Recently there has been a spate of articles in journals as diverse as Dow Jones, The New York Times, and Inside Higher Education which, when boiled down, ask about the fundamental value of a college education and raise the question of how, when we see that value, we will know what we are looking at. continue reading

Last sunday’s New York Times “News of the Week in Review” had an article by Jacques Steinberg entitled “Plan B:Skip College”. He is reporting on a fairly short list of people, including Charles Murray, who are serious about capping postsecondary education opportunity for currently marginalized people — read poor and/or of color. I am always impressed when people who have a privilege, like a college education and degree, argue that those without that privilege really don’t need it. continue reading

Last week the New York Times organized and presented a series of short and provocative articles on the future of reading, books, and e-books. Overall, these pieces are optimistic and show that we are at the front end of an evolutionary arc. Reading them made me excited about the times in which we are living and the possibilities. There have been a substantial number of comments; the insight and wit they contain make it worthwhile to skim through them as well.

Textbooks, along with other books and learning materials used in educational programs, have their own special challenges and possibilities within this larger context. These pieces offer a lot of food for thought for those of us who are thinking hard about how to offer students materials that are more engaging, accessible, and affordable.

What’s the world coming to when Harvard upperclass students can no longer get a hot breakfast in their dorms? “Students generally feel that if you come to Harvard, for what you’re paying, you should probably have the right to a hot breakfast,” says the President of Harvard Undergraduate Council. Students, she continues, want to “preserve the things that are at Harvard that you can’t get anywhere else.” Further, the Taekwondo club must now share space and practice time with the Crimson Dance Team. “OMG,” to borrow a phrase from the net. continue reading

In his recent article, “The College Calculation“, David Leonhardt chides the higher education sector for “..doing so little to measure what students learn between freshman and senior years.” He then goes on to cite an NPR segment “Is a College Education Worth the Debt?” where an economist noted that 12% of letter carriers had a BA. The implication is that they didn’t need the degree to get the job they held. He concludes that “Earnings may be a flawed measure of an education’s value, but they’re about the only tangible measure we have.” And he questions why, if we need more college success, do we accept low college success rates and why are we cutting funding in most states during this recession?

These are all good questions. And here are some answers.

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The naysayers about online education may want to check out a new article in the New York Times.

Titled “Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom,” the Times article describes a study recently done for the U.S. Department of Education that found that “on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” continue reading

Recently I have seen three articles about the current state of higher education financing which perplexed me greatly. First, Business Week published an article which portrayed proprietary institutions as “cashing in” unduly on stimulus money. continue reading