The University of California is an awesome institution. Its ten campuses give 150,000 college students a high-quality public education every year and UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Boalt Hall can compete with any super-expensive private school on quality and reputation. UC Davis is largely responsible for California’s fantastic wine, and for some reason UCLA is crazy famous in Asia. It’s a model for public higher education.
But the University of California has been getting less awesome because…
The University of California is an awesome institution. Its ten campuses give 150,000 college students a high-quality public education every year and UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Boalt Hall can compete with any super-expensive private school on quality and reputation. UC Davis is largely responsible for California’s fantastic wine, and for some reason UCLA is crazy famous in Asia. It’s a model for public higher education.
But the University of California has been getting less awesome because…
The average cost of a Bachelor’s degree at a public, four-year liberal arts university is $26,340. At a private one, it’s $100,520, and the Ivy League commands more than $160,000. And while the value of education is universally indisputable, the emergence of new online tools and platforms has challenged its price tag, empowering us to take charge of our own…
Well this is something: Wesleyan, one of the country’s more elite schools, has started a program where inmates in a nearby high-security prison can take some of its classes. Not dumbed-down versions either, thank god: these are real, academically rigorous, competitive-to-get-into college classes.
Whether the credits can add up to a degree depends on how long the program lasts. I seriously hope they get it together to keep this program in place and funded, because education…
Great discussion over at Chronicle of Higher Education about who should and should not go to college, and whether the model at most universities is serving students and, well, worth the money.
They asked the same couple of questions to nine higher education experts and the responses fell into two predictable camps.
Camp one: Postsecondary education is a practical necessity that everyone should pursue and have access to. Sample quote from Daniel Yankelovich, a public-policy expert: “In today’s…
I would love to see a community library like this in Los Angeles!
“What began as an assemblage of 1,000 empty beer cartons pulled together by residents in East Germany has now evolved into an incredible open air public library. Designed by Karo Architekten in collaboration with local residents, the grassroots project revitalizes a post-industrial district in Magdeburg, Germany by creating a cultural center and pop-up library where books are free to take and leave 24…
When President Obama delivered his stay-in-school speech, reminding students for the umpteenth time that they can’t all grow up to be rappers and basketball players, he caused a stir. It sparked overblown controversy, but it also brought into the national conversation the fact that every year, 1.2 million kids drop out of school—or, one…
After some criticism about their plans for the Rise to the Top program of grants to state education programs, the Obama administration has changed the rules, though relaxed is perhaps a better word. One main change is that states can now demonstrate that they have used innovations other than charter schools to alter the public education system; the emphasis on charter schools had bothered some people, including a few governors who will be applying for the…
After some criticism about their plans for the Rise to the Top program of grants to state education programs, the Obama administration has changed the rules, though relaxed is perhaps a better word. One main change is that states can now demonstrate that they have used innovations other than charter schools to alter the public education system; the emphasis on charter schools had bothered some people, including a few governors who will be applying for the…
Schools in Los Angeles are getting lots of attention lately. You might have heard of Steve Barr, a sort of educational desperado, whose Green Dot Schools wrested away several poorly-performing schools from the Los Angeles Unified School District and transformed them into educational powerhouses. But what Barr did for these communities is far more than that.…
The University of California is an awesome institution. Its ten campuses give 150,000 college students a high-quality public education every year and UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Boalt Hall can compete with any super-expensive private school on quality and reputation. UC Davis is largely responsible for California’s fantastic wine, and for some reason UCLA is crazy famous in Asia. It’s a model for public higher education.
But the University of California has been getting less awesome because…
The University of California is an awesome institution. Its ten campuses give 150,000 college students a high-quality public education every year and UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Boalt Hall can compete with any super-expensive private school on quality and reputation. UC Davis is largely responsible for California’s fantastic wine, and for some reason UCLA is crazy famous in Asia. It’s a model for public higher education.
But the University of California has been getting less awesome because…
The average cost of a Bachelor’s degree at a public, four-year liberal arts university is $26,340. At a private one, it’s $100,520, and the Ivy League commands more than $160,000. And while the value of education is universally indisputable, the emergence of new online tools and platforms has challenged its price tag, empowering us to take charge of our own…
I would love to see a community library like this in Los Angeles!
“What began as an assemblage of 1,000 empty beer cartons pulled together by residents in East Germany has now evolved into an incredible open air public library. Designed by Karo Architekten in collaboration with local residents, the grassroots project revitalizes a post-industrial district in Magdeburg, Germany by creating a cultural center and pop-up library where books are free to take and leave 24…
After some criticism about their plans for the Rise to the Top program of grants to state education programs, the Obama administration has changed the rules, though relaxed is perhaps a better word. One main change is that states can now demonstrate that they have used innovations other than charter schools to alter the public education system; the emphasis on charter schools had bothered some people, including a few governors who will be applying for the…
After some criticism about their plans for the Rise to the Top program of grants to state education programs, the Obama administration has changed the rules, though relaxed is perhaps a better word. One main change is that states can now demonstrate that they have used innovations other than charter schools to alter the public education system; the emphasis on charter schools had bothered some people, including a few governors who will be applying for the…
Schools in Los Angeles are getting lots of attention lately. You might have heard of Steve Barr, a sort of educational desperado, whose Green Dot Schools wrested away several poorly-performing schools from the Los Angeles Unified School District and transformed them into educational powerhouses. But what Barr did for these communities is far more than that.…
Sesame Street turned 40 yesterday. Here’s a clip from the show of Grover and a kid exploring the essence of marriage.
I think they hit all the most important points. Keep up the good work, guys.
Via Boing Boing.
…The image above is for a presentation I put together for a writing course a friend of mine teaches at Boston College. My role at my company (Newfangled) involves quite a bit of writing, and so my friend asked me to talk about writing from the perspective of someone who does it in a business context, rather than as an author.
I’m willing to bet that there are many professionals who have similarly found themselves writing for…
Only the ACLU would think of this: They have banded with parents and student of Palm Beach County and mounted a trailblazing class-action lawsuit, the only of its kind (ever?), claiming that students’ constitutional rights are being violated by the incredibly horribly awful schools there, which result in low graduation rates, particularly among blacks and Latinos.
The county, for its part, says it’d doing a fine job, of course. So let’s look real quick at the numbers.
According…
When President Obama delivered his stay-in-school speech, reminding students for the umpteenth time that they can’t all grow up to be rappers and basketball players, he caused a stir. It sparked overblown controversy, but it also brought into the national conversation the fact that every year, 1.2 million kids drop out of school—or, one…
The U.S. government has poured $100 billion of stimulus money into the Education Department, but does paying more lead to better results? Our latest Transparency is a look at the amount of money every state spends per student, and the graduation rates in those states.
A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca
It’s mid-October, which means that all across the country, kids are back in school. While it’s no secret that public education is in need of repair in the United States, there are a number of inspired, incredibly effective schools and teachers doing hero’s work. KIPP Schools (part of the inaugural GOOD 100) , the astoundingly impressive Gates-Foundation-backed charter program founded by Teach for America alumni Mike Feinberg and Dave…
Fewer than one in five students in the nation’s low-income areas will attend college. But at KIPP charter schools, the inverse is true: Better than 80 percent of students who complete eighth grade at a KIPP school continue on to higher learning.
MISSION “To provide high quality public education for all children.”
VITALS Founded as a downtown-Houston fifth-grade charter-school program in 1994 by Teach for America alumni Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin; 82 tuition-free charter schools in 19…
Four years after Hurricane Katrina, George Washington Carver High School’s football team is, like many in New Orleans, still without a home field. Now, with the help of students, community members, and a growing list of companies, the school’s ambitious young athletic director, Brian Bordainick, has raised more than $1 million toward a new multipurpose stadium and field. If they hit their target of $1.85 million, the new field would underscore the restorative power of community…
The Harlem Children’s Zone is a collection of social and educational services located in a 97-block area of Harlem. It provides free support to students and their families, with the goal of giving them the same opportunities to succeed that white students in more affluent neighborhoods are given (students living in the area gain admission through a lottery). It has always sounded like a…
Everyone knows teachers aren’t paid enough. But what we don’t often think about is the effect of that meager paycheck. Teachers play a huge role in the educational outcomes of their students, but they’re leaving the profession in droves. Forty-six percent of public-school teachers bail within their first five years. That the average annual salary for a new teacher is only $35,000 isn’t helping to retain talent. People who are good at teaching have…
As tuition costs for higher education continue to rise toward utter out-of-handedness, the open-courseware movement offers something revolutionary: free class materials, readings, and journals made available online for anyone who wants to use them.
Heralded as the most democratizing education innovation since the advent of the printing press, the movement has some standout examples of groups helping people overcome the social and economic barriers to higher education. Here are a few:
MIT OPENCOURSEWARE
The Massachusetts Institute of…
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