Dear Commons Community,

For much of the past decade, the federal government  and the U.S. Department of Education have trumpeted the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines at all levels of education.   A new report commissioned by a bipartisan quartet of lawmakers seeks to bolster the humanities and social sciences, arguing that those disciplines are central to the nation’s civic, cultural, economic, and diplomatic future.The report, “The Heart of the Matter,” was produced by the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, a blue-ribbon panel that was formed by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at the lawmakers’ request. As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

“The commission’s task was to identify what federal and state governments, universities, teachers, foundations, and individual donors can do to “maintain national excellence in humanities and social-scientific scholarship and education” to help achieve national goals.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, and Sen. Mark R. Warner, Democrat of Virginia, requested the report with Rep. Thomas E. Petri, Republican of Wisconsin, and Rep. David E. Price, Democrat of North Carolina.

The commission’s 54 members include scholars in the humanities and social sciences, as well as scientists, engineers, business executives, philanthropists, and artists.

The commission’s recommendations contain little in the way of grand plans requiring major public support; the report often calls for consortia of government, foundations, and businesses to foot the bill for such programs as graduate fellowships in the humanities and social sciences, the teaching of languages and culture, and increasing study-abroad opportunities.”

Bravo to these lawmakers and this long-overdue report even though it is mostly symbolic.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Arne Duncan is pulling back on several of the deadline requirements of the new Common Core program. As reported in The Huffington Post:

“In what some see as a tacit recognition of the Obama administration’s overreach into nitty-gritty management of America’s schools, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will give states a reprieve from certain aspects of teacher evaluations’ consequences and the new wave of testing tied to the Common Core.

Duncan said Tuesday that he will allow the first two groups of states that received waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act to seek an extra year, until the academic year 2016-2017, before they give their teacher evaluations teeth by applying them to personnel decisions.

“Ensuring that educators are well prepared to implement those new standards is critically important,” Duncan said. “After listening to teachers and education leaders, we are providing additional flexibility to states.” He added that this will allow reforms to continue “on pace,” but that states will “have some flexibility” in when they start “using student growth data for high-stakes decisions.”

The announcement comes smack between the U.S. Senate and House hearings on clashing bills that would overhaul No Child Left Behind, replacing the current waiver system with a more coherent law. The debate between these dueling bills centers on the federal government’s role in America’s schools. No Child Left Behind dramatically increased that role, and now policymakers are trying to pull back — Republicans more than Democrats. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former U.S. education secretary who now serves as the Senate education committee’s ranking member, has taken to calling the administration a “national school board” because of its prescriptive role in managing schools.”

Sen. Alexander is right on this issue.  The U.S. DOE has overreached its authority first with No Child Left Behind and then with Race to the Top programs that fostered one size fits all/do it this way or no funding policies that have usurped the authority of state education departments and local school boards.  Considering that ninety percent of public school funding comes from state and local budgets, the federal government should not be dictating education policy.  And given the dysfunction that exists in Washington, D.C., it is not a stretch to say that public education would be better served by policies formulated at the state and local levels.

Tony

Hayley Worthman

Dear Commons Community,

For-profit colleges and universities that were emerging as a major disruptive force in higher education are now being disrupted themselves. Due to a combination of federal government oversight, competition from the non-profit sector, and more recently, the emergence of MOOCs, enrollments have fallen dramatically at the for-profits since 2009.  To me, the major blow to the for-profit sector were federal investigations of financial aid improprieties by high profile operators such as the University of Phoenix and Kaplan.  The MOOC development is a more recent blow but the damage to the for-profit reputations had already been done.  The Chronicle of Higher Education reporting at the annual meeting of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) commented:

“The sector that was once a major disruptive force in higher education is being disrupted itself.…judging by the subdued (call it glum) mood among many attendees at the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities’ annual convention here this month, its executives know it.

David Pauldine, chairman of APSCU’s board and executive vice president of DeVry Inc., said the industry faced stark choices. College companies that don’t take steps to make their programs more affordable will meet “a Darwinian end,” he said. “Those that are navigating the disruption can do quite well.” DeVry is among several that have begun offering scholarships and discounts.”

To turn their situation around, The Chronicle article quoted several individuals associated with the for-profit sector:

“The for-profit-education industry “has to go back to some things that were successful,” said Jack Larson [former executive with Career Education Corporation and American InterContinental University]. “People are a little bit in denial” about the competitive challenges they face.

In fact, Mr. Larson’s move may be just where for-profits ought to be heading. With all the competition afoot, “the sector really has to back to its roots and focus on jobs,” said Jeffrey R. Silber, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets (and one of the few stock analysts who attended this year’s convention).

The country still needs people working as sonogram technicians, auto mechanics, and in other good-paying jobs. You’re not going to find training for those jobs at Penn State, Mr. Silber said.

“I don’t think the sector is disappearing,” he added, but “it’s never going to be what it was.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Luis Urbinas, outgoing President of the Ford Foundation, has an op-ed piece in the New York Times today, drawing attention to the fact that many Americans especially the poor do not have access to the Internet and other communications technologies. He makes the case that:

“Many people reading this article are probably doing so on a smartphone, tablet or computer. They might not know that half of Americans don’t own a smartphone, one-third lack a broadband connection and one-fifth don’t use the Web at all.

Since 2007, when I was named president of the Ford Foundation, we’ve given $44.5 million to dozens of organizations — like Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the Mozilla Foundation and the Media and Democracy Coalition — to make the Internet more accessible, affordable and mindful of privacy…

The factors that will drive our national future — educational achievement, a healthy population, broad political participation and economic opportunity for all — depend in significant ways on how we structure and manage our spreading digital frontier. About 19 million Americans still lack access to high-speed broadband; many more can’t afford it.

Virtually all of America’s schools are connected to the Internet today. But that success is a lot like trumpeting, a century ago, that virtually every town in the country was reachable by road. Then, as now, the question is quality. Children who go to school in poor neighborhoods are connected to the Web at speeds so slow as to render most educational Web sites unusable.”

Mr. Urbinas makes several important points in this piece.  I would suggest that in addition to government assistance some of the deep-pocket foundations such as Gates, Broad, and Walton consider directing the billions of dollars at their disposal to this issue.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

With one week remaining in its current term, the Supreme Court is set to hand down several high-stakes rulings in coming days.

The high court is first expected to rule in Fisher v. University of Texas, the case challenging the college’s use of race in its admissions criteria. The court heard oral arguments in the case last October, during which several justices sharply questioned affirmative action’s constitutionality.

The justices will then likely rule on Shelby County v. Holder, the challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. At issue is whether it is constitutional for the federal government to require preclearance for voting system changes in districts and states with a history of racial discrimination.

Finally, the Supreme Court will decide on two landmark gay marriage cases — one on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, and another on Proposition 8, California’s gay marriage ban.

Decisions typically come on Monday and Thursdays, and the court’s final scheduled session for this term is on June 24.    The court can decide to add several days to its term.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Arrived yesterday on Nantucket for two weeks of beach.  Still working on my Internet connection but should have it resolved shortly.  Above is the view from the lawn on the beach house we are renting.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The worst fears of Chicago Public School (CPS) teachers and staffers were confirmed Friday when district officials announced it was laying off some 850 employees.

“Given the historic financial crisis facing our District, next year’s budget will not come without painful decisions, which is why we are making tough choices at central office in order to minimize impacts to our classrooms,” said CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett in a statement Friday. “We will continue this work over the next several weeks to further identify reductions to central office spending to help close the District’s $1 billion deficit and make sure that every dollar helps protect precious classroom funding.”   The Huffington Post reports:

“Affected employees are those in the 55 schools closing at the end of the current school year as well as those slated for “turnaround”, WBEZ reports. CPS said a portion of those losing their jobs were either probationary teachers or teachers with unsatisfactory performance reviews.

As the news trickled in late Friday, the Chicago Teachers Union CTU) had not yet been notified that the layoffs were happening, according to the Sun-Times.

CTU President Karen Lewis met with Byrd-Bennett Friday morning and no mention of layoffs was made, DNAinfo Chicago reports. At a press conference, Lewis said the pink slips were issued “before anyone knows how many students will return to CPS next year and how many students in closing campuses will actually enroll in so-called welcoming schools.”

At the closing schools, the cuts are nearly half of the staff which include teachers, paraprofessionals, bus aides and part-time staffers.

The CTU is inviting the public to attend an injunction hearing at the Dirksen Federal Building starting July 16.”

“This is a huge proceeding in terms of efforts to stop the CPS, the Board of Education and Mayor Rahm Emanuel from a record number of school closings,” the CTU said in a statement Friday.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As summer vacation nears and we start thinking about where to bring the kids or in my case, the grand kids, you might consider an exhibition, The Art of the Brick, at Discovery Times Square, by artist Nathan Sawaya.  It  is a critically acclaimed collection of intriguing and inspiring works of art made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world — LEGO® bricks. The Discovery Times Square exhibit is the world’s biggest and most elaborate display of LEGO® art ever and has been named  ‘One of CNN’s Ten Global Must-See Exhibitions.’   In varied forms, this show of Sawaya’ s work has appeared in other cities and toured internationally but has never been shown in New York.   Here is an excerpt from a New York Times review:

“… it is difficult to walk through this exhibition and pass a version of Rodin’s “Thinker” (4,332 pieces) or see Mr. Sawaya’s own life-size piece “Blue Guy Sitting” (21,054 pieces), and not smile in amazement at the ambition and or admire the skill. We can examine “The Thinker” to see how pieces deftly weave a knot of relations among the face, bent arm and closed fist. And if we blur our vision while looking at “Blue Guy Sitting,” we see that rigid, rectangular blocks have molded an embodiment of relaxed contentment.

Some constructions are alluring for other reasons. The dinosaur (80,020 pieces) impresses with its scale, occupying an entire gallery, its snapped-together plastic pieces resembling fractured fragments of fossilized bone. And the Moai figure from Easter Island (75,450 pieces) is large enough so that you almost don’t have to blur its pixelated construction mentally to imagine the original’s sculptured curves.”

Discovery Times Squre is on 44th Steet between 7th and 8th Avenue.  The exhibition runs through  January 5, 2013.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The number of Americans graduating from college has surged in recent years, sending the share with a college degree to a new high, federal data show.  The surge follows more than two decades of slow growth in college completion, which caused the United States to fall behind other countries and led politicians from both parties, including President Obama, to raise alarms.   Last year, 33.5 percent of Americans ages 25 to 29 had at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 24.7 percent in 1995, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In 1975, the share was 21.9 percent. The number of two-year college degrees, master’s degrees and doctorates has also risen recently.  As reported in the New York Times:

“The increases appear to be driven both by a sharp rise in college enrollment and by an improvement among colleges in graduating students. The trends could bring good news in future years, economists say, as more Americans become qualified for higher-paying jobs as the economy recovers.

College attendance has increased in the past decade partly because of the new types of jobs that have been created in the digital age, which have increased the wage gap between degree holders and everyone else. The recent recession, which pushed more workers of all ages to take shelter on college campuses while the job market was poor, has also played a role.

“Basically, I was just barely getting by, and I didn’t like my job, and I wanted to do something that wasn’t living dollar to dollar,” said Sarah O’Doherty, 24, a former nail salon receptionist who will graduate next month from the County College of Morris in New Jersey with a degree in respiratory therapy. “After I had my son, I wanted to do something I felt passionate about, to have a career.”

The attainment of bachelor’s degrees has risen much faster for young women in the past decade than for young men. It has also risen among young whites, blacks and Hispanics, though relatively little among Asians, who already had the highest rate of college completion. The share of people with a college degree also varies tremendously by state, with 48.1 percent of people ages 25 to 34 in Massachusetts holding a bachelor’s degree, but just 20.4 percent in Nevada, according to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a research and development center founded to improve management at colleges.”

This is indeed good news.   Congratulations to American higher education!

Tony