Links for 6/17/10

Scott Jaschik

Carnevale acknowledged that such a shift would accept "a dual system" in which a select few receive an "academic" college education and most students receive a college education that is career preparation. "We are all offended by tracking," he said. But the reality, Carnevale said, is that the current system doesn't do a good job with the career-oriented track, in part by letting many of the colleges on that track "aspire to be Harvard." He said that educators have a choice: "to be loyal to the purity of your ideas and refuse to build a selective dual system, or make people better off."…

Alan Contreras

For the past 11 years, I have regulated for-profit colleges…and have some thoughts as to how the federal government can accomplish its worthy goal of ensuring that students don't waste federal aid…

First, the idea that a truly clear, meaningful definition of gainful employment is possible or useful in the context of postsecondary aid regulation is problematic…

Regulators should also forget ownership. Who owns a college does not matter. Behavior matters. Faculty qualifications, admissions standards, transfer policies, curricular structure, and the awarding of credit for students' work matter.

Debt burden matters, too, but only within the context of program quality…

milking the federal-aid cow is not limited to for-profits, nor is it always a result solely of college actions. For example, in 2009, social-service agencies in Oregon referred thousands of unemployed people to community colleges—not because the unemployed were interested in an education, but because they needed a way to eat…

Kevin Carey

When community colleges and regional public universities were established in the mid-20th century, they were assigned certain missions that are very different than what one would expect from established liberal arts colleges and research universities. But those new institutions got plugged into a monolithic preexisting higher education culture, one that reflected the values and norms of the the established liberal arts colleges and research universities. Over time, culture overwhelmed policy...

Douglas Crets

We keep thinking of taking what is already being done and tweaking it until it works. There’s nothing wrong with that model if we know that the existing machine we are trying to tune is actually a long-term high-performing engine. But it’s not, and we know that. The lack of overall, across the spectrum success for all of our children shows that this engine is not knocking right. Something is wrong with much more than the valves. It’s not an add more oil, or more teacher pay problem…