The Other 85 Percent

In this Chronicle of Higher Education article, Christopher C. Morphew and Barrett J. Taylor, a professor and a doctoral student in educational leadership, describe their finding that schools often use multiple mission statements, in part to influence their standing in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. As they write, this may or may not [...]

In his commentary in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Robert Zemsky ponders just what it would take to create change in American higher education. He suggests that the kind of reform being seen in Europe could not happen here. He notes that various reform efforts in the United States have not been fruitful – [...]

Earlier this year, after reading several brief articles citing the surge in three-year bachelor’s degrees, I decided to take a look at what was going on in this area. To say the least, it was a disappointing undertaking since most of what is being done is to cram four years of work into three [...]

After years of hard work and much deep thinking by myself and the leaders of several leading adult-serving colleges and universities, it is gratifying to see the media are recognizing Transparency by Design. U.S. News & World Report, Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education have published articles that examine this accountability initiative [...]

In this Chronicle of Higher Education commentary, Margaret Brooks claims that online courses are better than free beer.  Actually, she is responding to a colleague who does not like online courses who stated that it was wrong to offer online courses just because students demand them because “students demand free beer, too; that does not [...]

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education has been getting a good deal of attention at schools across the country.  It certainly addresses the problem of increasing costs for higher education. The authors’ statement that “Consumers who have questioned whether it is worth spending $1,000 a square foot for a home are now asking [...]

The University of Illinois Global Campus initiative has received media attention for some time.  A group of faculty are now preparing to roll-out their plans to change that initiative.
Having spent many years at public and land-grant universities, and having developed a different version of a “global campus” at a different public university system, I [...]

In a previous post, I questioned what Measuring Up actually measures and whether the message to state policymakers was off-base because it fails to acknowledge the contributions of cross-border online institutions, particularly in providing higher education opportunities to adults.  Clearly, those involved in Measuring Up understand that there are issues with data. Dennis Jones [...]

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced the award of $69-million in grants to help low-income young people complete a college degree or certificate by age 26. These grants will particularly help community college students, and will make a difference and start the effort to double the number of young people who attain a [...]

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education describes a program by the American Council on Education (ACE) to grow programs designed for veterans and to identify programs that “actually work.” The focus on veterans, outcomes, effectiveness, and the use of data for improvement is great. This initiative has the potential to benefit [...]