Education Resources
The Cost/Value of a College Degree
The Value of Higher Education
Patrick SuttonMarch 6, 2007
As the average yearly cost—books and living expenses included—of attending a public four year college nears $13,000 a year, some people question whether or not a college degree is worth it. Add to that, the rising percentage of college students that leave school deeply in debt, and an education begins to seem like a risky venture.
Typically, individuals attend college in order to have access to greater employment opportunities. However, due to the fast-past changes that are appearing in many job markets, and the acute-specialization that some careers demand, the idea of attending a college or a university in order to prepare for a specific career may be out-dated. Along these lines, Christopher Caldwell writes for the New York Times:
“If you’re not planning on becoming, say, a doctor, the benefits of diligent study can be overstated. In recent decades, the biggest rewards have gone to those whose intelligence is deployable in new directions on short notice, not to those who are locked into a single marketable skill, however thoroughly learned and accredited. Most of the employees who built up, say, Google in its early stages could never have been trained to do so, because neither the company nor the idea of it existed when they were getting their educations.”
Performanced Based Education Funding
Performance Based Education Funding:
Towards Measurable Results
In Education
Patrick W. Sutton
February 21, 2007
Recently, there has been an impetus to place for-profit performance-markers in the not-for-profit education sector. While everyone agrees that public money should only be spent on programs, initiatives, and teachers that produce results, finding an accurate and realistic means for measuring pedagogy has proved difficult.
The difficulty in finding a middle ground hasn’t stopped the NCLB commission—led by Roy E. Barnes and Tommy Thompson—from suggesting that teachers and principals should be judged by their students’ test scores. In addition, the NCLB commission suggested that the performance of specific students be tracked from year to year. In response to the aggressive means that the NCLB commission is seeking to place on higher education, Edward J. McElroy—president of the American Federation of Teachers—stated that: “there is no reliable assessment systems(s) to tie student achievement to teacher performance.”1
Enrollment and Race: Discrimination v. Diversity
How Should Race
And Linguistic Heritage
Affect a Classroom?
Patrick Sutton
February 13, 2007
In the last few months we’ve seen a number of different racial and social topics that fall under the umbrella of pedagogy gain media attention. Most recently, the University of Wisconsin has decided to ignore a state ruling that bans the use of race as a criterion for admissions. The UW system has bypassed the state law in favor of the 2003 Supreme Court ruling (Grutter v. Bollinger)—which allows for race as a factor for consideration in admissions. The outcome of the Grutter v. Bollinger case leaned towards race as a legal factor in order to promote diversity.