Daily Lumina News 012120

College is a blurry dream for many families in Lost Hills, California—hard to fathom, out of reach. Zero percent of adults have a college degree in Lost Hills, something a large agricultural conglomerate is trying to change by building a charter school for the children of its workers.
The Wonderful College Prep Academy is fixated on college, with banners for the University of Florida and Harvard waving in the halls and classrooms. Its rigorous curriculum is designed to make sure students get there.

With more students joining the workforce right out of high school, student-success offices like the one at Kansas State University need to prove that attending college yields a better return on investment.
More colleges are hiring administrators with "student success" in their titles and charging them with making students’ college experience rewarding and fruitful, whether the students are first-generation and low-income or show up well-prepared by their families and high schools.

Austin Community College enrolls about 40,000 students, roughly 1,200 of whom are Dreamers. Armando Sanchez, 20, is one of them. He just graduated with an associate degree and plans to continue his study of political science and communications at Texas State University in the spring.
Sanchez came to the United States as an infant. He’s seen other kids and his own family members get picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Receiving protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program offered some relief, but as a possible end nears, the stress is beginning to weigh on him.

A first-of-its-kind study found mixed evidence that a type of reform meant to improve the odds that college students graduate is truly effective.
The researchers focused on corequisite courses, an instructional model that allows students to skip remedial math and English courses and instead take college-level, or gateway, classes with additional instructional support.