Category: College Access

2014, College Access, College Affordability, Research/Policy, Student Success

Lest We Forget — The GI Bill and Educational Opportunity

By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute On a day where we take time to remember the service members who sacrificed for our countries, it is an appropriate time to talk about how we repay them. The GI Bill has been seen as a critical safety net for our military men and women when they return from service. The GI Bill, created in … Continue reading Lest We Forget — The GI Bill and Educational Opportunity

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2014, College Access, College Affordability, Research/Policy, ROI/College Outcomes

What Does Mike Rowe know about College?

By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute I like Mike Rowe. Rowe, the host of the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and the new CNN program, Somebody’s Gotta Do It, is a complex guy. A former opera singer (really) and host for QVC (has great stories about Joan Rivers), Rowe has become an outspoken proponent for the blue collar jobs and workers in … Continue reading What Does Mike Rowe know about College?

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2014, College Access, Retention

Do We Have it All Wrong? Where Access & Retention Collide

By Watson Scott Swail, Ed.D. President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center recently released a report updating data on student retention and persistence. Unfortunately, the news was not good, as the fall-to-fall retention rate (e.g., freshman-to-sophomore) fell 1.2 percent between 2009 and 2012 from 69.9 to 68.7 percent. Although one percent does not sound like very much, in a national context, that … Continue reading Do We Have it All Wrong? Where Access & Retention Collide

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2014, College Access

The Missing Link: College Aspirations & the Common Core

By Watson Scott Swail, Ed.D. President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute In 1988, approximately 27,000 8th-grade students took both a survey and test for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the US Department of Education. For some of us, 1988 doesn’t seem that long ago, but in educational research, it is an eternity. However, this study has stood the test of time … Continue reading The Missing Link: College Aspirations & the Common Core

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2014, College Access, Politics

If You Want Change, Change the Rhetoric

by Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute In my 30-plus years in education, I’ve seen a lot of changes. Unfortunately, they aren’t changes that have really improved much. Sure, since I graduated with my education degree back in the 1980s (that long ago?), I’ve seen the advent of the PC, the World Wide Web (as it was once known), smart boards and … Continue reading If You Want Change, Change the Rhetoric

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