A Model Rural Inclusive Postsecondary Program for Students With Intellectual Disability

Lions Connected (LC) is an inclusive postsecondary program approved by the U.S. Department of Education; thus meeting rigorous program standards and accountability. Equally important is that it gives eligible students from rural areas the opportunity to receive federal financial aid to attend college. The purpose of developing LC was to meet the needs and desires of the surrounding rural communities by providing postsecondary opportunities for students with intellectual disability (ID) to enhance their social, academic, and employment skills alongside peers without disabilities. This article describes the program in detail as well as program outcomes, including employment in rural home communities. LC students receive a true college experience while preparing to become contributing members in society regardless of where they live. By following LC’s program structure, there are multiple opportunities for supporting students with ID in rural settings and helping them garner a college experience and become successfully employed in their community and reach their full potential.

Did Gainful Employment Regulations Result in College and Program Closures?

For decades, the federal government has expected vocationally-focused programs in higher education, especially among for-profit colleges, to lead to gainful employment in a profession. In the mid-2010s, the U.S. Department of Education developed gainful employment (GE) regulations that sought to tie a program's federal financial aid eligibility to graduates’ debt-to-earnings ratios. We use a regression discontinuity design to examine whether for-profit programs’ performance on GE was associated with the likelihood of closing the program or college. Although the regulations were repealed before any program lost federal funding, we find that passing GE was associated with a lower likelihood of program and college closures.

Campus Crime

Despite the fact that deviance in all its forms has existed on college and university campuses since their inception, criminological interest in colleges and universities in this country as contexts for crime and victimization did not begin in earnest until the 1990s and passage of the federal Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 (see the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology articles “Contextual Analysis of Crime” and “School Crime and Violence”). Now known as the Clery Act, the legislation requires that all postsecondary institutions participating in federal financial aid programs publicly report their crime statistics and security policies each year. Taking cues from scholarship on how the characteristics and dynamics of workplaces, neighborhoods, and schools relate to patterns of crime and victimization occurring in them, scholarship on campus crime has sought since the 1990s to identify and understand, theoretically and empirically, how variability in the dimensions of the campus—physical size and features as well as location, size, and diversity of the student body—are related to patterns of crime and victimization occurring on them. This article discusses campus crime by examining several topics, including early, groundbreaking work as well as more recent scholarship associated with them. The article begins with studies providing General Overviews of the social, legal, and administrative contexts of campus crime. The article then examines Theoretical Perspectives on Campus Crime that have been used to explain patterns and trends in campus crime. The third section examines commonly used Data Sources on campus crime, followed by a discussion of Campus Crime Incidents and Types. The fifth section discusses Fear and Perceived Risk of Victimization on Campus. The sixth section of the article describes Campus Policing and Security. The concluding section, Responding to and Preventing Campus Crime, examines efforts at preventing campus crime and responses to it by colleges and universities in the United States.

“We'll Get through this Together”: Collective Contribution in the Lives of Latino Undocumented Undergraduates

Background Undocumented undergraduates are a growing population in the United States. Despite being shut out from many resources, such as access to federal financial aid and social services, many are thriving by contributing to their families and communities. Few studies to date have taken a strengths-based approach to understand the lives of undocumented young adults or examined their normative developmental experiences. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine how contribution manifests in the lives of Latino undocumented undergraduates and the extent to which they are engaged in and contribute to their families and communities. Research Design This study employed a convergent mixed-methods design in which parallel quantitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed separately. Through mixed methods, this article examines the family and community responsibilities of a sample of N = 797 Latino undocumented undergraduate student survey respondents, along with three portraits of qualitative visual and verbal narratives. Results Results highlight the value of “collective contribution” in Latino undocumented immigrant families. Through quantitative methods, results reveal that the majority of Latino undocumented undergraduates are contributing to their families and communities in significant ways. Qualitative findings reveal ways in which cultural values manifest as the reciprocal contribution between individuals and their families and communities. Further, results reveal the varied ways that Latino undocumented undergraduates engage with their families and communities, exhibiting the characteristics of ideal citizens, despite being denied a pathway to citizenship. Conclusions The results suggest that Latino undocumented college students are thriving and contributing to the society that gives them conflicting messages about how to belong. Yet, they enter postsecondary institutions and continue to remain engaged in their families and communities. Their engagement has important implications for what type of society we will become and for the need to build on these social resources to make our democracy and community stronger, recognizing immigrants as a resource to strengthen the social fabric of our society.

Have you Heard? Newsworthy items from the field

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) released a report on the teacher preparation, research, and service happening at colleges of education. Far fewer U.S. students than European students are studying foreign languages. A study of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program shows reduced math achievement among students using vouchers to attend private schools. Education Week presents stories of and data on incidents of hate and discrimination in schools. Students can now use their mobile devices to apply for federal financial aid for college. Education Week is tracking teachers who are running for state legislatures. A Thomas B. Fordham Institute survey examines whether and how English language arts instruction has changed since the launch of the Common Core State Standards.

Campus Crime Reporting Under the Clery Act

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act mandates that institutions of higher education report crimes statistics to the public and the Department of Education (DOE) in order to receive federal financial aid. This requirement led to a proliferation of data that was initially difficult to access or incorrectly reported. Recent efforts by the DOE and institutions of higher education to make this information available to the public led to access through government and university websites.

The decline in for-profit higher education during the Obama Administration and its prospects in the Trump Presidency

The fortunes of the for-profit higher education industry rise and fall with the political tides in the United States. During the 8 years of the George W Bush Administration (Republican), the for-profit sector of US higher education prospered. The following two terms of the Obama Administration (Democrat) resulted in the loss of all the ground gained during Mr Bush’s two terms in office. Indeed, the US Department of Education, led by Secretary Arne Duncan, aggressively attacked the for-profit higher education providers. This attack took two very effective forms: the wielding of ‘gainful employment’ regulations to sever the eligibility of for-profit corporations to receive federal financial aid funding for admitted students, and the withdrawal of authority from the for-profit sector’s accrediting agency. This article argues that, if the past is predictive, the prospects for the for-profit higher education providers are bright under Mr Trump.