Tuesday, June 8, 2010
10 Jobs With Great Return to Investment. A college degree was once a kind of insurance against high tides of unemployment, but this downturn took plenty of white collar, degree-necessary jobs with it. What’s more, it’s no longer a given that an advanced degree will launch you into the upper echelon of earners. Learn more…
Will We Ever Learn? What’s Wrong With the Common-Standards Project. By Robert I. Lerman & Arnold Packer. Published Online: April 20, 2010, Education Week. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers launched the common-core initiative in 2009, and presented the proposed standards to the public last month. President Barack Obama has endorsed them, Kentucky has already pledged to adopt them, and other states will soon follow suit. But what could they be thinking? Learn more…
Graduated Success: Sustainable Economic Opportunity Through One- and Two-Year Credentials. We often assume that a higher degree guarantees earning a higher salary and having greater economic opportunity. This assumption is not always the case. One- and two-year credentials can represent a viable path to economic prosperity, particularly for those graduates who, for whatever reason, do not earn more advanced degrees. Learn more…
Plan B: Skip College. By Jacques Steinberg. May 14, 2010, New York Times. WHAT’S the key to success in the United States? Short of becoming a reality TV star, the answer is rote and, some would argue, rather knee-jerk: Earn a college degree. The idea that four years of higher education will translate into a better job, higher earnings and a happier life — a refrain sure to be repeated this month at graduation ceremonies across the country — has been pounded into the heads of schoolchildren, parents and educators. But there’s an underside to that conventional wisdom. Perhaps no more than half of those who began a four-year bachelor’s degree program in the fall of 2006 will get that degree within six years, according to the latest projections from the Department of Education. (The figures don’t include transfer students, who aren’t tracked.) Learn more…
College Prep for All? What We’ve Learned in Chicago. By Christopher Mazzeo, Elaine Allensworth & Valerie Lee. As state and national policymakers look for ways to improve the rigor of the high school curriculum and enhance students’ readiness for college, many have turned their attention to increasing course requirements in core academic subjects. The national policy group Achieve reports that about 20 states now require all students to take some version of a “default curriculum” to graduate-generally defined as four years of English and mathematics and three or more years of science and social studies. Learn more…
