The following paragraphs are quoted from an article written by Diane Dietz for the Register–Guard in Eugene, Oregon: “The GTFF [Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation] demanded two weeks of paid medical or parental leave, which the university refused to grant on the grounds that graduate students are first and foremost students—and because the university doesn’t want…
In case you missed it, Jeffrey J. Williams, professor of English and of literary and cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon University, published a terrific piece this morning on Inside Higher Ed that convincingly debunks the pretensions of those who would cut educational costs through technological innovation (and “creative disruption”) at the expense of both students…
In an article today on the debacle at The New Republic, journalist (and former TNR staffer) Michael Kinsley is quoted in reference to new owner Chris Hughes, “It’s his magazine, and if he wants to wreck it, he can.” This could easily become the tagline for the current age. Certainly for the boards of trustees of our institutions of…
By the end of sophomore year, tradition suggests that most college students should think about how they can narrow their interests to a range of opportunities after graduation. It’s not that college is over for them, it’s just more a case of the need to plan ahead. While many began their college careers thinking that…
The Educator and the Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges the Gates Foundation by Anthony Cody (New York: Garn Press, 2014). Though this book may have been sparked by an exchange between an experienced science teacher (Anthony Cody) and the Gates Foundation on Cody’s blog for Education Week, “Living in Dialogue,” and on the Foundation’s blog, “Impatient Optimists,” it…
Marty Kich has provided a useful supplement to Aaron’s review with respect to standardized testing in Texas by quoting extensively from an account of the role played by British educational conglomerate Pearson. He also quotes from two reports on the process by which Texas selects textbooks, in which ideological factors often play an outsized and…
A version of Hank Reichman’s August post “Usual Suspects Saying the Usual Things: Critiquing the Schmidt Report” has appeared in the December, 2014 issue of the Clarion, the monthly newspaper of the Professional Staff Congress, the faculty union at the City University of New York. Titled “Schmidt: reduce faculty authority” in the print version and “Benno…
—or, If Moses Was a Founding Father, Then Was Charlton Heston’s Leadership of the NRA Divinely Preordained? Aaron’s post references the addition of new standardized tests in Texas. In an October 11 article for the British newspaper The Telegraph, Katherine Rushton opens a discussion of the UK-based conglomerate’s “challenges” with pointed references to the business…
Below is an open letter from Department Heads at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to incoming president Timothy Killeen about the Salaita case. A UIUC faculty committee report on the case is expected later this month, and on Dec. 3 a forum on the Salaita case, academic freedom, and civility will be held at…
“Non-negotiable.” From Texas legislators adding new standardized tests to David Coleman defending his Common Core State Standards, that’s how education “reformers” present their changes. After all, they know better than we do. The problem with American education, they argue, is that too many constituencies have been involved in decision-making, from parents to teachers to school…