Most STEM degrees to Latinos granted from schools in 6 states

Of the top higher education institutions that have granted the most STEM degrees to Latino graduates in the 2009-2010 school year, more than half are concentrated in just six states, according to a new report, the National Journal reports. The report by Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit organization advocating Latino educational success, featured an analysis of institutions awarding certificates or degrees to Latino students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Schools were analyzed based on the number of degrees or certificates granted, then ranked by academic level. There were 25 top rankings in all, though some universities and colleges were listed more than once. The report comes after legislators have been exploring ways to increase the number of H1-B visas to encourage more highly skilled foreign workers in STEM fields, resulting in the ensuing debates over the validity of importing workers versus increasing resources for educating and attracting more native-born STEM students…

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Is medical school a worthwhile investment for women?

Over the last quarter century, women have been earning college and professional degrees in record numbers. In 1976, women earned only 45 percent of bachelor’s degrees in the United States; by 2006 that had increased to 58 percent, the National Journal reports. During that same interval, women have made even larger gains in advanced degrees. For example, in 1976 women constituted only 24 percent of first year medical students. By 2006, that number which doubled to 48 percent. Despite these gains in education, a number of recent studies find that women’s incomes lag those of men. In a study of MBA students from a top program, Marianne Bertrand, Claudia Goldin, and Larry Katz found that while men and women had similar earnings at the outset of their careers ($115,000 per year for women versus $130,000 per year for men), within ten years of graduation men outearned women by $150,000 per year. Similar income gaps have been found for doctors and lawyers…

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Commentary: Are Jews really an ‘under-represented group’ at New York colleges?

“Jewish” is a “new minority label” at New York City’s university system, the New York Post reported on June 3, almost accurately. CUNY recently completed a “faculty diversity action plan” that included among the usual identity-based focus groups along with a Caucasian/White/Jewish group, created in response to complaints that Caucasian/White/Jews were “not as monolithic as some believe and this lack of understanding is reflected in subtle stereotyping,” the National Journal reports. Stop and think about this: Stereotyping attributes to individuals the presumed characteristics of their demographic groups. Stereotypes treat people as members of groups instead of individuals. So do diversity initiatives that organize people into identity groups. Logic suggests that CUNY faculty who feel victimized by stereotypes imposed on Caucasian/White/Jews should probably avoid Caucasian/White/Jewish groups (although by creating this group to fight stereotypes, they may have inadvertently undermined the stereotypical assumption that all Jews are smart)…

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How Obama’s focus on higher education could help him–and hurt the GOP–in 2012

Since his State of the Union address, President Obama has delivered remarks at three community colleges and three public universities. He’s asked the National Governors Association to increase state funding for higher education, proposed federal incentives for colleges to rein in tuition costs, and talked about how job-skills training helps grow the economy, says Sophie Quinton for the National Journal. Those weren’t campaign speeches; they were policy speeches. But Democrats hope there will be a political payoff from Obama’s attention to college access and affordability. The president’s focus on the issue could help him cast himself as the candidate who supports young people’s aspirations — and provide a stark contrast to his Republican rivals.

“Politically, this is a very good issue for him, because it’s a way to appeal to an important constituency” said Trey Grayson, director of the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. For Republicans, he said, the issue of college affordability is “tricky. There’s a strong libertarian element to the Republican base right now.”

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Scott Walker replies to Rick Santorum on college: We need kids in universities and tech schools

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said on Monday that more people should go to college, walking back from comments made by presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who has been critical of the president and his support of higher education, the National Journal reports. At a campaign event on Saturday, Santorum echoed his criticism of President Obama’s initiative to get more people to go to college, calling him a “snob.” He said that one of the president’s motivations was to indoctrinate the students, through liberal professors, to remake them “into his image.”
Although he said that education policy should be made more at the local and state level, Walker stepped back from that criticism with a moderate approach to college education…

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