Helping Women Worldwide

By Jane McAuliffe

At a meeting in Washington Thursday, the U.S. State Department in collaboration with the top women’s colleges—Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley—will officially start a global effort to bring together female leaders to increase the number of women involved in public service. Known as the Women in Public Service Project, I believe it to be an important step in trying to right some of the wrongs facing women around the world.

While in many parts of the word women constitute the majority of undergraduates—in the U.S. their enrollment now approaches 60 percent—they do not fare so well after graduation. For example, women remain grossly underrepresented in governments throughout the world. Not surprisingly, they remain the majority of those living in poverty. Only a fraction own property and women, and their concerns, attract much less media attention than men.

Continued at: http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/helping-women-worldwide/28960

Visit the Project: http://womeninpublicservice.org/

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The Hidden Costs of Community College

By Mark Schnelder and Lu Yin

Community colleges have multiple missions, and their performance ultimately needs to be evaluated on multiple metrics. However, one key mission of community colleges is the awarding of associate’s degrees and certificates to students who enroll with the intention of earning these credentials. Focusing on only first-time, full-time, degree- and certificate- seeking students in community colleges and using data from the U .S. Department of Education, this report shows that community colleges are generating costs to the taxpayer that are usually not part of the discussion of their role in America’s system of higher education

Continued at: http://www.air.org/files/AIR_Hidden_Costs_of_Community_Colleges_Oct2011.pdf

For additional information see: http://www.collegemeasures.org

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• Recognizing the Excellence and Promise of America’s Community Colleges (whitehouse.gov)
• Productivity Push Could Hurt Community Colleges (usnews.com)
• Study: Community College Dropouts Prove Costly (usnews.com)