University System News:
www.valdostatoday.com
BUSINESS PROGRAMS AT VSU NAMED 2017’S MOST AFFORDABLE
http://valdostatoday.com/2017/07/business-programs-at-vsu-named-2017s-most-affordable/
Valdosta State University has been recognized on a national level for offering an exceptional online business education at an affordable price. To determine its rankings, the SR Education Group’s OnlineU analyzed data from United States-based institutions of higher education offering at least one business degree online. The top 25 colleges and universities — chosen for their commitment to providing high quality, rigorous academics at an affordable tuition rate — made the final cut. VSU came in at No. 1 on the 2017 Most Affordable Online Colleges for Business Degrees list.
www.wtoc.com
GSU School of Nursing receives federal grant to help serve rural medical centers
http://www.wtoc.com/story/35880177/gsu-school-of-nursing-receives-federal-grant-to-help-serve-rural-medical-centers
By Dal Cannady, Reporter
The Georgia Southern University School of Nursing received a $1.3 million grant this week to bring nursing students to rural medical centers. This federal grant not only helps nursing graduates come back and further their education, it also helps serve rural areas that are perpetually underserved. The grant will help nurses who’ve already earned their four-year degree but want to pursue another degree as a nurse practitioner. It would help them with tuition and school expenses. It will require them to complete at least part of their clinical hours in one of five rural medical facilities.
www.benzinga.com
James Madison High School Partners with eCore College Credit Program
Program helps students earn college credit while still in high school
https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/17/07/p9773650/james-madison-high-school-partners-with-ecore-college-credit-program
James Madison High School has partnered with the eCore College Credit Program to help its students earn college credit through eCore’s Move On When Ready (MOWR) program. eCore, a collaborative program with the University System of Georgia (USG), was established with the goal to make higher education more accessible within the state of Georgia. The eCore program offers students the opportunity to complete undergraduate and general educational requirements online via colleges and universities within the USG. Through the Move On When Ready (MOWR) program, in conjunction with eCore and the University of West Georgia, high school students in 10th through 12th grade can take college courses and earn college and high school credits simultaneously, gaining valuable college credit before they finish high school.
Higher Education News:
www.getchooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Our schools are becoming more segregated. Do parents care?
http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2017/07/13/our-schools-are-becoming-more-segregated-do-parents-care/
The resegregation of public schools in the South troubles academics, civil rights activists and researchers. It’s been on the agenda of every major education conference or seminar I’ve attended in the last three years. However, it doesn’t seem to be on the minds of parents. Parents worry about whether class sizes are too large, whether math and science courses are advanced enough and whether their kids are competitive for Georgia Tech or the University of Georgia. They don’t seem to fret about whether their child sits next to a child of a different race or ethnicity — and fewer students do, a byproduct of growing residential segregation and school choice programs. Yes, parents endorse diversity in principle, but not enough to pester the school board or push for rezoning to achieve racial balance.
www.edsurge.com
How Boundaries Between Colleges and Companies Will Continue to Blur
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-07-10-how-boundaries-between-colleges-and-companies-will-continue-to-blur
By Jeffrey R. Young
Some employers are starting to focus more energy on offering educational benefits to their employees, while colleges are struggling to respond to the growing interest by students in helping them land a job. A new center at Northeastern University sits at the intersection of these two areas—called the Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy. Its director, Sean Gallagher, thinks it’s time for college leaders and employers to sit down and collaborate, even as he stresses that colleges need to assert their broader educational goals (such as preparing people to continue learning beyond just the skills of today). EdSurge sat down with Gallagher during the ASU+GSV Summit in May to learn about why he predicts that when it comes to education, the line between colleges and companies will continue to blur.
www.insidehighered.com
Proliferating Partnerships
Interest is high in public-private partnerships, which are allowing universities to pursue new types of financing and projects. But speakers warn that they aren’t a magic bullet.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/07/14/speakers-explore-latest-developments-public-private-partnerships?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8f3d5b8e63-DNU20170714&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8f3d5b8e63-197515277&mc_cid=8f3d5b8e63&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Rick Seltzer
Public-private partnership models are continuing to proliferate as cash-strapped colleges and universities seek to replace or update aging and outdated infrastructure amid tight finances. That proliferation is on display in many of the large development projects institutions announce, like the ambitious billion-dollar-plus campus expansion plan the University of California, Merced, unveiled last year that uses a public-private partnership to build and operate new facilities. And it was evident at the Society for College and University Planning’s annual conference in Washington this week, where several sessions focused on public-private partnerships, which are often called P3s.
www.insidehighered.com
DeVos Hints at Changes in Title IX Enforcement
Education secretary, after day of meetings on campus sex assaults, says that “many things are not working well.” Advocates fear she will loosen requirements of colleges.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/07/14/after-full-day-meetings-title-ix-devos-says-improvements-needed?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8f3d5b8e63-DNU20170714&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8f3d5b8e63-197515277&mc_cid=8f3d5b8e63&mc_eid=8f1f949a06
By Andrew Kreighbaum
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos didn’t announce plans to rescind guidance from the Obama administration Thursday after a full day of closed-door meetings about Title IX policy. But she hinted that changes are coming.
In a 15-minute meeting with reporters, DeVos said there are substantive legal questions to be addressed regarding evidentiary standards for findings of sexual assault or harassment on campus, due process, and public input on policy.
“There are some things that are working. There are many things that are not working well,” she said in the Q&A session. “We need to get this right.”
www.nytimes.com
DeVos Says She Will Revisit Obama-Era Sexual Assault Policies
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/us/devos-college-sexual-assault.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170713&nlid=56919083&tntemail0=y&_r=0
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos signaled on Thursday that she intends to take a hard look at whether the Obama administration’s campus rape policies deprived accused students of their rights, saying that “a system without due process ultimately serves no one in the end.” The comments, Ms. DeVos’s first on the issue of how the Education Department will handle sexual assault on college and university campuses, came at a news conference after what she called a “really emotionally draining day” of meeting with victims, students who had been accused and higher education officials. “It was clear that their stories have not often been told, and that there are lives that have been ruined and lives that are lost in the process,” Ms. DeVos said, referring to accused students. But she was careful to say that she intends to protect victims’ rights as well. “We can’t go back to the days when allegations were swept under the rug,” Ms. DeVos said, “and I acknowledge there was a time when women were essentially dismissed. That is not acceptable.”
www.chronicle.com
Who Does DeVos’s Department Really Represent?
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Who-Does-DeVos-s-Department/240643?cid=wsinglestory_hp_1
By Adam Harris and Eric Kelderman
Six tumultuous months into the Trump administration, at least one constant remains: On higher education, Betsy DeVos is still seen as a black box. When Ms. DeVos was narrowly confirmed as education secretary in February, she was known chiefly for her greatest passion: elementary- and secondary-school choice, an issue she framed as an act of advocacy for students and parents as consumers. How, higher-education observers asked, would that vision play out in their sector? Many are still asking that question. Under Ms. DeVos, the department has taken action on a few key policies: It has “paused” two Obama-era rules designed to hold colleges accountable for bad behavior and unimpressive results, leaving those rules to be renegotiated. It has narrowed the scope of the department’s investigations into campus sexual assaults. And it will move to a single loan servicer.
www.nytimes.com
How Universal College Admission Tests Help Low-Income Students
Economic View
By SUSAN DYNARSKI
Parents who have gone through this process themselves, and have the time and resources, can coach, nag and wheedle their children through it. Other children are largely on their own. Guidance counselors, typically assigned hundreds (sometimes thousands) of students, can’t replace an informed, well-resourced parent. Consider the ACT and the SAT, the college entrance exams required for admission to most selective colleges in the United States. Students typically have to register and pay for these tests and travel to an exam center on a weekend to take them. This requires internet access, a computer, a credit card and, maybe, a car. Testing-fee waivers are now available for low-income students, but they are underused. Over half of students nationwide are eligible for subsidized school meals, which would also qualify them for an SAT fee waiver. Yet just 10 percent of students who took the SAT in 2017 used a waiver, probably because securing one requires the assistance of overburdened guidance counselors.
www.latimes.com
Girl Scouts offers merit badges for making friends, painting and horseback riding. Up next: cybersecurity
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-girl-scouts-cybersecurity-20170713-story.html
By Alexa D’Angelo
By selling Thin Mints and Tagalongs in kindergarten, Elizabeth Lewelling earned Girl Scout badges for customer service and managing money. Now going into eighth grade, she’s setting her sights on a topic a bit more complicated than the cookie business: cybersecurity. The 12-year-old from Palmdale is one of 1.8 million Girl Scouts nationwide who will have the opportunity starting in 2018 to adorn their vests, tunics and sashes with merit badges for information security. The move illustrates the ongoing evolution of the 105-year-old activity organization for girls, which in recent years has expanded its merit badges beyond those associated with traditionally feminine skills — think “babysitter” or “dinner party” — to include more topics related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. …The 18 new badges — earned by mastering online safety, dealing with cyberbullies and coding, among other skills — are the result of a multiyear partnership between the national girls’ nonprofit and the Silicon Valley network and enterprise security company Palo Alto Networks. Girl Scouts of the United States of America Chief Executive Sylvia Acevedo said the launch of the program shows the organization’s “advocacy for cyberpreparedness.”