Source: The Misguided Drive to Measure ‘Learning Outcomes’ – The New York Times
I commented:
The elephant in the classroom is obvious to those with experience in higher education; and, as this author points out, “assessment” won’t budge the elephant.
Throughout my career as a math professor – first at a state regional school, and then at an “elite” school (Wash. U. in St. Louis) – I saw shocking evidence of the real problem in higher education, and how that problem condemns K-12 to be mostly of very poor quality.
The corrupting of higher education has been going on for decades. As far back as 1980, deep thinkers like Clark Kerr and David Riesman saw the problem. Here for example, is David Riesman from his book, On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism.
“…advantage can…be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions…Like any other interest group, the student estate often does not grasp its own interests, and those who speak in its name are not always its friends…”
Since then it has gotten much worse, as the Spelling Commission, quoted in this article, reported.
Not much has changed, though. That is because it is hard for the public to really comprehend how our universities work. In my small way, I am trying to change that by telling, and documenting, stories from higher education that let people see for themselves how shocking things have become – and, importantly, how they effect ALL of education in America. The blog is inside-higher-ed.
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