Education: All Articles and Books

Colleges Need a Lemon Law

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:24:00 -0500

The College Board reports tuition is up 9 percent this year in inflation-adjusted terms, despite declining prices throughout the economy and stagnant median family income. Parents want to know why the rise and why college costs so much in the first place.

The answer, in a word, is demand. Until we channel the demand for higher education in a more rational direction, tuition will continue to outpace inflation, grant aid, and family income.

If Bedtime Is Book Time, Let's Make Morning Time for Math

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:47:00 -0500

Bedtime = book time. Parents know that equation by heart, or at least they're supposed to. The drill goes like this: Just before the goodnight kiss, we snuggle up with our young kids, open a book, and read with them. Okay, so maybe at first we have to beg them to just settle down. And maybe the baby is more prone to eat the pages than look at them. But still, we try. We're the ones responsible for these little human beings. It's part of our job.

Mathematics, on the other hand, that's not on the must-do list. Reading may be part of the raising-kids routine. Math -- not so much.

The Subprime Student Loan Racket

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:13:00 -0400

At the age of forty-three, Martine Leveque decided it was time to start over. For several years, she had worked in the movie business, writing subtitles in Italian and French for English-language films, but her employer moved overseas. She then tried her hand at sales, but each time the economy dipped sales tumbled, along with her income, and as a single mother with a teenage son, she wanted a job that offered more security. She decided to pursue a career in nursing, a high-demand field where she could also do some good.

Even Curious George Can Be Scary

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:41:00 -0400

From the Editors: "Where the Wild Things Are," a film based on Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, hit theaters on Friday. The book is loved by 4- and 5-year-olds, but this PG-rated movie may well be too scary for them.

Child development experts debate whether, when it comes to the big screen, live-action films are easier for preschoolers to identify with and enjoy than complex animation. But the live-action G-rated movie seems increasingly rare these days.

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The Education Revolution

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:43:00 -0400

If you believe the nightmarish forecasts, the American labor market will take a decade to return to full employment. That means that kids in high school and middle school are going to walk directly into an economic buzz-saw by the time they graduate, and that's assuming, rather wishfully, that all of them will indeed graduate. Roughly half of these children are college-bound, which means that they will have the time and resources to gain some valuable and not-so-valuable skills.
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Entrepreneur Tests Theory of 'Better Teachers, Better Students'

Erin Drankoski — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:17:00 -0400

As your fifth grader heads back to school this morning, weighed down by a rushed bowl of Cheerios and an oversized bag of worn books, how would you like to know that his or her science teacher has 30 years of experience, and spent last year as a special consultant to the state of Arizona? Or that his or her gym teacher shaped Kobe Bryant into 225 pounds of pure muscle?

And how would it feel to know that those teachers would be paid between $125,000 and $150,000 this year? And be certain they have the whole world watching to see how well they teach your child?
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Kindergarten Need Not Be a Pressure Cooker

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:48:00 -0400

A few years ago, Newsweek called kindergarten "the new first grade." This month, as I watch my 5-year-old settle into her classroom, it's clear the trend hasn't abated. In May, she was kneading Play-Doh in preschool. Now she has an assigned seat and "guided reading" lessons.
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Higher Ed's Bermuda Triangle

Erin Drankoski — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:09:00 -0400

Treating children that way is like giving a lion their food without making them hunt for it.

Jacinth Thomas-Val writes the sentence on the blackboard in her classroom at Sacramento City College, then asks her students what's wrong with it. "What does ‘them' refer to in this sentence?" she asks one young woman. The young woman doesn't know, shakes her head, then gets up and leaves the classroom without explanation, not returning for the rest of the period.
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Lunchtime Lessons from New Orleans

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:31:00 -0400

President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I? So asked a pigtailed black girl plastered on buses and billboards around Washington, D.C. The White House blasted the political ad, which promoted healthy food options in public schools, as exploitative -- but the little girl's complaint should resonate with an administration that has prioritized healthy eating and food security, from both the East and West Wing of the White House.
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Using Student Loans to Slow Tuition Growth

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:56:00 -0400

It's back-to-school time for college students, which means big tuition bills. Most will defer large out-of-pocket costs until after college through the use of student loans. No one is happy about the explosion in student loan debt to pay rising tuition, but there is a silver lining: We can use student loans to slow tuition growth.
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The Truth About Tuition

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:13:00 -0400
For decades, the politics of higher education have followed familiar lines: Democrats champion higher Pell Grants for needy families, tuition tax credits for the middle class, and cheaper student loans paid for by cutting banks out of the system. Republicans advocate more modest Pell Grant increases and, with a few exceptions, protect the student-loan banks that enjoy a lucrative, risk-free business. President Barack Obama is following the traditional playbook. He has proposed increasing Pell Grants significantly and throwing the banks
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In Urban Classrooms, the Least Experienced Teach the Neediest Kids

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:53:00 -0400

Imagine for a moment that you are driving your child to the hospital. She has a high fever and is suffering from severe abdominal pain. It's unclear what's wrong but she is in definite need of medical attention.

Now imagine that the only doctor on call is a recently graduated medical student. It's her first day on the job and there is no experienced physician or surgeon available for consultation. Are you satisfied with this level of care for your child? I wouldn't be. I'd want to benefit from the knowledge of a more experienced physician. Wouldn't you?
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‘Sesame Street’: The Show That Counts

Kate Schuler — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:38:00 -0400

This story has been brought to you by the letter S and the numbers 15 and 40. (Or, as the Count might say in his adorable Transylvanian accent, "fivteen and forrrty-HA, HA, HA!") The S, as anyone who has ever watched television can deduce by now, stands for Sesame Street. The 40 is almost as easy: this year marks the 40th anniversary of sunny days, friendly neighbors and the fuzzy creatures who live on that street where the air is sweet. If you haven't watched recently with your children or grandchildren, you'll be relieved to know that
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The Instigator

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:13:00 -0400

Steve Barr stood in the breezeway at Alain Leroy Locke High School, at the edge of the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, on a February morning. He's more than six feet tall, with white-gray hair that's perpetually unkempt, and the bulk of an ex-jock. Beside him was Ramon Cortines--neat, in a trim suit--the Los Angeles Unified School District's new superintendent. Cortines had to be thinking about last May, when, as a senior deputy superintendent, he had visited under very different circumstances. That was when a tangle between two rival cliques near an outdoor vending machine turned into a fight that spread to every corner of the schoolyard. Police sent more than a dozen squad cars and surged across the campus in riot gear, as teachers grabbed kids on the margins and whisked them into locked classrooms.
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Obama's Timid Liberalism

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:39:00 -0500

Barack Obama's bold, ambitious budget plan proves that he is the true heir of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Consider Obama's Rooseveltian energy plan. In 1939, President Roosevelt decided to mobilize Americans to create a new source of energy: atomic power. Although he was urged to focus on government-funded R&D, FDR chose a different route. He wisely encouraged private capital to invest in atomic energy research by a variety of tax incentives. To make atomic power investment more palatable to private capital,
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Rewards for Students Under Microscope

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:19:00 -0500

For decades, psychologists have warned against giving children prizes or money for their performance in school. "Extrinsic" rewards, they say - a stuffed animal for a 4-year-old who learns her alphabet, cash for a good report card in middle or high school - can undermine the joy of learning for its own sake and can even lead to cheating. But many economists and businesspeople disagree, and their views often prevail in the educational marketplace. Reward programs that pay students are under way in many cities. In
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The Case for Building Schools

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:47:00 -0500

As Congress debates a roughly $825 billion economic stimulus package, many interest groups want to make sure their pet programs get a piece of the action. The education community is no exception.

Various advocates are urging Congress to use the stimulus to fund universal pre-k, expanded after-school programs, education technology, and new teacher compensation packages, among other education initiatives.
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Advice for Duncan: The Thinker

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:52:00 -0500

I recommend early focus on education finance matters. The administration needs to meet and improve upon campaign promises requiring substantial resources. There are pressing student loan issues and pent-up demands for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funding. Because the stimulus and budget are being developed now, you have a window of opportunity to address all three areas.
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Obama's $10 Billion Early Childhood Education Pledge

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 13:57:00 -0500

Advocates for early childhood education are understandably excited about their prospects under President-elect Barack Obama's administration. During the campaign, Mr. Obama pledged to increase federal early education spending by $10 billion annually.

Currently, the two largest federal early childhood programs, Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant, spend about $12 billion annually combined. A $10 billion increase would almost double that investment.
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BCS Teams Flunk Off the Gridiron

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:33:00 -0500

In a few weeks, the Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners will face off on college football's biggest stage in the Bowl Championship Series' National Championship game. Unfortunately, many of the college seniors playing in this game will not be walking across the graduation stage next May. Instead, their schools will revel in the short-term glory of gridiron success, while the players will have to face the long-term consequences of joining the workforce without a college degree.
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