Links for 05/27/10

Sara Goldrick-Rab:

Faculty members are used to being consulted on which courses they will and will not accept. Professors like to sign off on what courses can count to "replace" theirs—seemingly because they want to ensure educational quality, but let's face it, it's also because it helps to protect their jobs. The more courses deemed transferrable, the more it will become clear that the current system is inefficient—if many courses equate with each other, why have so many different people in different places teaching them?

But undergraduate education isn't meant to serve faculty; it's meant to serve students. This is something people seem too ready to forget.

Harris Miller comments on the inspector general's report on the Higher Learning Commission:

[it] was "silly" and missed the point...whether or not the accreditor's actions actually forced change at the institution.

That's what the department and Congress and taxpayers should be worried about

Chad Aldeman:

In 1990-1, public school districts employed one teacher for every 17.4 students. By 2007-8, that ratio had fallen to 15.7 to one, the lowest on record.

This change alone is responsible for more than 300,000 full-time teaching jobs. To estimate how much this costs annually, let’s assume each of these teachers costs $75,000 a year after salaries, health care, and retirement benefits...Three hundred thousand teachers times $75,000 a year would put the cost of these teachers at $23 billion.

To put these numbers in perspective, consider the current proposed teacher jobs bill. The National Education Association and Secretary Duncan spent yesterday lobbying Congress to spend $23 billion to save the jobs of 300,000 teachers.

It’s hard to argue the investments in more teachers has paid off.

In any profession, especially one as large as teaching, there’s going to be a tension between quantity and quality. For the last two decades, we’ve chosen quantity. Let’s hope the coming decades focus more on quality.

Miley Cyrus is:

passing up a shot at higher education to focus on her flourishing career.

(CCAP Note: You can vote whether Miley should go to college in the above link. Thus far, 57% of voters replied "I couldn't possibly care less")