Dear Commons Colleagues,

The current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education has a front-page article on the “Reinvention” of the City Colleges of Chicago.  The Reinvention is the initiative of the new Chancellor, Cheryl Hyman, who although a graduate of the City Colleges, never held a university position prior to her appointment by Mayor Richard Daley last year.   The full Reinvention report will be released in May but already there have been indications of large-scale changes in the administration and operation of the seven colleges in the system.  Even before the final report, Chancellor Hyman has eliminated over 200 “redundant” full-time positions, has asked all of the sitting presidents to reapply for their positions, and replaced the individual college graduations with one university-wide ceremony.   The major rationale for the Reinvention is the system, as  a whole, has a seven percent graduation rate.   Faculty and others have criticized the Reinvention as a “corporatization” of their colleges.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Over the weekend, The Washington Post had an in-depth article regarding its relationship with the Kaplan chain of for-profit schools.   Kaplan is a multinational, multibillion-dollar enterprise with 70 campuses and nearly 100,000 students, many of them online, and many of them reliant on government aid.   In 2010, more than 90 percent of revenue at Kaplan’s biggest division and nearly a third of The Post Co.’s revenue overall came from the U.S. government via students receiving financial aid.  While Kaplan has been a profitable business, the Washington Post has struggled to remain profitable amid dramatic changes in the news industry and now calls itself “an education and media company” — no longer the other way around.   However, there may be a wobble in this relationship and the article questions The Post’s acquisition of Kaplan in light of a lot of  bad publicity that evolved from the federal government’s  expose last year of the fraudulent practices of a number of for-profit colleges including Kaplan.  Kaplan’s application rate is down 40% from last year.  Regardless I give The Washington Post credit for the candid nature of this article as well as several others it has published over the last few months on Kaplan.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I have just returned from the American Education Research Association’s Annual Conference in New Orleans.  I was especially proud of our graduate students and colleagues from around CUNY who shared their work and research with the AERA community.    I gave a presentation on Monday regarding online learning in K-12 education and while speaking with several individuals in the audience, they asked me about my views on Blackboard (CMS).  They had seen or heard about the “slam” I gave it at a plenary session two weeks earlier at the Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference.    During the plenary in response to a question about the future of LMSs, I criticized the monopolistic practices of Blackboard.   I commented about this on this blog last November.  As I said then:

“I resent Blackboard’s aggressive acquisition of other CMS providers. It is similar to the resentment that many people especially Mac users felt about Microsoft and IBM before Microsoft. We do not like monopolies and companies that try to control a market. For faculty, we might particularly resent that our craft of teaching will become standardized on one CMS product.”

Let me also say that my issue with Blackboard is not just some quirkiness on my part.  I just did a google search of “Blackboard CMS monopoly” and got 155,000 hits.  Also after my plenary at the Blended Learning Conference about seven people in the audience came up to me to say they agreed with my position.

I stand by my comment above and encourage those of us who teach online to not be wedded to the Blackboard platform.  Experimentation is good!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As I indicated earlier I am at the American Education Research Association Conference in New Orleans.  In a little while I will be giving a presentation entitled,  Examining the Extent and Nature of Online Learning in American K-12 Education:  A Symposium on the Research Initiatives in Online Education of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.    My Powerpoint presentation is available at: http://www.slideshare.net/apicciano/aera-symposium-2011

The paper is attached.

Tony

Attachment:  Paper Final Picciano 031811

Dear Commons Community,

The American Association of University Professors issued its annual report of faculty salaries , “It’s Not Over Yet: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2010–11.”  Essentially it  found a continuation of a long-term trend of institutions using more graduate student employees, part-time professors and non-tenure-track instructors.  Such appointments now make up more than three-quarters of total faculty, compared with two-thirds in 1995.  Included in its findings:

.Average faculty salaries rose 1.4 percent from 2009-10 to 2010-11, even  though average pay decreased at 30 percent of colleges and universities;

.Full professors at doctoral universities earned $127,296 for the current academic year, and assistant professors $72,893.

.There is a gap between public universities, where full professors averaged $118,054 and assistant professors $69,777, and private institutions, where full professors’ average salary was $157,282 and assistant professors’ $86,189.

.Pay is substantially less at liberal arts colleges and community colleges.

.Men continue to earn substantially more than women.

This report is based on data from a survey of more than 1,300 colleges and universities.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

This week we will be commemorating the first manned flight into space.  On April 12, 1961, the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gargarin, made his historic mission on board Vostok I.  Mary Roach in an op-ed piece in the NY Times has some of the human story of the man who became an international hero especially for those of us who were raised on Buck Rogers serials in the 1950s.

Roach portrays him as a rather humble individual who was basically following orders from the Soviet scientists, who controlled every detail of the flight.  He was “a skilled pilot [who was] forbidden to use his skills. The controls of Vostok I were locked; the capsule was maneuvered entirely from the ground”. One of the best lines in this article is a a quote from Gargarin:  “I’m not sure if I was the first man in space or the last dog”.

Gargarin’s flight, preceded by the launch of Sputnik in 1957, set in motion a competition with the Soviet Union, based on achievement and knowledge in science and technology.   This had significant repercussion on the American education system and especially its curricula.  We continue to debate on how to teach and how to attract children to careers in science and  technology.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I arrived yesterday in New Orleans to attend the American Education Research Association Annual Conference.  It is one of the larger conferences ( more than 13,000 participants) that I ever attend.  A number of our students and faculty from the PhD Program in Urban Education are here as well as CUNY colleagues, most of whom are making presentations on topics such as  bilingual education, culturally-relevant mathematics instruction, teacher education policy, etc.    The highlight of the day was Carolyne Ali-Khan (one of our students)  receiving an award from Springer Publications for best article for 2010.

Congratulations to Carolyne.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Valerie Strauss has an excellent piece in The Washington Post on the departure of Cathie Black and what it means for education policymakers who have pushed for mayoral control of the public schools.  She comments that  “mayoral control of public schools and non-traditional school leaders are hardly the answer to the ills of urban education as some policymakers have portrayed them.”  Besides the “debacle” of Cathie Black, she also comments on the mediocre results of Black’s predecessor Joel Klein (NYS admitted dumbing down standardized test) and Michelle Rhee (widespread cheating on test scores) as evidence that mayoral control has not worked.  She concludes by quoting Diane Ravitch,  an outspoken critic of mayoral control an our colleague at New York University, that “the only thing that the mayoral model of school reform offers is zero accountability with all decision making vested in the office of the mayor.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The NY newspapers are filled with stories of Cathie Black’s departure as the schools chancellor.   The bottom line was that she was not up to one of the most demanding jobs in the City.   Mayor Bloomberg rightfully takes the blame for her failure.  He is such an accomplished individual but made the classic mistake three months ago when he would not listen to anybody who questioned her credentials.

The children of the City of New York deserve competence and caring at the helm.   We move on and wish Dennis Walcott, Ms. Black’s successor, the best of luck.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

This morning Cathie Black left her position as the NYC Schools Chancellor and this afternoon we received word that NYS Education Commissioner David Steiner will also be leaving his position.  Commissioner Steiner was a colleague of ours as Dean of the School of Education at Hunter College.  Below is a blurb on his departure.

Tony

Just hours after the news broke that New York City Schools Chancellor Cathie Black was stepping down, the New York State Education Department confirmed that Commissioner David Steiner is indeed leaving his post as well.

“With the anticipated approval of a final teacher evaluation program in the coming months, I have informed Chancellor Tisch and members of the Board of Regents that I intend to leave the State Education Department later this year,” Steiner said in a statement. “Together we will begin to plan for a seamless transition.”