Notes in the Margins: Sleep texting, consumer reports and preying on pain

Efforts Are Under Way to Tie College to Job Needs As the economy begins to show signs of life, efforts are under way at two-year colleges across the state to make programs more responsive to the labor market. Some Texas leaders are trying to reverse the trend toward encouraging students to attain the highest degree possible. (The New York Times)

A Consumer Report for Colleges? The best thing to do would be to fashion pre- and post-tests and compare "value-added" performance by different schools.  We need the grades in order to account for student effort and talent. (Minding the Campus)

More students sending texts while they sleep Sleep texting has recently become a phenomenon worthy of attention in student and professional press circles. It has joined sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and old-fashioned nightmares as one of the more common things that occur while undergrads and others are grabbing some shuteye. (USA Today)

Kaplan University: Preying On 'Pain' And 'Fears' Of Low-Income Students Is Not 'Remotely Deceptive' Responding to allegations, the company's lawyers wrote in their August motion to dismiss, "Plaintiff may think this language unbecoming for an educational institution, but it is not fraudulent." The lawyers also wrote, “It merely encourages admissions advisers to 'ask probing questions to explore student motivation' and to 'keep digging until you uncover their pain, fears and dreams.'" (The Huffington Post via University Business)

As a Broader Group Seeks Early Admission, Rejections Rise in the East Early admission to top colleges, once the almost exclusive preserve of the East Coast elite, is now being pursued by a much broader and more diverse group of students, including foreigners and minorities. (The New York Times)

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