This post is an essay by Sara Weissman that appeared recently in Inside Higher Ed. Here's a link to the original. The title tells the story: More than Half of 4-Year College Grads Are Underemployed. That means they are in jobs that don't require a college degree. More than half of recent four-year college graduates, 52 percent, … Continue reading Sara Weissman — More than Half of 4-Year College Grads Are Underemployed
This post is a recent essay by David Deming, an economist at the Harvard Kennedy Center and Education School, about the use of SAT and ACT scores in college admission. It appeared in Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. He says data show that using these scores benefit some disadvantaged students, who have a chance … Continue reading David Deming: The Worst Way to Do College Admissions
This post is a piece I published in 2020 in the Chronicle Review. Here’s a link to the original. It’s about an issue that has been gnawing at me for years. How can you justify the existence of institutions of the sort I taught at for the last two decades — rich private research universities? These institutions … Continue reading How Not to Defend the Research University
This post is an opinion essay that appeared in a recent Newsweek. Here's a link to the original. And here's a link and another and yet another for somewhat different spins on the subject. In the belief system of the American meritocracy, pursuing higher levels of formal education is the route to upward mobility and … Continue reading Diplomas May Be Killing the American Dream
This post is a piece I published in 2020 in the Chronicle Review. Here's a link to the original. It’s about an issue that has been gnawing at me for years. How can you justify the existence of institutions of the sort I taught at for the last two decades — rich private research universities? … Continue reading How Not to Defend the Private Research University
This post is a stunning piece of writing by Eli Saslow, which was recently published in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. It's about a problem that has become increasingly apparent in contemporary American life: the downward mobility of many middle-class families. The reporter followed one 39-year old Michigan man in Lincoln Park, … Continue reading A Case of Downward Mobility
This post is a piece I originally published in 1990 in Research in Sociology of Education and Socialization. Here's a link to that version. Later I included a slightly revised version as a chapter in my book, How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning. The text below comes for the latter version. Here's an … Continue reading The Rise of the Community College and the Limits of Educational Opportunity
This post is a short essay by Jeffrey Guhin published on August 27, 2020 in Hedgehog Review. In it he puts forth an argument about the purpose of schooling that resonates with some of my own work, including recent posts here such as this, this, and this. Here's a link to the original. How COVID Can … Continue reading Guhin: How Covid Can Change What Schools Are For
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 