 |
News Search Results |
| |
A new study about grade inflation begins by quoting an 1894 report of a Harvard University committee that was distressed by grade inflation. Apparently at Harvard at the end of the 19th century, students were earning As for "work of not very high merit" and Bs "for work not far above mediocrity."
But after establishing that complaints about grade inflation have been rampant for well over 100 years, the study goes on the question the phenomenon as well as the significance of the evidence cited in many studies of grade inflation, namely changes in the average grade-point average. One author on grade inflation is charging that this new paper is flat-out wrong, in its numbers and analysis.
A better way to measure grade inflation, the new study argues, is to look at the "signaling" power of grades for employment (landing prestigious jobs and higher salaries). To the extent the relationship between earning high grades and doing better after college is unchanged and thats what the study finds the "value" of grades can be presumed to have held its ground, not eroded.
|
| |
It's hard to think of a study in the last decade that has had a bigger impact on public discourse about higher education and the internal workings of colleges and universities alike than has Academically Adrift.
The 2011 book, among the most extensive analyses of the extent and quality of college-level learning in many years, found that many students showed no meaningful gains on key measures of learning during their college years. The findings fed a burgeoning critique of higher education -- adding doubts about student learning to existing qualms about rising costs and degree completion -- and led many campuses to take a closer look at their students' performance and at the rigor and depth of their curriculums.
Two recent reports by a prominent researcher purport to challenge Academically Adrift's underlying conclusions about students' critical thinking gains in college, and especially the extent to which others have seized on those findings to suggest that too little learning takes place in college. The studies by the Council for Aid to Education show that students taking the Collegiate Learning Assessment made an average gain of 0.73 of a standard deviation in their critical thinking scores, significantly more than that found by the authors of Academically Adrift.
"The notion that college doesn't matter is inaccurate," Roger Benjamin, president of the Council for Aid to Education, said in an interview. (The council produces the CLA.) In the paper and a recent presentation of its data, Benjamin said that CAE's findings contrast with Academically Adrift's, though in the interview he sought to play down the extent to which his findings undermine those of the book.
|
| |
The project will assist institutions working on increasing participation in study abroad, encouraging diversity of participants, promoting health and safety, and enhancing the value of study abroad programs for its students.
|
| |
The University of Pennsylvania is like most colleges and universities in wanting to increase the number of its students with international experiences. But while many institutions have focused on increasing their study abroad numbers -- and a select few colleges and schools have even implemented requirements that students study overseas -- Penn has made a particularly big push on promoting noncredit international internships and post-graduation work opportunities as alternative ways for students to gain meaningful experiences abroad.
"Were not trying to undercut semesters abroad or years abroad; we are, however, recognizing the reality that theyre not growing," said Ezekiel J. Emanuel, the universitys vice provost for global initiatives, who speculates this is the case because students today have so many competing opportunities on campus. Semesterlong study abroad at Penn has been fairly flat, with the undergraduate participation rate hovering between 23 and 25 percent, while the total number of undergraduates studying abroad for a full year has decreased from 83 in 2005-6 to just 11 in 2011-12.
Summer and short-term study abroad has been growing, however, and the university is making a push to increase non-credit-bearing international internships and volunteer opportunities.
|
| |
A couple of years ago, the WorldWise contributor Francisco Marmolejo pondered whether the United States was moving backward in its connections with Brazil. He was concerned that the U.S.-Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program run by the U.S. Education Department was being hurt by budget cuts. He argued that in a time when higher education was growing in Latin America, there needed to be more, not fewer, programs focused on developing relationships between the United States and Brazil.
He was right about the importance of such links. But things are not so dire as our colleague predicted.
Just a few days ago, President Obama announced a new United States-Mexico Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation, and Research. "This forum will build upon the many positive educational and research linkages that already exist through federal, state, and local governments, public and private academic institutions, civil society, and the private sector," a press release notes. "It will bring together government agency counterparts to deepen cooperation on higher education, innovation, and research. It will also draw on the expertise of the higher-education community in both countries."
|
| |
Since the Boston Marathon bombings three weeks ago, the U.S. government has enacted just one significant security change: It has ordered increased scrutiny of international students coming into the country.
The policy directive, by the Department of Homeland Security, was prompted by news that a Kazakh student who is accused of hiding evidence for one of the bombing suspects had been permitted to enter the United States on a student visa that was no longer valid. The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth had apparently terminated Azamat Tazhayakov's status as an international student weeks earlier, but a border agent at the airport did not have access to that information, even though it had been filed in a federal-government database.
While colleges applaud the steps to improve the sharing of informationand say they should have been made years agosome educators wonder if subjecting every foreign student to additional border screening, which can take up to several hours, is an overreaction. But more than that, they worry that the student-visa system could be scapegoated, as government officials seek to ensure a rattled public that they're taking national security seriously.
|
| |
U.S. higher education is uniquely positioned to contribute to the agriculture, health, and economic prosperity of developing countries. And the U.S. government plays an important role supporting such work. But that partnership between government and universities could be threatened as lawmakers look for places to cut federal spending-- and with foreign aid an all-too-frequent target. As a former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and a former president of Michigan State University, Ive seen what we can do in developing countries and strongly believe we must continue to do such work even in tight budgetary times.
Broad-based economic growth in developing countries requires three things: a more educated population, stronger institutions, and new technology. U.S. higher education has in the past made a contribution to those areas and must continue to to do so.
|
| |
It's decision time for Chinese students planning to study in the United States this fall, and Stacy Palestrant, an independent college counselor in Beijing, has been meeting these past few weeks with families weighing admissions offers.
One issue raised again and again, says Ms. Palestrant, who advises students applying to top-flight American colleges, is, How safe will my child be studying in America?
The death of a Chinese graduate student, Lingzi Lu, in last week's Boston Marathon bombings has received extensive coverage in China. Social media there have erupted both with memorials to Ms. Lu and handwringing over whether families in China's burgeoning middle class should feel secure in continuing to send their children to be educated in the United States, as they have done in increasing numbers in recent years.
Few experts believe that the Boston attacks will cause the 194,000 Chinese -or 764,500 international- students now studying on American campuses to pack their bags. Nor do they anticipate the bombings will lead future foreign enrollments to plummet.
|
| |
Professionals in international education have long had to counter stereotypical depictions of the U.S. as a crime-ridden, pistol-packing kind of place, but this week issues surrounding perceptions of international student safety have been especially prominent: not only was Secretary of State John Kerry quoted as saying that prospective Japanese students are deterred by fears of gun violence, but one international student died, and at least three others were injured, as a result of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Boston University has been left mourning Lu Lingzi, a graduate student in mathematics and statistics who was described by The New York Times as "a woman whose aspirations took her from a rust-belt hometown, Shenyang, to Beijing and then the United States." One other Chinese student was reported injured, as were two Saudi Arabian students, one of whom was initially misidentified by some media outlets as a suspect, leading a Saudi embassy official to tell The Boston Globe, "Were concerned about the backlash against students based on a false story." (Officials at the Saudi Embassy did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.)
The numbers of Chinese and Saudi students in the U.S. have grown dramatically in recent years, fueled by a hunger for U.S. education on the part of Chinas growing middle class, on the one hand, and a generous Saudi government scholarship program, on the other. But while the overall number of international students in the U.S. is growing, this may be in some cases despite concerns about safety. An October 2012 report from the British Council shows something of a mixed picture in regard to international students' perceptions of safety in the U.S.: students rated the U.S. in the top five in terms of both the safest and the least-safe countries in which to study abroad. This divided opinion "is no doubt a product of [the country's] size, diverse urban and rural nature, and the national celebrity status generated by its media, television, and sports industries and afforded to it by countries around the world," the report states.
|
|
|
|
|
