Posts Categorized: Topic

Recasting History: The Public Option

If you ask Americans what is studied in history classrooms, many will answer “facts and dates.” If you ask them what people can do with a history degree, they answer “teach.” Yet those same Americans acknowledge the power and practical relevance of history as they flock to national parks, historic sites, museums and cultural heritage sites; buy nationally best-selling biographies; see hist...

MIA: Accuplacer Prep

Reports of the redesign of the SAT resonate with many parents and their school-age children who have had personal experience with the controversial college gatekeeper. But another test in the College Board portfolio, though not in the news, is arguably even more important to the future—or lack of a future—of high-school age students. It’s the Accuplacer. Accuplacer is, like the SAT, a ...

A Better SAT Starts With a Better College Board

It’s so easy to criticize the SAT that most observers overlook the weaknesses of its architect, the College Board. Until we replace the latter, however, we will never fix the former. The College Board has every incentive to create a complex, stressful, expensive college admissions system. And because it is accountable to no one, it has done just that. The College Board and ACT add over $500...

A University Looks at the College Board’s Redesigned SAT

As an institution that receives close to 50,000 applications for the 2,800 spaces for the first-year entering class, Northeastern University took special interest in the College Board’s March 5 announcement on the SAT redesign. In fact, our undergraduate admissions team took a break from finalizing our decisions to follow David Coleman’s announcement. After months of carefully reading and cons...

From Arab Spring to Academic Blossoming? Transforming Nations after their Liberation

Those nations trying to propel themselves into the global economy face a daunting task. And those emerging from dictatorships, theocracies and bloody revolutions face even greater challenges. Many had been drained of their best minds and most entrepreneurial spirits. Corruption and violence now need to be supplanted by a stable, civil society that can transact business with the rest of the world. ...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with Muriel Howard on Public Higher Ed

Nearly a year ago, NEJHE launched its New Directions for Higher Education series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. Past installments of the series featured Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviewing: Carnegie Foundation Pr...

Warren Recommendation on Student Debt: What Will Work to Help America’s Students?

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has had concerns about student debt for decades. Her recent solution seeks to redistribute tax revenue from the richest Americans to enable students to refinance their post-graduation indebtedness; this would allow students to benefit from the low interest rates in today’s financial markets. The Massachusetts Democrat is right in noting that the inability of studen...

Confronting Costs, Controlling Destiny

Mature higher education markets are drifting headfirst into the perfect storm. The convergence of shifting demographics, increased competition, decreased government funding and the reality of a global marketplace has become our new normal here in Canada, like in many other parts of the world. Most within the academy have come to accept this reality, and so the question is not if this storm will co...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with Judith Eaton on Self-Regulation

Nearly a year ago, NEJHE launched its New Directions for Higher Education series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. Past installments of the series featured Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviewing: Carnegie Foundation Pr...

DACA-lamented? Spared Deportation, Immigrant Students Still Face Higher Ed Barriers

Well, you see, we don’t want to get their hopes up. I am on the phone with a woman from a small liberal arts college in New England, trying to convince them to accept an application for their diversity weekend from one of my clients. I am an immigration lawyer who also runs a cooperative center, Atlas: DIY (www.atlasdiy.org), for undocumented youth and their allies in Brooklyn, New York. Atla...