The following guest post is by Diane Morrison, a professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Reach her at dmm@uw.edu. It originally appeared on Labor Notes and is reposted here with permission. In May of last year I answered my phone, at work in Seattle, and found myself talking to a union…
We are, I hope, going to be hearing a lot about this study (follow the links to download the report itself) over the next few weeks. We already are, to some degree. The study, from Gallup, Purdue University, and the Lumina Foundation, concludes that: if graduates recalled having a professor who cared about them as a…
Yes, some charter schools, especially those run by non-profit foundations, are excellent and ought to be acknowledged for that excellence. But to declare that this week is National Charter Schools Week, as the Obama administration has done, not only ignores the often dismal performance of corporate charter schools—the sham that they provide any sort of…
The motto of Bryan College is “Christ Above All.” The college, which has an enrollment of between 700 and 800, was originally named William Jennings Bryan College, after the thrice unsuccessful presidential candidate who became a special co-counsel for the prosecution in the Scopes Trial. In addition to “Free Silver,” the “Great Commoner,” as Bryan…
For many non-traditional students, Commencement Day will be a day of celebration on a Saturday or Sunday, followed by back to work on Monday morning. The adult or non-traditional learner has mastered the art of juggling school, family and work, and will look at graduation as an opportunity to take a breath. Fitting classes into…
Word is leaking out from the spring meetings of college and university governing boards across the country that the most expensive institutions have now crossed the $60,000 level in their just posted annual comprehensive fees. It’s an important psychological threshold. The comprehensive fee – generally defined as tuition, fees, room and board — is a…
All nations, and this seems especially true of great nations, have paradoxes at the core of their national characters that define them. The tensions within these paradoxes are alternately, or in times of crisis simultaneously, a dynamic source of national strength and also an anarchic source of national turmoil. In the United States, these paradoxes…
One of the things the assessment gurus of corporate-style education don’t like is the idea of professors in complete control of the curriculum and pedagogy in their own classrooms. They want everyone “to be on the same page,” feeling that education has no value unless done in unison. This is the thinking behind most cries…