oflovefaithhopedream

I am a tenured professor, and this is July of my first-ever sabbatical.  According to many critics of higher education, I am currently sunning my buns on the shores of Bermuda, sipping cocktails and snacking on brie while the taxpayers labor at home to pay my salary. On the contrary. I've just returned from a three-day trip to Indianapolis, where I joined more than 85 members of the Madison Metropolitan School District and the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County spending their unpaid time participating in AVID Summer Institute. Furthering their effort to get more students on track to college and career, these teachers and administrators spent their days actively focused on learning new pedagogical practices and acquiring new tools to bring home and put into place by fall. They are nothing short of remarkable. As we traveled to and from Indianapolis on a couple of big busses, sat in school team meetings around big conference tables, shared breakfast, lunch and dinner together, and wa...

Peter Arcidiacono of Duke University has been publishing a steady stream of papers examining the role of race in college admissions, with a particular focus on the effects of affirmative action.  I've discussed his work on this blog before , and given the substantial attention that generated, I'm sharing thoughts on another relatively new piece. In the new paper , Peter and his colleagues suggest that friendships among students attending selective universities are no more likely to be interracial in composition than friendships in high school.  Of persistent racial segregation, they write: "This is particularly true for blacks where on average their share of friends who are of another race is no higher in college than in high school despite their colleges having a much smaller share of black students than their high schools. However, the extent of interracial friendships, both before and during college, vary significantly depending on academic preparedness. The percentage ...

This post is authored by  R. Thomas, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There’s a lot of talk these days about university reform, and coursing through it I see a beautiful and tragic dream of the future.   Dreams, of course, meld idiosyncratic images and mine blends Detroit, Mad Men, and the great speeches of Samuel Clemens.  We all know the story: Boosters of online education suggest that American higher education should rely upon a small group of superstar lecturers, computer-based grading systems and thousands of adjunct graders to deliver content to the masses. To benefit from economies of scale, some say we ought to have centralized national committees that decide what gets taught and who gets to teach it. Advocates claim online education will cut costs, improve educational outcomes, and bring higher education to underserved populations. Such efforts carry the excitement of novels for me. As in Mad Men , the details of work and visions of the ...

I often receive email from students who've learned of my interest in the contemporary college experience and want to provide a window into their own.  Recently I heard from a man who initially enrolled at UW-Madison in 2007 and subsequently took an educational pathway that is increasingly normal.  His efforts to find ways to learn new things and make college affordable are notable, and he challenges us to think about the ways in which traditional forms of higher education align with today's students.  With his permission I'm sharing a letter he wrote, and at his request, I am identifying the author.  The following essay is by James Kasombo, who will be re-entering Madison this fall.  ' Our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability .'             Upon graduating from high school in the top five percent of my class, being ushered into the university's honors program, and finding a who...

The last week was swept away by Hurricane "Pay It Forward," a new bill advanced by progressives in Oregon. Starting last Saturday I began engaging via Twitter with folks interested in debating its merits, by Sunday night I was knee-deep in a full analysis, and by Wednesday morning that analysis was published by the Century Foundation and NPR gave me an opportunity to discuss the issues On Point .  In between, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to both Barbara Dudley and John Burbank , key architects of the plan. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know both of these incredible activists, and thrilled that they share many of my concerns and end goals. The number of legislators and members of the media who are continuing to express interest in learning more and building on this plan is amazing.  In a key respect, it's also wonderful: people really want to do something NOW  to make college more affordable and reduce student debt.  It's about time! With that in mind, ...

This post has been revised following excellent additional information provided by Zakiya Smith of the Lumina Foundation and Rachel Fishman of the New America Foundation. Thanks! Student debt is the worst possible form of debt in one critical way: it almost never leaves you.  You may be disabled, unemployed, or even dead, but you almost always still have to pay. This "non-dischargeable"status is said to exist because there is no way to repossess the assets (your education) to pay off the creditors.  But that cannot be the only reason for this extreme rule. Instead, it's another example of putting bankers' needs above those of the average American. Federal student loans technically  can  be discharged (while private loans cannot-ever) but it's a very difficult process and almost no one does it.  Among those seeking a discharge, about 40% are granted, but only 0.1% of student loan debtors filing for bankruptcy have sought to discharge their loans.   Those...

The evidence is clear: the current system of financing postsecondary education in America fails to match the desire of its people or the needs of this ambitious nation. Growing demand for the education and training that college provides has helped propel millions into public institutions providing postsecondary education, which history predicts would lead to calls for a greater role in the provision of that education. Yet as the fraction of adults enrolling in college has increased, college costs have been transferred from government to individuals. In particular, many state governments have  decreased per-student appropriations , slashed the fraction of tax revenue devoted to financing higher education, and done little to contain costs at public institutions. These moves put today’s students and many future generations at risk of significant debt that could compromise their investments in family, education, and work. In true “perfect storm” fashion, this transfer of responsibility...