Twas a big day in higher education news yesterday. Barack Obama gave a major speech on college affordability. He laid out several proposals to push down college costs, student loan burdens, and foster higher education innovation. The internet went NUTS! Not really unless you follow all the world’s higher education nerds, as I do. But,Read More “For God, For country, For college, Forever: A Few Thoughts on #ObamasHigherEdPlan”
Bulletproof Big Mommas: Black Women Cannot Stop Bullets #atl
Yesterday a man entered an Atlanta middle school with a semi-automatic weapon intending to kill some cops with as public a platform as possible. Antoinette Tuff is a clerk at the school. The gunman instructed her to call a local news station to record his attack. Tuff managed to talk the gunman down after heRead More “Bulletproof Big Mommas: Black Women Cannot Stop Bullets #atl”
The Privilege of Righteous Indignation and Why You’re Not The Boss of Me
I have piece in Slate on for-profit college students. The TL;DR version: critique structures and not people; descriptive statistics are not prescriptive; respect for-profit students’ agency even while examining the constraints on their agency. It’s a nuanced enough argument even for academics. I have no illusions about how it goes over with a general audience.Read More “The Privilege of Righteous Indignation and Why You’re Not The Boss of Me”
The Ridiculous Excesses of For-Profit College Marketing**
**Note: I have mentioned that I rarely do line edits on blog posts. Many have surely noticed. I can rarely type quickly enough to keep up with my internal dialogue, hence most of my writing flaws appear here regularly. Editing is always the final step of my writing process. It involves paper and pencil. ThatRead More “The Ridiculous Excesses of For-Profit College Marketing**”
Papers, Presentations, For-Profits, Social Media and Justice
The season of U.S. sociology professionalization is upon us. This year will be my most active as the American Sociology Conference joins the American Black Sociologists and the Sociologists for Women in Society in New York this week. New to the discipline, I spent my first couple of years just lurking about. This year IRead More “Papers, Presentations, For-Profits, Social Media and Justice”
A Bechdel-ish Test for Higher Ed “Disruption”
It’s not that I am unsympathetic to higher education’s many issues — particularly inequality, rising tuition, and corporatization — but the higher education disruption narrative has pushed me to the edge. You likely haven’t even noticed that narrative. I am keenly aware that I live in a bubble with a few hundred other people onRead More “A Bechdel-ish Test for Higher Ed “Disruption””
Data are Data, Analysis is Art
Most of the literature in my field comes from economists, education researchers that more often than not employ econometric models, and quantitative macro sociologists. There is nothing wrong with that. However, a recent rash of reading of such reports brought to mind how we conflate data with analysis. The former is something approaching empirical objectivityRead More “Data are Data, Analysis is Art”
Drive-By Thoughts: Making Dollars and Sense of Don Lemon’s Logic
Don Lemon recently joined a storied list of black public figures that have, throughout the years, chided the black community’s cultural failings. Lemon not only agreed with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly’s post-Zimmerman trial moratorium but thought O’Reilly did not go far enough in blaming black people for their dire straits. I have no desire toRead More “Drive-By Thoughts: Making Dollars and Sense of Don Lemon’s Logic”
Reconfiguring My Public Writing Position
I have had some kind of blog, both private and public, for over ten years now. As I transitioned into academia I found public writing immensely gratifying and helpful. I have written that social media and the networks they promote can go a long way towards filling the gaps in mentorship and community many juniorRead More “Reconfiguring My Public Writing Position”
Red Flag Schools: Who Is Accountable for High Student Loan Defaults?
Big report about student loan defaults is making the rounds today: I read the Education Sector (ES) report that inspired the news story and I have a few thoughts. First, I respect the analysis. Second, this is some drive-by thinking. I’m not purporting to be able to do a better job. I’m motivated by twoRead More “Red Flag Schools: Who Is Accountable for High Student Loan Defaults?”