Who gets advanced degrees?

Of people age 25 or older who live in the United States but who were born elsewhere, 10.9 percent have an advanced degree, while only 9.9 percent of those born in the United States have one. That statistic is among many found in "Educational Attainment in the United States, 2007," a new report by the U.S. Census Bureau. Men remain more likely than women to have an advanced degree. Among racial and ethnic groups, 19.6 percent of Asian Americans have an advanced degree, followed by 11.3 percent of non-Hispanic white people, 5.8 percent of black people, and 3.9 percent of Hispanics. (from Inside Higher Education, "Quick Takes,"Jan 29, 2009)

2009 Horizon Report is out -- emerging technologies and education

The newest version of the Horizon Report was released at EDUCAUSE conference this week.

"The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. A collaboration between the NMC and ELI, the 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth in the annual series.

Each year, the Horizon Report describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years." (from the Website)

Demographic trends continue

"A new report, “Building Tomorrow’s Workforce,” highlights the roles of community colleges and employers in educating Latino immigrants and preparing them for better jobs. A key statistic reflects the report’s theme that immigrant populations are a key part of the workforce, regardless of whether some politicians like to criticize them. The statistic: During the next decade, one in every four new workers in the United States will be an immigrant from Latin America." (from Inside Higher Ed: Quick Takes, Jan 22, 2009)

Open Access publishing gets a boost from Springer

Take this as evidence when negotiating with your potential publishers for copyright!!

"In the latest move of for-profit publishing into open access, Springer on Wednesday announced a deal with the University of California under which the university’s researchers who publish with Springer will be able to have completely open access versions of their article appear without separate charges or delays." (from Inside Higher Ed: Quick Takes, Jan. 22, 2009)

Training Institute on Cluster-Randomized Trials

The National Center for Education Research within the Institute of Education Sciences announces its third Summer Research Training Institute on Cluster-Randomized Trials. This Training Institute is held to increase the national capacity of researchers to develop and conduct rigorous evaluations of the impact of education interventions. When: June 21 - July 3, 2009Where: Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN.
All applications must be received no later than Friday, March 20, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
For more information about the Training Institute, including the application procedures, please visit:
http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=394&cid=5
If you need assistance, please contact Dr. Christina Chhin, at (202) 219-2280 or christina.chhin@ed.gov

AACU issues "new" report on assessing student learning in higher ed

Assessing student learning has probably been at the front of your mind for ages now, or at least you felt like it should be. Read the report, “Our Students’ Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission,” and you too can amaze and impress your colleagues with your knowledge of current issues in higher ed :-)
An excerpt from the Jan. 8 Inside Higher Education article about the AACU report:
"AACU, in contrast, believes that colleges must “actually use assessment to improve student learning,” and its re-released report, updated and reinforced in several ways, is meant to be a roadmap to help both the higher education establishment and individual colleges figure out how to do that. By arguing both for the idea that colleges must measure student learning and strongly against the use of “mass testing,” which it argues would be an “enormous misuse of time and scarce resources,” the AACU statement seeks to walk a middle path in the contentious debate over whether and how colleges should measure and report student learning."

New adult literacy data available

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the "National Assessment of Adult Literacy: Indirect County and State Estimates of the Percentage of Adults at the Lowest Literacy Level for 1992 and 2003", which provides estimates on the percentage of adults - for all states and counties in the U.S. - who lack basic prose literacy skills. The study provides data for 2003 and 1992. This new data is currently the only available snapshot of adult literacy rates for individual states and counties.

To produce this study, NCES gathered data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), a nationally representative sample of more than 19,000 Americans age 16 and older, and the 2000 Census, which provided "predictor variables" such as education and income.

NAAL data were correlated with the predictor variables to see if there was a pattern among them. From this information, a model was established. Using the model, estimates were predicted for areas where there were not sufficient assessment data. The same approach was also applied to the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), so changes from 1992 to 2003 can be examined.

The report is accompanied by an interactive web tool, which shows the percentage of adults lacking Basic Prose Literacy Skills for all states and counties. In addition to allowing users to view adult literacy percentages for any given state, the web tool also allows for comparisons to be made between two states, two counties in the same state, two counties in different states, across years for a state, and across years for a county.