In a terrific essay explaining “Why We’re On Strike,” University of Illinois-Chicago professors Lennard Davis and Walter Benn Michaels wrote this about their institution’s flawed shared governance system: “To call shared governance real governance is like saying your dog has an equal say in how your household is run because sometimes when he whines he…
It has been some time since I’ve reported on the fight to save City College of San Francisco (CCSF). As readers will recall, last summer the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) announced that it would terminate CCSF’s accreditation as of July 2014. (See my original post of July 8 and subsequent posts…
I received the following item in my e-mail this morning. For all of the talk by the Far Right about the inadequacies of the Department of Education and the ruinous impact that it has had on public education in this country, when I skim this e-mail, I would be hard-pressed to identify much that has…
Let me stipulate from the start that this post is not about selective charter schools. It is, instead, about those charter schools that are supposed to be providing a broader alternative to our “failing public schools.” From Chicago comes the following data. At the city’s charter schools in 2012-2013, 307 students were expelled. At the…
More than 120 scientific papers have been removed from electronic databases of such papers published by Springer and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. The papers contain fraudulent research findings—but not exactly of the kind that you might expect. Apparently, the papers were generated using a program called SCIgen, or some knock-off. Developed by…
Earlier today the PSC received the decision by Judge Anil Singh on CUNY’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit contesting the original Pathways resolution passed by the Board of Trustees in 2011. Judge Singh decided in favor of CUNY’s motion to dismiss. We are disappointed in the decision, but we are fully prepared to appeal. We maintain that…
This post is, in some ways, a follow-up to Walter Breau’s post on the low numbers of students of color taking AP exams in computer science and other STEM subjects, as well as Aaron Barlow’s recent posts on the Common Core standards. Our K-12 schools, both public and private, have become increasingly bifurcated in terms…
Yesterday, I came across a news item that reported that, according to Norse mythology, the world was supposed to have ended on Saturday. Yes, Ragnarok, or the Twilight of the Gods, had been predicted but apparently not loudly or widely enough, and the waiting for the end came and went without my even being aware…
Seldom have the shifting sands upon which college athletics are built been more apparent than today. For those of us who have an interest in college sports, including millions of loyal alumni, the choice of an athletic conference is roughly tantamount to “the company that you keep.” At innumerable colleges and universities, nothing stirs alumni…
Education Week and the Huffington Post both recently reported on The College Board’s 10th annual AP Report to the Nation. Both reports noted that that a vast majority of Advanced Placement Computer Science test-takers last year were white males. Of the more than 20,000 students to take the exam, 81 percent were male and 54…