The iPad, iBooks and Future of Textbooks

The Atlantic says the future is bright and possibilities endless:

Apple hasn't yet released the particulars of its iBook app, but it heralds a potential textbook revolution for three reasons. First, if the online store allows chapters to be purchased individually, professors and students will enjoy unprecedented freedom to assign chapters rather than volumes. That would be welcome news for cash-strapped students since textbooks can easily run $300 or more a semester, even though much of the content goes unread.  

Second, integrated graphics in a textbook will be another education revolution. Physics, math chemistry, economics, etc. -- these subjects are so thoroughly enhanced by graphics that I'm already getting jealous of all the kids who will grow up in an e-textbook age. Imagine a physics app that allows you to learn dynamics by toying with variables and seeing the real-time result, or a biology graphic displaying the mitosis process. It's so much more intuitive than text or a static picture. What's more, e-textbooks can be updated. In 2008, when I was an economics major, the field was being rewritten, and sections of our books seemed almost archaic. Publishers no longer have to continually issue new editions. They'll just upload updates online to be retrieved wirelessly.

Third, beyond graphics, an e-textbook allows yet another layer of interactivity. Students could save their own notes in the tablet, flagged to the relevant passage in the text, while teachers could make available online chapters with the professors' annotations built in.

There's a reason to rein in some of the enthusiasm as the iPad applies to non-traditional students, but that the textbook industry itself could now be revolutionized is by no means hyperbole.

As for publishers themselves, the enthusiasm is palatable:

David Pallai, a Metropolitan College lecturer in the book and magazine publishing certificate program and a publisher at Jones and Bartlett Publishers, says there are good reasons for the high costs of textbooks. They require research and extensive edits to ensure accuracy, he says, they are often printed in color, and they must be shipped and marketed.

Pallai says his industry is unafraid and even excited about the options available in digital publishing.

“Publishers are anxious to digitize content,” he says. “It’s a way to reach customers directly, and it will have a positive effect because we won’t be spending as much money on manufacturing the book. I think over time this will save everyone a lot of money.”

Study Shows At-Risk Students More Likely to Graduate From Career Colleges Than Community Colleges

It's a reality those within the sector have long understood and appreciated anecdotally if not with more robust data. Now there's even more proof:

A new study out this month, however, suggests that community colleges could take a cue from for-profit, or career, colleges. The Educational Policy Institute, a research group in Virginia Beach, Va., based its study on a federal data on nearly 7,000 higher education institutions, 41 percent of which were career colleges, as well as its own surveys.

It focused on students who were at risk of not graduating for a variety of reasons, including lack of a high school diploma, delayed enrollment, enrolling part-time, being a parent, or holding down a full-time job, and found that they stood a better chance of completing a degree or a certificate in a career college than they did in a community college. The career colleges had an average graduation rate of 59 percent for this group, compared to 23 percent for public two-year colleges and 55 percent at private, not-for-profit institutions. (A grain of salt here: the study was sponsored by a group that supports career colleges.)

Part of the problem may be that community colleges are asked to be all things to all people. They provide a stepping stone to four-year colleges, vocational training, and English-language instruction for new immigrants, among other services. In my September article, James Rosenbaum, a Northwestern University researcher, offers some additional thoughts.

"Community colleges are big on choice exploration, delaying decisions about your major, and getting a lot of diversity in your first studies," he said. "Private two-year colleges help students make a decision quickly at the outset and then have a very set curriculum. You don't make mistakes. You don't waste time, and it doesn't take you longer to get a degree." He said the private two-year schools also cut out vacation time, schedule classes in ways that are more compatible with maintaining a regular work or child-care schedule, and mandate student-counseling sessions.

Again, promoting this information is not about which sector is better in a heads-up contest. Rather, it's about identifying comparative advantage of what each sector of higher education can offer students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Community colleges perform a critical function as part of America's higher education system, but are they best suited to serve all types of students no matter the background? The data would suggest otherwise.

Career College Association Applauds President Obama’s Repayment Relief Proposal

From a CCA press release:

The Career College Association (CCA) applauds President Barack Obama’s proposal, included in his State of the Union address, to provide federal student loan repayment relief for college borrowers.

“This common sense approach will give much needed relief to many students who enter fields where initial salaries do not match their college loans,” said Career College Association CEO and President Harris N. Miller. He continued, “The President’s proposal recognizes that by saddling the workforce of today with unwieldy debt, we risk denying postsecondary access to a broad swath of Americans.”

Miller said CCA supports the President’s recommendation to enhance the recently created system of income-based loan repayment that allows students to repay their loans on a graduated scale as their earnings increase. “Stepping back, the fundamental logic is sound. Borrowing for college pays dividends over a lifetime in terms of higher wages, better advancement opportunities and more interesting, fulfilling work. This is a solution that allows the government to use carrots rather than sticks to encourage students from every walk of life to follow the higher education path best for them without accepting the risk of unmanageable loans and difficulty making ends meet in the immediate future. It does not limit student options or involve an unworkable higher education price control system that some are advocating.”

Miller continued, “With President Obama’s bold vision to create the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, we as a country must embrace more common sense solutions to enable our workforce to quickly meet the demands of a rapidly changing workplace. This is a big step in the right direction.”

Will Apple's iPad and iBooks App Improve E-Textbook Sales?

That's the hope:

Electronic textbook publishers, for one, are hoping that the release and anticipated popularity of the tablet will be a windfall for e-textbooks — which, though they have been available for several years, so far have failed to catch on with students. E-textbooks accounted for only 2 percent of total textbook sales last fall, according to data from the market research firm Student Monitor.

CourseSmart, a consortium of five major textbook publishers (at least one of which has been talking to Apple), made a video in anticipation of the tablet’s release, in which it superimposes its iPhone application on a tablet-like device and touts the many ways it could make students' lives easier. Frank Lyman, the consortium’s president, has said the tablet offers features far beyond what is offered by the Kindle and the Sony Reader, including color graphics, video, and other media.

In an interview yesterday with Inside Higher Ed, Lyman said he believes the Apple product will give e-textbooks a boost by combining a brand that is widely popular among college students with a platform that is oriented to reading. “At the level of general enthusiasm and interest for e-textbooks, it has sort of captured the imagination of another part of the market,” he said.

Eric Weil, managing director of Student Monitor, agreed that Apple’s brand power could help push e-textbooks into the mainstream. The problem for e-textbooks is not that students don’t know that they exist, it’s that they don’t find them appealing, Weil said. Apple’s involvement could change that, he said, the same way it popularized the MP3 player with the iPod.

Photo: Engadget

Online Enrollment in Higher Education Surges 17 Percent

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Colleges saw a 17 percent increase in online enrollment, with more than one in four students taking at least one online course in the fall of 2008, according to the findings of an annual survey published on Tuesday by the Sloan Consortium.

The growth rate eclipsed last year's 12-percent increase and dwarfed the 1.2 percent growth rate of the overall higher-education student population. The report, which has become a widely cited benchmark of distance learning, found a total of more than 4.6-million online students overall. That's up from about 3.9 million the previous year.

Despite this surge, the data suggest that not enough institutions have taken online education into account as they conduct planning around issues like how to deal with budget cuts and space shortages, says A. Frank Mayadas, a special adviser to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

"They have to wake up and begin to think about this as a strategic item," Mr. Mayadas says.

 Inside Higher Ed adds some depth:

With all higher education enrollments increasing only by 1.2 percent for the same time period, the share of students taking at least one course online reached 25.3 percent. As recently as fall 2002, not even 10 percent of students were taking at least one course online. The data reflect nearly 4,500 colleges and universities...

What Will President Obama Say About Higher Education in the State of the Union Speech Tonight?

According to the Washington Post, this:

In higher education, Obama will urge the passage of legislation that would change student lending, eliminating a program that relies on private banks to make federally guaranteed loans. Instead, the government would become the direct lender for all federal student loans. That shift, according to congressional budget analysts, would net the government close to $80 billion over 10 years -- a conclusion sharply disputed by the lending industry. The House passed such legislation in September, but it has been delayed in the Senate.

Obama's budget will propose using savings from the student loan overhaul to expand higher-education grants and community college funding, among other programs.

Senior White House aides said the increase in education funding fits into a broader effort by the administration to focus scarce resources on the nation's long-term economic health.

We'll be live Twittering the speech with analysis and reaction. Follow us if you don't already: @CCANow.

New York Times Takes an Honest Look at Trade Schools

The Gray Lady takes a look at the Career Academy of New York and uncovers what we've been saying for quite some time - proprietary colleges are successfully training and educating non-traditional and transitional students in growing career fields:

"A lot of people are getting laid off," Ms. Lotfi said. "It’s really giving them the time to really think about what is it that they really want to do. Sometimes they just got caught up in a job, and they’ve been working and before they know it it’s been 10, 15 years. So now they are off they are exploring different avenues."

Hasan Canty, 26, a former fire directions specialist in the Army, said his military training left him with few career prospects in the civilian world so, he enrolled in CANY’s medical assistant program.

"It cost entirely too much money nowadays to got to four-year colleges," Mr. Canty said. "I think a training school is better because you’re not paying for a name, you’re paying for the actual education."

At a four-year college, he said, "I think you’re actually paying for the windows and the big school and the size of the classroom."

A floor above the lab where Mr. Canty and his classmates passed around containers filled with a faux-urine liquid and held swabs to paper test strips, Joshua Pizarro, 24, a culinary student, sorted through a pan full of fried chicken pieces while others stirred goulash and scoured pots and pans.

Mr. Pizarro said that he opted for what he called a more "rational" approach to his career training because "it’s a recession and it’s about the money." Before enrolling in school, Mr. Pizarro said he worked for a fashion company where he saw limited opportunity for growth. So it was time to grow in a different direction, to find a sturdier career path.

"Regardless of a recession, people need to eat," Mr. Pizarro said. "And I want to make sure that I’m the one that serves you, and I want to serve you not good food but great food. And here at CANY, they’re really giving us a good foundation."

Click on the picture above to watch the video.

Mike Rustigan: Not Everyone Needs a Four-Year College Degree

He makes the case in the L.A. Times:

Although I applaud the president's strong commitment to higher education, he is seriously neglecting the importance of vocational training in school. Not every student needs to go to college. There are plenty of high school kids who find college-prep classes boring and irrelevant. Many drop out because they feel school is not preparing them for anything practical. Most of these kids are not lazy or defiant; they just want to work with their hands, learn a skill and pursue a solid, honorable, blue-collar trade after high school.

For too long, academic elites and politicians -- both Democrats and Republicans -- have oversold us on the necessity of getting a college degree. We have reached the point at which it has become almost un-American to admit that for a sizable number of our young people, college is a waste of time.

According to a growing number of demographers and labor experts, the U.S. soon will be experiencing a severe shortage of skilled workers. Blue-collar baby boomers are retiring, but schools aren't preparing the next generation to take their place. Our nation needs blue- collar workers -- skilled mechanics, machinists, welders, carpenters and electricians, as well as computer, solar and cable technicians, etc. -- just as much as it needs college grads.

As one retired plumber told me: "No one is going to outsource your local repair guy. If you've got a trade, you've got it made."

 None of this is to suggest there isn't room for fundamental building blocks of education. Nor is this a positioning of career colleges as superior to other segments of higher education. Rather, it's about matching each individual with an outlet than satisfies their career needs and preferred learning alternatives:

To be sure, basic reading, writing and math proficiency is necessary for all graduates. But for the state of California to expect every high school student to meet university admission requirements is not only foolish, it is tyrannical.

Much has been written about the lack of discipline in kids who skip classes and eventually drop out. As the cynics keep telling us, nothing can be done with these lazy, low-achieving slackers because the root causes are broken homes and lousy parenting.

Yet, in my experience, when you offer these same kids the right form of education, they flourish. The magic of learning something that is useful and relevant sparks a strong desire to achieve. The transformative power of education is convincing. Right now there are hundreds of new, experimental, small-scale shop programs throughout the nation that are showing very promising signs of success.

A four-year education is undeniably important and even esoteric liberal arts curricula can be beneficial for a wide variety of reasons. When components of liberal arts curricula are added to vocational training, the results can be incredibly beneficial for students. But we must face the fundamental fact: not every student is best suited in four-year, traditional university programs. Some need and deserve a more hands-on approach.

Financial Times' John Dizard Misses the Point on Gainful Employment Issue

John Dizard of the Financial Times (“Reform of for-profit US schools could provide valuable lessons”) suggests the new “gainful employment” criteria under consideration by the Department of Education are a necessary step for the sector and ultimately a reliable method to determine the value of our education. Except that they are not. In fact, there are other methods already in place to measure value, most notably, the education marketplace itself. Students currently have a choice about where to seek higher education opportunities and in increasing numbers, they choose career colleges and universities. They do so even when given what, on the surface, seem to be less expensive alternatives. For the non-traditional student looking to obtain the skills training and education necessary for career employment in this deeply challenging economy, career colleges seem to be an awfully popular choice.

There is also the question of what this effort is intended to accomplish that is not already accomplished under the extant system. Nationally accredited colleges, the majority of institutions in our sector, must report and meet retention and job placement rates in order to continue to have their students eligible for federal aid. Traditional colleges and universities report none of this as a condition of Title IV eligibility.

The author also suggests that forcing the gainful employment issue is justified because the taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for federal students loans. He who pays the piper does call the tunes, but Mr. Dizard does not provide an accurate account of student loans repayment and how taxpayers benefit. The overwhelming majority of student borrowers repay their loans with interest (a profit to the government) and, even for those that default, the debt is not simply discharged. The government eventually collects every penny and then some.

Speaking of default rates, there is overwhelming evidence cohort default rates are tied to student demographics, not institutional ownership or quality. Community college students and those who attend minority serving institutions have similar average default rates to those in career colleges. The preponderance of those who default on their loans are those that never completed their course of study. Again, the overwhelming majority of students who do complete their studies ultimately repay their loans, an obvious indication that the outcome sought by the proposed “gainful employment” measurement is already being achieved.

Mr. Dizard’s piece also begs the question: if we are going to measure a return on investment strictly in terms of earnings, why is no one asking that these measures be applied to the other 90 percent of postsecondary institutions? Why single out career colleges for government price controls? While career education is the fastest growing sector of higher education, we are still just a fraction of the whole. Moreover, a new poll by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles finds two-thirds of freshmen say they are either somewhat or very worried about their ability to finance their college educations. If more than 60 percent of the next generation of traditional higher education students are not sure they are going to be able to pay for their degrees, that should set off alarm bells over value in traditional higher education. Perhaps a double standard exists for both higher education students and institutions.

Mr. Dizard believes our schools should look to the pharmaceutical industry for an example of how government regulation helps establish “value for money.” Aside from the economic evidence that drug makers raise prices in anticipation of government price-fixing, the longstanding reality is that career colleges are indeed price sensitive and market driven. Institutions unable to adapt to changing markets or focused on obsolete career programs fail and close. This “natural selection” is based on reputation, word of mouth among students and employers, and the ability to meet specific educational outcomes. Suggesting onerous regulations could be responsible for the success of the career higher education sector is getting the facts and logic precisely backwards: our schools have succeeded despite bureaucratic hurdles. Adding more may jeopardize the ability of students to tap the many benefits of career education.

Finally, and not insignificantly, Congress has never given the Department of Education authority to fix prices for higher education. On the contrary, Congress, while both under Republican and Democratic majorities, has consistently rejected that approach. If the Department thinks higher education prices controls is a good idea, they should recommend it to Congress, have the appropriate legislative consideration, and see what our elected officials decide.

Responding to Allison Sherry's and The Denver Post's Attack on For-Profit Education

Jobs, jobs, jobs.  The mantra of the country.  Career preparation.  Career preparation. Career preparation.  The mantra of career colleges.  Yet that is virtually impossible to discern reading Allison Sherry’s article on the most rapidly growing sector of higher education, career colleges.  U.S. higher education is at an inflection point, with a global economy and U-shaped recession putting unprecedented pressure on Americans to gain the kind of new skills and abilities available only in a postsecondary setting.  Unfortunately, no matter how much some elitists wish it were otherwise, the bowling ball won’t fit through the straw.  Demand for college far exceeds supply in our traditional system, designed for another era.  States are slashing higher education funding and selective public and private liberal arts colleges remain primarily focused on those students most able to perform—and afford—private school tuitions.

The inflection point is occurring because Americans from all walks of life, not just those on easy street, need a higher education, and, with over 10 percent unemployment and a huge skills mismatch, they need it fast.  Government is no longer able to meet the need with highly subsidized public education.    The fork in our economic road, recognized in President Obama’s 2020 challenge to return the US to the top ranking in the world, requires new thinking and real alternatives.

For-profit education, where students, not taxpayers, pay the bulk of costs for education, is attuned to the marketplace, focused on jobs and careers, tested in the court of public opinion, and validated by the sheer weight of numbers.  This year, 2.7 million students enrolled in career colleges, a number that represents double digit growth while other sectors of higher education have remained essentially flat.
The Denver Post largely misses this story of systemic and even historic change, choosing instead to accentuate the negative and sensational:

·         Default rate data are misconstrued.  A three-year rate recently released by the Department of Education is prospective, not actual.  The Department released the information to help institutions act to manage rates.  Unfortunately, that point is missed in the rush to judgment.  So is the fact that over 50 percent of career college students come from economically disadvantaged circumstances.  As academic studies and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, have both stated clearly, career college graduate default rates are similar to the rates of other graduates from institutions serving poor people such as community colleges and minority serving institutions.

·         Tuition rates are no higher than typical tuitions charged by other private institutions and, as the article makes clear, much less than the staggering $148,704 charged by the University of Denver.  Comparisons are often made to community college tuitions, but such analysis fails to mention that the taxpayer subsidizes the community college student with $7 for every dollar provided a career college student.

·         Taxpayers do provide career college students with Pell Grants.  Indeed, most career college students receive Pell Grants.  The top dollar available with a Pell Grant, however, is capped at $5,350, so most students borrow to make up the difference.  To the extent that they borrow from the federal government, the vast majority of these dollars are repaid to the federal treasury.

No fat public subsidy; rather, a responsibility to repay their loans:  why do career college students prefer career college?  They find an educational experience and learning environment that justifies the expense.  Many have been to community college in previous academic careers.  They know that the cheaper is often not better.  When it comes to incentives for filling seats, critics often have the economic logic exactly backwards.  Public institutions make budgets by filling enrollment quotas, not graduation metrics.  Most career colleges, on the other hand, must meet specific graduation and career placement rates to remain eligible for Title IV student aid programs.  As a result, they focus on the success of each student. That no doubt explains why two-year graduation rates for career college students top 60 percent, while community colleges graduate just over 26 percent of their students.

But at the end of the day, explaining why a career college is not like the University of Colorado or Colorado College is ultimately beside the point.  We all agree that students deserve a quality education.  America’s accredited for-profit institutions have zero tolerance for false dealing, empty promises, shoddy education or other abuses that, unfortunately, pop up in both the for-profit and not-for-profit higher education (anyone want to discuss seriously “amateur” college football, for example, in which coaches get paid millions).   The exception does not prove the rule, no matter where it is found.  Rather, it is the steady compilation of facts that people can see, hear and believe that constitute economic reality.  In the realm of higher education, these are facts about student persistence, graduation, placement, satisfaction.  For a growing number of Americans, relevance, accountability and value in higher education are the only acceptable alternative, one found only in a career education classroom. 

Online Education Helping to Make Job Seekers More Competitive

From BusinessWire:

In December, the American workforce shed another 85,000 jobs, holding the country’s jobless rate steady at 10 percent. As Americans continue to struggle to maintain their jobs or gain employment, they have sought a means to make themselves more valuable to employers – enter online education.

“With the job market in such dire straits, many people are utilizing the flexibility of online education to make themselves more competitive,” said Dr. Alan Walker, president of Upper Iowa University (UIU). “Enrollment for online education continues to climb during this time while we are seeing traditional educational institutions across the country making cuts or shutting their doors completely.”

At UIU, enrollment in the online program is increasing 25 percent annually. Nationwide, more than 20 percent of all college students were enrolled in at least one online college course in fall 2007, an increase of 13 percent from 2006, according to a 2008 Alfred P. Sloane Foundation study. Whereas, traditional on-campus enrollment nationwide increased one percent over that period.

“What we are finding is that students like the flexibility of taking courses online, enabling them to continue to work full time or take care of their families while still pursing their educational goals,” said Dr. Walker. “The key is offering a high-caliber online curriculum with the comfort of knowing a campus or center is nearby if needed.”

85 percent of UIU's students live in the same region as one of the 15 UIU centers. That means the admixture of face-to-face learning with online supplementation (or vice versa) is open to nearly 9 out of every 10 students.

Project Runway's Logan Neitzel a Guest at CCA New Employee Reception

The write-up courtesy CCA's newsletter:

On Wednesday, January 13^th, CCA held a reception to formally welcome Executive Vice President Brian Moran, Director of Legislative Affairs Katherine Brody as well as Communications Director Sarah Abruzzesse to the staff. In addition, season six participant Logan Neitzel of the hit reality television show “Project Runway” (and graduate of CCA member school Art Institute of Seattle) was also on hand, signing autographs and mingling with the crowd of Washington professionals. Among the more than 200 in attendance were Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA), Hill staffers, CCA staff, and others. The event was held at Sonoma wine bar in Washington, DC.

CCA President and CEO Harris Miller as well as Brian Moran offered comments to the large crowd. Miller thanked Neitzel for his attendance and reinforced the role the career higher education sector plays in the larger post-secondary marketplace. Moran told the crowd he was excited to be a part of the CCA team and expressed his eagerness to work on behalf of the career higher education sector.

For the rest of this week's CCA newsletter click here. For more pictures from the event with Logan Neitzel, click here.

Dispelling the Myths of Charlotte Allen's Attack on For-Profit Schools

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Where to start on Charlotte Allen’s rant (“The Failure of For-Profit Schools")? So much wrongheaded perspective and out of context information. So little time.

Why do for-profit colleges seem so disappointing, Charlotte asks? They don’t. At least not to the American public. A survey performed by Harris Interactive, a highly respected polling firm, found that 89 percent of Americans find value in the decision to enroll in a career college.

Charlotte says the vast majority of our enrollees pay tuition bills comparable to four-year public universities but never graduate. Wrong again Charlotte. Comparing two-year programs, over 60 percent of our students graduate, versus 26 percent of students at public colleges and universities. Charlotte indicates that for-profit colleges are about building numbers, not reputations, and says our focus is not on academic outcomes. Somehow she misses the fact that nationally accredited career colleges alone among all types of academic institutions are held accountable for their outcomes by the Department of Education. Not just graduation rates but also placement rates for their graduates in their chosen fields. And when graduates of our schools face the same competency tests as graduates of traditional schools—in areas such as nursing with nationwide testing standards—our students do just as well.

True, students do pay more at our schools than they would at community colleges. Much of Charlotte’s motivation in writing her essay appears to be a criticism of public support for higher education. If so, she should just come out and say it. And while doing so, she should know that the public subsidizes community college students with $7 for every dollar a career college student receives. Why make us the Judas goat? And, by the way, another point she gets wrong, federal student loan defaults at career colleges are about the same as for students who attend community colleges and minority serving institutions. This is so, as study after study has shown and as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explained at a recent Congressional heading, because defaults are related to student demographics and not to type of institution. If a school only admits upper middle class and upper class students (as most traditional schools do), they do not default. If you want to offer educational opportunity to a broad swath of America, some students are going to have higher default rates.

But even higher defaults do not mean widespread defaults. Career college students make an investment in themselves. They repay their loans. Taxpayers make higher education accessible to this population, but most loans are repaid. Consumers paying the cost of their education, rather than passing that cost to the government. With what part of that equation does the Manhattan Institute disagree? And did we forget to mention, as Charlotte does, of course, that for profit schools PAY TAXES, to state and localities, thereby further reducing the net costs to taxpayers of the support their student obtain.

Ultimately, Charlotte tips her hand. Should open admissions students, “…with their poor academic records and high at-risk factors, ought to be in college in the first place” she wonders. A recent study finds that career colleges are far more effective in graduating at-risk students, too. But apparently there are no second chances in Charlotte’s world. We disagree. In an economy in which one out of every two adults lacks a college credential, we need all avenues to higher education open and ready for business.

Entrepreneur.com Says Returning to Higher Education Is a 2010 Top Business Trend

Education clocks in at number six on the list:

Huge numbers of people are going back to school--ducking the bad economy, retraining for new jobs, even reinventing themselves completely. Total enrollment at universities and colleges is close to 12 million and climbing, says IbisWorld senior analyst Toon van Beeck, most likely because of unemployment. Or, as van Beeck puts it: "They're up-skilling." Certainly, 2010 will be a good year for higher learning institutions: Revenue is expected to grow 4.9 percent, to $421 billion. Enrollment at less expensive junior colleges, trade schools and online universities is also on the rise, particularly since student loan financing is still in short supply.

Neumont University, a computer science school near Salt Lake City, Utah, with accelerated degree programs, entices students with postgraduate employment rates of 85 percent to 95 percent within the first 60 days, even during the recession. "Some students have launched a company while in school and made it their career," university President Edward Levine says. "We'll be offering a new degree in Digital Entrepreneurship in 2010, and there should be a high proportion of adult learners in the first group of students."

For the record, Neumont University is a member of CCA.

Online Colleges Shouldn't Be Singled Out for Student Aid Fraud Problems

Fred B. Lokken makes the case:

This singling out of online education infuriates Fred B. Lokken, chair of the Instructional Technology Council, an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges. Mr. Lokken argues that the fraud at Rio Salado "could be replicated in a traditional classroom on almost any campus in America." That's because online registrations and applications are common at such places, he says. And do instructors really get to know hundreds of students in an introductory-level lecture class?

Then there's the context. The Rio Salado case represents one flavor in a full menu of financial shenanigans investigated by the inspector general's office, many of which have nothing to do with online education. In highlighting a handful of distance-education cases, Mr. Lokken says, the inspector general is taking "a Chicken Little approach to the process."

"The sky is not falling," he says.

Indeed, many distance-education programs have built-in protection: their high cost. Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid, an independent Web site about financial aid, says criminals hit low-cost colleges so they can maximize the amount of cash they pull out after financial aid is applied to tuition and fees. Online programs, he says, often aren't cheap enough to make them attractive to crooks.

"This is not at the top of anybody's priority list, except for perhaps the OIG," he says, referring to the inspector general's office. "Yes, there is some fraud, but it's not an overwhelming amount."

New America Foundation's Stephen Burd Refuses to Acknowledge Bias, Truth About Proprietary Colleges

Stephen Burd tells us that he and the New America Foundation “are not suggesting that for-profit higher education is bad per se or that there aren’t good players in it”. Bad per se? Proprietary colleges across the country successfully graduate and place hundreds of thousands of students in jobs without any incident or issue. The facts prove that while no sector of higher education is free from reproach, there is a true silent majority of career college graduates and students being well served in school and well educated for work life afterwards.  Career placement rates are 60 percent or higher for graduates of our institutions. Yet, Mr. Burd isn’t against for-profit higher education per se? How generous. We would accuse Stephen of bias against proprietary schools were his own words not the most telling admission possible.  He still refuses to admit the obvious—his writings about our sector are always negative. We have presented the facts based on his own words, not ours, and he has not even tried to refute one point we have made because he cannot.

Stephen asserts large, publicly traded for-profit corporations mindlessly serve their shareholders, as if to suggest doing so is a viable business strategy. I guess Stephen missed business class. He fails to mention these corporations and all successful schools serve their customers, or more specifically, their students. Unless customers are generally satisfied, businesses—whether they provide goods or services, such as higher education---do not survive and even thrive. 

We do agree with Stephen on a key consideration: the federal government has the right and responsibility to determine whether colleges (proprietary or otherwise) are providing a legitimate education. We welcome any regulatory body tasked with evaluating both the quality of colleges and the accreditors to ferret out misconduct, punish violators and allow the law-abiding to continue their operations.

The problem is with Stephen’s characterization of the for-profit higher education sector. Because one football coach allegedly abuses a player, are all football coaches bad?  Because one professor plagiarizes for her book, are all professors unethical?  Because one community college president abuses his expense account, are all community college presidents thieves?  Unlike the overused cliché, one bad apple does not spoil the bunch. Inasmuch as scandal and malfeasance exists in higher education, no sector is blameless. But Stephen is perpetually trying to suggest there is little good being achieved within the sector, despite the incontestable truth that career colleges have superior graduation and placement rates over their community college peers.

If Stephen is truly interested in uncovering wrongdoing in higher education wherever it occurs, then we wish him well. But as long as he pretends based on anecdotes or infrequent lawsuits or allegations - not research or firsthand reporting - the highest proportion of ethical and legal shortcomings in higher education stem from proprietary institutions, the longer we intend to remind Stephen he isn’t biased…per se.

CCA Highlights Unfair Criticism of Pell Grant Revenue by Chronicle of Higher Education

We note with interest the out of context and apropos of essentially nothing Chronicle Financial Data chart titled “For-Profit Colleges Capitalize on Pell Grant Revenue.” So what? The distribution of Pell Grants to career college students reflects the fact that career colleges educate a significantly higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students than do most other sectors. The distribution is also distorted by the low proportion of community college students receiving such grants due to their low application rates for federal student aid.

Over 62 percent of the students at for-profit schools (nearly 71 at two-year schools) are either below or at the poverty level or at 200 percent of the poverty level. In comparison, 32 percent of public four-year, 41 percent of public two-year and 29 percent of private non-profit students, respectively, are in the same economic situation. While almost all career college students apply for federal student aid, including Pell grants for those eligible, only 57 percent of community college students apply for Federal student aid. Adjusting the distribution of Pell grants so that the community college share is based on the application rate of career students would result in the community college sector receiving 52 percent and not the 30 percent of Pell grants. So simplify FAFSA and have community colleges provide more assistance to their students in completing their application. Do not implicitly criticize our sector for doing right by our students.

To be particularly helpful (apparently), the Chronicle notes the proprietary schools represent six percent of students in higher education but claim 20 percent of Pell Grant money. First, most people agree the six percent figure for our sector is low, especially if one looks at year round starts, not just September starts (the agriculture age is over). We are closer to ten percent and growing rapidly. If not the career college sector, who will provide non-traditional students with the skills and abilities they need to compete in a 21st century workforce? The only option is community colleges, now strapped for funds and cutting programs. Certainly not traditional colleges and universities. Why not show a companion chart that indicates America’s top 20 schools educate just .7 percent of students and, because they largely serve the nation’s wealthiest families, draw just .002 percent of Pell dollars?

Career College Association Responds to Daniel Golden's BusinessWeek Attack on Online For-Profit Colleges

While Daniel Golden likely believes his “Marine Can’t Recall His Course Lessons at For-Profit College” article is justice for would-be duped military personnel, the article only reveals how little he thinks of military service members. America’s service men and women are not so gullible as to be lured into proprietary education institutions with promises of free laptops and door-buster prizes; what is enticing them is education with a focused purpose that prepares them for the transition into the civilian workforce. The demands and rigors of both active and reserve duty in today’s military necessitate online colleges that provide flexible, tailored programs for their unique demands and requirements. Private sector colleges service those needs. It’s about life goals and lifestyles, not laptops.  While many veterans may want a traditional four year campus experience after completing their service to our country, others have already experienced the “growing up” part of traditional higher education while in the military, and consider spending more time hanging out with the opposite sex and drinking beer not all that appealing.

Despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, Mr. Golden erroneously suggests degrees from online universities are less helpful in obtaining employment. Given that Mr. Golden’s chief source of information for this assertion is two headhunters, no one should be surprised at his dubious numbers. What the data show is that career placement rates are 60 percent or higher for graduates of our institutions.

Mr. Golden’s criticism of how online education is delivered is wrongheaded. Online education may have been pioneered and embraced first by private sector education, but every sector of higher education has caught on to its value. The University of Maryland University College, based at a traditional four year university, has approximately 200,000 online students. Recently the Department of Education issued a strong endorsement of online education.  To attack the delivery of higher education through online channels as troublesome is to attack the present and future of higher education itself.

Mr. Golden also brings up the issue of transfer of credit. While some students from accredited online universities can sometimes find themselves victims of discrimination by registrar office personnel, the law is clear: transfer of credit decisions cannot be based on the accreditation of the sending institution provided the accrediting agency is recognized by the Department of Education. If Mr. Golden is as deeply concerned about this problem as he is portraying himself to be, attacking the accredited institutions themselves seems awfully misplaced.

Throughout his article Mr. Golden suggests taxpayers are left holding the bill for private sector college students when that money could be better spent sending them to public institutions. Yet, research suggests taxpayers subsidize the community college student with $7 for every $1 dollar supporting a student at a private sector college or university. As a matter of basic arithmetic, is there really an argument here?

Lastly, Mr. Golden’s reporting on 90/10 is disingenuous.  Under current 90/10 laws (which are now punitive towards the very students they are intended to serve), if 90% of a student’s financial aid comes from federal dollars, then it doesn’t matter if they receive aid from other sources; they’re already over the limit.

CCA's Harris Miller Comments on Bias of New America Foundation's Stephen Burd

New America Foundation's Stephen Burd wrote this blog post last month, to which Harris Miller followed up with this reply. Burd eventually responded in his own comments section. This is Harris Miller's follow-up to that earlier comment:

We are gratified to learn that Stephen Burd has “nothing against for-profit higher education per se,” and fully recognizes that there “are some good players” in our sector.  Unfortunately, this point of view has never bled over into his writing, which consistently castigates career colleges, their practices and the entire notion of private sector funded education.  

How do we know?   We have been reviewing Stephen’s writings about career colleges on the New America Foundation blog and a piece he penned for Washington Monthly, searching assiduously for his balanced comments.  In Stephen’s approximately 60 blog posts on the New America site in 2009, 20 focused on career colleges.  All 20 pieces were highly critical. Much of his work is triggered by government reports and statistics, which require analysis, perspective and interpretation to understand the extremely nuanced  picture this information presents. 

For instance, when it comes to comparisons based on institution type, government data gathering is limited to “first time, full time students.”  Unlike those who attend traditional colleges and universities like Harvard or Swarthmore (Stephen’s alma mater), the career college student body is largely made up of non-traditional students, a significant percentage of whom are coming back to school after earlier unsuccessful attempts at community college or who must fit school in around the edges while working to support families and meet other life obligations.  Rather than try to help his readers sort through the confusion of government data, Stephen compounds it. 

For instance, he often refers to the bad old days of the early 1990s, when numerous career schools were, rightly or wrongly, forced out of the Title IV program.  We stipulate that some schools crossed boundaries in the past, just as I assume he would stipulate that some traditional institutions have done and continue to do today.  And far worse abuses of the public trust and purse have happened in other industries.  Most of the world takes corrective action and moves on.  For the career college sector, this has meant increased regulation and multi-layered oversight, arguably far more stringent than that focused on traditional higher education institutions.  Stephen, however, is stuck in the last century.  He rails without evidence about our schools over-promising and under delivering, despite the basic logic that would suggest that such base practices destroy the ability of any school to operate.  In fact, just the opposite is the case.  Our institutions are growing in the double digits because students are finding value and the word about the value proposition of this education is spreading.  Stephen is quick to point to a small number of qui tam lawsuits that have occurred in our sector.  Some plaintiffs’ attorneys have made such suits a specialty practice. Some institutions settle.  Others do not.  Such events are no more indicative of the sector’s character and values than were the multi-million paydays that trial lawyers once earned from strike suits against public companies, targeting the forward looking statements of corporate executives.  

To me, Stephen acts like hedgehog of ancient lore who knows one big thing and refuses to moderate his views.   Nor do we have evidence that Stephen is willing to challenge his own thinking with visits to career colleges, talks to typical career college students and graduates, or to employers who hire them.    Instead, he goes so far as to suggest that I personally and the Career College Association generally act as an apologist for schools defrauding students.   I know of no case that Stephen can point to where CCA has defended the practices of any school that crosses the line.  As I said when I testified before Congress in the fall, if a school crosses the line, “hang ‘em high.” 

As he does in other areas, Stephen confuses advocacy with artifice.  For my more than 30 years in Washington, in government and the private sector, I have enjoyed the political dialogue on public policy among well informed and caring people.  In my almost three years heading CCA, I continue to have extensive dialogue with both supporters and legitimate critics of our sector who have concerns that need to be addressed better.  But with Stephen, there is no dialogue because his criticism is not legitimate—it comes from his heart not his head, from what he “knows” to be true and not what the world around him represents.  

Dayton Daily News Publishes CCA Letter to the Editor Regarding Financial Aid Article

The following is a letter to the editor authored by CCA President and CEO Harris Miller sent to and published by the Dayton Daily News regarding an editorial suggesting for-profit colleges are the beneficiary of too much financial aid:

Re: “Financial aid too available to shady schools,” Dec. 7: Your editorial erroneously suggests career colleges are receiving the most amount of federal aid in the higher- education sector.

Students, not colleges, receive federal aid and then make informed choices about how to spend it.

The schools they attend are overseen by the federal and state governments and federally recognized accrediting bodies.

Economically disadvantaged students use Pell Grants to pay for higher education because they need job skills and education in the 21st-century economy, especially with today’s downturn.

They view career colleges as the most direct path to reaching their goals.

Career colleges also help students maximize federal benefits; community colleges do not.

More than 40 percent of students at two-year public institutions leave Pell grants to which they are legally entitled on the table.

More than 60 percent of students in two-year programs at career colleges receive their degrees.

The 38 percent for-profit median graduation rate quoted in the editorial is flawed. That figure is based on a calculation of “first-time, full-time” students, which is how the government does its calculation, though more than 50 percent of today’s students do not fall into this category.

Students enter for-profit institutions offering four-year degrees with various motivations, perhaps gaining a certificate or two-year degree.

Reporting a median graduation rate without including those with previous postsecondary experience or who seek less than four-year degrees is misleading.

Your editorial concludes that for most students seeking “college-level programs,” traditional schools are “a better bet.”

A better bet how? Not based on much better graduation and career placement rates from career colleges, outcomes not even measured by traditional institutions.

The more than 2.5 million career college students obtaining middle-class opportunity through job-specific education and training tailored to their lifestyles are putting their chips on the right square. 

R. David Rankin, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools, also offers a response to the Dayton Daily News piece.