02/12/10 | Each month Scott Andrew Schulz, program director of the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice (CERPP) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, interviews prominent scholars or practitioners on various issues pertaining to higher education. Schulz recently interviewed Kevin Carey about Education Sector’s work and important trends in higher education [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Higher Education'
Waiting for Sputnik
In the course of presenting a very interesting paper on international college rankings at an accountability conference I co-hosted yesterday, Ben Wildavsky made an observation that I strongly endorse: international competition in higher education isn’t a zero-sum game. In fact, I think there’s a good argument that America would be better off if we no [...]
Money for Nothing: The Private College Position
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act yesterday on a largely party-line vote. While most of the attention has been focused on the dramatic overhaul of the federal student loan program and large new investments in Pell grants, community colleges, and early childhood education, there are some additional provisions [...]
Audio Transcript From “A New Era in Higher Education Reform?” Event
The authors of the annual Washington Monthly College Guide and other higher education experts discuss what the Obama administration’s new focus on higher education means for the future of American colleges and universities.
Participants:
Paul Glastris, Editor, Washington Monthly
Kevin Carey, Policy Director, Education Sector
Ben Wildavsky, Senior Fellow, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Paul LeBlanc, President, Southern New Hampshire University
Robert Shireman, Deputy [...]
The Meaning of “Manageable” Student Debt
Starting yesterday morning, and continuing for the rest of the day, the New York Times ran this headline on the front page of it’s Web site: “In Study, Most Graduates’ Debt Load Is Manageable.” This phrase quickly multiplied across the Internet, as Times stories tend to do. The study, published by the College Board, was based [...]
A Monopoly for Non-Profit Lenders
SAFRA, the latest acronym in financial aid, refers to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act – a large and ambitious piece of legislation released in the House this week. The legislation follows President Obama’s budget proposal to move all future federal student loans to the Direct Loan Program, eliminating private loan companies from the [...]
Dear Rejected Student,
It is with deep regret that I write to inform you we are unable to offer you a spot in the class of 2013 at Desired University. You may be asking what was lacking in your application; for most of our applicants the honest answer is nothing. We received thousands of applications from incredibly talented [...]
No Frills (Including Fact Checkers)
Newspapers are hard hit during these financial times. They’re simultaneously cutting staff and raising workloads, so I can understand if a few stories go uncovered. But apparently they’re cutting back on fact checkers, too, at least at the Christian Science Monitor. Here’s a quote from an article yesterday on no-frills higher education:
A main factor driving [...]
Things I Learned in Madison, Wisconsin
* The UW campus and state capitol are located on an isthmus between two lakes with confusingly similar names, Mendota and Monona. My brain keeps translating both into “Mendoza.”
* In April, a single day can feature three full seasons worth of weather, going from freezing rain to collar-loosening sunshine in the space of a few [...]
State DREAM Acts Work
Two forthcoming journal articles show that controversial policies allowing illegal immigrant high school graduates to attend college at in-state prices work. In the nine states with policies (a tenth, Nebraska, did not have theirs in place long enough to study), foreign-born noncitizen Latinos were 1.54 times more likely to enroll in college than peers in [...]
B.U.: Boo Hoo
Sunday’s New York Times had an article about the Boston University admissions and financial aid offices. We learn a lot about how these offices work, and it’s mostly unflattering. See if you can find what I mean in the passage below:
For example, last year, Boston University gave $43 million in institutional aid to incoming freshmen. [...]
Uncomfortable Truths
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has recently launched an initiative to leap toward a tuition model that involves greater degrees of price discrimination. It plans to increase tuition significantly, capitalize on those students who can pay the higher costs, and re-distribute excess money to low-income students. It’s a bad idea for a variety of reasons (read [...]
College Rankings Will Never Die
Earlier this week I spent a couple of hours talking to education officials from North Africa and the Near East who are in Washington DC as guests of the State Department, learning about our education system. Near the end of the discussion, I had the following exchange with an education official from a large but [...]
Merit Aid is a Lie
In an article titled “To Keep Students, Colleges Cut Anything But Aid,” the New York Times reports that:
With the economy forcing budget cuts and layoffs in higher education, colleges and universities might be expected to be cutting financial aid. But no. Students considering a wide range of private schools, as well as those who are already [...]
Obama’s Bold Goals for Higher Education
In his speech last night, President Obama said, “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. That is a goal we can meet.” Not long afterward, a friend emailed to ask if I though this was realistic. Answer: it depends, as these things often do, on exactly [...]
Do What’s Already Being Done
In September 2006, the bipartisan Spellings Commission lamented low college graduation rates, rising student costs, and inadequate information about student learning.
But while the report was correct in its emphasis, it was eventually doomed by the federal government’s limited role in higher education. If colleges are going to be held accountable, states will have to carry [...]
Harvard’s Endowment Falls to $29 Billion
Even after large stock market losses, if Harvard paid out five percent of its endowment–a requirement for all private foundations except those of colleges and universities–it would increase the school’s budget by $214 million.
They’ve suffered a large financial loss on paper, but so have the rest of us, and lawmakers shouldn’t let the economic downturn [...]
Competition on Quality, Service, and Price
A couple of weeks ago I was at a meeting where a higher education spokesperson flat-out stated there was no market demand for student learning data. His group had done focus groups, he said, and it just wasn’t as high on their list as other things. His point would be fair, even if true, if [...]
High School Seniors Are Like Opilio Crab
I love the Deadliest Catch, an action filled Discovery Channel show about Alaskan crab fishermen. I might just eat crab instead of turkey this year because Captain Phil asked me to. But I’ve never been able to find the education connection I needed to write about the Deadliest Catch on Quick & Ed–until now (not [...]
Bailout Back and Forth
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson set off a flurry of activity when he suggested last week that some of the $700 billion bailout money might go to help companies issue private student loans. Higher Ed Watch explains in this post why Paulson’s plan is a bad idea.
NASFAA (the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators), though, [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.