:Daniel’s Teaching Blogfolio

How can you be an educator and not be drawn to an article with a title like that?

The whole thing appears on MSN where you can read it. I’ll only be reproducing bits of it here in order to share some specific, if incoherent, thoughts. Let’s begin:

The concern over quality education in the college sector has grown, due to the popular notion that a two-year degree is the new equivalent of a high school diploma.

That is, if you want greater job opportunities and earning potential, plan on getting a four-year degree or better

. Add to that the continuing trend of outsourcing high-tech jobs from the United States to other countries and the issue is immediately compounded.

I think this is the point where folks like Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller (gurus and life coaches) would step in an attempt to debunk the myth that a college degree equals earning potential. I’ll simply raise and eyebrow and question this popular misconception quietly.

After declaring that the research indicates that US graduates in the field of engineering are under qualified and over-valued, the writer tells us that one expert believes the US continues to lead the world in teaching innovation. How does that jive with this?

Perhaps the most prominent and vocal critic of U.S. universities is Derek Bok, former and returning president of Harvard. He followed up the 2005 publication of his book Our Underachieving Colleges with an article published in the Boston Globe that charts the gaps in American higher learning. Bok’s main point: Faculties tend to ignore research on how much students are learning in college, and how the instructors might help them learn more.

What we have here is a difference of opinion. After all, what are those innovating teachers doing if they’re not atttempting to assess what students are learning and trying to help them learn?

Now look at this:

So what are U.S. colleges doing right? According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the United States still spends more money on education than any other country.

…and apparently getting less bang for our buck, right? What drives me nuts about this statement is that spending is equated with good. As the article points out, the Chinese and the Indians are producing more qualified graduates than the US in certain fields yet they’re doing it at a lower cost. Sure it’s nice that we spend so much on our students but I think it’s a bit of unmerited optimism to say that we’re doing something right in this.

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