The Great Upheaval

The Great Upheaval PDF

Author: Arthur Levine

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1421442582

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How will America's colleges and universities adapt to remarkable technological, economic, and demographic change? The United States is in the midst of a profound transformation the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Industrial Revolution, when America's classical colleges adapted to meet the needs of an emerging industrial economy. Today, as the world shifts to an increasingly interconnected knowledge economy, the intersecting forces of technological innovation, globalization, and demographic change create vast new challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties. In this great upheaval, the nation's most enduring social institutions are at a crossroads. In The Great Upheaval, Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt examine higher and postsecondary education to see how it has changed to become what it is today—and how it might be refitted for an uncertain future. Taking a unique historical, cross-industry perspective, Levine and Van Pelt perform a 360-degree survey of American higher education. Combining historical, trend, and comparative analyses of other business sectors, they ask • how much will colleges and universities change, what will change, and how will these changes occur? • will institutions of higher learning be able to adapt to the challenges they face, or will they be disrupted by them? • will the industrial model of higher education be repaired or replaced? • why is higher education more important than ever? The book is neither an attempt to advocate for a particular future direction nor a warning about that future. Rather, it looks objectively at the contexts in which higher education has operated—and will continue to operate. It also seeks to identify likely developments that will aid those involved in steering higher education forward, as well as the many millions of Americans who have a stake in its future. Concluding with a detailed agenda for action, The Great Upheaval is aimed at policy makers, college administrators, faculty, trustees, and students, as well as general readers and people who work for nonprofits facing the same big changes.

College

College PDF

Author: Andrew Delbanco

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-04-18

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0691246386

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The strengths and failures of the American college, and why liberal education still matters As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience—an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers—is in danger of becoming a thing of the past. In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In describing what a true college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic promise. In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of America’s colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic education for all. Acknowledging the serious financial, intellectual, and ethical challenges that all colleges face today, Delbanco considers what is at stake in the urgent effort to protect these venerable institutions for future generations.

The College Dropout Scandal

The College Dropout Scandal PDF

Author: David Kirp

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-07-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 019086222X

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Higher education today faces a host of challenges, from quality to cost. But too little attention gets paid to a startling fact: four out of ten students -- that's more than ten percent of the entire population - -who start college drop out. The situation is particularly dire for black and Latino students, those from poor families, and those who are first in their families to attend college. In The College Dropout Scandal, David Kirp outlines the scale of the problem and shows that it's fixable - -we already have the tools to boost graduation rates and shrink the achievement gap. Many college administrators know what has to be done, but many of them are not doing the job - -the dropout rate hasn't decreased for decades. It's not elite schools like Harvard or Williams who are setting the example, but places like City University of New York and Long Beach State, which are doing the hard work to assure that more students have a better education and a diploma. As in his New York Times columns, Kirp relies on vivid, on-the-ground reporting, conversations with campus leaders, faculty and students, as well as cogent overviews of cutting-edge research to identify the institutional reforms--like using big data to quickly identify at-risk students and get them the support they need -- and the behavioral strategies -- from nudges to mindset changes - -that have been proven to work. Through engaging stories that shine a light on an underappreciated problem in colleges today, David Kirp's hopeful book will prompt colleges to make student success a top priority and push more students across the finish line, keeping their hopes of achieving the American Dream alive.

The Great Rip-Off in American Education

The Great Rip-Off in American Education PDF

Author: Mel Scarlett

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1615926712

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This hard-hitting critique will serve as a wake-up call to university administrators and faculty, as well as to the average parent or prospective college student facing ever- increasing tuition costs. While reports of poor teaching at the elementary and secondary school level have unleashed widespread public outcry for reform, little attention has been paid to the quality of teaching in colleges and universities. Yet according to the National Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University, "universities have too often failed, and continue to fail their undergraduate populations," and "the students paying the tuition get, in all too many cases, less than their money's worth." Citing this report and other similar studies, experienced university administrator Dr. Mel Scarlett criticizes the deficits of the current undergraduate educational system and suggests improvements that would ensure that college students get the education they're paying for. Among his suggestions for reform are: *Renewed emphasis on teaching skills in Ph.D. programs to ensure that those who do teach have some pedagogical training besides their special expertise *The more active role of experienced professors in the teaching of undergraduates to reverse the current trend of using graduate assistants or part-time faculty to teach lower-level courses *Encouraging students' active participation in the learning process as opposed to the passive learning model of the lecture method *An adjustment of the university's publish-or-perish reward system, which stresses research and ignores teaching. Dr. Scarlett lists a total of 20 "deadly sins" committed by universities against undergraduates and 80 improvements that would help to reform the current inadequate higher educational system.

Paying the Price

Paying the Price PDF

Author: Sara Goldrick-Rab

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-09-01

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 022640448X

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A “bracing and well-argued” study of America’s college debt crisis—“necessary reading for anyone concerned about the fate of American higher education” (Kirkus). College is far too expensive for many people today, and the confusing mix of federal, state, institutional, and private financial aid leaves countless students without the resources they need to pay for it. In Paying the Price, education scholar Sara Goldrick-Rab reveals the devastating effect of these shortfalls. Goldrick-Rab examines a study of 3,000 students who used the support of federal aid and Pell Grants to enroll in public colleges and universities in Wisconsin in 2008. Half the students in the study left college without a degree, while less than 20 percent finished within five years. The cause of their problems, time and again, was lack of money. Unable to afford tuition, books, and living expenses, they worked too many hours at outside jobs, dropped classes, took time off to save money, and even went without adequate food or housing. In many heartbreaking cases, they simply left school—not with a degree, but with crippling debt. Goldrick-Rab combines that data with devastating stories of six individual students, whose struggles make clear the human and financial costs of our convoluted financial aid policies. In the final section of the book, Goldrick-Rab offers a range of possible solutions, from technical improvements to the financial aid application process, to a bold, public sector–focused “first degree free” program. "Honestly one of the most exciting books I've read, because [Goldrick-Rab has] solutions. It's a manual that I'd recommend to anyone out there, if you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're a student."—Trevor Noah, The Daily Show

The Great American College Tuition Rip-off

The Great American College Tuition Rip-off PDF

Author: Paul Streitz

Publisher:

Published: 2005-03

Total Pages: 70

ISBN-13: 9780971349827

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This book is an examination of why American colleges and universities have extraordinarily high tuitions and why those tuitions grow faster than the rate of inflation. It examines Hamilton College showing trends in tuition, number of faculty, comparison to non-elite colleges and other information. It examines the role that U.S. News and World Reports plays in increasing college tuition. It determines that college tuitions are not set by the actual costs of running a college; rather they are set by how much money an institution can obtain. It shows the dramatic increases in the number of faculty, administrators and staff. It shows the proliferation of courses and extra-curricular programs unnecessary for an education. The book determines that the financial objective of colleges and universities is to spend as much money as possible, with no sense of cost consciousness or the impact of higher tuitions on students. The institutions then raise tuition and ask for more money from the alumni. Tuitions are not set by costs, but by demand. It concludes that parents and students must organize into Parent-Student Associations and make tuition a matter of collective bargaining.

The Case against Education

The Case against Education PDF

Author: Bryan Caplan

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-08-20

Total Pages: 551

ISBN-13: 0691201439

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Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education Despite being immensely popular—and immensely lucrative—education is grossly overrated. Now with a new afterword by Bryan Caplan, this explosive book argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skills but to signal the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy As only to forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for average workers, how employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely ever use, and why cutting education spending is the best remedy. Romantic notions about education being "good for the soul" must yield to careful research and common sense—The Case against Education points the way.

Indebted

Indebted PDF

Author: Caitlin Zaloom

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-05-04

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 069121722X

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"'Indebted' takes readers into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to reveal the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life"--Amazon