Estimated US College Going Rates by State - 2005-06

CL Higher Education Center

New: College Going Rates by State - 2008 Early Release

CL Higher Education Center just released the estimated US College Going Rates by State for 2005-06 High School Graduates.

The analysis is based on the 2005-06 Common Core Data (CCD) survey, the Private School Survey (PSS) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) migration survey managed by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) of the Department of Education (USDE).

The CCD and PSS survey is used to estimate the number of high school graduates from a state. The IPEDS migration survey provide the information of how many of those students went to colleges. Since PSS is collected every two year and the number of graduates collected by the 2005-06 PSS is that of 2004-05 academic year. By assuming that 2004-05 number is a good estimate for the 2005-06 number, we can add it to the number of public high school graduates collected by the CCD to produce the total number of high school graduates for a state.

Estimated Number of High School Graduates by State 2005-06

CL Higher Education Center

CL Higher Education Center just released the total Number of High School Graduates by State for the 2005-06 academic year.

The analysis is based on the 2005-06 Common Core Data (CCD) survey and the Private School Survey (PSS) managed by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) of the Department of Education (USDE). Since PSS is collected every two year and the number of graduates collected by the 2005-06 PSS is that of 2004-05 academic year. By assuming that 2004-05 number is a good estimate for the 2005-06 number, we can add it to the number of public high school graduates collected by the CCD to produce the total number of high school graduates for a state.

The data in these table can later be used to estimate the college going rate for a state when combined with the migration data from the Integrate Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Release of Graduation Rate for Private High School By US states

CL Higher Education Center

CL Higher Education Center just released the graduation rate for private high school by state.

The analysis is based on the 2005 and 2007 Private School Survey (PSS) that is managed by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) of the Department of Education (USDE). The overall graduation rate for private high school is 98.3 for 2004-05 graduates and 98.0 for 2006-07 graduates. The data presented will also be used for estimating the total high school graduates of a state, which can then be used to estimate the college going rate for each state when combined with data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Obama Tries New Tack to Collect Student Data

Original Article
Student Data Systems, Unite!

But when it comes education, we need to think about education first, not the research.

Personally, I like this one:

"For it to succeed, it can't be loaded with those who think unlimited data collection is the holy grail of educational reform." by Ms. Flanagan.

Here are couple of my thoughts - comments welcome:
On the onset, people supporting the tracking like to quote the accountability as the reason. But, there is a problem. If you really want accountability, you should know how to delegate responsibility. If state is responsible for educating the K12 students, I see no reason for other people to snoop around on those individual records. All you need to do is knowing how many students come from that state is not performing and leave the task to the state. This concept applies to other smaller entities too. Research is a different issue. Researcher can contract with entities and help them with the task of improving their performance.

The other popular idea/practice behind the tracking is to define students' success on their performance at the next level in their life. Federal Government can then trace back to students' prior encounters (i.e. schools, teachers ... etc) and hold them accountable. This approach is, in a way, very handy for the Federal Government or any big brothers, since they do not need to set the curriculum defined success before hand but can always accuse schools for not setting the curriculum high enough.

For accountability to work, each entities should be targeted/given a clearly determined or agreed-to goals and evaluated against it. If such an objective goal have been set, a high school will already know if they met their responsibility or not. There is no use of the tracking system.

The task of the Federal Government or Colleges is to work with high schools to work out what is the reasonable goal for the high school graduates and to develop suitable objective evaluation methods.

I am a researcher and I love data. But when it comes education, we need to think about education first, which happen to be teaching responsibility, not the research.

Release of 2008 Educational Attainment by State and Age

CL Higher Education Center

CL Higher Education Center just released the state report on Education Attainment.

The analysis is based on US census' 2008 American Community Survey (ACS). The analysis reported the % of population for each education attainment level and age range. In general, the high percentage of graduate degree workforce correlated well with a state's New Economy Index published by The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Slipping (Further) Off the Pedestal

Original Article - The article is about a survey of public's perception about the HIGH higher education price.

Quality check is the most important factor in affecting the cost of higher education.

A lot of comments are well received.

I like to point out couple of my points:

Should we really believe the HE is necessary for all/most of our citizen?
Personally, I wouldn't say that just yet until I see our K12 crank out quality students - I am pretty sure a lot of things I do today, I will be able to do it with my high school degree adding some self-improvement.

To me, the quality check is the most important factor in affecting the cost of higher education. Personally, I have no problem with the idea that the lower cost will bring down the quality - as long as the quality is reflect on the price. There are institutions with great faculties and highly qualified students that are well deserved the high price. But there are also institutions with great faculties but not so qualified students. In this case, the high quality faculties is under used and institutions might as well lower the price and hire suitable faculties. The problem is, of cause, at this point, parents and students do not have good information on the quality of college graduates. They can only go for the brand names and, of cause, no one is going to risk their future by betting on cheaper colleges - you can't blame people to believe that, in some way, the price could reflect quality especially when there is no good indicator.

For-Profit Colleges Change Higher Education's Landscape

Original Article
Chronicle of Higher Education falls down on the job

Objective measurement is in no way try to intimidating the 'traditional higher education' but a fair mechanism that protect the public and it happen to be in favor of GOOD old 'traditional higher education institution'.

It's hard to believe that the traditional university and colleges still don't think that an objective measurement of their graduates is not only the right thing to do but also an indicator of their quality. Why are they against it? I can't understand their logic. But I hope it have nothing to do with their fears of comparison. If that is the case, I am afraid that even I will begin to question the quality of the education our kids are receiving.

===== Added on Feb. 20, 2010
It seems that the second article pointed to the problem of quality. That article is written by former Chronicle staff. To my opinion, the Chronicle is more of a 'Higher Education Insider', which, most of the time, defend the value of 'traditional higher education'. I actually wondering if the Chronicle have being actively support the idea of objective measurement of college graduates. At this point, I can only hope some of these people will finally realize that the support of objective measurement is in no way try to intimidating the 'traditional higher education' but a fair mechanism that protect the public and it happen to be in favor of GOOD old 'traditional higher education institution'.

Education Directions - US Education Department

Clash Over Student Privacy
Resistance on Debt Proposal

To be finished ...

Given these two instances, I am beginning to question the direction US Education Department is taking.

My major concerns are 1. The dis-regard of law in the privacy case and 2. The dis-regard of the free-market mechanism in the Debt Proposal case.

In the case of privacy, I understand that data is very useful in UNDERSTANDING possible problems in our education system. But trying to ignore the law and forcing forward with rules? Do they really understand the value of having a democratic government?

I am a supporter of accountability. But I simply can't agree with US ED's way of forcing an organization to accept responsibilities that they do not have adequate control. Besides, how does this take into account the responsibility of the students and parents?

IPEDS college freshmen retention rate - 2008 state level released

Release note at CL Higher Education Center

The CL Higher Education Center just released the 2008 state level college freshmen retention rate data.

The CL Higher Education Center is releasing the 2008 state level IPEDS college freshmen retention rate data.

The data is compiled from the National Center for Education Statistics'(NCES) IPEDS(Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) survey. The release detailed each State's student retention rate for each sector (e.g. Public 4 Year, Public 2 Year, Private non-for profit 4 year ...). The release also separated out rates just for degree-granting institutions.

The college freshmen retention rate, in essence, measures the percent of students that still enrolled in the same institution after one year of their initial enrollment. For official definition, please check out the IPEDS survey site.

Teacher Q | How Should Teachers Be Evaluated?

Original Article

Summary goes here!

Well. I will continue to add idea to this.

For now, how about reverse proportional to the differences between Test_Scores and the Course_Grades?

Why? Personally, I believe teachers should only be held responsible for part of a student's learning. However, if a teacher award a student an A and that student failed a statewide or nation wide objective test, the teacher is definitely failed. On the other hand, if a student do not complete assignments, the teacher should only be held responsible is he or she did not contact parents about the situation. I know there could be loopholes in this proposal. So, don't jump the gun. I simply try to point out that we need first defines what is the responsibility of a teacher.

IPEDS Higher Ed Residence and Migration - 2008 state level Imputed released

CL Higher Education Center

Do you like to know where your high school graduates went to college? What percentage of your high school graduates went to out of state colleges? To what kind of colleges? Private or public? The recent data release from CL Higher Education Center can answer your questions.

The CL Higher Education Center just put forward the state level summaries for the 2008 NCES IPEDS¹ residence and migration survey. This release uses the imputed data which, in theory, provide a better estimate to the real picture.

The report shows that Texas Higher Education as a whole enrolled the highest per cent (94.0) of their own recent high school graduates followed by California (92.5), New Jersey (91.3) and Michigan (90.7). For public 4 year schools, again, the Texas enrolled the highest per cent(95.7) of their own recent high school gradates who went to public 4 year school followed by California (95.3) and New Jersey (93.4).

The analysis also shows that 71.0% of recent high school graduates of District of Columbia who went to 4 year public schools went to out-of-state institutions followed by Minnesota (40.6) and New Jersey (38.7).

The data show that, on average, 16% of high school graduates who went to public 4 year institutions went to out of state institutions. On the other hand, only 3 percent of high school students who went to 2 year public institutions went to out of state institutions. Looking at private 4 year non-for profit institutions, it shows that 47% of high school graduates who attended private 4 year non-for profit institutions went to out of state institutions.

¹The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System is managed by the National Center for Education Statistics of US Education Department.

Making College ‘Relevant’

Original Article

Summary goes here!

Now this is fresh. I had read so many articles that insists on the academic vs. career education. For most part, those articles stress the importance of liberal arts education without been able to quantify the benefit of it. It's not that the liberal art is not important, the problem I have is the passive response from experts in those fields to the question: How can you quantify the benefits of liberal arts? If you can't, how should others, say the employer, trust your work, aka, the students.

For career education, there are usually specific tasks or skill that can be measured and this translated to the verification of skills and, hence, the employment.

Immigrant law faces challenge

Original Article

Summary goes here!

Couple of points I would like to express my opinion on. First of all, the label applied to these kids that was brought to the US illegally. Are they guilty? It seems most people are agreed on this. If this is the case, I think the issue is non-existence. Beside that, I like to point out one thing that I always have trouble with - the argument that we should always consider our citizen's benefit first.

In general, I have no trouble supporting the idea that a government is serving their people's interest. The thing that troubles me is the entitlement mindset that is behind it. I would like people to think about what this attitude have brought down our nation in all fields.

Let's think about the entitlement in the automobile industry for a moment. The idea of Union is a genuine one. But the question is if the considered environment do exist. Do we over protect the employee to the point that it became an entitlement? Is this what failed our domestic auto companies?

Policy makers should keep the entitlement in mind when they make policies. Whenever a grant is proposed, they should think about do we promote our citizen's sense of responsibility or do we promote the entitlement?

For the education, I would like to ask most of our parents: Do we really put our money where we think is important (i.e. education)? Have you try to save every penny for the education? Do you consider big HDTV more important than a bare dial-up to the internet?


As for the general immigration debate, it is a different issue.

Article Links - Nebraska Community College Study (LB340)

New college council would be overkill - LJS 12/16/2009
Report urges more oversight of Nebraska community colleges - LJS 12/10/2009
Foley weighs in on colleges' spat - OWH 12/10/2009
State auditor: Nebraska Legislature should settle community college controversy - LJS 12/10/2009
Metro College files suit - OWH 11/21/2009
Omaha community college sues over state aid - NTV 11/20/2009
Senators need to end college feud - LJS 11/02/2009
Metro will sue other com. colleges - OWH 10/28/2009
Schools turn tables on Metro - OWH 09/22/2009
Metro tax hike blamed on new law - OWH 09/16/2009
Metro board to OK president - OWH 08/25/2009
Community colleges at odds over funding - G.I.Ind. 06/13/2009
Hearings set for community college study - McCook Daily 05/26/2009
Community College May Lose Millions Over Dispute - KETV 02/24/2009
Metro Comm. College Refuses To Pay Dues, Gets Expelled - KETV 02/23/2009

Funding Nebraska Community Colleges (LB340) - An idea

The best part of this model, however, is that the state's responsibility is also made clear.

The State of Nebraska need to provide its citizen a financial vision of the future and layout steps needed to get there including the projected needs for workforces and how these workforces can be developed by the state's educational systems.

As we think about legislation in general, a lot of laws are formed as reactions to issues that occurred. And a lot of them are, therefore, created in a form of responding to the events rather than a form that will address broader and more profound question.

Funding for community colleges in Nebraska is of no exceptions. As the community college evolved from vocational training school to adding academic training, the funding issue is to keep community colleges operational by allowing state aid and local property tax support. But the accountability part of the funding is never tied directly to each funding sources. And because of this, it is becoming difficult in deciding on how much fund should be coming from which funding source and what level of state fund is adequate and, in the center of the issue, who entitled how much of the state fund?

One idea I have is to have state provides the basic infrastructure and oversight, but let institutions run their own business. The principle behind this idea is that state of Nebraska does have interest in providing reasonable resources in educating its residents. However, this investment must be a calculated move - how the state plan to recover these investments? (This should quite the argument of providing education entitlement to citizens who insisted to live in a remote area.)

Based on the population by age data, state can allocate supports for a reasonable amount of classroom and office space and a reasonable number of staff and instructors. The fund can be adjusted based on the local price index. These funds will provide the basic supports for institutions to provide courses to their local communities. Institutions are then required to make sure these facilities are used in an efficient manners.

Institutions are then allowed to use local tax and private funds to extend their operation and should be held responsible to each fund source. For example, courses supported by the local tax need to address the general education needs of the local community. For a manufacture-heavy community, the community may decided to support general machinery courses with the tax fund while the specialized mechanic training may have to be supported by private funds from local companies in a co-operational manner.

In addition to these funding, state can provides strategic funding to encourage institutions to provide special courses that will benefit the state. For example, if a state is planed to attract motor companies and to become a heavy industry state, it makes sense for the state to provide extra fund for automobile related courses.

By tying a institution's operation to individual funding sources, the responsibility of an institution become clear and, therefore, the accountability. The best part of this model, however, is that the state's responsibility is also made clear.

The State of Nebraska need to provide its citizen a financial vision of the future and layout steps needed to get there including the projected needs for workforces and how these workforces can be developed by the state's educational systems.

White House Pushes Science and Math Education

Original Article

The basic of education is the down-to-the-earth sincere. The mind is in a solid pursue of knowledge but the glories.

I think all of these are good additions. But, let's face it. To achieve a science-respected society, it takes much more than that.

We all know that it take a very high level of efforts to learn math and science. The mind is spend in tedious, boring and low rewarding tasks. With a society that adores pop stars, I see difficulties in convincing our kids. The glories of the stars is not necessary their faults, but the media's attention of the superficial of success is a misleading attention.

The basic of education is the down-to-the-earth sincere. The mind is in a solid pursue of knowledge but the glories.

The innovation!

Original Article

Before we are carried away by the idea of innovation, let's work on building the basics.

It's a day at the work place. We were dealing with analyzing data. The feeling I had, at the time, is that most people seems to feel that statistics is such a mystery theory that common sense does not apply.

I am a slow thinker but I do think and it's been part of my training to to create something if it haven't been invented. If we apply our common sense to the statistics, we know that it is simply a way of looking into data. There are all kinds of formula in the fields of statistics. But to derive anyone of them, the first thing you have to have is a mathematics model of the data. To be precise, you should always verify your data against the mathematics model you are going to use. After you have verified the model, the general idea of statistics/probability can be derived to explain and check the data.

I would not go into the detail of what we were doing at the time. But this instance made me to think about the ability to innovation that a lot of educators tout about. My favorites is what Edison said about genius. The way I think about this is that if you have learned/stored enough things in your brain, these knowledge will interfered or be checked while you are searching for solution to problems. The better you understand things, the better you can avoid the unlikely solutions and more focused on the good possible solutions. The point I try to make is that before we are carried away by the idea of innovation, let's work on building the basics.

The Power of Race

Original Article

My opinion is that this issue should be addressed at K12 and the approach should be to provide access to study material for all kids.

Another article about race.


=== My post at InsideHigherEd.com ===

Personally, I know the discrimination exist because I am a victim of it.

Does my experience prevent me to success? Yes. But not to the point that I can't find any White that is gracious and understanding.

Look at the fact that Obama received a great portion of White vote, I have to say this is a great county and that White is, in general, quite open minded.

For Black, Hispanic and Native American to make the case, I think the Asian should be included in the theory.

In an ideal world where all K12 kids are given equal opportunities to access the study material, the Higher Education debate can be simplified.

For family with Internet access, the disadvantage claim can hardly stand.

Probe of Extra Help for Men

Original Article

Summary goes here!

Q: Is this what we really like to do? Adjust our standard and help any groups that seems to fall behind regardless of the causes even at the cost of sending the wrong message about the responsibility?

Do Professors Matter?

Original Article

Professors should engage in high productive activities that others is not capable of and qualify for it and it is administrators' job to provide quality instructors that matches students need at a reasonable price.

Well. I believe the comments to this article said a lot.

Personally, I am very sure that professors matter. However, we should also consider the students or the consumer side of the story. I understand that this article is more about the community colleges, but the general idea is the same for four year schools.

Of cause the professors or even the research professors know a lot than, say, most of the high school teachers. But can they really be a better teacher, defined as raising students knowledge level in average? As described in the comments, the answer may not be a firm 'yes'. Is this the problem with the professor? Probably not. It simply the mis-match of professors and students. But. Does it make sense to have professors teach high school courses? In general, no! Why? Think about it!

I have no doubt that professors know a lot and that they are great resources if students is ready for it. But if students are not, it is simply a waste of professors and students' time and resources. What this implies is that professors should engage in high productive activities that others is not capable of and qualify for it and it is administrators' job to provide quality instructors that matches students need at a reasonable price.

The New Untouchables

Original Article

We need get back to the basics. Build our future from the ground up.

I agreed that our K12 education need improvement. But I have to say that the way I look at education is quite different from the author.

The basic difference lay in the principle. Personally, I came to realize the the main point of education is to teach everyone to be responsible. The knowledge will come with it. The pure emphasis on knowledge is not going to achieve the revolution we need.

The indication of the fall of American is there for a long time. Let's just go back in time to when the immigration debate started. How many times you heard the arguments that immigrants steal the job from American? But do we ever questioning ourselves that for what reason, should we be paid more to do the same tasks? Back then, did anyone listen to the voice that we need to improve our education system so that we are producing workforces that can do others can't? Do you see what we are missing in our soul? Our arguments is all about them but not about us. Not about what the heavy lifting we need to do?

Even now, in the middle of a economic down turn, we are cried for more and more resources so we can improve our education. Aren't we follow the same path? Take a look at the world, which countries that spend more on education than we do. How much the best educated country spent on their education? Can you argue that we did not spend enough? Or maybe the real reason is that we do not know what the culprits are? We simply think that we have done nothing wrong. The reason we are not good is that Government did not provide us enough money.

Don't get me wrong, resource is helpful and it very likely will produce result. But does this guide us to the right direction? Sure! We can spend enough money so that there is a guardian for every student and most likely the test results will be better. But is this the right way to do it? Will our students ready to take the responsibility when guardians are gone? Are we sure this is the right way to do it if other countries can do it cheaper? Is this sustainable economically?

There are times I think we are looking at the wrong things. These days, politics are tauting more graduates and more higher education. But did anyone think about that maybe, just maybe, if we can improve our K12, we may not need send all the kids to higher education since they already posses the ability to meet the workforce requirement. It's the quality that counts. Not that piece of paper!

The other thing I like to point out is that from time to time, we, the American, are not very realistic. For example, in the higher ed, people are talking about critical thinking without being able to define it or measure it. Let along on how to teach it. There are also people that simply reject the standardized test without bothering to propose objective alternatives. There are also people that taut entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity while forgetting what Edison's idea of a genius.

Let me say this. We need get back to the basics. Build our future from the ground up.

Recovery.Gov website is up

Original Article

Summary goes here!

Main body here

Cracks in the Future

Original Article

Summary goes here!

I agree that if the UC Berkeley is let down, it is a cracks in the future. But this is the result of a lot of our past activities.

We as a nation had slipped on our K12 education which lowered the education level of the whole nation. This results in the lower appreciation of education by the general public. We shouldn't consider this event a political event. Suppose all our citizen do appreciated the the contribution of our higher education, the government will have a hard time to lower its contribution to the higher education.

Personally, I don't think there is a quick fix to this problem. It is true that someone or the congress can weight in and backing the very best institution of the nation. But eventually, it's citizen's call where the money goes.

We need to improve the education of the general public first before things can turn around.

The root of our problem, to my opinion, is not the resource but the attitude or the atmosphere of our nation. To me, the most important thing in education is the responsibility.

College for $99 a Month

Original Article

Summary goes here!

I am so delight to read this article. It finally see the lights - the challenge to the accreditation system.

'If you don't do it, it will be done regardless of you.' After seeing the un-willingness of change of the traditional (regional accredited) institution.

For profits have fought this war via various means. University of Phoenix follows the regional accreditation requirement. Others join the National accreditation and fight through legislature to have their credit hours accepted by regional accredited institutions.

I would like to see how regional accreditation agencies reacted to this.