Them Build Toys
Two Women Launch a Startup Aimed at Giving Girls New Options (and Maybe New Futures) When Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen met in 2010, both were in engineering master's programs at Stanford University—mechanical and electrical, respectively. But there weren't many other women around. Chatting about why there were so few female engineers, the pair realized that they had both grown up with toys that encouraged them to build and make things, rather than traditional toys for girls. ... The friends agreed it would be great if there were toys aimed at nudging girls toward tinkering and eventually into engineering. In May 2012 they launched a campaign on Kickstarter to fund the development of their toys, which they dubbed Roominate.
The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2014

 

POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL


Less Prescriptive in California
California's two most powerful state politicians have taken a gentler approach in their push for public institutions to get creative with inexpensive and efficient degree offerings. Gov. Jerry Brown and State Sen. Darrell Steinberg, the Senate's president, this year included a $50 million fund for “innovation” in the state's budget. The legislation created an award program that seeks to fund ideas that bubble up from California's public universities and community colleges.
Inside Higher Ed, August 28, 2014

Washington AG warns high court of ‘slippery slope’ in public education case
The Washington Supreme Court should not go down a “slippery slope” and punish the Legislature because it didn’t come up with a complete plan to improve public schools, the state attorney general’s office said. Although public education is the state’s “paramount” duty, it is not the only duty, and the Legislature still has to pay for programs for public health, safety and welfare, Attorney General Bob Ferguson and a group of senior assistants said this week in their last written argument before all sides in the case appear before the state’s highest court next Wednesday.
The Spokesman-Review, August 27, 2014