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Norway
In Norway, the government funds all primary and secondary schools nationally. It then provides tuition-free access to college, plus an identical allowance for living expenses. Nonetheless, only 14% of children from the least educated families go to college, compared with 58% of the children from the most educated families (Hechinger Report). These numbers are similar […]
PROFILES
I have a question for suburban residents fighting against educational reform—school choice, charter schools, vouchers, revisions in the tenure system. Which category are you in? Guilt: the past abhorrent treatment of minorities has led you to “help” the “oppressed” by lowering the academic bar so that students can “succeed” and gain the “self-esteem” so necessary […]
Be a Mentor by Monday
Mentoring is all the rage, especially among professionals who desperately want to “give back” without unduly interrupting their money-making activities. And what better way to accomplish the needed interaction between mentor and mentee than through e-mail, Skype, Facetime, Whatsapp, and other communication devices that are oh so convenient. No need to take oneself out of […]
THIRTY THINGS IN A SCHOOL
Accountability without it, regression to the mean, or lower Books portable repositories of both knowledge and stimuli Budget Autonomy dollars and decisions must be coupled Computers for meaningful research Copiers quick response to situation Critical Thinking Skills necessary for negotiating life Dialogue discussions sharpen and broaden the mind Dress Code delete consumer competition for a […]
Income Sharing Arrangements
A recent government study indicated the following correlation: for every dollar that federal financial aid provided to college students, tuition rose 65 cents. Which basically means that taxpayers en masse paid for the ability of higher education vendors to build fancy dormitories, compensate their professors at above-average rates and add administrative positions at a disproportionate […]
Selective Schools
Why do many high achieving minority students not apply to selective schools? *They are afraid of the unknown. This is a totally rational state of mind, not to be confused with adults refusing to try sushi but more akin to those who believe that somebody with a different style of clothing or speech or set […]
Costco etc.
WHY IS COSTCO GOOD AND WALMART BAD? WHY IS BEN & JERRY’S GOOD AND McDONALD’S BAD? These are among the critically important philosophical questions of our times. Costco and WalMart On my semi-annual shopping trip to the nearby WalMart, I see ethnic diversity that is only matched by the rush hour crowds in a Port […]
The SAT
When I asked the graduate school student in Urban Education whether her distaste toward standardized tests extended to those given pilots or plumbers, she immediately switched gears to talk about poverty. I did not ask her whether we should water down education standards until poverty is resolved. Despite the publicity when well-known colleges announce with […]
Gallup-Purdue Poll
In 2014, the Gallup-Purdue Index polled 30,000 adults with Bachelor’s Degrees. They asked these graduates about what they termed “support” and “experiential” factors, each relevant to what the student experienced at college. These factors were referred to as the “Big Six,” as they connected to how graduates believed their collegiate experiences prepared them for life. […]
Why don’t Americans appear to care about Education
An interesting question! It was posed by a highly intelligent woman, married but without children, who has a good job that does not overlap with any aspect of the educational system. The query was in response to a conversational observation by myself that America ranks in the 20’s worldwide when it comes to academic excellence. […]