21st Century Scholar

Let’s assume we’re friends and you’re hungry and out of money. You come to me and say, “I need some money for lunch.” I look in my wallet, pull out a 10, and say, “Keep the change.”  You come back in an hour and sheepishly say, “I need another five bucks.” I shake my head [...]

I do not see the current environment as a viable option. If we want to maintain the status quo two actions would need to occur. First, state governments would need to provide many more resources to higher education than they are currently doing. Second, consumers would need to be willing (and able) to pay much [...]

Last week, I discussed the use of social media to collect data and improve trustworthiness. In this blog, I talk about the benefits and pitfalls of social media to improve learning. I want to begin with a few underlying assumptions: First, standing still is not an appropriate strategy to improve underperforming schools and districts. The [...]

To figure out where we want to go, we first need to figure out what we want to do. For most of my academic life I have harped on Ortega y Gasset’s statement about the importance of understanding the mission of higher education and if we do not, then everything else is “love’s labor lost.” [...]

Recently, a friend asked us for a loan. This is someone we have known for a long time and because of the vagaries of the stock market and a downturn in the economy he has seen his savings diminish at the same time as he lost his job. The prospects in this economy for a [...]

For many at-risk students, the path to college is fraught with barriers and pitfalls. I have conducted interviews with nearly 60 African American or Latino high school seniors. Of these young men, nearly all say they want to attend college. In fact, only two provided an outright “no” when asked the question. Of the 60 [...]

by Bill Tierney Here’s another movie on the same theme as Waiting for Superman and The Cartel. We have four cute kids who are trying to get into “good” (a.k.a. “charter”) schools in Harlem by way of a lottery. Geoffrey Canada once again is the voice of reason saying how important good schools are and [...]

by Bill Tierney At least the graphics and background music in Waiting for Superman were professionally done. In The Cartel we have another documentary about schools made by a reporter, Bob Bowden; this time the storyline is largely about New Jersey public schools. Early on in the movie he gives us a voiceover that what [...]

by Bill Tierney Certain topics tend to generate a great deal of controversy. Speech codes, infringements on academic freedom, issues related to diversity and affirmative action are likely to provoke readers to respond to an article with a torrent of opinions. Other topics, however important, generate only the most pro forma of discussions. Pension reform [...]

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 [...]