This week U.S. News & World Report released their annual rankings of “America’s Best Colleges,” amid one of the most tumultuous admission cycles in history. Approximately 3 million students are entering colleges and universities this Fall. However, given the current economy environment and the scarcity of financial aid, many students have been forced to downsize their college dreams, opting for a state school instead of “big name†institutions.
Students Paying for Unpaid Internships: Carol’s Take
Searching for a job. Handing out resumes. Setting up informational interviews. Writing thank you notes. We’ve all been there – the challenging (and occasionally exhilarating!) world of the job search. Given all of the frustration and hard work involved in searching for a job, would you pay to have someone else take care of it for you? For your kids?
Today’s article discusses the growing number of students paying thousands of dollars for unpaid summer internships at prestigious companies. While companies like the “University of Dreams” laud their efforts to “facilitate” students’ internship searches and match them with the right companies, I believe they are doing students a huge disservice.
Now, if you’re like most parents, you’re probably saying, “My job is to protect my kid and provide them with the best life possible. If I can prevent them from going through the misery of a job search and secure them a great career opportunity at the same time, why not?”
Here’s why:
While we all complain about searching for a job from time to time, the process of doing so teaches important skills: Persistence. Resume writing. The ability to deal with rejection. Accountability. Networking skills. Resourcefulness. Maintaining a positive attitude. Interview skills. ALL of these skills are important and can benefit students in their future career, and ALL of these skills are rendered unnecessary by expensive internship placement services.
What is more, internship placement services foster a dangerous sense of entitlement in students. When parents pay for these services, students are simply “handed” a job at a prestigious firm without having to do any work – a job based not on their merits, but on the fact that their family can afford this costly service.
My advice? As your students move ever closer to entering the job world, don’t “buy” an internship to ease their transition - let them dive into the job search on their own two feet. Of course, you can prepare them in a very different way: let them know you’re behind them all the way, and make sure they have the emotional intelligence, persistence and humility to succeed.
Unpaid Work, but They Pay for Privilege
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Students attending a panel discussion at New York University about internships and the companies that assist in obtaining them.
With paying jobs so hard to get in this weak market, a lot of college graduates would gladly settle for a nonpaying internship. But even then, they are competing with laid-off employees with far more experience.
So growing numbers of new graduates — or, more often, their parents — are paying thousands of dollars to services that help them land internships.
Call these unpaid internships that you pay for.
“It’s kind of crazy,†said David Gaston, director of the University of Kansas career center. “The demand for internships in the past 5, 10 years has opened up this huge market. At this point, all we can do is teach students to understand that they’re paying and to ask the right questions.â€
Not that the parents are complaining. Andrew Topel’s parents paid $8,000 this year to a service that helped their son, a junior at the University of Tampa, get a summer job as an assistant at Ford Models, a top agency in New York.
“It would’ve been awfully difficult†to get a job like that, said Andrew’s father, Avrim Topel, “without having a friend or knowing somebody with a personal contact.†Andrew completed the eight-week internship in July and was invited to return for another summer or to interview for a job after graduation.
Andrew’s parents used a company called the University of Dreams, the largest and most visible player in an industry that has boomed in recent years as internship experience has become a near-necessity on any competitive entry-level résumé.
The company says it saw a spike in interest this year due to the downturn, as the number of applicants surged above 9,000, 30 percent higher than in 2008. And unlike prior years, the company says, a significant number of its clients were recent graduates, rather than the usual college juniors.
The program advertises a guaranteed internship placement, eight weeks of summer housing, five meals a week, seminars and tours around New York City for $7,999. It has a full-time staff of 45, and says it placed 1,600 student interns in 13 cities around the world this year, charging up to $9,450 for a program in London and as little as $5,499 in Costa Rica.
The money goes to the University of Dreams and the other middlemen like it. Officials at the company say they are able to wrangle hard-to-get internships for their clients because they have developed extensive working relationships with a variety of employers. They also have an aggressive staff who know who to call where. Their network of contacts, they say, is often as crucial as hard work in professional advancement.
What Do Electronic Textbooks Mean for the Educational Publishing Industry?
Today’s story about digital textbooks comes from the front page of the New York Times. According to the story, many educators and pundits predict the complete demise of traditional paper textbooks within the next decade. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger calls traditional textbooks “antiquated, heavy (and) expensive†and hopes to implement electronic texts for many math and science classes in his state. Given the advent of online textbooks, the publishing industry needs to adapt and evolve – whether e-textbooks constitute 10% or 100% of books used by students in the future.
Upon closer examination, perhaps the benefits presented by the e-text format make the challenges look less bleak. If publishers can become proficient at creating high quality, high interaction e-texts for students, their variable cost per unit sold will essentially drop to zero – no more printing costs, no more ink, simply the creation of an e-delivery system or an inexpensive CD-ROM. Additionally, the advent of electronic texts will allow publishers to be much more nimble – facts, statistics, activities and other content can be updated with a quick software fix or a simple adjustment to units sold going forward.
 In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History
In California, high school interns try out digital “flexbooks” created by the CK-12 Foundation.
At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use computers provided by the school to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachers’ science lectures.
Down the road, at Cienega High School, students who own laptops can register for “digital sections†of several English, history and science classes.
And throughout the district, a Beyond Textbooks initiative encourages teachers to create — and share — lessons that incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials they find by sifting through reliable Internet sites.
Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet, but many educators say that it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions — or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.
“Kids are wired differently these days,†said Sheryl R. Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish school system in Lake Charles, La. “They’re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And they think of knowledge as infinite.
“They don’t engage with textbooks that are finite, linear and rote,†Dr. Abshire continued. “Teachers need digital resources to find those documents, those blogs, those wikis that get them beyond the plain vanilla curriculum in the textbooks.â€
Community Colleges and Public Housing in the U.S.
Today’s article from Forbes.com is a piece by Jill Biden on the important role that community colleges play in the
Ms. Biden’s article also ties in to the current administration’s ambitious goals for national graduation rates and educational standards. If we, as a country, hope to achieve such high aims, we must not forget one critical population: the 3,000,000 people living in federal and locally-sponsored public housing.
Why, exactly, is this population so important? According to a report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 52% of tenants in public housing have not graduated high school, including 16.1% who have less than a 9th grade education. These individuals who are struggling to work their way out of poverty are the perfect candidates for a community college education. However, with such a large proportion of these tenants lacking a high school diploma, a comprehensive learning skills curriculum is critical to ensure that these students do not slip through the cracks.Â
Over the years, we here at LifeBound have taught an array of courses through the local housing authority, from English as a Second Language to job skills to resume building.  We have discovered firsthand the immense need for training in such areas as study skills, problem solving and basic writing techniques are essential for these students. Currently our nation’s public schools are evolving beyond teaching a standard test-focused curriculum towards teaching 21st century skills. The education provided through affordable housing in the
Consider Community College
Jill Biden, 08.05.09, 06:00 PM EDT
It’s no longer America’s best-kept secret.
Every year around this time, I am struck by the growing number of college rankings available to prospective college students. While these reports can be helpful, many of them fail to include an option that nearly half of all U.S. undergraduate students choose to pursue–and one I know to be the single best path to opportunity for millions of Americans: community college.
I have been an educator for 28 years, and I have taught in the community college system for more than 16 of them. I don’t have to look any further than my classroom to see the power of community colleges to change lives. For years I have welcomed students to my classroom from many different educational, economic and cultural backgrounds, and seen how the community college system puts them on the same path of opportunity.
I have seen how community colleges fill important gaps: granting two-year degrees, teaching English to immigrants, providing vocational skills training and certification and teaching basic academic skills to those who may not yet be ready to pursue a four-year degree.
It’s also hard to ignore the financial advantages. In today’s challenging economy, community colleges are an increasingly affordable way for students from middle-class families to complete the first two years of a baccalaureate degree before moving on to a four-year university.
From a policy perspective, community colleges make sense; from an economic perspective, they make sense. But I am a teacher, and my experience with community colleges is personal. People sometimes ask me why I choose to teach at one and why I have continued to teach since moving to Washington, D.C. I’m always surprised by the question because there was never a doubt in my mind that I would stay in the classroom. The reason is simple: The students are inspiring.
Improving Classroom Standards
Today’s piece is third in a four-part report by the George Lucas Educational Foundation (yes, that George Lucas) that outlines steps to improving public education in the U.S. The report contends that states should avoid ratcheting down education standards to meet the level of their students – instead, they should move their students’ skill level up by any means necessary.
Especially crucial in today’s article is the mention of college dropout rates. In New Jersey, more than half of new college students drop out due to the fact that they are not mentally and personally prepared for the challenges that college presents. With huge numbers of college students needing remedial classes in order to keep up, this statistic raises an important point: are our current educational standards sufficient to create students who are successful in college and their career?
Clearly, educational standards need to incorporate life skills like problem solving, critical thinking, careful decision making, and financial literacy in order to fully prepare students for higher education. But with so much bandwidth focused on preparing students for tests and raising graduation rates, it is crucial to find ways to empower teachers to achieve these goals.
The movement to create national education standards, while still in its infancy, promises exciting new developments for our public schools. However, standards can be both a helpful benchmark and also a limiting factor. In order to adapt to these new standards, educators must develop the flexibility to make them work for the unique needs of their students. Teachers should avoid simply trying to help students meet standards and pass tests- they should be fostering their own creativity by looking for ways to develop 21st century skills, incorporate technology in their curricula and foster emotionally intelligent students prepared for college, career and life.
Education-Stimulus Priority: Improve Classroom Standards
Several states are modeling innovative efforts to determine what children should learn by the end of their senior year.
by Alexandra R. Moses
States aren’t too far behind the curve when it comes to raising standards. That has been part of No Child Left Behind, and 37 states are matching their standards with college and career demands, according to Achieve, a nonprofit group that works with states on standards. And though each state gets to set its own standards, there are some common guidelines for what students should know to be successful after high school.
The Administration’s Requirement
States need tougher guidelines for what students should know in subjects such as math, science, language arts, and history at specific points in their education. That means tougher classes, a broader list of courses, and strengthened graduation requirements.
But the Obama administration also wants all students to be ready for college. For states, that means closing gaps in achievement and making sure English-language learners and special education and low-income students have the same access to education as middle-class and upper-class college-bound kids.
How It Might Look
Federal standards don’t exist, but there’s a push to create a common core of standards that all states could use, says Scott Montgomery of the Council of Chief State School Officers. ACT, the College Board, and Achieve are collaborating on that common core of standards and hope to have much of it done this year, he says.
One recommendation for improving standards includes assessing how well state’s college-prep classes actually prepare students for college. States need to be specific about what’s required. For instance, instead of asking kids to take three years of math, state standards should specify courses such as algebra, geometry, and algebra II, according to the American Diplomacy Project, which works on college readiness.
To help close achievement gaps, schools also need to make accommodations for different learning styles. That might mean longer school days or new curricula that weave reading lessons into all subjects.
Cash for AP Test Scores: Is This Really the Best Option?
Today’s article from the New York Times focuses on a controversial topic: paying students to excel on tests. The New York-based “Reach” program has had moderate success, with increased numbers of students taking Advanced Placement exams as well as greater numbers of students achieving “4” or “5” scores. Â While it is admirable to encourage students to do well academically and prepare for college, the concept of paying students for their scores on AP exams has several serious shortcomings.
Money talks – but what does it say?
The concept of the Reach program is simple: it connects people who have money (the program’s founders) with people who want money (the students). But is handing cash over to teenagers really the best alternative? No.
It is important to consider the ultimate goal here: preparing students for college and career. If Reach is trying to encourage students to go to college, why not use the $1,000 to create a scholarship or educational savings account? What about a laptop that students could use in their college classes? Instead, young students are given the freedom to spend the money as they see fit – and in all likelihood, the money isn’t going straight into a college savings fund.
By handing cash over to students when they meet the expectations set by the AP board, what message is the Reach program sending? In my mind, the message is simple and risky: You will be rewarded for meeting expectations. In their future careers, students won’t be handed bonuses, promotions or praise for simply meeting expectations. Quite the opposite: students need to be taught to exceed expectations consistently – even if they think no one is watching or no reward is expected.  In fact, if future employers perceive these students as “all about the money”, they will be less likely to invest in mentoring and promoting them.
In Program Giving Cash, More Pass AP Tests
A program that offers students up to $1,000 for passing Advanced Placement exams has shown some success, with more students at 31 city high schools earning passing scores, according to officials in charge of the effort.
The program, called Reach, or Rewarding Achievement, involves students at 26 public and 5 Catholic schools with large minority enrollments. The number of students passing A.P. exams at those schools rose this year to 1,240 from 1,161.
The number of tests taken at those schools — many students take tests in multiple subjects — increased by more than 800, to 5,436, and the number of passing grades by 302, to 1,774. The passing rate edged up slightly, to 33 percent from 32.
The program is one of several local and national experiments using financial incentives to raise student achievement. Another New York City program that pays students for doing well on standardized tests has been underway for two years, but the city has not announced any results.
Although such programs have proliferated in recent years, there has been little evidence of their effectiveness. The results of the privately funded $2 million Reach program are scheduled to be announced Wednesday, and organizers say they are confident the results will help them secure more money.
Making a Community College Work for You
Today’s featured article from the Chronicle of Higher Education addresses the challenges one community college faces as it scrambles to make room for a record number of incoming students. As more and more community colleges face this issue, students attending these institutions will need to deal with a new array of challenges:
- Increased class sizes and larger student bodies: A common complaint of students at large colleges is that they feel “lost in the crowd”. In order to avoid this, it is up to students to take the initiative to create a smaller network of support in a large institution. How? Simply put, by engaging the resources at their disposal: meeting regularly with an advisors, joining co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, taking the time to get to know classmates and making the effort to talk to instructors outside of class.
- Strained school resources: As the article notes, many admissions advisors and counselors are dealing with full schedules and dwindling resources. Therefore, students need to maximize the time that they are able to spend with these important mentors. Preparation is key: students should come up with a list of questions, bring their resume to all meetings and have a solid plan of action each time they meet with an advisor.
- A competitive job market: Even though community colleges provide important education and job training opportunities, finding work after school is not guaranteed – especially in this economy. Students need to take every opportunity to expand their skills, including internships, networking with professionals in their desired field and staying up to date on the latest sector news and developments. As exemplified by the truck driver and the former GM employee mentioned in the article, students need to think of their community college experience as an investment. While this investment may not pay off immediately after school, it will undoubtedly increase skill level, earning potential and hireability in the long term.
How a Community College Makes Room
Scrambling to create classrooms as enrollments soar
Baltimore County, Md.
For a long time, nobody knew where the water in the library’s basement was coming from, but it was not a pressing concern. After all, most people on the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County had no reason to venture into the building’s windowless depths.
That will soon change, however. Administrators expect enrollment in for-credit courses to surge by as much as 20 percent over last fall, and so they have decided that the big, empty space could help ease a serious problem: The college has run out of classrooms.
This summer, workers located the source of the water (a leaking valve). Soon they will build walls, rework the ducts, and convert part of the basement into two classrooms, each with about 24 computers.
“When need dictates, you get creative,” says Sandra L. Kurtinitis, the college’s president.
In Baltimore, as in many places throughout the nation, demand is growing faster than two-year institutions could ever hope—or afford—to build. This fall’s projected enrollment growth in the college’s for-credit programs follows a 10-percent increase it saw during the last academic year. In total, the college plans to enroll nearly 24,000 students in those programs this fall. An additional 37,000 are expected in its continuing-education courses over the coming academic year, a 9-percent increase over last year.
Cisco’s John Chambers: Learning from Adversity
Today’s article from the New York Times features an interview with Cisco CEO John Chambers. I’d like to take a moment to review and analyze what Chambers believes to be the “secrets” of successful employees:
- A Generous Spirit: Chambers mentions both listening skills and mentoring as key elements that he looks for in potential employees. Too often, recent college graduates are taught to be self-focused and center in on their own desires and personal career advancement at the expense of their coworkers or employers. As Chambers suggests, truly successful employees take the time to listen to the ideas, concerns and desires of their peers, thus fostering substantive and lasting relationships that will continue to serve them throughout their career. Additionally, wise employees should avoid focusing solely on the classic “What can I gain from this job/assignment/situation?”. A self-centered attitude will quickly become apparent to supervisors and peers, making these people less likely to advocate for you and your personal advancement.
- Learning from Failure: In these uncertain times, many employees are less willing to take risks and fear of failure is at a peak. However, Chambers’ words send a clear message: be willing to take intelligent, calculated risks. Additionally, successfully employees must develop an indomitable spirit so that they are able to deal with and learn from failure, rather than to be defined by it.
- A Focus on Customer Service and Engagement: Just as successful employees have learned to care about individuals other than themselves, successful corporations cannot simply be focused on their bottom line. Companies that care about their customers begin by hiring customer-focused, service-oriented employees who are empathetic, creative and passionate about developing new ways to improve the customer experience.
In a Near-Death Event, a Corporate Rite of Passage
This interview with chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Photo: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
Corner Office
Q. What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. People think of us as a product of our successes. I’d actually argue that we’re a product of the challenges we faced in life. And how we handled those challenges probably had more to do with what we accomplish in life.
I had an issue with dyslexia before they understood what dyslexia was. One of my teachers, Mrs. Anderson, worked with me and she taught me to look at it almost like a curveball. The ball breaks the same way every time. Once you get used to it, you can handle it pretty well.
And so I went from almost being embarrassed reading in front of a class — you lose your place, and I read right to left — to the point where I knew I could overcome challenges. I think it also taught me sensitivity toward others.
I learned another lesson from Jack Welch. It was in 1998, and at that time we were one of the most valuable companies in the world. We were the stock of the ’90s, and I said, “Jack, what does it take to have a great company?†And he said, “It takes major setbacks and overcoming those.†I hesitated for a minute, and I said, “Well, we did that in ’93, and then we did it again in ’97 with the Asian financial crisis.†And he said, “No, John. I mean a near-death experience.†And I didn’t understand exactly what he meant at that time.
Then in 2001, we had a near-death experience. We went from the most valuable company in the world to a company where they questioned whether the leadership was really effective. And in 2003, he called me up and said, “John, you now have a great company.†I said, “Jack, it doesn’t feel like it.†But he was right. It was something I would have given anything to have avoided, but it did make us a much better company, a much stronger company.
College Students Turning Down Jobs During Recession: Optimistic or Foolhardy?
This recent New York Times article features an array of students who turned down job offers after graduation despite the current economic conditions. While some may argue that this is a savvy move for students not yet tied down by families or mortgages, do the benefits of holding out for that “dream” job really outweigh the costs?
Not in this economy. In the past, I have encouraged friends and former interns to turn down jobs that weren’t a good fit for them either personally or professionally. With a healthy economy and jobs readily available, there was always a back-up plan. If that “stretch” job didn’t come through, you could always take another temporary job to get by. These days, however, recent graduates are competing with highly qualified workers affected by layoffs, bankruptcy and the like. Without the safety net of these jobs, the future looks a lot scarier for unemployed graduates.
Furthermore, this article neglects to mention an important fact – the graduates who blithely turned their “starter” jobs often move back in with Mom and Dad. With 401(k) accounts dwindling, pensions disappearing and layoffs looming, is it really fair for these students to count on their parents for support?
In the end, my advice for the students mentioned in this article is simple: just jump in. Like UConn President Michael Hogan says in this article: Say yes. Continue to say yes – to professional development, stretching beyond your comfort zone and learning to live on a budget. Even if your job offer isn’t perfect or the pay is low, future employers will be much more impressed by the skills and tenacity you demonstrated in your new position than they will be by a year of “blank space” on your next resume.
In Recession, Optimistic College Graduates Turn Down Jobs
It has been two months since Diana Parsons graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a liberal arts degree that cost about $100,000, and she has still not found a full-time job. She has returned to Milwaukee, where she is living with her parents and occasionally waiting tables at a restaurant owned by a friend of her mother.
Another hard-luck case in a miserable economy? Not exactly. Ms. Parsons, 21, is jobless by choice. She turned down one $23,000-a-year offer to become a research assistant at a magazine because she did not want to move to Chicago and another because she did not want to work nights.
“I’m not really worried,†she said. “When the right thing comes along, I’ll know it.â€
Ms. Parsons is far from the only member of the class of 2009 who is picky when it comes to employers. Job recruiters may be bypassing university campuses in droves and the unemployment rate may be at its highest point in decades, but college career advisers are noticing that many recent graduates do not seem to comprehend the challenging economic world they have just entered.
“I don’t think the students understand, I really don’t, but come September, October, when they still don’t have jobs, they’re going to be panicky,†said Clarice Wilsey, a career counselor at the University of Oregon, where just 55 employers came to a recent job fair, down from nearly 90 the year before.
Free Education Changes the Game for Students, Colleges
Rising tuition costs. Waiting lists at many community colleges. Dwindling savings. Shrinking availability of financial aid at many colleges. Fewer jobs available after graduation. Sound familiar? In these tough economic times, access to higher education has become increasingly challenging. Coupled with a tough job market, these grim realities have prevented many students from completing their college degree.
In the face of these realities, a wide array of institutions and governments are working to create free online courseware for students of all ages and stages. With efforts ranging from interactive, discussion based courses to ready-made study materials, organizations ranging from M.I.T. to the United Nations are joining the movement. As computer and web-literacy continue to spread across countries, generations and income levels, these online courses become ever more feasible and valuable.
As access to knowledge becomes increasingly open and low-cost, higher education institutions must examine ways in which they can adapt to this new reality. If free online courseware becomes widely accredited, what benefits can traditional universities offer to their students? As endowments shrink and more required courses are taught through a large, impersonal lecture hall format, the benefits become even harder to define. At this juncture, it is critical for colleges and universities to focus on the essentials: brand, reputation, classroom experience, extracurricular activities, social opportunities and that elusive must-have – the delivery of a transformational experience.
In the Future, the Cost of Education Will Be Zero
July 24th, 2009 | by Josh Catone
The average cost of yearly tuition at a private, four-year college in the US this year was $25,143, and for public schools, students could expect to pay $6,585 on average for the 2008-09 school year, according to the College Board. That was up 5.9% and 6.4% respectively over the previous year, which is well ahead of the national average rate of inflation. What that means is that for many people, college is out of reach financially. But what if social media tools would allow the cost of an education to drop nearly all the way down to zero?
Of course, quality education will always have costs involved — professors and other experts need to be compensated for their time and efforts, for example, and certain disciplines require expensive, specialized equipment to train students (i.e., you can’t learn to be a surgeon without access to an operating theater). However, social media can drastically reduce much of the overhead involved with higher education — such as administrative costs and even the campus itself — and open source or reusable and adaptive learning materials can drive costs down even further.
The University of the People
One vision for the school of the future comes from the United Nations. Founded this year by the UN’s Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technology and Development (GAID), the University of the People is a not-for-profit institution that aims to offer higher education opportunities to people who generally couldn’t afford it by leveraging social media technologies and ideas.The school is a one hundred percent online institution, and utilizes open source courseware and peer-to-peer learning to deliver information to students without charging tuition. There are some costs, however. Students must pay an application fee (though the idea is to accept everyone who applies that has a high school diploma and speaks English), and when they’re ready, students must pay to take tests, which they are required to pass in order to continue their education. All fees are set on a sliding scale based on the student’s country of origin, and never exceed $100.Read more…