Links for 2/19/10

Jay Schalin on Erskine Bowles

he is a lot of conflicting things. He is somebody who directed his staff to cooperate with critics… somebody who could “cuss out” a student government representative to get the young man on board with his policies (according to the young man in question). He is an inside member of North Carolina’s Democratic machine, which is gaining a well-deserved reputation for corruption, while at the same time he favors greater transparency. He is a genuinely decent man who tried to use the power granted him to improve his realm, and a dangerous political infighter with an agenda at the same time.

And he is full of surprises—he once told me in an email to “never pull your punches” when I was criticizing him…

In the final analysis, he must be commended for his public service without regard for personal gain…

Bowles’ policies and actions have often frustrated, angered, and bewildered me (a die-hard conservative). Yet, after the announcement of his impending retirement, I find it impossible not to respect a man who goes out of his way to aid and encourage his most ardent critic, in order to be sure he’s getting all sides of the story with which to make his decisions. There will be some big shoes to fill on Raleigh Road in Chapel Hill very soon.

Martin West

C. Kirabo Jackson reported that the Advanced Placement Incentive Program, which pays both high school students and their teachers for receiving passing scores on AP exams, boosted AP participation rates in participating schools (no big surprise!), the share of students receiving solid SAT or ACT scores, and the share of students going on to post-secondary education…

A follow-up study… shows that the program increased their college GPAs and led to higher college completion rates…

As Jackson explains, the study provides an unfortunately rare example of a late-high-school intervention that seems to yield lasting benefits for students…

Audrey Williams June

Worried faculty members at the University of Iowa now have a report from a provost-appointed task force that names 14 graduate programs — half in the humanities — that could be restructured or eliminated as the university seeks to save money…

David Moltz

Community college transfer students are no longer being courted only by the usual suspects. More private institutions, of every ilk, are aggressively recruiting students from two-year colleges, hoping to bolster and diversify their enrollments and capitalize on the belt-tightening of regional public universities…

“It helps the selective privates with their diversity…

Smaller, more tuition-driven independent institutions, however, often have a more practical reason for actively pursuing community college transfer students: the tuition revenue they bring…