A insider's guide to the frightening reality of higher education
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 be your grandfather’s salary.
Here is a list of my posts that I believe are most essential for understanding the problems with higher education. I suggest reading the page with quotes from David Riesman and Clark Kerr, first, though. Then, hopefully, some of my posts give examples and explanations of how their general observations work out in practice. The best place on this blog for seeing and understanding just how outrageous things have become – and how much some academics think they can get away with – see A Tale Out of School – A Case Study in Higher Education. Finally, keep in mind that if what follows is what just one individual has observed, how much else is there?
EDUCATION AT MAJOR UNIVERSITIES
How Competition Leads to “Content Deflation” in One Anecdote
America: A flagging model | The Economist
How to Make Calculus Students Believe They Know Calculus When They Don’t
EDUCATION AT STATE REGIONAL SCHOOLS
Professor Alfred Doesn’t Know What is Wrong with the Homework
Prof. Teaches Stats But Doesn’t Seem to Have a Clue About the Most Fundamental Notion
Statistics Prof. Kevin Doesn’t Understand Basic Math, or Statistics
Regional State School Stories – Some Brief Thoughts About How Did This Happen
MAJOR UNIVERSITIES EFFECT ON REGIONAL SCHOOLS AND HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER EDUCATION
No Jobs for Ph.D’s? Depends on what you mean by Ph.D.
An Example of College Benefitting From the Dumbing Down of High School
Important Paper on Value of Good Teacher May Be a Game Changer
“They Just Don’t Get It” part 2
A Suggestion for Holding Colleges Accountable for Teacher Performance
RESEARCH ETHICS
Scientists “Forced” to Cheat Says Medical School Professor
GENERAL
Arum and Roksa’s Important New Book “Aspiring Adults Adrift”
Professors DON’T become professors to teach! Better get over that idea fast.
Median Starting Salaries for College Graduates $27,000 or $40,735?
Columbia University – Another 3-2 Program Like Wash. U.’s?
When Is It Ok For a Non-Profit To Misrpresent Its Fees to the Public?
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In their seminal book “Academically Adrift”, Arum and Roksa show that, in America, students are reguired to study 45% less than in the 60’s, and 35% less than in 1980. Not surprisingly, their gain in critical skills is next to nothing. That gain used to be one sigma. This was independent of the university’s selectivity.
In “A Tale Out of School” on my blog, I show decision-making that directly determines the dumbing down of education in order to cater to, what David Riesman called, student “wants” at the expense of student “needs”. This has been going on since the late 70’s when Riesman and Clark Kerr tried to warn us. We weren’t ready to listen then; maybe we are now.
So, here are two mistakes that this article makes by assuming that colleges haven’t changed over the years.
First, the article starts by claiming that education has become an entitlement. No, degrees have become an entitlement, not education. (In 1980, Clark Kerr observed that the “..shift from academic merit to student consumerism is one of the two greatest reversals of direction in all the history of American higher education..” You can’t measure education by counting “degrees”.
Second, it is not only not your grandmother’s college degree, it is even moreso, not your grandmother’s high school degree. And this too, is because of the degradation of a college degree. College is where future teachers go to learn their subject. Since they don’t learn well, they can’t teach well. I believe this accounts for a large part of the pay differential between college and high school. High school has been dumbed down more than college. That’s all.
So, yes, I believe that MOOC’s (especially using Carnegie Mellons artificail intel. approach) will help. But until we find a way to guarantee capable citizens a college “education”, we will only be making changes at the edge. It is too easy to pawn off something as “education”.
(To read about how college dumbs high school, and see examples, see my blog, inside-higher-ed .)”