The Real Price of College: College Completion Series: Part Two

The high price of college is the subject of media headlines, policy debates, and dinner table conversations because of its implications for educational opportunities, student and family pocketbooks, and the economy. Some people caution against giving too much weight to the advertised price of a college education, pointing out that the availability of financial aid means that college is not as expensive as people think it is. But they overlook a substantial problem: for many students, the real price of college is much higher than what recruitment literature, conventional wisdom, and even official statistics convey. Our research indicates that the current approach to higher education financing too often leaves low-income students facing unexpected, and sometimes untenable, expenses.Financial challenges are a consistent predictor of non-completion in higher education, and they are becoming more severe over time. Unexpected costs, even those that might appear modest in size, can derail students from families lacking financial cushions, and even those with greater family resources. Improving college completion rates requires both lowering the real price of attending college -- the student's remaining total costs, including tuition, books, and living expenses, after financial aid -- to better align with students' and families' ability to pay, and providing accurate information to help them plan to cover the real price of college.Many policymakers argue that bringing the personal and public benefits of higher education to an expanded population of Americans is important for the economy and to address inequality. Financial aid policies, they assume, help those with scarce resources to earn their degrees. But these policies often fall short, and when students have difficulty paying for college, they are more likely to focus their energies on working and raising funds rather than studying and attending classes, and are less likely to complete their degrees

Review of State Policies on Teacher Induction

Outlines criteria and recommendations for state policies on providing mentoring support for new teachers and administrators, including universality, program standards on design and operation, mentor quality, program delivery, funding, and accountability

Lithology and the evolution of bedrock rivers in post-orogenic settings: Constraints from the high elevation passive continental margin of SE Australia

Understanding the role of lithological variation in the evolution of topography remains a fundamental issue, especially in the neglected post-orogenic terrains. Such settings represent the major part of the Earth's surface and recent modelling suggests that a range of interactions can account for the presence of residual topography for hundreds of millions of years, thereby explaining the great antiquity of landscapes in such settings. Field data from the inland flank of the SE Australian high-elevation continental margin suggest that resistant lithologies act to retard or even preclude the headward transmission of base-level fall driven by the isostatic response to regional denudation. Rejuvenation, be it episodic or continuous, is ‘caught up’ on these resistant lithologies, meaning in effect that the bedrock channels and hillslopes upstream of these ‘stalled’ knickpoints have become detached from the base-level changes downstream of the knickpoints. Until these knickpoints are breached, therefore, catchment relief must increase over time, a landscape evolution scenario that has been most notably suggested by Crickmay and Twidale. The role of resistant lithologies indicates that detachment-limited conditions are a key to the longevity of some post-orogenic landscapes, whereas the general importance of transport-limited conditions in the evolution of post-orogenic landscapes remains to be evaluated in field settings. Non-steady-state landscapes may lie at the heart of widespread, slowly evolving post-orogenic settings, such as high-elevation passive continental margins, meaning that non-steady-state landscapes, with increasing relief through time, are the ‘rule’ rather than the exception

Flourishing in French: promoting speaking skills in the Modern Foreign Language Classroom

This practitioner research study explores the effects of a focused intervention programme run across ten lessons with two Year 8 French classes (N=34) at a preparatory boarding school in the UK. The study seeks answers to the following research questions: 1. What, if any, is the effect of the focused intervention on the learners’ sense of flourishing? 2. What, if any, learner gains can be identified as a result of the focused intervention on speaking fluency? Baseline data were collected via speaking assessments and semi-structured student interviews. Following the intervention programme, data were collected again using speaking assessments, student questionnaires, and semi-structured student interviews. Findings identify a boosted sense of flourishing (self-efficacy, enjoyment, and confidence) and a range of learner gains in speaking fluency (phonological awareness, ambitious language, and spontaneity) in light of the intervention programme and across all three methods of data collection. Sampled speaking assessments (n=6) showed recording duration, pace (word and syllable), and overall marks have all increased by around one third post-intervention, indicating an improvement in speaking fluency. Results from student questionnaires (n=28) show that half of all students perceived improvements across all response categories. Almost all students perceived improvements in at least half of the response categories. Interviews revealed that, although students still have the tendency to experience emotions of worry, stress, or frustration when speaking in French, the intensity has decreased post-intervention

Naval Publishing the British Way

The gathering of seven Royal Navy and Marine officers at a house in Alverstoke on an October day in 1912 was to have momentous consequences for the Royal Navy. At that meeting, called by Captain (later Admiral Sir) Herbert Richmond and Commander (later Vice Admiral) K.G.B. Dewar, the form was mapped out of a Naval Society for the creation and circulation of a critical journal devoted to service topics

Effective Learning Support in Higher Education: My Living Theory of student-centred learning support in National College of Ireland.

This thesis is the product of my living theory of effective learning support practices in National College of Ireland. As a journey of improvement, it describes how I came to be a learning support tutor and attempted to put in place educational practices and resources that were equally accessible, fair and supportive to all students. This process of improvement is described using a self-study action research approach, which I used to reflect on my teaching practices. Using mixed methodology I combined my own self-reflection with the views of students, which together allowed me to identify areas where I needed to improve upon. Having then identified that I was living in a state of contradiction, I applied elements of universal design theory, inclusive teaching practices and concepts of equality, to create three principles of student-centred learning support. Incorporating these principles into my living educational theory, I later attempted to improve my pedagogy, my resources and accessibility for all students in National College of Ireland. As a means to accomplish these goals I studied teaching and learning theories, developed a learning support manual based on national and international best practices and created a virtual learning support service. The effectiveness of these activities were evaluated using self-reflection, surveys, interviews, peer review at conferences, as well as the quantitative analysis of student results. Through the use of these mixed methods, I make the claim that my efforts to improve my service were both qualitatively accepted by both students and my peers as well as quantitatively effective in helping to increase student performance. In adopting paradigm relativism and mixed methodologies, this work seeks to develop a hybrid approach to practitioner research by incorporating elements of both traditional action research and self-focussed approaches. As an insight into how student centrism can be improved upon in Higher Education, my research may have significance for other learning support tutors, directors of learning and teaching and faculty who wish to increase their own student-centred activities

Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution,

This is a very good book and a very im- portant one. Nicholas Lambert has fol- lowed in the path of Jon Sumida’s In Defense of Naval Supremacy to present a lucid, compelling, and comprehensive analysis of the policies of Admiral Sir John Fisher and the Royal Navy in the decade before 1914. This work is based upon Lambert’s doctoral study of the de- velopment of the submarine, but it goes much farther than his original work in explaining the fundamental elements of Fisher’s naval policies and their effects on the Royal Navy

Increasing the Effectiveness of Educator Induction Programs in Colorado

State policy has a critical role to play to ensure that new educators are assisted from the first day they walk into their school and classroom in a way that will bolster their morale, keep them in the profession, strengthen their teaching and leadership abilities, and accelerate their impact on student learning. In 2011 and 2012, New Teacher Center had the opportunity to complete a detailed analysis of the state of Colorado's educator induction policies and practices. This final report details our full analysis and state policy recommendations. Our work in Colorado had three main purposes. First, it aimed to determine the characteristics of a quality induction program; second, to examine current state policies and local practices that align with those quality indicators; and third, to provide recommendations on actions the state can take to increase the effectiveness of induction programs. The specifics of our work involved: a review of Colorado's current laws and policies on induction; a comprehensive review of research-based literature on induction; an audit of more than 200 induction program plans on file at the Colorado Department of Education; and interviews with more than two dozen program leaders, administrators and teachers about induction programs operated by Colorado school districts, BOCES, charter schools and private schools.Colorado recognizes that the accelerated development and support of beginning teachers and school leaders is an essential component of the state's vision for educator effectiveness. This work is in service of the vision of the Council for Educator Effectiveness to ensure that the state "provides teachers and principals ... with ongoing feedback and support needed to improve performance." It also is directly responsive to the Council's 2011 recommendation that the state strengthen requirements for the renewal and approval of educator induction programs.Existing induction programs, in Colorado and across the nation, vary in quality from old-fashioned "buddy systems" that provide limited emotional and logistical support to comprehensive, systematized initiatives that utilize carefully selected and trained mentors and provide structured time for interaction focused on improving new teachers' content knowledge, classroom management, and instructional skills. A primary aim for state policy is to establish an expectation that all new educators will be provided a meaningful level of instructional and pedagogical support, especially in those settings where they currently are not.In Colorado, our analysis found that approximately three quarters of induction program plans communicated design elements that placed them at the basic level of program comprehensiveness. In many cases, it is difficult to suggest that such basic induction or mentoring programs are not doing the minimum required by state policy. From a program effectiveness standpoint, however, these programs are nowhere close to modeling practices that will result in the desired impact on teaching effectiveness. For example, most Colorado induction programs only support first-year teachers. Fifty-eight percent of programs reported a one-year induction period. Only 15 percent of program plans indicated serving beginning teachers for two or more years. Twenty-one percent of Colorado induction programs report providing release time to mentors. Seven percent of programs exhibiting the most extensive provision of time for induction and mentoring, including at least 30 hours of contact time between a mentor and beginning teacher annually.To increase the effectiveness of induction programs and enhance the likelihood that such programs will accelerate the development and effectiveness of new educators, New Teacher Center recommends that Colorado take the following actions:1 Develop Statewide Induction Program Standards2 Provide More Regular and Intensive Induction Program Oversight3 Assess The Effectiveness and Impact of Induction Programs4 Strengthen Requirements for Educator Induction Programs (including program duration, mentor quality and frequency of mentoring)5 Provide Dedicated State Funding to Elevate Induction Program Quality and Enhance Mentor Capacity6. Establish an Online Clearinghouse of Induction Best Practices and Key Program Tool