Being passionate about a career can ignite learning in the classroom.

That's the concept behind working with students early on to help identify their interests and possible career paths. More and more districts are working with kids as young as 6th grade to explore different vocations and map out a plan to get there.

These individual learning plans are often developed with counselors and tracked online through a students' middle and high school years. Knowing the end goal can help students make sure they prepare with the right classes and activities. It can also spark an early interest in the college search and possibly part-time work or internships in their chosen field of study.

The Rennie Center for Education and Research in Cambridge, Mass., evaluated the landscape of individual learning plans and found 23 states mandate the process, and many others are considering it. States, such as Minnesota, have discovered early career planning can lead to increased student motivation and performance.

At 2 p.m. EST tomorrow, Tuesday, May 22, I will be moderating a webinar on this topic. The discussion will kick off with presentations from Chad d'Entremont, executive director of the Rennie Center, and Shelly Landry, Webster Complex lead counselor for the Minneapolis school district.

Join us tomorrow for Improving Student Engagement by Early Career Mapping by registering for this free event here.

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The success that colleges had in getting students to say yes to their admission offers is starting to be reported. The New York Times today released a sampling of yield rates — the percentage of students offered admission who decide to enroll—from some of the country's most selective schools.

Harvard University tops the list with 81 percent of its invitations for admissions being accepted. With the class of 2016 more selective than ever (5.9 percent of 34,000-plus applicants offered admission), the school expects it will only admit only 25 students from its waiting list, according to the Times.

The yield rate at Brown University is 57 percent and it is reporting no plans to bring students off its wait list. Dartmouth has a 49.5 percent yield and officials say they may invite students from its wait list.

The yield rate is an important statistic to admissions offices and staff members work hard to predict yield rates to ensure they fill their freshman class with the right mix of students. The average yield rate among four-year institutions was 41 percent in the fall of 2010, according to the National Association of College Admission Counseling. The average yield rate has declined steadily in recent years, making it harder for admissions officers to project enrollment numbers.

Colleges and universities on average spent about $585 to recruit each applicant, $806 to recruit each admitted student, and $2,408 to recruit each enrolled student (including admission staff salaries and benefits in the admission office budget) for fall 2010 admission, NACAC's 2011 State of College Admission report found.

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Here's another reason to go to college: You may live longer.

The latest report from the Centers for Disease Control shows a link between higher education and longevity. More-educated Americans also are less likely to smoke or be obese, according to Health, United States, 2011, the annual report of health statistics in the country.

For men age 25 without a high school diploma, life expectancy was 9.3 years less than for those with a bachelor's degree or higher—and the gap increased by 1.9 years from 1996 to 2006. For women,there was a 8.6 year advantage in longevity with a college education, and that figure rose by 2.8 percent in that decade.

While obesity among men didn't vary consistently by educational attainment, from 2007-2010, women 25 years of age and older with less than a bachelor's degree were more likely to be obese (39 percent to 43 percent) than those with a college education (25 percent).

About one-third of American adults with a high school diploma or less are current smokers, compared with 24 percent of adults who have some college and 9 percent of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher.

The connection between education and healthy lifestyles was evident among children, as well in the CDC study.

For children ages 2 to 19, obesity decreased with increasing education of the head of household. In households where the parent had less than a high school education, 24 percent of boys and 22 percent of girls were obese, compared with 11 percent of boys and 7 percent of girls in homes where parents had a college education.

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The College Board has named David Coleman, an advocate and architect of the Common Core State Standards, as its new president and chief executive officer.

Coleman, 42, will succeed former West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton, who led the New York-based nonprofit organization for 13 years. The transition is scheduled to take place on Oct. 15, according to an announcement released today.

(See Curriculum Matters post today for more on Coleman.)

Established in 1900, the College Board is an association with 6,000 educational institution members and is best known for its SAT and Advanced Placement Program.

Coleman is a founding partner of Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit organization working with teachers and policymakers to implement the standards. He attended public school in New York City and had a Rhodes Scholarship to study English literature at Oxford and classical educational philosophy at Cambridge. Coleman is the founder of the Grow Network, an organization that worked on assessment reports for teachers, parents, and students and was acquired by McGraw-Hill.

Coleman will remain at Student Achievement Partners until October.

To read more about Coleman see Catherine Gewertz' story here.

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News of young people's continuing struggle to get a foothold in the job market might have incoming college students thinking about how to improve their odds after graduation.

If higher education is going to remain relevant, some would argue that the hard reality of today's economy should also prompt educators to find ways to better prepare young adults for the workplace.

Words of wisdom from a survey of recent college graduates: Be intentional. Do some career research. Get job experience in college.

A nationally representative sample of 444 college graduates from the classes of 2006 through 2011 conducted by Rutgers University researchers finds that nearly two-thirds of graduates said that they would have done something differently in college if they had to do it over. About 37 percent said they would have been more careful when selecting their major.

What major they would have chosen in hindsight? Many said a professional major, such as education, communications, nursing, or social work.

Chasing the American Dream: Recent College Graduates and the Great Recession by Charley Stone, Carl Van Horn, and Cliff Zukin, gives a glimpse into the job-search process and early-workforce experience.

Half the new grads surveyed said they felt less prepared to enter the workforce than the generation before them, and almost two-thirds thought they will need to get more education. One factor that helped:an internship. Those who got real-world work experience in college felt more prepared to enter the job market. Those who had internships also made more money in their first jobs, the report found. Looking back, many the respondents wished they had started their job search much earlier and taken more career- related classes.

Although unemployment is nearly twice as high for Americans younger than 25 than the overall jobless rate, three-quarters of those in the Rutgers survey reported having at least one full-time job since graduation. They may be employed, but many graduates were disappointed with the quality of their first job. Only 40 percent reported that it required a four-year degree, and 30 percent considered their first job as being on their career path.

About one in four graduates took a job making a lot less than they had expected. This money crunch has made it difficult for many to repay their student loans, the report found. Because of the amount of debt they graduated with, about one-quarter of those surveyed moved back home with their parents. About 40 percent said they were delaying a major purchase, such as a home or car. Another 25 percent took a job they were not enthusiastic about so they could pay down their loans. The debt burden also meant some (28 percent) put of furthering their education.

A series in the New York Times this week looks closely at the impact of student-loan debt on Americans. While drawing many sympathetic comments, it has also spurred criticism for overstating the percentage of students taking on debt (94 percent, according to the Times analysis). Molly Broad, president of the American Council on Education, maintains it's closer to 60 percent. (See Inside Higher Ed article.) The repeated theme that students are uninformed about the loans they take out also underscores the need for increased financial literacy in high school and on campuses.

New grads in the Rutgers survey are hopeful about their future, but 40 percent still believe that having a job where they earn enough to have a comfortable life is quite a ways off.

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Graduation for high school and college students is something to celebrate this time of year, but the job market they are entering is anything but a party.

New grads face high unemployment and underemployment, depressed wages, and high student loan debt, authors Heidi Shierholz, Natalie Sabadish, and Hilary Wething outline in their briefing paper, The Class of 2012: Labor Market Remains Grim for Young released this month by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, Washington-based think tank.

The landscape has improved slightly since rock bottom numbers in 2010, but young people still face a jobless rate that is twice as high as the overall rate. In March, the overall unemployment rate averaged 8.2 percent, and the unemployment rate of workers under age 25 was 16.4 percent.

The authors note that this trend persists because young workers are relatively new to the labor market and lack experience. Once hired, their lack of seniority makes them likely candidates for being laid off in hard times. Young workers also tend to move between jobs, employers, careers, or even cities, and spend a larger share of their time as job seekers.

The report underscored the value of a college degree when it comes to finding a job.

For young high school graduates, the unemployment rate jumped from 17.5 percent in 2007 to 32.7 percent in 2010. The latest figures as of March 2012 show a slight decline to 31.1 percent. Joblessness among young, black high school graduates was 49.1 percent and 33.8 percent for Hispanic high school graduates.

Many officially employed do not have a job that provides enough hours, pushing the underemployment rate for young high school graduates to 54 percent in this latest report.

For young college graduates, the unemployment rate is 9.4 percent, a slight improvement from last year's figure of 10.4 percent. Still, the authors note that the Class of 2012 will be joining a significant backlog of unemployed college graduates from the Classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 in an extremely difficult job market.

Underemployment is a problem among this group too. Nearly 19.1 percent of these highly educated workers either have a job but cannot get the hours they need or want a job but have given up looking for work, the report found.

Previous research shows that educational choices are linked to income and that college majors can be a big factor in job success following graduation.

The new EPI report finds that, on average, young high school graduates in 2011 had an hourly wage of $9.45 per hour, or an annual income of roughly $19,700 for a full-time, full-year worker. Young college graduates had an average hourly wage of $16.81 per hour, which translates into a full-time annual income of about $35,000.

Interestingly, the authors found that young people aren't escaping the tough economic times by enrolling in greater numbers in higher education. "While it may be comforting to believe that school can provide a safe haven from a desperate labor market, there is no evidence of an uptick in enrollment due to the Great Recession," the authors write. Although college and university enrollment rate has risen since 2007, the rates have not meaningfully departed from their long-term trend for either men or women. Many students who must work to afford school can't find jobs in the poor labor market or the idea of "sheltering in school" is not an option, according to the report.

The EPI report includes a breakdown by state of unemployment figures for American workers under 25.

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Ramon Jimenez is a counselor at El Paso Community College who helps high school students make the transition to college. Often, students are overwhelmed by new environment and freedom. "They are a little bit scared," he says. "It's a fear of a big campus and brand-new area."

His role is to guide, assist, and motivate students so they survive the first year and beyond. In the summer, Jimenez helps with Project Dream, a summer bridge program for at-risk students who need extra instruction to brush up on their math and English skills. About 120 students come to campus four hours a day, for five weeks for the program. When they aren't in intensive academic classes,
Jimenez is putting on workshops for them on time management and learning styles. This kind of support, along with having a mentor, and being able to meet professors in smaller groups, gives students a good jump-start on their college career, says Jimenez.

A recent study of development summer bridge programs in Texas, including the one in El Paso, shows the approach works. The three-year study by the National Center for Postsecondary Research and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board tracked more than 1,300 students who participated in these programs and tested below college level at the start of the summer. After the program, summer bridge students were more likely to pass college-level writing and math in their first semester of college than students in the control group.

The model holds promise, especially as more first-generation students are encouraged to pursue higher education but need extra support to be successful. The challenge is to adequately fund summer bridge programs in the current, tight economic climate. (The El Paso program is taking a hiatus this summer because of lack of money.) Experts anticipate a growing demand for transition services from high school to college. Many hope these small programs can be scaled up as research underscores their effectiveness. To learn more about these programs, see my story, Colleges Offer Incoming Freshman a Summer 'Bridge'.

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Coming off a win for student loans in the U.S. House, student groups were hopeful that the Senate would agree to stop the cost of Stafford loans from doubling in July. That didn't happen—at least this week. But many are hoping that a compromise will emerge once the posturing is over.

The legislation failed to pass a procedural hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday (See details in Politics K-12 blog and a recent story here for background on the issue.) With President Obama and Mitt Romney both speaking out in favor of the issue, and politicians on both side of the aisle expressing support, momentum for stopping the increase appears to be growing. The tricky part: How to pay for it.

Student groups are not giving up.

"We're definitely committed to this fight and are confident that we'll get there," says Jennifer Mishory, deputy director of the Young Invincibles, a Washington-based group advocating for issues important to young people. "Both sides now agree that we have a problem that needs fixing, but there's a continued dispute about the pay-for. We'll continue with our policy, organizing, and advocacy work around this issue until we see a measure passed that keeps the interest rate from doubling."

In a statement released Tuesday, Rich Williams, U.S. PIRG higher education advocate, said students were deeply disappointed by the Senate vote. The measure is a top concern to students as reflected in turnout at town hall meetings across the country and 500,000 signatures from supporters last week.

"The bottom line is that this is important to future graduates and their families, it is a top concern among students, and has support from across the political spectrum," said Williams. "The message to Congress is clear: Get it done. There are any number of ways to pay for this important extension of low-interest rates, and we urge members to work together, on behalf of the almost 7.5 million students facing increased debt, to find a bipartisan solution."

Others in the higher education community are confident.

"We're supportive of the bipartisan effort to keep interest rates low for student-loan borrowers and are optimistic lawmakers will reach a compromise on how to pay for it outside of any additional cuts to student aid," says Justin Draeger, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. NASFAA joined 40 organizations in signing a letter of support in favor of the measure, initiated by the American Council on Education on May 7.

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States should rethink the way that financial aid is given to college students so it is simpler to access and used more effectively, according to a report released yesterday by a panel from the Brookings Institution.

Beyond Need and Merit: Strengthening State Grant Programs suggests that states move beyond strict categories of "merit aid" and "need-based aid" and come up with innovative ways of encouraging students with financial need to enroll and complete college. In the current tight economic climate, the panel recommends that states be more intentional with their aid, including appropriate expectations and support for college success, to make the most of the taxpayer investment.

To improve grant programs, the report suggests states should:

•Do a better job of targeting aid dollars to students with the most financial need.

•Consolidate programs to make the system easier for families to navigate, adding, for instance, searchable tables that students could look at to see grant eligibility based only on income and family size.

•Create a single net-price calculator for students to calculate the cost of attendance at every public institution in the state.

•Design grant programs that encourage timely completion and provide incentives for success in college, such as completion of credit hours, and not be focused on past achievement.

•Lower income limits, ensuring that the neediest students lose the least amount of aid in the event of budget cuts.

•Evaluate the effectiveness of existing grant programs and test innovative approaches that could be scaled up.

On the Brookings website, there is an interactive map where users can click on an individual state to see what percentage of state aid is given out based on family financial need.

The report was the work of a 14-member panel including Chair Sandy Baum, senior fellow, George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development; Matthew Chingos, fellow in governance studies and research director of the Brown Center on Education Policy, Brookings Institution; Allison Jones, senior fellow for postsecondary engagement, Achieve; Judith Scott-Clayton, assistant professor in economics and education, Teachers College, Columbia University; and Jane Wellman, executive director, National Association of System Heads.

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U.S. News and World Report just released its list of the best high schools in the country and California schools dominated with 97 in the top 500. New York also fared well with 68 in the highest gold medal category, and Texas had 46, with two of the top three in the Dallas Independent School District.

In the 2012 Best High Schools rankings, 22,000 public high schools were evaluated and 4,318 with the highest scores were included.

Top honors went to:
1. School of the Talented and Gifted, Dallas
2. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va.
3. School of Science and Engineering Magnet, Dallas
4. University High School, Tucson, Ariz.
5. International Academy, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Four of the top 20 are charter high schools. U.S. News released a separate list of the Best Charter Schools, as well as the Best Magnet Schools, Best High Schools for Math and Science and Most Connected (high tech) Classrooms.

Readers can search for rankings of high schools by state. Placement on the national rankings was determined by how well students did on state assessments and college readiness as measured by student success in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs.

Since the last edition of Best High Schools was published in 2009, U.S. News made some changes to its methodology. More schools were numerically rankedר,008 this year, compared to 100 in past years. Also, the college readiness threshold to determine medal status was lowered and nearly 30 percent of schools received a gold, silver, or bronze medals—, compared to 9.3 percent of the eligible schools in 2009.

The first list of the U.S. News Best High Schools was posted online on November 30, 2007, followed by two more editions in 2008 and 2009.

U.S. News is known for its Best Colleges rankings, which have drawn criticism from the National Association of College Admission Counseling and others for presenting confusing impressions about college quality.

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