Two thoughtful yet troubling articles, published within a week of each other, startled higher education leaders last week. In the great debate about which factors best explain the growing achievement gaps between rich and poor students, these studies reached important conclusions about the “drivers” contributing to the widening disparities. Isabel Sawhill, writing for the series…
As a result of student, faculty, and public pressure, the Florida State University administration are conceding to several of the policy recommendations in our donor policy report [see: https://academeblog.org/2015/06/04/a-student-review-of-the-florida-state-university-gift-acceptance-policy-undue-influence-and-charles-koch-foundation/]. The FSU student paper broke the story, wherein the FSU Foundation acknowledges that it is “taking the report from Progress Coalition seriously”: “’We are reviewing the…
Robert Reich’s website includes a series of short videos explaining Ten Ideas to Save the Economy. The videos are available at: http://robertreich.org/post/120107784670. The first seven of Reich’s ten ideas to make the economy work for the many and not the few include: 1. Increasing the minimum wage nationally. 2. Making work family-friendly. 3. Expanding Social Security. 4. Busting…
This is a very moving eulogy. It is also a great testament to the deep friendship between President Obama and Vice President Biden. Indeed, although—or perhaps because—it is a very personal response to a deeply personal sense of loss, rather than some broader statement on public policy, political positions, or the pressing issues of the…
The federal data that will be presented in this series of posts was analyzed by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NCIR) in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research. The NECIR story on the data and its implications, written by Jon Marcus, who is currently an editor at the Hechinger Report, is available…
From Seth Kahn, a professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania:
When Clark Ross sent me “Toward a New Consensus for Tenure in the Twenty-First Century” for possible inclusion in Academe, I was immediately interested. Not only was I seeing the ramping up of attacks on tenure but I have always felt the system too weak, if anything. My family moved every couple of years as I…
Researchers at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA, are reportedly studying student brain scans in order to determine how study abroad impacts brain function. According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education [http://chronicle.com/article/One-College-s-Method-to/230661/], the researchers have scanned the brains of 30 freshmen and will re-scan their brains when they are juniors and just after…
Barnard College has been in the news because of its decision to follow the precedents set by Mills College and Smith College and to admit transgender students who identify as female. But a recent memo of understanding between the college and the New York Police Department will almost certainly have much broader ramifications for the…
David Dayan’s article “’Chipping Away At My Soul’: Insiders Detail The Decline And Fall Of Corinthian’s For-Profit College Empire” was the lead item in yesterday’s HuffPost College daily newsletter. If you have been following the coverage of the rise and fall on the online for-profit universities, the article does not contain a great deal of…