The vast bulk of economic activity in the United States is taxed by the federal government. There are exceptions carved out, primarily for charitable operations, including universities. The rationale is that these organizations serve the public good and should not be reduced in magnitude by the deleterious effects of taxes. Universities in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence first-year nonmusic majors' decisions regarding participation in music ensembles at small liberal arts colleges in Indiana. A survey questionnaire was used to gather data. The data collected was analyzed to determine significant differences between the nonmusic majors who have…

More than two dozen North Dakota K-12 schools begin each academic year with a school counselor designate because of state mandates for services in each building and a lack of qualified applicants to provide these services. School counselor designates are individuals who hold a North Dakota professional educator's license, have completed a minimum…

Governments worldwide face the challenge of financing a growing student population with limited resources, especially in the current context of difficult economic recovery. Student loan schemes, because they appear as cost-efficient and are defendable on the lines of social equity (students invest in their future), are increasingly politically…

This guide describes the four types of loans offered by the Direct Loan Program[SM]: (1) Direct Subsidized Loans; (2) Direct Unsubsidized Loans; (3) Direct PLUS Loans; and (4) Direct Consolidation Loans. Among the topics covered in the guide are: Use of Your Loan Money, The Master Promissory Note, How Your Loans Will Be Disbursed (Paid Out),…

Over half of today's college graduates transfer to another school at least once during their academic careers. With each transfer, students pay a "transfer tax," losing some of the academic credit they have earned due to school policies that make it difficult for students to transfer credits from one institution to another. The net drain…

The definition of CTE (career/technical education) used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) includes, at the high school level, family and consumer sciences education, general labor market preparation, and occupational education (Bradby and Hoachlander 1999; Bradby and Hudson 2007). Most researchers focus on occupational…

According to Census data, more than 12 million adults in the United States report they do not speak English well or at all. Proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding the English language appears to be linked to multiple dimensions of adult life in the United States, including financial literacy--the ability to make informed…

This paper discusses the LaGuardia Community College Library's launch of a fully-online one-credit research class. The authors discuss the process for creating the class, from the technical specifications to the pedagogical approach to the course content and delivery. The authors also discuss the challenges of providing a fully online class to…

Creative exercises (CEs) are a form of assessment in which students are given a prompt and asked to write down as many distinct, correct, and relevant facts about the prompt as they can. Students receive credit for each fact that they include that is related to the prompt and distinct from the other facts they list. With CEs, students have an…

Qualified school construction bonds (QSCBs) are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These bonds allow school districts to finance capital projects at no or very low interest rates. In a nutshell, bondholders accept a lower interest rate because the corresponding federal tax credit they receive subsidizes that lower interest…

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Act commits $100 billion to education, with California education expected to receive over $8.5 billion. The largest part of the education stimulus package is the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, of which California's slice is nearly…

Even before the economy took a nosedive, many institutions were seeing affinity revenue stagnate or drop. With institutional budgets constricting and alumni wallets shrinking, funding the alumni association might require some creativity. This article describes what alumni leaders do to keep funding stable when affinity revenue falters.

In this article, the author presents an assortment of approaches--building blocks--commonly used in Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) practices (this list is certainly not comprehensive): (1) course matching (comparing course requirements to a student's prior learning experiences); (2) student's ability to articulate learning gained from…

The impact of increased academic intensity on transfer rates from community colleges to 4-year institutions has been estimated only from observational data, with the possibility of selection bias. This study uses matching estimators to overcome possible selection bias and estimate the causal impact of increased academic intensity on transfer…