At the beginning of Chapter 1, Arum and Roksa describe the situation of “Nathan”, a recent college graduate, similar to “…many of his peers…” The book is worth the price, if only for this story. Nathan graduated in business administration with a 3.9. He lives at home, makes very little money (compared to what colleges “promise”), and is sure that […]
Part Two of Americans Think We Have the World’s Best Colleges. We Don’t.
June 28, 2014 by
I have looked at the data and think this is important. I hope the study that this talks about is widely reported. I will post later on what I think the data shows. Americans Think We Have the World’s Best Colleges. We Don’t. – NYTimes.com. Since I think this is so important, I commented further. (And […]
Americans Think We Have the World’s Best Colleges. We Don’t. – NYTimes.com
June 28, 2014 by
There is more data (“Academically Adrift” reported on this a few years ago.) that show that the “average” college grad in American Americans Think We Have the World’s Best Colleges. We Don’t. – NYTimes.com. To illustrt]ate the data, I commented as follows. “The poor quality of k-12, especially high school, is DUE to the corruption (over […]
New York Times Editorial, Good Idea to Measure Performance, But…
June 25, 2014 by
This is in today’s paper. Tying Federal Aid to College Ratings – NYTimes.com. The three metrics they support are: number of poor and working-class students (>17%) graduation rates (>15%) Measuring loan default rates (<28%) At least it’s a start, but what will the real outcomes be if colleges work toward these minimum metrics? Will more […]
“When the facts change, I change.” John Maynard Keynes
June 24, 2014 by
A lot of what David Leonhardt says in this article is important information, but I believe he, and others, need to understand, that data based on students from 30, or even 2o, years ago, is not suffecient to draw conclusions about today’s students. What worries me is that there seems to be a rush to […]
This Week’s Economist Cover is About Higher Ed. But Makes Bad Assumptions
I only commented on this article. (Several people made interesting comments.) Higher education: Creative destruction | The Economist. “This piece makes the same mistake most journalists make. They don’t realize that, even at many “elite” schools, it may be your grandmother’s DEGREE, but it isn’t your grandmother’s EDUCATION – and, if skills matter, it won’t […]