Courtesy of Los Angeles Times | Rosanna Xia Cal State plans to drop placement exams in math and English as well as the noncredit remedial courses that more than 25,000 freshmen have been required to take each fall — a radical move away from the way public universities traditionally support students who come to college less prepared than their peers. …

Courtesy of Chalkbeat.org | Matt Barnum New research finds a simple strategy can modestly boost the share of poor students who go on to college: requiring, and paying for, all students to take the ACT or SAT. And while the impact isn’t huge, the policy is relatively cheap — just $34 per student increases four-year college attendance by about 1 …

Courtesy of EdSource | Mikhail Zinshteyn The California Community Colleges must do a much better job preparing Californians for the state’s future workforce, Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley said in advance of an important vote to approve ambitious new goals for the 114-college system. “There is a clear need for more workers to gain access to the skills and credentials,” Oakley …

Courtesy of Yahoo News | Beth Pinsker NEW YORK (Reuters) – Despite a record-high U.S. stock market and a positive economic outlook, U.S. parents spent less on college tuition during the 2016-17 school year, according to Sallie Mae’s 10th annual “How America Pays for College” report. Out-of-pocket spending by parents fell to 23 percent from 29 percent of the average …

Courtesy of Chalkbeat.org | Helen Carefoot Equipping more Tennesseans with the tools to succeed after high school has been a hallmark of Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration. And the efforts seem to be paying off as the governor heads into his final 18 months in office. Haslam announced on Thursday that the state has set another new record for the number …

Courtesy of Inside Higher Ed | Andrew Kreighbaum An overwhelming majority of colleges and universities did not change priority aid deadlines in response to an earlier financial aid cycle last year, according to a survey of member institutions by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. The Department of Education last year moved up the release of the Free …