USC Center for Enrollment Is a Real Treasure
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 Jerry Lucido, executive director of the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice, and a Trustee of the College Board |
Today’s headlines consistently highlight the challenges faced by higher education, particularly with regard to college access and success. Issues related to rising tuition costs, student aid availability, college readiness and prestige maximization are plentiful and complicated. The Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice (CERPP) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles was established in 2007 to enhance knowledge of enrollment issues and facilitate enrollment practices that better meet the needs of students, institutions and society as a whole. The center holds conferences and symposia, conducts and sponsors research, and maintains an impressive and growing research, publication, presentation, podcast and information library that is available to all free of charge.
More specifically, the center provides timely and in-depth forums on key enrollment issues. In August 2008, the center hosted its inaugural conference in Los Angeles, titled, Defining Enrollment in the 21st Century: Understanding Our Students and Our Commitments. The event featured a keynote address by Michael McPherson, president of the Spencer Foundation, and challenged participants to harness opportunities found within significant demographic shifts, better define and identify college readiness, more effectively recognize the impact of tuition and student aid policies on college choice and student success, and to work toward aligning enrollment practices with persistence-based goals. Last January, the center organized the Aid in Age of Uncertainty symposium, headlined by David Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. The symposium addressed the critical issues facing enrollment practitioners and policymakers during this current period of economic unrest. The center’s next event, What Matters Now: College Access and Success in the Age of Obama, will be held in Los Angeles Jan. 13–15, 2010, with conference speakers prepared to provide a road map for educational progress in America as a new decade unfolds. Early bird registration is available through Nov. 1.
In addition, with research at the heart of its mission, the center conducts original research that focuses on
the following:
- Examining the educational and professional backgrounds of enrollment and admission officers, how institutions structure their enrollment units and what this means for the practice of enrollment management;
- Developing a college access and success assessment tool that allows high schools to measure the extent to which they individually and collectively have a college-going culture;
- Exploring how two- and four-year colleges organize to promote student persistence and graduation — an extensive collaborative effort between CERPP, Indiana University and the College Board.
These projects, as well as information regarding the center’s upcoming conference, a vast enrollment research citation clearinghouse, podcasts with key educators and enrollment leaders, publications and proceedings from the center’s research endeavors and events, profiles, and daily enrollment news can be viewed on the center’s website: www.usc.edu/cerpp.
Jerry Lucido, a Trustee of the College Board, is the executive director of the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice, and Scott Andrew Schulz is the program director.
Two Western Region Teachers Discuss Issues
in Education
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| Spanish teacher Steven Crawford |
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| AP® Chemistry teacher Sheryl Fontaine
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Spanish teacher Steven Crawford, from Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Wash., and AP® Chemistry teacher Sheryl Fontaine, from Reed High School in Sparks, Nev., were among eight national teachers featured in a new report just out from the College Board and Phi Delta Kappa. Teachers Are the Center of Education: Profiles of Eight Teachers salutes the work and importance of teachers and offers insights on current issues in education from eight outstanding teachers, selected for their dedication to students, and commitment to their profession and to excellence in education.
The report serves both to confirm what is publically acknowledged — that teachers are at the center of education — and to note the challenges teachers face in today’s schools. Nominated by College Board members and staff, the teachers, who epitomize the profession’s most admirable qualities, represent a diverse set of disciplines, locations, types of schools and student populations.
The words of these eight teachers will help all who hear them to chart a “partial road map for changes in public policy,” as Arlene Ackerman, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, wrote in the report’s foreword.
In Crawford’s classroom, students are encouraged to chat as much as they like, but there is one thing they must never do when they talk — speak English. That’s because this
Spanish teacher is trying to impart a real understanding of the language’s mechanics along with an appreciation for the culture. Crawford’s ability to draw out otherwise guarded adolescents in Spanish conversation is spotlighted in
the report.
For Fontaine, teaching the properties of compounds starts with the individual. While providing personalized attention is a challenge in a large high school like hers, this chemistry teacher works hard to recognize her students as more than just numbers and to provide them with individual attention. Her commitment to their success as students and as people is why she was chosen to contribute to the report. A geologist by training, Fontaine decided to teach when she was a graduate student. After two years teaching middle school, she made the change to high school, where she currently teaches AP and honors chemistry. She is known for her low-key teaching style that focuses on students. To get the adolescents’ focus back on track, she uses a combination of humor and tough love.
“Like so many excellent teachers out there, Steven and Sheryl inspire students to achieve — to want more for themselves and to require it of themselves. Projects like this one help us to remember and celebrate teacher excellence and the quality of their work,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton. “It’s good for the public to get a glimpse of what’s right about public education, and we believe that starts with the most crucial force in learning: our teachers.”
Ackerman added, “In words that we can all understand, these eight teachers from different backgrounds, teaching different subjects to different kinds of students under different circumstances, provide a human voice and real-life context for the policies we must work to implement.”
To read Teachers Are the Center of Education in its entirety, go to www.collegeboard.com/teacheradvocacy.
A Note from Western Region VP Al Mijares
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| VP Al Mijares |
This fall the Western Regional Office has conducted more than 38 Fall Counselor Workshops for educators across the region. Staff provided counselors with in-depth information on programs and services to help prepare their students for college success. Participants received valuable resources on the SAT®, PSAT/NMSQT®, AP® and our strong advocacy efforts. In an effort to reach more counselors, the WRO hosted online WebEx sessions for counselors as well.
On Oct. 27, many districts in the WRO will offer the PSAT/NMSQT to all of their 10th-graders as part of a districtwide effort of college readiness and AP expansion. We commend the
state of Oregon for their outstanding commitment to college readiness. Enacted in 2008, Section 42 of Oregon House Bill 2263 provides the PSAT/NMSQT for all public school sophomores at no charge. The College Board conducted regional workshops throughout the state highlighting the vast resources of the PSAT/NMSQT, including My College QuickStart™, which features My Online Score Report; My SAT Study Plan™; MyRoad™; My Career Matches; and My Major and Career Matches.
The College Board K–12 service team conducted a train-the-trainers event for community-based organizations serving students in Fresno Unified School District. The participants received in-depth training on the vast resources available to students and families on www.collegeboard.com.
It’s time to start planning to attend the 2010 Western Regional Forum, Feb. 27–28, 2010, in La Jolla, Calif. This one-and-a-half day event will offer informative sessions from members and education professionals. Visit www.collegeboard.com/wrforum to learn more and to plan a professional development experience that will enhance your work experience.
This fall, the WRO Higher Education team is focusing its efforts on helping financial aid professionals deal with shrinking budgets and maximizing existing resources to better serve their students and families.
On Nov. 3, we will be hosting a free, online session, “IDOC – Streamlining Operations for Operational Success.” This session is designed to explore the effective use of Institutional Document Service for meeting enrollment and operational goals. It will include a presentation from one of our successful users, Jim Swanson, from Colorado College. For more information, please contact Western Regional Educational Manager Silvia Marquez at smarquez@collegeboard.org.
The PowerFAIDS® team will be conducting free monthly WebEx demonstrations for Net Partner and Web Client. These sessions, scheduled for Oct. 27, Nov. 17 and Dec. 22, will allow PowerFAIDS users to learn how Net Partner and Web Client can help financial aid administrators create content, tailor standard award elements and disseminate information online to students and other campus staff. For more information, please contact Western Regional Educational Manager Eddie Arteaga, earteaga@collegeboard.org.
We also partnered with four member institutions to hold financial aid seminars for high school counselors, which followed the morning Fall Counselor Workshops. These sessions, led by Lynn Fox, University of the Pacific; Julia Benz, University of Denver; Darlene Henrickson, Gonzaga University; and Catherine Graham, Loyola Marymount University, covered the general principles and goals of financial aid, need analysis, Free Application for Federal Student Aid and CSS/ Financial Aid PROFILE® online tools — including the new College Board Student Loan Comparison Calculator: ttp://apps.collegeboard.com/loancompare/loancomparisonintro.jsp.
If you would like to learn more about how the WRO can support your district or school, please contact us at wro@collegeboard.org.
Career Opportunities in the College Board’s Western Regional OfficeTo view current job openings in the Western Regional Office, visit theCollege Board’s career page. |
Events & Workshops
Click here to see events and workshops in the Western Region.
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Be part of the dialogue to help shape the changes in education that our country
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Western Regional Office |
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