The Hard Sell and the Educator

Guest blogger Barbara Madeloni of the UMass Amherst School of Education  chose to boycott the Teacher Performance Assessment field test via Pearson.  As a result, her contract was not  renewed. There is a movement for her reinstatement through a petition that can be signed here. The incursion of for profit companies into higher education occurs with willing collaborators. Whether misguided,…

Collapsing “Corporate” Education

The other day, I wrote on this blog: With the big money leaving the equation, maybe we can get back to the education we were trying to develop in the first place, education that, in many cases, is still quite the best in the world. It is best because the residue of the truth–that education…

Society, Education, and John Dewey

Wesleyan University president Michael Roth wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times that appeared yesterday. Titled “Learning as Freedom,” it brings us back to John Dewey and his vision: Education should aim to enhance our capacities, Dewey argued, so that we are not reduced to mere tools. Roth is responding to critics who see…

Wal-Mart for Walden Pond

When Dave Tomar’s new book The Shadow Scholar: How I made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat appears next month, the attention is probably going to be on the failings of the students and on the ethical faults of those abetting them. Perhaps it should also be on the rest of us, who have allowed a diploma…

Journalism and Education: The Road Not Shared

Could education (higher education in particular) be about to follow the path journalism found itself on, starting just under a decade ago? Could digital possibilities be on the verge of ushering in a new paradigm reflective of what happened to the newspaper business as a result of the rise of the blogosphere? I doubt it.…

The Path to Mediocrity in Higher Education: Florida Edition

Diary reposted and revised from DailyKos Author: Bruce B. Janz, Winter Springs, Florida In Florida, my (adopted) state, we have a “blue ribbon panel” on higher education, appointed by Florida Republican Tea Party governor Rick Scott. It is modeled on the Texas blue ribbon panel, and based on the Heartland Institute’s policy briefs on the issue. For…