AASCU: Top 10 Higher Education State Policy Issues for 2010
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities provides an annual report each year on the top 10 issues relating to policies of the states and higher education. The introduction this year notes what it calls "two contradictory movements" in 2009, in that at the same time as President Obama moved higher education near the top of his federal agenda, most of the policy and budget action was on coping with the effects of some pretty serious funding cuts. Number 1 on AASCU's list is the financial crisis of the states. Number 2 is the federal American Graduation Initiative. Number 3 is tuition policy and prices. Number 4 is enrollment capacity. Numbers 6 through 10 include: State student aid programs, Federal focus on community colleges, Statewide expansion of data systems and new reporting metrics, Veterans' issues, college readiness, and Teacher effectiveness.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: AASCU, capital funding, environmental scanning, futuring, policy, states, trends
New Book: 'The Marketplace of Ideas'
If most new problems were once solutions to old problems, then it would be helpful to look at the old problem and how it was solved. In The Marketplace of Ideas, Luis Menand sees what he considers academic professionalism as a problem. So he takes a look at the problem that the current Academy solved. Quite interesting. Buy the book here and SCUP gets a small percentage. You can also read this review by Gideon Lewis Kraus, in Slate.
In reviewing the book, Lewis-Kraus, notes: Eliot's most "original and revolutionary idea" was to require a college degree to enter professional school. This established the educational model that still obtains: liberalization first, then specialization. Universities assumed the role of credentializing professionals, and the professoriate was on the way to becoming a guild.
This transformation gave the professoriate a new autonomy, but at a price: If professors wanted academic freedom, insulation from the demands of the commercial marketplace, they had to start thinking of what they did in nonvocational terms—as the pursuit of specialized knowledge for its own sake.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: academia, academy, faculty, higher education, liberal education, policy
'Real Learning' Is Goal of AAC&U's 'Quality Imperative'
The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is sharing data and analysis from its recent survey of employers, asking them what they want in their college grads. Along with the survey, AAC&U has released a statement, The Quality Imperative. In the USA Today story there is a hint, at the end, of the tension pervading concerns about what learning outcomes should be sought after by federal policy. The AAC&U is concerned about "programs that provide narrow training or short-term credentials ," which a spokesperson for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) says that students often come to school asking "for just the beef" because it relates to a new job.
We have the following links for SCUPers: From the latter: The quality of individuals’ actual learning is the most important resource we have as a society. To build a global future, the United States must erase the educational dividing lines that were designed long ago for a far more parochial and socially stratified world.
It is not just wrong but risky to provide a 360-degree education to some Americans and a much more blinkered form of training to others. A great nation needs and deserves more.
In today’s far more competitive global environment, we must work together toward standards that, once and for all, make excellence truly inclusive, not just in the schools, but in postsecondary education as well. Quality must drive our commitment to college completion, both for the economy and for our future as a great democracy.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: learning outcomes, policy, workforce development
Grapevine 2010: A Critical Juncture for Higher Education in the US
 If you're trying to look deep into the crystal ball at the future of support for higher education from the state, the latest Grapevine* report will help clarify the situation, but it isn't pretty. And it seems like nearly everyone is expecting further cuts, not only in the current fiscal year but in the next one.
* Grapevine has compiled data on state tax support for higher education sinde 1960. This year, the Illinois State University's Center for the Study of Higher Education Policy (CSHEP), which manages Grapevine, has joined forces with SHEEO and folded in that organization's State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) project. The collected data is served up in a number of useful ways on the Welcome to Grapevine, Fiscal Year 2009-10 website.
Links Quoted from Lingenfelter: In summary, the dimensions of the current financial and enrollment crisis are: - More than 5% of FY 2010 appropriations are underwritten with federal stabilization funds that in many states are exhausted, or nearly so;
- State revenues have fallen at an unprecedented rate and a recovery will, at best, take many years according to the National Association of State Budget Officers; and
- Even with recent dramatic enrollment growth, current enrollments almost surely understate student demand, with many students who would otherwise enroll deterred by tuition increases and budget‐ driven enrollment caps and course cancellations.
But money and enrollment demand are not the only issues.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: financial crisis, policy, publics, recession, resource and budget planning, state support
From Lumina: Fostering Economic Recovery Through Postsecondary Education
In a piece subtitled, Three Ideas for a National Strategy to Rapidly Train Workers for New Economy Jobs, Jamie Meritsotis addresses federal policy implications for higher education in difficult financial times by proposing three "big ideas": Accelerated Associates Degrees, Seamless and Transparent Credentials, and Credit for Prior Learning. He suggests ways that federal policy could encourage and support each one. His conclusion: No single program or policy will solve America's current job crisis. But if implemented, these ideas could begin to pay for themselves very quickly. As postsecondary graduates enter or re-enter the job market, they'll do so at a higher income level—roughly 25 percent higher, according to 2007 Census figures. And each year, those increased earnings—earnings directly attributable to the investment in high-quality, workplace-relevant education—will add up. They will improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Americans and their families. And that will benefit all of us.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: federal, financial crisis, policy, recession, stimulus, workforce development
What Do They (the Public) Want From Us?
Taken together, the four pillars of better preparation, more graduates,more research, and better dissemination and commercialization constitute my “More Better” prescription for American higher education to address our society’s most pressing challenges. The two pillars in the middle are at the traditional core of higher education’s mission. Educating and credentialing our students, and carrying out cutting-edge research, define who we are. On either side of these central functions stand two others that we have not embraced as fully as we now must. What we do to shore up the two “bookend” pillars – preparing youth for postsecondary achievement and leveraging the results of our research – will increasingly define our success as 21st century institutions of higher learning.
Labels: policy, public, stakeholders
Using the Stimulus for Lasting Value in Higher Education
New Book: Fertilizers, Pills & Magnetic Strips, The Fate of Public Education in Americ
In Fertilizers, Pills, and Magnetic Strips, Gene V Glass analyzes how a few key technological inventions changed culture in America and how public education has changed as a result. Driving these changes are material self-interest and the desire for comfort and security, both of which have transformed American culture into a hyper-consuming, xenophobic society that is systematically degrading public education. Glass shows how the central education policy debates at the start of the 21st century (vouchers, charter schools, tax credits, high-stakes testing, bilingual education) are actually about two underlying issues: how can the costs of public education be cut, and how can the education of the White middle-class be "quasi-privatized" at public expense? Working from the demographic realities of the past thirty years, he projects a challenging and disturbing future for public education in America.
Labels: environmental scanning, K-12, policy, public education
Connotation, Quality, Accountability. . .
Federal Stimulus Bill: Chasing the Sun
This part of a continuing series of explorations of the economic consequences of parts of the federal stimulus package focuses on solar energy. "The U.S. Department of Energy is still in the process of choosing the projects that will receive loans and deciding how other newly available subsidies will be spent. But the potential windfall is already jump-starting plans for wind farms in the Midwest, massive solar plants in the deserts of southwest Nevada and southeastern California, and geothermal power plants in the Northwest."
Read more: http://www.technologyreview.com/business/22833/Labels: climate change, energy, federal, policy, research, solar, stimulus, sustainability
Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: A Chat with Terry Hartle
Transforming America's Community Colleges: A Federal Policy Proposal to Expand Opportunity and Promote Economic Prosperity
Advocating in Tough Times
This is about reaching out to alums and other friends, not just for contributions, but for a stronger voice in advocating support from the state for colleges and universities on a wide variety of issues: "Using those alumni connections, Clemson has been able to reach out to state lawmakers at budget time to safeguard state funding and save programs on the legislative chopping block, says Beth McInnis, director of advocacy for the university." Read the full article here: http://www.aascu.org/media/public_purpose/2009/09_0405advocating.htmLabels: advocacy, alumni, Clemson, McInnis, policy, state
Peace in Accreditation Land
Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Doug Lederman summarizes recent happenings in "accreditation land" this way: "In stark contrast to 2007, federal negotiations over accreditation rules end in accord, overcoming dispute over student learning outcomes that might have derailed the proceeding[s]." "Those issues were on the agenda again as another panel of negotiators completed several months of work on accreditation at an Education Department office building Tuesday, but with a dramatically different result (and dramatically less drama). The college administrators, higher education lobbyists, accreditors, state officials and others around the conference table -- including Education Department staff members -- reached "consensus" on a package of 16 regulatory proposals to carry out changes Congress made in legislation to renew the Higher Education Act last summer. (When such negotiating sessions end with "consensus" among the parties on a package of regulatory changes, a federal agency is bound to propose them as is; when no consensus is reached, the agency can essentially do whatever it wants.)" Read the full article here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/20/accreditLabels: 2007, accountability, accreditation, assessment, DOug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, policy, quality
What Do You Mean by 'What Does a College Degree Cost?'
If you want to know how much needs to be spent by "someone" to get a degree, $40,000 may be the answer. A recent Delta Study report says that answer also depends on how you perceive the role of colleges. This link is to an Inside Higher Ed report by Doug Lederman: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/19/degree"The paper shows that it is distinctly possible to come up with such a figure, but the wide variation in the numbers -- based on institution type, program, degree level, and other factors -- suggests that the answer will depend in large part on how the question is framed. And that decision is a surprisingly value-laden one, says Johnson. "You frame the question one way if you are only interested in students who graduate, and another way if you want to know the cost for people who go to college and don't complete," he says. "The point is, this is not just a data question. It's a question of what it is that we want from our colleges and universities." This link is to the Delta Study report on degree costs (PDF): http://www.deltacostproject.org/resources/pdf/johnson3-09_WP.pdfLabels: accessibility, affordability, college degree, cost, Delta, DOug Lederman, policy, project, resource and budget planning
Don't Let the Downturn Get You Down
We were noticing this week, on the RPG discussion list, that the California community colleges are reporting very large increases in matriculation in the current semester. It made us wince, because we know that tuition does not cover expenses at community colleges, not even close. This article helps you to make a good case for more public support for community colleges, even in times of financial crisis: As community colleges across the country defend themselves against across-the-board budget cuts, they need to go on the offense by mobilizing key constituency groups to make the case that community colleges offer the best hope of turning the U.S. economy around.
Our extensive work with community college systems in seven states and two in-depth opinion research projects reveals that few people understand the value of public two-year colleges and the huge impact they have on economic success. Similarly, too few community colleges have organized effective advocacy efforts, and when they do speak out, they often use messages that don’t resonate with their target audiences.
While those at community colleges feel beaten down by unfavorable comparisons with four-year institutions, they need to realize that a huge reservoir of good will exists and should be tapped. Our poll findings show that the public holds community colleges in high esteem, but they don’t understand two critical issues that undermine the support of these institutions on the state policy front: Labels: budget, community college, funding, policy
Federal Stimulus Funding for School Modernization, Renovation, and Repair
We bet you and others on your campus have been thinking a lot about "shovel ready" projects? (We're talking $6B here!) So have the great folks at the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (thanks to SCUPer Judy Marks for the info) who have created this new Web page category for related information: The first webpage section, "Status of the School Funding Stimulus," describes the school-related elements of the January 15th draft House bill. This section will be continually updated as the house and senate bills proceed through Congress.
The second section, "What You Can Do Now," provides advice on the most effective way of spending the stimulus funds. We will be adding much more to this section over the next week.
There are four additional sections, "Funding Stimulus News," "Related Events," "Recent Journal Articles," and "Related NCEF Resource Lists." We will continually add information to these. Labels: budget, facilities, NCES, policy, stimulus
Academic Freedom Post-9/11: How Have Outspoken Professors Fared?
This essay by Robert M. O'Neil covers the ground of outspoken and controversial scholars from the torture-condoning John Yoo of Berkeley Law and the Bush administration to Sami al-Arian of the University of South Florida and Ward Churchill of Colorado. It'll give you a nice overarching perspective and record: While most outspoken professors based in the United States have fared far better than one might have expected after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the same could hardly be said of controversial foreign scholars who seek to teach and to address academic gatherings in this country. Labels: academic freedom, freedom of speech, global, International, policy
Trends to Watch: State by State
This website is a nifty addition to anyone's collection of environmental scanning tools:I t’s no surprise to anyone that the world is changing. But the facts of just how the world is changing still have the power to startle—and elude us.
This is why the Pew Center on the States offers Trends to Watch, which seeks to help state policy makers, the media, and the general public follow the major trends that determine if states thrive—or not—and track where the 50 states stand relative to each trend.
The site will be updated continuously, and new data and analyses will be added as they become available and as new trends emerge across a wide range of public policy concerns, including economic competitiveness, education, the environment, the democratic process and government performance. Labels: environmental scanning, future, futuring, Middle States Commission, policy, trends
The I.R.S. Considers Pressing Schools to Further Reveal Their Business Activities
So, is your school one of the 400 that are being looked into by the IRS right now? The Internal Revenue Service is considering expanding its scrutiny of colleges and universities to focus on billions of dollars associated with academic research, federal financing and intellectual property, a senior agency official said on Tuesday.
The expansion of an investigation would put pressure on the schools to further disclose their inner financial workings as the I.R.S. undertakes a major effort to learn more about whether academic institutions are improperly using their nonprofit status to avoid paying certain taxes.
The expansion, while not yet certain, “is on the table,” Lois G. Lerner, the I.R.S.’s director of exempt organizations, said in a brief interview. Labels: budget, budget and resource planning, policy, tax, taxes
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