Shocking Posters Found on Classroom Wall!

Stuart Shephard, of Citizenlink.com explains why some posters found in a San Diego classroom were so offensive, they had to be taken down:

Military.com: Yorktown University caters to service members.

Melissa Renahan reports on Military.com this week, that Yorktown University is helping U.S. Military personnel advance their careers:

Though Yorktown University just received its national accreditation with the Distance and Education Training Council in 2008, it is already becoming well known among the ranks of military students. The online-based school is focused on the armed forces at a time when higher education is moving to the forefront of all military service members’ careers.

In the case of Yorktown student Capt. Austin Smith, who is a C-17 pilot stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord-McChord Field, pursuing a secondary degree was spurred on by the opportunity for career advancement.

“There is a big push for Air Force officers to get advanced degrees,” said Smith.

“Specifically for me, it’s about being prepared for the majors board. From the moment I arrived here three years ago, I was advised to start school. Right now most of the officers in my squadron are working towards degrees.”

Smith is impressed with the accessibility of his professors and feels they truly value students’ feedback, not to mention understand his challenges as an airman. In fact, in one class Smith’s teacher is the president of the university, and Smith has already spoken to him numerous times since beginning the semester…Continue reading Advanced education for military on the rise >>

Does the U.S. workforce need more college graduates?

A Debate with Ohio University Economist, Richard Vedder and the Pope Center’s George Leef versus former U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings and United Negro College Fund’s Michael Lomax:

The rapid growth of China, India, Brazil and other emerging powers has dramatically altered the complexion of the global economy in recent years. At the same time, rising deficits, high trade imbalances, a declining dollar, and a lingering economic downturn have placed America’s position within the global economy in peril—and have policymakers deliberating over the keys to America’s economic future. One area often cited as critical to the nation’s future economic strength is higher education, particularly that America must dramatically increase the number of college-educated citizens to remain a leading economic power.

Today, just under 40% of Americans 25 to 34 years of age hold a two- or four-year degree. While this number has remained stable for decades, other developed countries have seen a steady increase in their number of college graduates in recent years. America is somewhere in the middle of this group, on par with countries like Australia and Spain. Meanwhile, countries such as South Korea (53%), Japan (54%), and Canada (55%) have pulled considerably ahead of the pack…Continue reading About Education and the Economy >> (Watch Video)

How long will we suffer Higher Education?

Jane S. Shaw has an essay this week on the Pope Center’s Clarion Call, explaining that “Our higher education system is not going to be this way forever.”

Management philosopher Peter Drucker wrote that businesses exist only by the “sufferance” of society at large. If they fail to live up to the standards demanded by society they will lose their support in the broader community and ultimately cease to exist.

Colleges and universities, too, exist through society’s sufferance, receiving tax-free status on the ground that they provide a valuable service. But academia is not living up to the high standards expected of it. It is hostile to American society, to free markets, to Western civilization, and even to high standards of academic integrity.

The public is only beginning to realize that, but a shake-up may be closer than we think. Recently, a number of changes suggest that the public and academia are increasingly at odds. I’ll discuss four that strike me as tocsins…Continue reading Academic Change We Can Believe In >>

Did Universities Ruin California’s Economy?

John Ellis, of Minding the Campus, wrote and essay published last week, in which he explains “How the Campuses Helped Ruin California’s Economy“:

All across the country there were demonstrations on March 4 by students (and some faculty) against cuts in higher education funding, but inevitably attention focused on California, where the modern genre originated in 1964. I joined the University of California faculty in 1966 and so have watched a good many of them, but have never seen one less impressive that this year’s. In 1964 there was focus and clarity. This one was brain-dead. The former idealism and sense of purpose had degenerated into a self-serving demand for more money at a time when both state and university are broke, and one in eight California workers is unemployed. The elite intellectuals of the university community might have been expected to offer us insight into how this problem arose, and realistic measures for dealing with it. But all that was on offer was this: get more money and give it to us. Californians witnessing this must have wondered whether the money they were already providing was well spent where there was so little evidence of productive thought.

The content vacuum with filled with the standby language of past demonstrations, and so there was much talk of “the struggle,” and of “oppression,” and—of course—of racism. “We are all students of color now” said Berkeley’s Professor Ananya Roy, and a student proclaimed that this crisis represented “structural racism.” (Why not global warming too?) Berkeley’s Chancellor Birgeneau called the demonstrations “the best of our tradition of effective civil action.” Neither Chancellors nor demonstrations are what they used to be. The nostalgia for the good old days surfaced again in efforts to shut the campus down by blocking the entrance of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone that the old “shut it down” cry was somewhat misplaced when keeping it fully open was what the present demonstration was about, but then this was not an occasion when anyone seemed to have any idea of what they were trying to achieve.

One group at UCLA stumbled into the truth, though it was a truth they did not understand…Continue readning How the Campuses Helped Ruin California’s Economy >>

Conservatives Win TX Textbook Wars

James C. McKinley, Jr. reports in The New York Times that the curriculum board in Texas, which, because of it’s large number of schools influences textbook editing decisions nationwide, has approved a politically right-leaning social studies curriculum:

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

The vote was 10 to 5 along party lines, with all the Republicans on the board voting for it.

The board, whose members are elected, has influence beyond Texas because the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks. In the digital age, however, that influence has diminished as technological advances have made it possible for publishers to tailor books to individual states.

In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles, and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state…Continue reading Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change >>

Are students who quit college bored or lazy? Not necessarily, according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released a Public Policy Agenda Report, With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them, the Myths and Realities About Why Students Fail to Complete College. They submit that students who leave college without finishing are not necessary bored or lazy. They may not have completely understood what they were doing when they chose a school, or what they are supposed to be doing with the education they are receiving there:

According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 20 percent of young people who begin their higher education at two-year institutions graduate within three years.1 There is a similar pattern in four-year institutions, where about 4 in 10 students receive a degree within six years.2 And these bleak statistics on national college completion rates are averages. In some institutions, the numbers are even gloomier.

This is clearly a personal disappointment for the students and their families, but increasingly, experts and leaders see it as a threat to U.S. international competitiveness and a phenomenon that perpetuates economic insecurity and inequality…With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them, the Myths and Realities About Why Students Fail to Complete College (.pdf download) >>

Does Education Reduce the Risk of Unemployment?

The Calculated Risk blog has charted the unemployment rate by level of education, according to the Beureau of Labor Statistics, from 1992 to 2008. The results are interesting. (Click HERE, or on the chart to enlarge.)

For more information, see Unemployment Rate by Level of Education >>

5 Years in a Row: More Apps than Spaces at Charter Schools in Denver

Jeremy P. Meyer reports on DenverPost.com:

West Denver Prep — which some parents have come to view as a first step toward college and possibly a lifeline out of poverty — is rated the second-best school in Denver.

The school’s college-preparatory curriculum and swift interventions for struggling students have been touted for helping at- risk kids beat the academic odds. West Denver Prep now posts some of the best academic growth in the state.

The middle school also draws nearly double the number of applicants it can seat, meaning waiting lists are long and disappointments high during the annual school- choice enrollment period.

It’s a scenario played out across the state each winter, as parents battle to get their kids into popular, high-performing schools during the choice period.

The Colorado Department of Education estimates about 38,000 children are waiting to get into Colorado charter schools….Continue reading Demand in charter schools forces lotteries, long waiting lists >>

Will the Next ‘Google’ Come from an Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program?

Ashlee Vance and Claire Cain Miller, of The New York Times, report on a popular trend among venture capital firms hoping to become extremely wealthy:

…This coveted position, called an E.I.R. in Silicon Valley shorthand, is emblematic of the valley’s economy of ideas. Most E.I.R.’s receive a monthly stipend of up to $15,000 to sit and think for about six months. In return, the venture capital firm usually gets the first shot at financing the idea that emerges from this meditation.

“The E.I.R. takes out some of the risk because they are known quantities,” said Adam Grosser, a partner at Foundation Capital. “They have a track record of success and a proven ability to disrupt a market with their ideas.”

Venture capital firms have been struggling to find a company that will make them not just rich, but fabulously rich. They dream about investing in the next Intel, Apple, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo or Google. But after Google appeared in 1998, the hunt to find the next superprofitable household name stalled. The likes of Facebook and Twitter have garnered plenty of attention but have yet to strike on a business model capable of sending an I.P.O. into the stratosphere. Ten-year returns for the venture capital industry have sunk to 8.4 percent, annualized, in the decade ended last Sept. 30, from 40.2 percent in the 10 years ended Sept. 30, 2008, a number inflated by the spectacular success of Google and other dot-com companies at the beginning of that period.

The entrepreneur-in-residence model has gained prominence as a calculated way for a venture capital firm to nurture a successful company into being and to increase the odds of solid returns. The firms often tap someone who has successfully started and sold a start-up, hoping that lightning will strike twice…Continue reading 6 Months, $90,000 and (Maybe) a Great Idea >>