Freshmen grow stale

California spent nearly half a billion on college freshmen who later dropped out, study finds (LA Times)
The state spent about $466 million — more than any other state — on students at public colleges who did not return for their sophomore year.

     At a time when California's public colleges are battling to maintain state funding, a report says that over a five-year period, the state spent nearly half a billion dollars to educate first-year college students who dropped out before their sophomore year.
     The report found that California ranked first in the nation in the amount of taxpayer funds — $467 million — spent on students at four-year colleges who failed to return for a second year. Texas, with $441 million, and New York, with $403 million, ranked second and third.
     The study, prepared by the Washington-based American Institutes for Research, analyzed federal data on retention rates at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities and states' education funding between 2003 and 2008.
     Nationally, about 30% of first-year students do not return for a second year. At California public colleges, the dropout rate is about half that….

College Dropouts Cost Taxpayers Billions, Report Says (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     State and federal governments spent an estimated $9-billion between 2003 and 2008 on students who dropped out of college during their freshman year, according to a report scheduled for release on Monday.
     While that sum may be a small portion of the overall amount that governments spent on higher education during that time, it's still a high cost for failing to keep students in college, said Mark S. Schneider, vice president for education, human development, and the work force at the American Institutes for Research, which compiled the data for the report.
     And since the report considered only first-time, full-time freshmen at four-year colleges, the $9-billion total is also just a portion of the overall cost of dropouts, Mr. Schneider said on Thursday during a conference call with reporters….

Misplaced From the Start (Inside Higher Ed)

     Community college placement tests are a big deal. They determine whether someone can enroll in credit-bearing courses or is in need of serious remediation. But, according to a new report, many students simply don’t understand the high-stakes nature of these tests and are, more often than not, completely unprepared to take them.
     WestEd, an education research organization, released a report Friday about “students’ perceptions of assessment and course placement” in California’s community colleges. The report is based, in part, on interviews with 257 students at five California community colleges. Though the report’s authors also analyzed community college assessment and placement policies statewide to show their rampant inconsistency, they stress the importance of documenting student confusion about how this system works.
. . .
     While still in high school, the students interviewed said that they did not think they needed to “do anything extra” to prepare for community college. In other words, most thought “graduating from high school” was enough….

In Higher Education, a Focus on Technology (New York Times)

     The education gap facing the nation’s work force is evident in the numbers. Most new jobs will require more than a high school education, yet fewer than half of Americans under 30 have a postsecondary degree of any kind. Recent state budget cuts, education experts agree, promise to make closing that gap even more difficult.
     The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and four nonprofit education organizations are beginning an ambitious initiative to address that challenge by accelerating the development and use of online learning tools.
     An initial $20 million round of money, from the Gates Foundation, will be for postsecondary online courses, particularly ones tailored for community colleges and low-income young people. Another round of grants, for high school programs, is scheduled for next year….