21st Century Scholar

I was famously quoted in a PBS documentary on for-profit education that I thought, for the vast majority of students who do not attend a highly-selective research university, that education was a business. Two years later, I have to admit, I still think so. What led me to revisit this issue was not the recent [...]

A young man arrived in the United States and moved with his family to one of the poorest sections of Los Angeles. The violence and poverty that surrounded him was a surprise. In his application for a scholarship to Stanford University he wrote, “I thought America was a land of riches and pleasures because of [...]

There is a great deal of discussion right now about how our children may not be better off than we are. The drumbeat is that throughout the 20th century the next generation has always been richer than the previous one. Today, however, we know that an increasing number of college-age students graduate and move back [...]

There is a great deal of worry right now that our children will not have a better life than we have had. The narrative goes that American progress has been a continuum where the children will have it better than the parents, just as the parents had it better than the grandparents. In many respects [...]

Here’s a Education Week op-ed that USC President Nikias and I wrote regarding the relationship between secondary and postsecondary education. Enjoy!

The Broader, Bolder Approach to Education is a coalition of scholars, educators, policymakers, and education advocates who support comprehensive reforms to improve education. They argue that social and economic disadvantage is often a barrier to learning. They target three policy areas: early childhood education, comprehensive strategies, and school improvement. The list of prominent individuals associated [...]

“What does this have to do with anything?” is the question I have heard, in some form or another, from high school students over the last seven years. The question is a valid one. What does Macbeth have to do with a teenager from South LA? Why does he need to know the definition of [...]

The phrase the “ivory tower” has a curious connotation. Common interpretations of the phrase are usually pejorative; “he’s off in his ivory tower” suggests that the academic is disengaged from the “real world” studying esoteric pursuits that do not relate directly to what is happening in society. At the same time, my understanding of the [...]

I fly Southwest Airlines a fair amount. They may not be the comfiest airline, but I appreciate their attitude, their prices, and their ability to get me where I want to go usually on time. I was reading their magazine on a recent trip and I came across their “adopt-a-pilot” program. The blurb says that, [...]

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 [...]