Obama shifts higher ed policy
President Obama’s higher education plan represents a policy shift away from low-income students and toward the middle class, writes Inside Higher Ed. “They’re sending a strong signal about where the second Obama administration, if we have one, is likely to go,” said Kevin Carey, policy director at Education Sector, a think tank. “They’re not going [...]
Set up to fail
Both intellectually disabled students and their instructors are set up to fail, writes Anonymous, a professor at a commuter college, in an essay in Inside Higher Ed. For the first assignment, Anonymous asked students to summarize the first three chapters of Girl, Interrupted in a few sentences. Jacob filled nearly half the page: “There was a girl. [...]
Obama: Raise tuition, lose federal aid
College affordability was the theme of President Obama’s speech at the University of Michigan yesterday. He called for spending more on Perkins loans and work-study programs — going from $3 billion now to $10 billion – but only at colleges and universities that provide “value.” Students at colleges that raise tuition could lose access to [...]
Free courses may shake universities’ monopoly
Free or cheap online courses may shake universities’ monopoly on credentials, writes the Hechinger Report. “If I were the universities, I might be a little nervous,” said Alana Harrington, director of Saylor.org, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit established by entrepreneur Michael Saylor that offers 200 free online college courses in 12 majors. Among other similar initiatives [...]
States cut higher ed funds by 7.6%
States spent 7.6% less on higher education in 2011-12 than in the previous year, concludes the annual Grapevine study by the Illinois State University Center for the Study of Higher Education and the State Higher Education Executive Officers. The declines were “driven heavily by the depletion” of federal stimulus funds, notes Inside Higher Ed. . [...]
Some college, no degree
Thirty-seven million Americans have some college credits but no degree, reports Emily Hanford of American RadioWorks. Marilyn Johnson Jackson could only manage the stress of night classes, two jobs and life as a single mom for so long. She gave up on the idea of ever getting her degree — and then discovered a new [...]
College is the path to the American Dream
To keep open the path to the American Dream, we must tackle college productivity and affordability, writes Jamie Merisotis, CEO of the Lumina Foundation in the Huffington Post. To increase productivity, institutions and systems must find ways to graduate significantly more students while controlling costs and delivering high-quality degrees. We believe that part of the [...]
Badges undercut colleges’ monopoly on credentials
Badges aren’t just for Boy Scouts — or video game enthusiasts — anymore, I write on U.S. News. The Mozilla Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) have created a $2 million Digital Media and Learning Competition to encourage the development of digital badges that recognize lifelong learners’ [...]
Technology will help — but not yet
Technology will help improve student success rates — in the future, said James Applegate, a Lumina Foundation vice president, at the Higher Ed Tech Summit in Las Vegas. Executives agreed that technology won’t change teaching and learning immediately, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. “We’re beginning to get lots of data on things like time of [...]
College consumers need more info
Do Colleges Need a Consumer’s Report Card? asks career Marty Nemko in The Atlantic. He’s seeking feedback on his nutrition label for higher education. If government can require “every package of taco-flavored Doritos (to) tell you the percentage of the FDA recommended daily allowance of vitamin A to zinc is in each ounce,” colleges should [...]
