Over the weekend, tweets from higher ed academics and critics were circulating about a recently published article by Jon Marcus in The Hechinger Report.
The article, “Most college students don’t graduate in four years, so colleges and the government count six years as ‘success,’” claimed that colleges have moved the finish line to give themselves credit for success if students graduate in six years. Sometimes, that standard may even be eight years, which is what consumers find reported on the College Scorecard.
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Georgetown CEW: More Education Doesn’t Always Mean More Earnings
When I read the press release that the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce had issued another report, I eagerly downloaded “The College Payoff: More Education Doesn’t Always Mean More Earnings.”
The Great Upheaval: An Excellent Analysis of Higher Education
I can’t remember how many books and essays I have read over the past two decades that forecasted major changes and disruption to higher education. Some were better than others, but none of them were as notable as Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt’s recently published "The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future."
College Rankings: Could There Be a Better Alternative?
I wrote an article about four of the more recently issued rankings of colleges and universities. I had originally planned to write a follow-up article with a few groupings of colleges and universities that are not ranked in the top 25 or so.
The Latest College Rankings: Methodologies and Flaws
It’s hard to keep track of college rankings. These days, it seems like everyone wants into the game from which the U.S. News & World Report team made its fame and fortune (note that I did not say “originated” since I believe there were rankings before U.S. News).
Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America
In his cover jacket intro of Alec MacGillis’ "Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America," Craigslist founder Craig Newmark refers to the 1937 Upton Sinclair novel, "The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America." Newmark contrasts the $30 billion market capitalization of Ford with the $1.5 trillion market capitalization of Amazon. In "The Flivver King," Sinclair blasted Ford for underpaying its workers while forcing them to engage in repetitive and dangerous assembly-line work.
Instructional Spending Proposals vs. Higher Ed Realities (Part II)
In my last article, I reviewed recommendations for instructional spending policies from The Century Foundation, Third Way and Connecticut Democrat senator Chris Murphy. For this article, I will discuss the Veterans Education Project white paper, referenced in a recent Inside Higher Ed article about the limits of instructional spending tests for college accountability.
Instructional Spending Proposals vs. Higher Ed Realities (Part I)
Alexis Gravely’s recent Inside Higher Ed article, “The Debate Over Instructional Spending Policies,” reports on a Veterans Education Project white paper detailing the limitations of instructional spending tests for college accountability.
September 11, 2001 – A Day That We All Remember, 20 Years Later
My colleagues and I were in New York City to negotiate a credit agreement for our employer, Sun Healthcare Group. Our meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m. on September 11, 2001, and was to take place in the offices of Goldman Sachs at 85 Broad Street.