According to today’s NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/nyregion/new-york-issuing-scorecards-on-teacher-colleges.html?pagewanted=1&tntemail0=y&_r=1&emc=edit_tnt_20130814 Mayor Bloomberg is holding universities responsible for poorly (or well) trained teachers – something I have stressed here. (See the category University Education Dumbs Down High School , particularly the post, A Suggestion for Holding Colleges Accountable for Teacher Performance .) I hope his administration goes on to look at graduate schools. For my […]
Follow the Money
August 6, 2013 by
Good article about student loan defaults. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323420604578650420166447266.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Dcomments About 22% of those not in school are either in default or forbearance. Even in a bad economy, that is a big number. Here is what I think it says (posted as a comment on the article). “As a former professor, my advice is, follow the money. Ask […]
NY Times Post on Academic Advising Is Good But Needs to Address Issues of Trust
July 23, 2013 by
The NY Times had a recent article on Saturday (“Frayed Prospects, Despite a Degree”) and this follow up post about the lack of advice about majors http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/college-counseling-and-job-prospects/#more-165893 The problem is probably more than a lack of advice. The question is, when the advice is available, can it be trusted? Here is the comment I made. […]
Chinese Firms Reject American Degrees
July 8, 2013 by
I have argued in this blog that far too many of our universities are delivering degrees but not education. This is even true at many “elite” universities. (See the book Academically Adrift for data that show how much worse university education has become across the spectrum in the past 30 years.) According to an article in the […]
“The Fish Stinks From the Head”
June 25, 2013 by
The following is a comment about how administrators may have taken a statement by David Riesman. The comment was made on the following article. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323836504578551904167354358.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Darticle Let’s see, there’s teacher training, not so good, overall. Then there’s STEM training, not so good, overall. Oh, there’s lawyer training, not so good, even “unscrupulous”, according to some […]
A Suggestion for Holding Colleges Accountable for Teacher Performance
June 25, 2013 by
I posted the following suggestion as a comment to this WSJ article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323836504578553933214167460.html?KEYWORDS=arne#articleTabs%3Darticle A significant part of the teacher competency problem is no fault of the teachers. It starts with the training they get in college. Many high school teachers are especially penalized by inadequate preparation in their subject. This is no fault of […]
“They Just Don’t Get It” part 2
May 31, 2013 by
Now The Atlantic doesn’t get it. Here is their post for today, followed by my reply which I think contains some interesting facts I only recently discovered. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/should-you-go-to-college-the-i-atlantic-i-faq/276392/#comments “Should who go to college where? That is the appropriate question; not, should you go to the generic college because a generic (and suspect) average says the generic […]
My take on today’s front page article in NY Times “Chinese Creating New Auto Niche Within Detroit”
May 13, 2013 by
Here is the link to the article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/business/global/chinese-automakers-quietly-build-a-detroit-presence.html?ref=todayspaper The article starts, “Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology and ….hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.” I worry that, for reasons I give in the following comment, […]
High Unemployment for Recent Grads in Info Systems, Comp. Sci., and Engineering
Today’s USA Today has a good article on unemployment for recent grads. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/07/30/tech-job-unemployment/2595669/) I commented with my views. “After spending over a quarter of a century as a college professor, this does not surprise me. It does sadden me. We are seeing the observations of Clark Kerr (“…This shift from academic merit to student consumerism […]