21st Century Scholar

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown described his 2012 budget proposal, which included a $5.2 billion cut in education if voters do not approve a tax increase on the ballot this November. Of the total, Brown plans to cut $4.8 billion in K–12 public school funding—the equivalent of three weeks of schooling—and $200 million to the [...]

Credibility is the first (and most important) criteria for establishing trustworthiness in qualitative research. Credibility, like it’s step-sibling validity, is often the subject of much debate; scholars argue about what it can and cannot do and what strategies researchers should and should not use to ensure rigor in research (see “Varieties of Validity: Quality in [...]

Now is the time to give thanks. I am thankful for having good health, professional successes, and old and new friends and family. When I consider major trends in education, however, giving thanks is more difficult.  Don’t get me wrong—there are people and events for which to be thankful. This year, Governor Brown signed legislation [...]

The Thursday Pop OK, so Halloween is just 11 days away, and while many of you may be more interested in deciding between that Smurf costume (for yourself, or your dog) and the Scurvy Pirate look (again, for you, or the dog), I’m dealing with ghoulish misrepresentations about applying for financial aid. Over the past [...]

In a recent New York Times magazine article, Joe Nocera spells out a compelling argument about why we need for profit colleges. Given the fight and fury concerning the private sector colleges in the U.S. Congress, the Department of Education, and the media, I find myself frequently writing in support of the sector. My nearly [...]

Optimizing individual components can only lead to incremental change; optimizing the system can lead to a transformational ecology. –Tom Freidman Friedman’s assertion is the sort of comment that Clayton Christiansen, of disruptive technology fame, makes as well. What we have seen during the economic downturn is our public systems needing to deal with transformational change [...]

We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. –John Gardner What we have seen over the last two years or so is California’s lauded systems of higher education struggling to adapt to the new fiscal realities of state funding. How have the systems responded? Although the boards, the [...]

Last year USC’s new president, my colleague and friend, Max Nikias, raised over $1 billion for the university. Anyone who knows President Nikias will have a good idea about why he was so successful. He is thoughtful, personable, persuasive, and tenacious. He follows someone, Steve Sample, who also was a maestro at fund-raising. I believe [...]

by Bill Tierney In a recent study, the Los Rios Community College District reported that most of their students now transfer to a private non- or for-profit institution rather than a UC or CSU. One might think that the logical point of transfer for a community college student is the CSU but the report indicates [...]

by Bill Tierney College Enrollment in California Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2010 The California Postsecondary Education Commission estimates that by 2019 over 385,000 additional individuals will be interested in enrolling as undergraduates in a public postsecondary institution, with total enrollment projections rising as high as 2.75 million students.  These numbers are sobering when [...]