BY HANK REICHMAN Up until Sen. Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Hillary Clinton yesterday, it was common to view the main fault line dividing the Democratic Party as that between Sanders’ largely younger and definitely more radical supporters and a more cautious and aging party “establishment” represented by Clinton. But another fault line has been that…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday word came that Simon Newman, the notorious president of Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland, had resigned. Newman, readers will recall, was the fool who spoke of drowning at-risk freshmen like “bunnies” and who summarily dismissed (and subsequently reinstated) two long-time faculty members for “disloyalty.” (For background go here, here, and…
On December 4, this announcement was sent out from Arne Duncan at the Department of Education: “If you’re like me, you probably dread an overdue notice, whether it’s for registering your car or returning a library book. For nearly a decade, our national K-12 education law has been overdue for revision, and parents, teachers and…
This week I had the honor and privilege to join more than 30 California community college faculty, students, staff, trustees and community allies attending a meeting of the National Advisory Commission for Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) in Alexandria, Virginia. NACIQI advises the U.S. Department of Education with regard to federal recognition of accrediting agencies…
Being antagonistic to corporatization should not necessarily be conflated with being broadly antagonistic to corporations. Universities and corporations have long had mutually beneficial relationships that have caused relatively infrequent controversies. And, just to be clear, although some faculty with more progressive political values have been very skeptical of those relationships between their universities and corporate…
The board of trustees at the State College of Florida have voted to phase out continuing contracts for the college’s faculty. Those contracts have been available to faculty who have five years of seniority. Although the phasing out of such contracts seems consistent with Governor Rick Scott’s professed interest in restricting, if not eliminating, tenure…
Guest Blogger Morna McDermott teaches in the College of Education, Towson University. This post originally appeared here. Let’s Start with a Few Recent Headlines: Teacher Prep Colleges Are Failing the Teachers Study Delivers Failing Grades For Many Programs Training Teachers States Slow to Close Faltering Teacher Ed. Programs (also see more recently: http://edexcellence.net/articles/reforming-ed-schools-from-within and https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/teacher-prep-programs-need-to-be-accountable-too/2015/02/20/ed140f44-b8fc-11e4-aa05-1ce812b3fdd2_story.html ) Traditional colleges of…
Today, it has been announced that Arne Duncan, who has “rescued public education” by promoting the expansion of corporate-operated charter schools and corporate-provided standardized testing, is leaving his post as Secretary of Education. That would be cause for a deep sigh of relief, if not a loud cheer—except that his replacement will be John B.…
Inside Higher Ed has since its creation some years ago earned a largely justified reputation as a site more hospitable to views outside of the educational establishment and, in particular, views reflecting faculty experiences than other media covering higher education. Therefore it was disappointing this morning to read Doug Lederman’s lengthy article on debates over…