Posts Categorized: Schools

A Look at the Condition of Education in Massachusetts

Leaders engaged in Massachusetts’ public higher education system—including at community colleges, state universities, and UMass—have demonstrated their strong commitment to improvement in recent years. The state Department of Higher Education’s Vision Project is focused on reforms necessary to “produce the best educated citizenry and workers in the nation,” and demonstrates a clear wil...

White Space Odyssey: Bringing Big Bandwidth to College Communities

In the past two decades, increases in computing power and the ability to retrieve and store data, combined with the mobile and data communications revolution, have altered how we exchange information. These factors have also stimulated growth throughout the economy. However, in many rural areas of the country, the information superhighway lacks an on-ramp for people who are looking for educational...

Federal Ed Official Briefs NE Higher Ed Audience on Obama College Ratings Plan

More from the NEBHE and Davis Educational Foundation Summit on Cost of Higher Education ... NEBHE and the Davis Educational Foundation convened more than 200 higher education leaders in Boston on Oct. 21 for a Summit on Cost in Higher Education. Jamienne S. Studley, deputy under secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, explained the Obama administration's proposals to rein in college p...

To the Summit: NEBHE and Davis Educational Foundation Convene Higher Ed Leaders to Talk Costs, Biz Models

NEBHE and the Davis Educational Foundation convened more than 200 higher education leaders this past weekend in Boston for a frank conversation about costs and the higher ed business model. The Summit on Cost in Higher Education aimed to begin a conversation on innovative practices, collaborations and cutting-edge strategies to address the “cost disease” in higher education. Continued er...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider on Liberal Education

In April, 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. The first installment of the series featured Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviewing Carnegie Foundation President ...

Credit for What You Know, Not How Long You Sit

Zach Sherman earned an associate degree from us in just under 100 days. He did in about three months what many students struggle to do in two years in full-time degree programs. Zach works the graveyard shift at a ConAgra food plant in Troy, Ohio, and he was in many ways an exceptional case: unencumbered with family responsibilities, willing to put in several hours a day, a voracious reader posses...

Been There, Done That … Now to Get Credit Toward a Degree

Assessing what someone has learned from work and life experience to determine if it's worth college credit When Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner Richard M. Freeland met in June with representatives from Boston businesses and the local community, four-year colleges, community colleges and the workforce system, he described the Vision Project, an initiative through the Massachusetts De...

Paving the Road to Higher Ed for Students Hit by Homelessness

At age 18, Suffolk University sophomore Marc-Daniel Paul seems destined for success. A Brockton High graduate who experienced homelessness as a teen, Paul was chosen as a Bank of America Student Leader and published his first book, Breathing Ink: The Heart of Poetry, during his senior year in high school. As an intern in the office of state Sen. Mark C. Montigny (D-New Bedford) this summer, Paul w...

Climbing the Walls: Adventure Education and Perspectives in Learning

The classroom lecture/discussion model has become shallow and brackish. It should no longer be the standard. Most educators recognize the value of practical experiential learning and strive to develop assignments that engage students in a meaningful way and help them to deepen their understanding of rote content and derive some meaning from it. In an age where multiple streams of information in...

More on the Core

From a higher education perspective, new "Common Core" standards could improve student college-readiness levels, reduce institutional remediation rates and close education gaps in and between states. By 2014-15, many K-12 education systems should be able to adopt new state assessments after working to implement new state standards for student learning in English Language Arts and Mathematics. M...