Here are some new resources and news for the field of higher education.

The End of the Remedial Course  They’ve tried compressing it, breaking it into bite-size chunks, computerizing it, even making it optional. But the traditional, prerequisite remedial course that generations of underprepared students have been funneled into before they can start college-level courses remains an insurmountable barrier for too many students. Increasingly, it is being ditched altogether.

2019 College Changes Everything® Conference  Call for Session Proposals  The Illinois Student Assistance Commission will host their ninth annual College Changes Everything® (CCE) Conference on July 18, 2019. The Conference Planning Committee is making a call for interest session proposals for the 2019 conference – Expanding Success for All Students – Every Community’s Responsibility.  The Planning Committee welcomes proposals that cover a wide range of topics related to college access and completion and career readiness. Priority consideration will be given to completed session proposal forms submitted by Friday, March 8, 2019. More information about the event and interest sessions, and to access the online session proposal, please go to the conference website.

Timing Matters: How Delaying College Enrollment Affects Earnings Trajectories   High school graduates often delay college enrollment. This paper compares the academic and labor market outcomes of high school graduates who delay college enrollment (“delayers”) and those who enroll in college immediately (“on-time enrollees”) up to 13 years after high school completion. The results show that delaying college enrollment decreases individuals’ likelihood of enrolling in college and increases their tendency to enroll in two-year colleges if they do return to school. Delayers experience early earnings benefits, but these fade out after their mid-20s and turn to significant losses over time. Differences in student characteristics only explain one third of the pay gap between delayers and on-time enrollees; 60%of the pay gap is explained by delayers’ reduced likelihood of attending and obtaining a degree at a four-year college.   (Community College Research Center)

Getting Clearer Signals From Employers  As employers admit they need to give clearer signals about needed job skills, a broad U.S. Chamber-led group seeks to use standardization and technology to better align credentialing and work-force data. (Inside Higher Ed)

New Effort Focuses on Increasing Community College Success for Women Students  Achieving the Dream is teaming up with the Biden Foundation to spearhead a bold, new initiative called “Community College Women Succeed,” aimed at helping adult women learners — including single parents — succeed and complete community college. (Diverse: Issues In Higher Education)

Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2018 This report examines the educational progress and challenges students face in the United States by race/ethnicity. Over time, increasing numbers of students in all race/ethnicity sub-populations have completed high school and continued their education in college. However, the rate of progress has varied among these racial/ethnic groups and differences by race/ethnicity persist in terms of increases in attainment and progress on key indicators of educational performance. In 2015–16, public elementary and secondary schools that had more racial/ethnic diversity in their student populations also tended to have more racial/ethnic diversity among teachers. The percentage of minority teachers was highest at schools that had 90% or more minority students (55%) and was lowest at schools that had less than 10% minority students (2%). In 2016–17, there were 4,360 postsecondary, degree-granting institutions in the United States, including four types of institutions serving specific minority racial/ethnic communities: 102 historically Black colleges and universities, 290 Hispanic-serving institutions, 35 tribally controlled colleges and universities, and 113 Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions. (National Center for Education Statistics)

7 Higher Education Bills To Watch In Illinois  A flurry of bills affecting higher education have been introduced in Springfield this year. Here are a few that could get some attention.