Daily Lumina News 052622

It's graduation season. But amid the pomp and circumstance, there is a somber statistic on the minds of many people: Only 62 percent of students graduate college in six years. The number is 39 percent for Black male students.
In Tennessee, where the rate is even lower, the state has launched a statewide taskforce to address this disparity.

West Virginia has the lowest percentage of residents with a bachelor’s degree (21 percent) and ranks 44th in the percentage of residents over 25 with an associate degree. To make matters worse, college enrollment in the state is plummeting.
But there’s one ranking in which West Virginia is consistently near the top: high AmeriCorps presence. It’s at the intersection of these realities that state Senator Stephen Baldwin saw an opportunity.

The last two years disrupted many aspects of higher education, including the educational technology market and its relationship between colleges and companies.
This episode of The Key With Inside Higher Ed explores how well the many hundreds of ed-tech companies that work with colleges, professors, and students actually meet the needs of the institutions and their people, where they fall short, and how they can do better.

The advantage of a community college lives right in the name: It’s affordable, accessible education in a student’s home community.
Yet, declining college enrollment shows students need more than their school’s resources to succeed. Intentional partnerships between community colleges and employers, non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, and workforce boards can provide a wide range of support for students and workers.

The nation’s baby formula shortage has left families desperate for ways to feed their children, and student parents are no exception.
As federal and state lawmakers search for ways to help, some colleges are joining forces to find their own solutions for parenting students—as well as shine a light on this often-overlooked population.

What leads to students feeling so disconnected from college, and how could such feelings be so widespread?
In their 1,000 hour-long conversations with students, two researchers say that many approach college with a “transactional” view—their overarching goal is to build a resume with stellar grades, which they believe will help them secure a job post-college. In short, they are more concerned with the pursuit of earning than the process of learning.