Online College Resources

Five years after Los Angeles Unified School District passed an ambitious policy requiring all students to take college-required courses to graduate, the rate of students passing those classes remains alarmingly low, according to a district review of the program obtained by the Daily News, a sister paper of the Daily Breeze, on Tuesday.

Prompted by strong community and political pressure, in 2005 the LAUSD school board approved new rules for high schools requiring all students to pass a series of 15 college prep courses in order to get their diplomas.

The “A-G requirements,” which include four years of college prep English and two years of lab science, math and foreign language, were supposed to help increase the low numbers of LAUSD students who were graduating college-ready.

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Student bust their butts in high school to prepare for their collegiate career, promised to be filled with intense debates, 20-page research papers and gut-wrenching exams. But once in college, it seems students quickly realize the academic hype might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

According to study results recently published in the book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, undergraduates aren’t learning a whole lot. The book’s authors based their findings on extensive research drawn from survey responses, transcript data and the College Learning Assessment, a standardized test that was administered to students in their first semester and again at the end of the school year. Here’

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High unemployment rates have many aspiring college students thinking hard about which direction to take in their college majors and careers. Recently, teaching and training expert Michael Brandwein appeared on WFTX-FOX in Florida and offered his perspective on hot growth areas and how to choose an educational program.

Brandwein said employers today are looking for ongoing learners with excellent communication, problem solving and critical thinking skills. The days of learning one specialized skill and applying it to a single job function for the duration of your career are gone. Today’s employers are looking for people who can learn quickly and adapt multiple skill sets to a variety of job tasks.

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Working at colleges and universities, you quickly learn that some questions can only be answered in certain ways. For instance, if I’m asked what TV shows I’m watching lately, I can probably get away with mentioning “Mad Men,” but I’m probably better off sticking to the new documentary on the circus airing on PBS. Or, if I were to admit that I’d been using iTunes to catch up on episodes of ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars,” I would clearly lose some of my credibility (even though, IMHO, it has a great cast and is really well written).

Shameless Plug: Since Mason has a course on zombies and their cultural significance that was featured on National Public Radio, I can at least get away with watching AMC’s new series, “Walking Dead”.

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SACRAMENTO – Community college students would have an easier time transferring into the California State University system under a bill approved by the state Senate.

The Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation that would require community colleges to create degrees guaranteeing students can transfer with the status of junior.

The bill aimed at streamlining the process for transfer students was previously approved by the Assembly. It now heads to the governor’s desk.

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of Los Angeles says the current system costs students and schools extra money. He says his bill provides certainty for students trying to get to a four-year college.