An outrageous, sad, but too often true, story: For New Graduates, Path to a Career Is Bumpy – WSJ.com. Here was my comment: “What happened to this young woman is outrageous. I’m a retired math professor. I live in St. Louis. Years ago I taught at SIUE (Southern Ill. Univ. at Edwardsville). It is similar […]
Gallup-Purdue Poll: “Support” and “Deep Learning” Means Everything in College
May 6, 2014 by
Here is the link to the survey Life in College Matters for Life After College. There is also an article in the Wall Street Journal. I added a comment, partially because I was concerned that the focus of the article was a little too much on “support”. Here is my comment. “From the perspective of someone […]
Corporations Join Up With Colleges to Design Curricula – WSJ.com
April 8, 2014 by
Corporations Join Up With Colleges to Design Curricula – WSJ.com. This reporting is excellent and important. I commented but this is a topic that I want to think about more. Here is my comment. “Good news? or, bad news? Here is the view from a former math professor who has been worried about higher education […]
I Hope Princeton and its New President are Listening
March 22, 2014 by
I commented on the article http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304756104579453570560473730 . As I have posted before, I am concerned that Princeton faculty don’t see what is happening as clearly as the University of Chicago faculty saw in the nineties. (See my post Princeton Giving Up on Using Grades As Motivation and Feedback? for Princeton and “Content Deflation” Part II: University of […]
WSJ: Pressured to State Facts, Schools Give Excuses and Questionable Data
March 17, 2014 by
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 […]
Zombies! Zombies! Get Your Zombies Here! (Who Needs Shakespeare?)
March 4, 2014 by
This is my response to a front page article in the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304851104579361451951384512 Who knows, maybe I’m being unfair. Maybe it is a fine topic for study. But I don’t think so. (Speaking of English, I think I had better go to my “English Usage” book to make sure I used “who knows” […]
Costs Rising Quickly, Quality of Product Slumping – What Could This Mean?
December 26, 2013 by
I gave my view in a comment on this informative article ( http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304244904579276850992941142) in the Wall Street Journal today. “So, over a few decades, costs have been going up dramatically, while quality of education has been going down.That should be a warning. The view from the inside (I am a professor.) is simple. This is what […]
American 15-Year-Olds Fall Further Back in Math
December 3, 2013 by
The New York Tims and the Wall Street Journal both reported the results of the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/education/american-15-year-olds-lag-mainly-in-math-on-international-standardized-tests.html?ref=us&_r=0 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304579404579234511824563116) I commented on wsj.com and I wll follow up with a post that contains another personal story. Here is my comment. “I am a former math professor who taught at an […]
Why Isn’t the Government Collecting Debt From Colleges That Default on Education, Too?
Here is an article from today’s WSJ Student Debt Takes a Bite Out of More Paychecks – WSJ. Here are my thoughts. “For many colleges, students are just a funnel for funds. Nowadays, colleges ask, “What can students do for my school?”, not “What can I do for my students?”. It should be no surprise […]