Posts Categorized: Analysis

NE Won’t Return to Pre-Recession Employment Until 2015, but Region’s Education Advantage Could Offer Economic Advantage

The New England states continue to experience slow growth and slow recovery of the jobs lost in the 2008 to 2009 recession. The main reason for this is the continued weakness in global and U.S. economic conditions. The U.S. and New England economies continue to be affected by the weak European economy and sovereign debt crisis and by weakness in domestic and regional housing markets.The forecast f...

Boys and Girls: Join the Club

Club members receiving homework help in Burlington, Vt. Boys & Girls Clubs of America count 4,000 community-based clubs serving more than 4 million young people through membership and community outreach. They provide a safe place to spend time during non-school hours and the summer as an alternative to the streets or being home alone—a place to play, have fun and learn. Boys & ...

Vermonters Say …

Polls Show: Castleton Making a DifferenceDuring the past 11 years as president at Castleton, I have suggested to all our incoming classes and current students what they need to remember: Their mission is to make a difference in their college and our wider community before they go out to make a difference in the world.We have another new initiative at Castleton, a dream in the making over the past ...

After Five Warm and Stormy Years, Higher Ed Leaders Keep Commitment to Confront Climate Change

Photo: Presidents who signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) seen gathered in 2007. (Courtesy of Second Nature.) Preparedness. Opportunity. Innovation. These words capture the essence of higher education’s critical role in creating a healthy, just and sustainable society. Leaders in higher education are standing up to the greatest challenge o...

Before We’re Up to Our Necks in Aggregators, Let’s Get Out Our Net Value Calculators!

No sooner has the Net Price Calculator wave crashed ashore, the next wave of college-choice transparency in the form of third-party data aggregators is threatening to engulf us. A Net Value Calculator can help us recapture the high ground. Since last October, Net Price Calculators (NPCs) have become a fact of life for American colleges and universities. Some are doing the bare minimum to co...

Build the Higher Ed Agenda with Us …

 2012 is a year of interest and consequence to all of New England higher education. ...This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first Morrill Land Grant Act, named after the great Vermont senator, Justin Morrill, who was instrumental in its creation and passage. Not only is the region’s higher education community reminded of its great tradition and leadership, it is compelled by the...

Grad Rates Don’t Tell Full Story of Community College Performance

Anyone who fixates on graduation rates has little understanding not only of the rich mission and value of our community colleges, but also how deeply flawed and inadequate those rates are as a principal assessment tool for the performance of community colleges.Graduation rate calculations apply to a small fraction of our entire student population (about 15%). That is because this national measure ...

New Kind of Ellis Island as Second-Generation Immigrants Land on College Campuses

Demographics in American higher education are changing dramatically. A recent study by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) reveals that 11.3 million people ages 16 to 26 (one in four) are first- and second-generation immigrants. Moreover, the report continues, between 1995 and 2010, immigrant-origin youth accounted for half of all growth in the nation’s population of young people overall. This ...

Higher Ed’s Local and Regional Economic Impact: A NEBHE Conference and Recent Evidence

Our longstanding interest in the ways colleges and universities enrich their communities and the region will be on full display at NEBHE's April 3 conference on "Locally and Regionally Engaged: New England Colleges and Universities as Drivers of Innovation, Workforce and Economic Development." It promises to be a fascinating gathering focused not only on economic impacts such as building a competi...

Obama’s FY13 Budget Would Boost Community Colleges, Reward Tuition Restraint

President Obama's proposed FY 2013 budget would encourage community college partnerships with employers, target student aid for colleges that restrain tuition prices, and increase overall spending on U.S. Education Department programs by 2.5% to nearly $70 billion. That would be the largest percentage increase for any domestic department in the president's proposed federal budget for FY 2013, whi...