NYTimes Op-Ed Has Interesting Details On College Costs to Families

The op-ed is titled “A Quick Way to Cut Costs”.  Though I don’t think it is realistic, or the right approach (I describe why in my comment, which is copied below.), I think it is excelllent for the information it contains, especially about the Expected Family Contribution.  I recommend it.  Here is the link. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/opinion/a-quick-way-to-cut-college-costs.html Here […]

Washington U. in St. Louis Touts Their Reduction in Net Financial Aid

So, it seems. I just received my February edition of their magazine. (http://magazine.wustl.edu/2014/february/Pages/default.aspx) I started reading the cover article, “Creating Paths of Opportunity” (http://magazine.wustl.edu/2014/February/Pages/Creating-Paths-of-Opportunity.aspx ).  It notes that Chancellor Wrighton just returned from a White House Summit on Higher Education on how to do more to “…attract and retain students of all backgrounds…”  (Washington U. […]

WSJ: Pressured to State Facts, Schools Give Excuses and Questionable Data

There is a good article in today’s WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/reader-comments.html?baseDocId=SB10001424052702303546204579435050684294642&headline=Colleges%20Are%20Tested%20by%20Push%20to%20Prove%20Graduates’%20Career%20Success I commented as follows: from my experience as a former professor (I taught math at Wsshington University at St. Louis.), I read the opening paragraphs of this article as follows: “Marketing and sales departments of universities tout their schools  qualities, but are unwilling to release data […]

Caroline Hoxby’s Economic Model – Does It Help Explain “A Tale Out Of School” And Other Behaviors?

Maybe it does.  Here is a link to a paper where Prof. Hoxby (Prof. of Econ. at Bekelely, formerly at Harvard and a MacArthur Fellow) describes two models of of institutions of higher education: http://papers.nber.org/tmp/43484-w19816.pdf The models are described in the first part of the paper.  Prof. Hoxby “…contrast[s] nonselective postsecondary education (NSPE) in which institutions sell fairly standardized […]

Duke University Professor Calls It Like It Is

Michael Allen Gillespie, a professor of political science and of philosophy at Duke University, has written a revealing piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education.  I recommend it for its honesty about grading (or not really grading) and about professors “cheating” students by not fairly grading them in a way that shows them what they […]

Political Science Courses – Content Deflation? Just How Bad Is It?

I recently had a discussion with someone who felt that I might be overreacting to changes in education.  My friend felt that it was important to interest students in a subject even if that meant teaching them less.  Of course, we agreed that it is a matter of degree.  My friend worried that I was wrong about […]

An Interesting Program For Community College Attendance, Then Top School

I read about the program in the New York Times.(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/education/top-students-at-community-colleges-to-have-chance-to-raise-ambitions.html?ref=us&_r=0 ) I haven’t looked into it but it sounds interesting from the description in the article, so I am posting this link here. One thing that I find encouraging is this statement from the article: ““We won’t guarantee admission or transferring credits, but these students will be at a […]

How Competition Leads to “Content Deflation” in One Anecdote

In A Tale Out of School – A Case Study in Higher Education, I describe how, after pressuring me to change a course I was teaching, the Chairman of the Mathematics Department explained that the Math Department “…just wrested [a course] from [engineering]…and we don’t want to have to give up [this course]…” (For those who haven’t read A Tale Out […]

A Tale Out of School Update

I will be updating the story A Tale Out of School – A Case Study in Higher Education. Since the updates are so brief, I will post them here.  There are two news items, plus a couple of additional documents.  (The documents have already been posted.) (1) 6 of the 153 engineering students that started […]