There are a few narratives floating around in the atmosphere these days about labor, training, and credentials. There’s the one that says we have serious skills mismatch in our economy. The solution, this narrative says, is to quickly “retool” the “labor force” for specific job functions. The other narrative says that public colleges have failedRead More “Employees Ready “Out of the Box” at What Cost?”
Michelle Obama, Beyonce, and Wonder Woman
On NPR’s tumblr today came a quote from a story I’d subconsciously blocked from my twitter feed last week: So when the most influential black woman in the world, armed with degrees from some of the best institutions in the world, names Beyonce, a singer best known for a song called “Bootylicious,” as someone she aspiresRead More “Michelle Obama, Beyonce, and Wonder Woman”
The Price of Motherhood: Policy, Penalties, and For-Profits
A new report on for-profit colleges was issued by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research today. In short, the paper finds: Student parents at for-profit colleges are taking on 10 times the annual loans of student parents attending community colleges. The majority (62 percent) of single student parents have an expected family contribution (EFC) ofRead More “The Price of Motherhood: Policy, Penalties, and For-Profits”
Public Intellectual Goodness from Friends
Today my twitter-league, Rhonda Ragsdale, launched the public interface of her research agenda on historic black towns. It’s a wonderful project that may be of particular interest to my many folks in digital humanities. What Rhonda says about the project: Historically black towns established after the Civil War andRead More “Public Intellectual Goodness from Friends”
The Economics of PhDing
From GenomeWeb comes a summary of Lee Skallerup Bessette’s post on Insider Higher Ed about one of the hidden expenses of academic life: the conference debt. This post started as a twitter conversation, by the way. That’s reason 3, 196 that academics should be on twitter. Lee Skallerup Bessette at Inside Higher Ed‘s CollegeRead More “The Economics of PhDing”
claude fischer on recent poverty research
For-profit College: Route to Opportunity or Unemployment?
Many of you know that my doctoral research examines for-profit colleges. This is a good summary of links for those interested in the scope and breadth of the current discussion surrounding for-profit higher education in the U.S. It’s particularly timely in light of presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s recent education policy platform. In that platform RomenyRead More “For-profit College: Route to Opportunity or Unemployment?”
Add White Kids and Stir is Not Good Education Policy
I commend the Times for at least acknowledging the anniversary of Brown v. Board this week, but I take some issue with the conclusions opinion writer David L. Kirp makes. A quick conversation with the essay: AMID the ceaseless and cacophonous debates about how to close the achievement gap, we’ve turned away from one toolRead More “Add White Kids and Stir is Not Good Education Policy”
The Case of The Chronicle of Higher Education
I had about as much intention of rehashing this as I ever have any intention of buying generic breakfast cereal. But unlike King Vitamin some things beg to be reconsidered. After a rather unseemly lack of professional judgement led the Chronicle of Higher Education to defend Naomi Schaefer Riley’s attack on black studies, in general,Read More “The Case of The Chronicle of Higher Education”