Foreign policy brings us the expression “leading from behind” and the phrase might also describe the thing that is parenthood – especially during the kids’ college search, the Christian Science Monitor reports. This month, the US Census Bureau released statistics indicating that college enrollment was 19.9 million in the fall of 2012, down by 467,000 from the previous year. Is some rethinking going on? Twelfth grade is not easy for families. In fact, 10th and 11th aren’t all that easy either. The college search has become a three-year effort, previously known as high school, to find the right “fit.” Now fit could accurately describe something you look for in a pair of jeans. The college search is more a juggernaut…
…Read MorePodcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Time to help college professors be better teachers
If we want more students to succeed in college, we have to turn full attention to the craft of university-level teaching, the Christian Science Monitor reports. What’s at stake is not only increasing graduation rates but providing a quality education for those who, a generation or two ago, might not have seen college as possible. Right after I gave my opening lecture on Oedipus the King to the 30 employees of Los Angeles’s criminal justice system, I handed out a few pages of notes I would have taken if I were sitting in their seats listening to the likes of me. They were taking my course, Introduction to Humanities, as part a special program leading to a college degree, and I knew from a survey I gave them that many hadn’t been in a classroom in a long time – and some didn’t get such great educations when they were. So we spent the last half hour of the class comparing my notes with the ones they had just taken, talking about the way I signaled that something was important, how they could separate out a big idea from specific facts, how to ask a question without looking like a dummy…
…Read MoreCalifornia bill aims to be ‘turning point’ for college courses online
California State Sen. Darrell Steinberg wants to bridge two universes in education – the traditional campus and the realm of innovative online courses, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The leader of the California Senate unveiled legislation Wednesday that would pave the way for up to 50 online courses, in subjects that are traditionally oversubscribed, to be offered statewide for credit. Such a partnership between California’s public university systems and various online providers would “break the bottleneck that prevents students from completing courses,” he said in a web-streamed announcement. As the first such legislative proposal, “it certainly is going to spark a national dialogue … [and may mark] a turning point in instructional program delivery in this country,” says Dan Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities…
…Read MoreYoung adults are earning college degrees at a record rate. Why?
The portion of young adults in the United States who have completed a four-year college degree hit a record high in 2012, the Christian Science Monitor reports. A full third of 25- to 29-year-olds now hold degrees. Ninety percent have completed high school or an equivalent credential, and 63 percent have done some college course work – both peak rates as well. Progress in “educational attainment … has a lot of implications, both for the wealth and well-being of the young adults themselves … and [for] the productivity of the workforce and future economic growth,” says Richard Fry, a senior research associate at the Pew Research Center and co-author of its new report on the subject…
…Read MoreIn world first, biggest refugee camp gets university
Refugees in the world’s largest refugee camp will soon be able to go for higher education at the world’s first university being set up near a camp for its inhabitants, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The campus is being set up by Kenya‘s Kenyatta University (KU) near the sprawling “city” of tents of Dadaab, where more than 500,000 people are sheltering from war and famine. It will serve both refugees and local Kenyans. Humanitarian officials hail it as a first for refugees, while education experts say it’s a creative solution for cases of long-term conflict in Africa…
…Read MoreSupreme Court: If affirmative action is banned, what happens at colleges?
When universities are barred from using race-based affirmative action, what happens to campus diversity? Asks the Christian Science Monitor. That’s one key question the US Supreme Court may consider as it once again takes up the issue of affirmative action in higher education, in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday. Depending on how the high court rules, it could lead to public colleges and universities across the country dropping the consideration of race in admissions decisions. The last time the Supreme Court took up the issue, in the 2003 case Grutter v. Bollinger, it ruled that the University of Michigan Law School could use race as one factor in admissions. But the court also noted that with a variety of experiments under way to try to achieve diversity through alternative means, schools should periodically review whether consideration of race was still necessary for reaching a critical mass of minority students on campus…
…Read MoreCollege students massacred one-by-one in Nigeria
The militant Islamist group Boko Haram means ‘Western education is a sin’ but it’s not clear yet if the group was behind the attack, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Unidentified gunmen massacred at least two dozen university students in northern Nigeria Monday night in the city of Mubi near the border with Cameroon. The attacks lasted more than an hour, with gunmen targeting specific students by name rather than indiscriminately firing. Suspicion fell immediately on Boko Haram, a violent Islamist organization in northern Nigeria that has typically attacked Christian churches and security forces. Student leaders, meanwhile, suggested that the killings may have been tied to internal student political campaigns. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack…
…Read MoreHow higher education may be easing the global recession
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development recently released its Education at a Glance 2012 report, which examines education in OECD and G20 countries (where the data was available), the Christian Science Monitor reports. The key to understanding this year’s report is the 2009 – 2010 global recession: “No group or country – no matter how well-educated – is totally immune from the effects of a worldwide economic downturn,” begins the Education at a Glance 2012 report, which notes that young people have borne the largest burden. Nearly 16 percent of people between the ages of 15 and 29 in OECD countries in 2010 were neither employed nor in some kind of education or training program. The OECD research highlights the importance of higher education, which includes vocational schooling, during an economic downturn. People with more education were found to be able to keep or change jobs more easily; unemployment rates for those with higher education remained low during the economic crisis; and the earning gap between people with higher vs. lower levels of education grew wider during the recession…
…Read MoreThe 5 most educated countries in the world
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development recently released its Education at a Glance 2012 report, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The report examines OECD and G20 countries where the data was available. According to the report, which includes vocational training as part of higher education/post-secondary education, here are the five most educated countries in the world…
…Read MoreCollege students: New Hampshire is trying to stop us from voting
Controversy over voter registration and ID laws typically centers on whether they disenfranchise poor and minority voters. Here in New Hampshire, a change in voter registration forms is facing a court challenge because of the hurdles it presents to college students, the Christian Science Monitor Reports. College students have long been able to vote here while retaining residency in other states. But the Republican-controlled legislature voted to add a paragraph to registration forms requiring people to declare that they are subject to laws that apply to residents, including having to register their cars here and obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license.
That contradicts other laws on the books defining residency versus “voting domicile,” and because it includes fees, it’s an unconstitutional “poll tax” that impedes voting rights, the lawsuit claims.
“The amendment to the voter registration form was passed in a context of frustration that out-of-state students were voting in New Hampshire,” says Alan Cronheim, cooperating attorney with the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union Foundation, which filed the suit Sept. 12 on behalf of the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire and five out-of-state college students……Read More