Stop Burying Your Heads In the Sand, Colleges

By Mary Nguyen Barry Turns out it’s not only parents who are in denial about the quality of their children’s schools, but colleges – perhaps unsurprisingly – are too.     We recently detailed how perhaps the complacency that’s likely in part driving the Common Core opt-out movement directly hurts the pocketbooks of families who

Hidden High School to College Remediation & Dropout Costs

By Mary Nguyen Barry and Michael Dannenberg   Check out a fast PowerPoint of our latest report on how half a million college freshmen from all income backgrounds – including middle class and wealthy backgrounds – attending all types of colleges pay an extra $1.5 billion a year out-of-pocket for content they should have learned in high

Out of Pocket: The High Cost of Inadequate High Schools and High School Student Achievement on College Affordability

  By Mary Nguyen Barry and Michael Dannenberg    Academic under-preparation at the high school level is seen across income groups and reflected in widespread remedial education at a broad cross-section of colleges.  It’s hurting students’ chances for success in college, costing families a sizable amount out of pocket, and making college a poor value proposition for

RELEASE: Americans Spending At Least $1.5 Billion in College Remediation Courses; Middle Class Pays the Most

  EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 12:01 a.m. EDT, April 6, 2016   For further information: Michael Vaughn, Director of Communications 303-921-9350 mvaughn@educationpost.org   Americans Spending At Least $1.5 Billion in College Remediation Courses; Middle Class Pays the Most Lack of Rigor in High Schools Adds to Cost of College   More than half a million college

DC Students and DC TAG Lack Meaningful College Options

By Mary Nguyen Barry Students and families in Washington, D.C. are stuck between a rock and a hard place. As in many cities, DC students face a number of education realities specific to an urban public school environment: segregated schools, inequitable facilities, and inequitable school resources. But unlike most students who successfully navigate the system

Why Do So Many Private College Presidents Oppose the Obama Higher Education Record?

By Mary Nguyen Barry   College administrators tend to be considered a liberal lot, but there appears to be at least one notable outlier: their support of the Obama higher education record. Perhaps that’s because President Obama is the first not to hew to traditional party lines around higher education policy – where Democrats typically

What Can the Next President Learn from Trump University?

By Mary Nguyen Barry In the 74 Million, Mary Nguyen Barry writes: For higher education experts, it wasn’t hard to see Trump University was a scam back when it opened its proverbial doors in 2005. Trump’s for-profit “University” carried no accreditation, conferred no degrees, and yet made the promise to students: “Just copy exactly what

Is Affirmative Action On Its Last Legs? Should It Be?

By Mary Nguyen Barry and Michael Dannenberg In the heat of smoldering racial unrest focused on the use of force by police and culture on college campuses, the Supreme Court hears a case today that presents an opportunity to roll back consideration of race in college admissions and either implicitly or explicitly promote class-based affirmative action as

Institutional Racism at Mizzou

By Mary Nguyen Barry Yesterday’s resignation of the University of Missouri President and Chancellor marked a victory for college student activists, particularly student athletes, in standing up to racial injustice. Attention to the protests has centered on specific incidents of racism and the institution’s response, but it should also extend to lifting the veil on

Our Fisher vs. UT Affirmative Action Argument

By Mary Nguyen Barry Earlier this week, Education Reform Now & Democrats for Education Reform led a group of five nonprofit education advocacy organizations in defending colleges’ use of race in admissions. In an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, we argued that when it comes to college admissions, a meaningful commitment to diversity requires