Thursday, July 22, 2010

Key Characteristics of Higher Ed Schools that Graduate More Students

Grant Makers for Education report
From Access to Success: A Funders Guide to Ensuring More Americans Earn Postsecondary Degrees
http://edfunders.org/downloads/GFEReports/GFE_FromAccessToSuccess_FundersGuide.pdf

indicates:
"Postsecondary institutions that graduate significantly higher percentages of students share several key characteristics:
1. They use data consistently and from the start, reviewing performance data starting in the first six weeks of the semester. They act quickly on the data to get students (and faculty and staff) the support they need, from the first moment it’s clear they need it.
2. They’re redesigning the courses where they lose a lot of students, often introductory classes that have become early barriers rather than
early entry to college success.
3. They require what matters: anything that contributes to student success——such as attendance in lectures, labs and tutoring sessions——becomes required. When students know they are held accountable for particular activities, they are more likely to complete those activities, and thus more likely to graduate.
4. They clearly assign responsibility for student success. At the department level, at the advisory level, at the leadership level——people look at, talk about and act on student progress, because they know they are accountable for it.
5. Their leaders focus on student success as an institutional priority, with presidents and provosts making it clear in their speeches, in meetings and throughout the institution’s activities that improving graduation rates is the very core of their institutional mission.
6. They don’t give up on students, which keeps students from giving up on themselves. Schools reach out to students who have left, asking them to come back and providing the supports they need to succeed once they return."

Quote from report, p, 4, retrieved July 22, 2010

Postsecondary Education --Progress towards 2025 Goals

Greetings, for reports on progress towards Postsecondary Education Goals in the US for 2025, see


http://completionagenda.collegeboard.org/reports

Website includes links to

2010 Progress Report
"The commission’s goal of 55 percent of young adults receiving a postsecondary credential by 2025 can be measured on a regular basis. The 2010 Progress Report identifies measures that give some indication of the current status and future changes that impact the goal and recommendations, and illustrates the degree to which the nation is moving toward - or away from - the necessary steps for ensuring an educated and enlightened citizenry."



State Policy Guide
"The College Board and the National Conference of State Legislatures joined together to produce a practical policy guide to help state legislators to pursue each of the commission’s recommendations. The State Policy Guide offers a road map toward increasing the number of Americans who attain a postsecondary degree, and empowers legislators to be an even more positive and active force in education reform."


Quotes from website retrieved July 22, 2010

Changes in Higher Education Enrollment

In
"The End of Admissions As We Know It"
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-End-of-Admissions-as-We/25677/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Eric Hoover alerts us to
a new white paper, “The End of Higher Education Enrollment as We Know It,” written by "Greg Perfetto, vice president for research and development at Admissions Lab (formerly 422 Group), a higher-education consulting firm."

Mr Perfetto predicts "tomorrow’s students will be more 'employment oriented' than before; and that near-term financial considerations (as opposed to the perceived long-term value of an education) will probably shape colleges choices more than they do today." and “The future college prospect … will have a very different orientation toward technology, information, and, most of all, creditability.”

The full report is available via http://www.admissionslab.com/portals/0/white-papers/The-End-of-Higher-Education-Enrollment.pdf

The Web Means the End of Forgetting, in New York Times

Check out
"The Web Means the End of Forgetting"
By JEFFREY ROSEN
in The New York Times, 7/25/2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?th&emc=th

Jeffrey Rosen discusses "a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever."

Rosen also mentions in passing that "the Library of Congress recently announced that it will be acquiring — and permanently storing — the entire archive of public Twitter posts since 2006."

Quotes are from the article, accessed July 22, 2010 via http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?th&emc=th

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Morningstar Methodologies for rating funds, stocks, ETFs and corporate bond ratings

Ever wonder how Morningstar determines its ratings for funds, stocks, ETFs and corporate bonds?

The most recent Morningstar Library Edition,* alerts us that Morningstar methodologies for rating funds, stocks, ETFs and corporate bonds are now available under the Help & Education page of the Morningstar database, which GGU students and faculty can access through the University Library database pages. You can also access the methodolgies from the callout box icon on the data pages themselves, or from the Morningstar Rating Tab on the "left side navigation bar for all stocks, funds, and ETFs. From there you can get the Star Ratings and access the data definitions." Quote is from Morningstar Investment Research Center E-Newsletter by Susan Dziubinski Vol. 9, Issue 8 July 13, 2010


Following is an excerpt from this Morningstar Library Edition,

"The Help & Education page contains documents that explain the rationale and calculations that make up the Morningstar Ratings for funds, stocks, ETFs, and corporate bonds. You can find these PDFs in the lower right corner of the Help & Education page, just below the glossary."

"Ratings methodologies vary for each investment type: Mutual fund ratings are calculated very differently than stock ratings. Each document will explain how the rating works and what that means for investors. The ratings have one common theme: They range from one to five stars, except for the Bond Ratings, which use a scale from AAA down to B.

"Another way to get the information on Morningstar Ratings and measures is on the data pages themselves. For example, you'll notice on a stock's quote page that there is a callout box set beside the Morningstar proprietary terms. This allows you to get the definition by just clicking on the icon. There is also a Morningstar Rating tab on the left-side navigation bar for all stocks, funds, and ETFs. From there you can get the Star Ratings and access the data definitions."

Excerpt is from
*Morningstar Investment Research Center E-Newsletter by Susan Dziubinski Vol. 9, Issue 8 July 13, 2010

For more information and guidance on using Morningstar for GGU related research, GGU students and faculty are encouraged to contact your friendly GGU Ulib librarians. You can stop by the reference desk, call 415 442-7244, e mail askalibrarian@ggu.edu, or IM us from the University Library homepage, LibGuides, or Facebook Page. We are here for you.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Wanted to share with you

Careers Slideshow:
The C-Suite: 6 Skills To Advance Your Career

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Careers/The-CSuite-6-Skills-To-Advance-Your-Career-348014/?kc=EWWHNEMNL07192010EOAD

By Dennis McCafferty on 2010-07-14

which came through on CIO Insight today --and is relevant for other fields, as well as Information Management and Technology.

Check it out. What do you think are key skills for career advancement?

Trends in College Spending: 1998-2008

Check out
Trends in College Spending, 1 9 9 8 - 2 0 0 8 : Where does the money come from? Where does i t go? WHAT DOES IT BUY?
from Delta Cost Project

as described in NACUBO Bulletin, July 19, 2010

"New Report Examines Trends in College Spending
The Delta Cost Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity, and Accountability has released a report examining trends in spending and revenue at colleges and universities in the United States from 1998 to 2008. In addition, the Delta Cost Project has unveiled its Trends in College Spending (TCS) Online, a Web-based database that tracks the spending and revenue sources of 2,300 public and private colleges and universities."

Above quote is from NACUBO Bulletin, July 19 2010


The web-based database is available via http://www.tcs-online.org/Home.aspx

"Trends in College Spending (TCS) Online is an interactive web-based data system that gives higher education stakeholders easy access to information on finance, performance, and enrollments for individual institutions, groups of institutions, or the nation as a whole. Recent patterns in higher education finance are presented using six primary "metrics" compiled by the Delta Cost Project (shown below). These metrics mirror those in the Delta Cost Project’s Trends in College Spending reports, where national-level patterns and trends are presented. The TCS system allows institutional-level comparisons with those national data. " Quote from website
retrieved July 19, 2010

Report is available via http://www.deltacostproject.org/resources/pdf/Trends-in-College-Spending-98-08.pdf

"The data in this report were drawn from the Delta Cost Project IPEDS database, which
was developed using publicly available data reported to the federal government
through annual IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) surveys on
higher education finance, enrollments, completions, and student aid. Adjustments
were made to harmonize and standardize the data as much as possible to account for
changes over time in accounting standards and IPEDS reporting formats. These
adjustments ensure reasonable consistency in the patterns over time and allow broad
comparisons between public and private institutions. The data are standardized by
FTE enrollments and adjusted for inflation to further facilitate these comparisons."
Quote is from Report, p. 6, retrieved July 19, 2010