TIPS FROM Access without Success: Covering the College Achievement Gap

About 30 reporters from around the country braved winter storms to attend EWA's higher education seminarin Nashville.Many said they left the conference "Access without Success: Covering the College Achievement Gap" better prepared to cover trends in community colleges, remediation coursesand graduation rates, and learned the right questions to ask administrators aboutinstitutional spending.

One highlightwas thecommunity college session led byBirmingham News reporter Brett Blackledge, whose Pulitzer Prize-winninginvestigationof Alabama'ssystem found widespreadcorruption.Blackledge and the other panelistsgave reporters tips on records to request and how to organize data when looking at the finances oftheir local institutions. Scott Jaschik, of Inside Higher Education, leda panel discussionon college accountability, giving tipssuch as the National Survey of Student Engagement,to use when evaluating the quality of education at particular colleges.

To see the sessions offered at the seminar, click here. To read speaker biographies, click here.

Presentations:

Treva Berryman, a member of the Tennessee Board of Regents, discussed the structure of her state's plan to use technology to help revamp developmental education at selectedpublic schools.

Hunter Boylan, director of the National Center for Developmental Education and a professor of higher education at Appalachian State University,discussed the history of developmental education and the current challengesfacing students in college remediation classes.

Stephanie Evans, a University of Florida assistant professor researching the history of black women in higher education, discussed how reporters need to think about historical and social forces when writing about the college achievement gap, urging them to go beyond generalizations concerning minority groups. Her presentation also included a slideshow of famous black pioneers in higher education.

Stella Flores, an assistant professor of public policy and higher education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, discussed the growth of Latino students in higher education. In addition, she addressed policy issuesaffecting undocumented students such as in-state tuition and their inability to afford rising tuition.

Ryan Gabrielson, higher education reporter at the East Valley Tribune, talked to reporters about investigating their community colleges.Gabrielson discovered athis local institutionsome professors were writing checks for phoney contracts to themselves. In addition,he found sportscoachesusing unethical means to keep athletes eligible.

Dolores Perin, associate professor of psychology and education and a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University, discussed thecomplexity of college remediation and some effective practices in making students college ready.

Travis Reindl, program director, ofthe Boston-based Jobs for the Future spoke on the issue of whether America is getting a return on its investment in colleges today, comparing degree attainment rates to other countries.

Jane Wellman, executive director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity and Accountability, presented on college spending trends. She concluded expenditures on academics have risen only slightly compared to other expenditures in recent years.