College Rankings - Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Penn State gets warning from accrediting agency. The regional accrediting agency that oversees Penn State has placed the university on warning, the agency and the school disclosed Monday. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education said it took the action based on the information in former FBI director Louis Freeh's report on the university's handling of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children and the consent decree into which the university entered with the NCAA. As part of the consent decree, Penn State agreed to a $60 million fine and a four-year postseason ban.
Commission spokesman Richard Pokrass said it was very unusual for an NCAA Division I school to receive a warning from the group. Of the more than 530 schools accredited by the Middle States Commission in 2011, 23 were placed on warning that year, according to statistics compiled by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Among more than 7,800 schools accredited nationally, 161 were placed on warning in 2011. The $50,000 Question: Can A Master's Hurt Your Job Prospects? College Grads: Things Could Be Worse.
But if you've got a college degree, consider yourself lucky—because high school graduates are not finding any work. A new study by Rutgers University has revealed that only 1-in-6 young high school grads have full-time work. A huge number, 90%, work hourly-wage jobs. From the New York Times: But among those who graduated after the financial crisis, the numbers are far worse: only 16 percent of the classes of 2009-11 had full-time jobs. An additional 22 percent were working part time, and most of them wanted full-time work. Despite the continuing national conversation about whether college is worth it given the debt burden it entails, most high school graduates without college degrees said they believed they would be unable to get good jobs without more education.
Recent grads, even if you're biding your time working a job you don't like, the message is clear here: having a college degree is still needed. H/T: Gawker. Education 2.0. I envision better teaching methods and new education technologies that will revolutionize the classroom and encourage lifelong learning. Growing up, I was fortunate to have teachers who encouraged their students to explore areas of learning they were curious about. Having the freedom to try things out allowed me to develop a passion for computing—which eventually led me and a fellow student, Paul Allen, to start Microsoft. Being lucky enough to have great teachers also nurtured a love of learning that has stayed with me ever since.
As I told school leaders recently at the annual conference of the National Association of Independent Schools, my own experience in school is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about the work our foundation is doing in education. I believe a lot of good teachers could become truly great teachers if we can get better at identifying and measuring effective teaching, investing in helping teachers improve, and rewarding excellence. America's Future: Education. Oh, boy. The first thing I did today was read the first piece in the brand new edition of The New Inquiry. It's written by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, and it is discouraging and wrong-headed. It's not all online, I think, so you'll just have to get yourself a subscription for $2 a month. First, this is part of a broad, deeply misguided attempt by Occupy-types to exaggerate and misrepresent the plight of the college educated.
For a movement of genuinely left-wing origins, it is absolutely bizarre to me to witness this obsession with what is, by almost any metric (domestic or international), a privileged class. Go through the demographics, and you'll find measure after measure that demonstrates that college graduates are in better shape than the national average, to say nothing of the lower class. And of course they are; the system, after all, is built by and for the college educated. This is particularly disappointing: This statement is absurd. Colleges Err in Placing Many on Remedial Track, Studies Find. How The Culture War Undermines American Prosperity. Harvard and Princeton Clearly Discriminate Against Asian Applicants; the Question Is Whether It's Illegal. How Higher Education Is Going Digital [INFOGRAPHIC] People are talking about digital tech's opportunity to improve the classroom. Much of the discussion has been focused on digital textbooks.
Apple's recent announcement of iBooks for education has caused a stir over whether texts delivered on an expensive and propriety device like the iPad are really feasible. Meanwhile at the university level, many schools are dipping their toes in the promise of a digital future, and it's not just about textbooks. The folks at OnlineUniversities.com have compiled the infographic below that explores the pros and cons of various platforms and technologies that have found their way into the halls of higher ed. SEE ALSO: Why iPad Textbooks Are Still Too Expensive for Schools [INFOGRAPHIC] Is your college or university dabbling in digital texts or online coursework? Infographic courtesy of OnlineUniversities.com.
Hiring And Higher Education. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In new research from Public Agenda and the Committee for Economic Development (CED), a number of America's business leaders say that skyrocketing tuition and a growing skills gap could have serious consequences for the nation's economic future. Corporate executives may consider America's higher education system the best in the world, but this report suggests that they believe the challenges of cost, quality and accountability present great threats to the nation's economic prospects. The report, Hiring and Higher Education, is based on qualitative research by Public Agenda commissioned by CED and adds an important voice to a growing debate about the role and value of America's higher education system in fueling an economic recovery. In the report, corporate executives speak candidly about the consequences of rising tuition, which they say is putting the squeeze on the middle class.
Cost Quality, Workforce Preparation and the Skills Gap Accountability Download the Report. What College Rankings Really Tell Us. Last summer, the editors of Car and Driver conducted a comparison test of three sports cars, the Lotus Evora, the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, and the Porsche Cayman S. The cars were taken on an extended run through mountain passes in Southern California, and from there to a race track north of Los Angeles, for precise measurements of performance and handling. The results of the road tests were then tabulated according to a twenty-one-variable, two-hundred-and-thirty-five-point rating system, based on four categories: vehicle (driver comfort, styling, fit and finish, etc.); power train (transmission, engine, and fuel economy); chassis (steering, brakes, ride, and handling); and “fun to drive.”
The magazine concluded, “The range of these three cars’ driving personalities is as various as the pajama sizes of Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear, but a clear winner emerged nonetheless.” This was the final tally: 1. 1. There’s another thing funny about the Car and Driver system. 1. 1. 1. Steve Cohen on the Three Biggest College Admissions Lies.
Fans are worried that Stephen Colbert will lose his edge after he takes over from David Letterman on CBS’s The Late Show. But the competition between him, and Jimmys Fallon and Kimmel could refresh the stale landscape of late night. Oh television, you capricious beast you. One week, Stephen Colbert is the focus of a hashtag-led campaign to have his show canceled amid a race row, the next it is announced he has landed one of the plummest jobs on late-night television. The outstanding puzzle, the one which Colbert, CBS, and even Colbert’s fans will no doubt stoke playfully in the coming year, is which Stephen Colbert will rock up to present his first edition of The Late Show, after David Letterman’s retirement in 2015. He has already indicated it will not be the bug-eyed, conservative-satirizing hyperbolist of The Colbert Report, which has disappointed some fans.
In a statement, Colbert said: “Simply being a guest on David Letterman’s show has been a highlight of my career. California’s Higher Education Disaster. There’s no doubt that the ongoing crisis of governance in California and resulting disinvestment in the University of California system is deplorable. But this recent Washington Post dispatch from UC-Berkeley doesn’t exactly paint a picture of a campus in deep crisis: Star faculty take mandatory furloughs. Classes grow perceptibly larger each year. Roofs leak; e-mail crashes. One employee mows the entire campus. Reliable email is free and I assume Berkeley professors own cell phones like everyone else.
Again, none of this changes the fact that if California were governed in a remotely competent or rational fashion it would be investing more money in UC, not less. Meanwhile, this chart shows the annual number of students transferring from California community colleges to the California State University system over the last five years: The California public higher education system is built like a three-layer ziggurat with a wide base and narrow top.
What did they do instead? How Do We Get More Students Interested in Math, Science & Tech Careers? [INFOGRAPHIC] In the next seven years, more than a million jobs will open up that require specialized technology skills, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But there won't be enough qualified college graduates to fill them. Are we doing enough to get kids interested in math and science? Harris Interactive conducted two surveys on behalf of Microsoft to understand the shortage of students entering science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related fields. One survey focused on parents of K-12 students and the other surveyed college students pursuing STEM degrees. Why do students choose to pursue math or science? Many of the students surveyed said they majored in STEM for work reasons — 68% mentioned good salary and 66% mentioned job potential; 68% of those same students also said they majored in STEM because they found it stimulating and challenging.
SEE ALSO: Back to School: 42 Digital Resources for Students & Parents. Schumpeter: University challenge. Interns Are Latest Target in Battle for Tech Talent. Why Colleges Need to Better Prepare IT Grads. How Higher Education Uses Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC] Schools are on a short list of organizations that have been notoriously slow to adopt emerging tech. But within the last few years, as social media becomes more integral to students' lives, educational institutions are finally catching on, and catching up. When it comes to higher ed, there are not only opportunities for digital learning, but digital marketing too. Some schools have taken the reigns on both sides, with mixed results. SEE ALSO: 5 Free Homework Management Tools for the Digital Student The infographic below takes a look at how schools have fared with social media over the last few years — what platforms are best, where they've succeeded, and the challenges that lay ahead.
Does your alma mater use social media effectively in the classroom and in the recruitment office? Infographic by onlineuniversities.com. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang. Community Colleges and the State of the Union - Innovations. In this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama called the inability of many hard-working Americans to enjoy the American Dream “the defining issue of our time.” We shouldn’t “settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” he said, and called for restoring “an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
In the speech, Obama emphasized the role of education, and community colleges in particular, in restoring equal opportunity for individuals of all backgrounds. A coveted seat next to First Lady Michelle Obama was reserved for Jackie Bray, a single mother from North Carolina who attended Central Piedmont Community College in order to get the skills necessary to work at a Siemens gas-turbine factory. Obama pledged to “give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers.” Return to Top. Public Agenda Alert: Transforming Student Experience. How can community colleges transform the student experience in ways that will dramatically increase completion, so that the next generation receives the degrees and certificates that will vastly improve their life chances? How can they help the 25 year-old return to college to complete a credential that prepares her to find a decent-paying job?
How can they prevent the 18 year-old part-time student working full-time to pay for his education from dropping out because he doesn't have the time to complete his coursework? As a member of the National Assistance Team for Completion by Design, the Gates Foundation's ambitious 5-year initiative that aims to significantly increase completion rates for low-income students under the age of 26, Public Agenda has spent the past several months building the capacity of participating colleges to engage critical stakeholders on their campuses in the transformative work they will undertake in the next few years.