Many changes are expected in academia over the next few years. Tenured positions of the past may be replaced with more adjunct and part-time faculty creating a need for more virtual learning, self-paced study and hybrid classes. Students will need to have strong skills in self-advocacy and personal accountability to make the most of this new learning environment. High schools will need to promote those skills beginning freshmen year.
What is a Master’s Degree Worth?
Many students are considering whether or not to get a master’s degree because the economy is so weak. In fields like finance, engineering and science a master’s might be essential. If you are a liberal arts or business grad who wants to go into business, go through a thorough thought process on the pros and cons, the timing and the experience you may need before you go.
While data shows that students with master’s earn roughly 15% more than students without master’s, it is not a “safe haven.†In fact, employers often take a dim view of students who have only been in school. So, if you are thinking about getting a master’s and you just graduated from college, consider working part-time even if that work is volunteer work. Future employers will want to know that you can work through and with others, that you have strong thinking and problem-solving skills and that you know how to shepherd a process to completion. Many of these skills can only be learned from a job or volunteer responsibilities. If you “hide†in school and miss these experiences, you might be a twenty-five year old with very slim job options instead of increased job options.
So, figure out how you can build your leadership skills, your influence skills by working through and with others and your ability to deliver projects and plans on a deadline. Look for problems within the organization that you can solve. Find ways to save the company money or improve the corporate culture. Figure out how you can make real contributions through your work so that you can leave the position better than when you started. That is job security—master’s or not.
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ARTICLE
New York Times
by the Editors
Room for Debate recently published two forums on the burdens of student loans, and heard from a lot of former students, parents, professors and others who shared personal horror stories, blunt advice and critical observations about higher education.
A number of economists and education researchers say that the student debt problem, while real, has been overblown by the press and loan-forgiveness advocates, and that most students do not graduate with too much debt.
To view entire article visit
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/what-is-a-masters-degree-worth/
46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Our nation is on the verge of a transformational new movement to define educational standards for all grade levels through high school. As the article below states, 46 states are now in agreement that we need to adopt national curriculum standards to help make our country’s workforce more globally competitive. These states are no longer content to watch ill-prepared students get by in school by passing tests that fail to meet national educational expectations. The outcoming national standards hope to balance the discrepancy between what students score on state versus national tests, and to narrow the widening achievement gap between the United States and the world.
LifeBound offers programs that can help smooth the transition for students all the way from elementary school through high school. Even more importantly, LifeBound works to supplement the traditional educational system with critical life skills and strengths-based materials. Along with the new educational standards due to be released in July, LifeBound will help prepare the next generation of students with the persistence, self-awareness and confidence needed to succeed in our global economy.
ARTICLE
By Maria Glod
Washington Post
Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools.
To view entire article visit
Teaching Online: 2 Perspectives
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
In the article below, Gina Greco, a professor of English at Hudson Valley Community College, explains why on-line learning has opened up her true passion for teaching and what you need to do as a faculty member to be
effective at teaching in this environment. One big difference is how you communicate to students through writing with a pithy, positive style. Most of her students are older, returning and have lacked success in their other academic endeavors. This is a fresh start to change habits and lives through education. This medium has tremendous power to transform learning around the world.
Right now, I am in the cab riding to the airport. My cab driver, Tom, is enrolled in all on-line classes through the University of Phoenix. As a returning adult student, he says that the fluid nature of his classes keeps his mind mentally sharp all day long as he considers class assignments and issues while driving his cab. Tom makes use of his downtime waiting for clients while he uses his Broadband Access card.   He is a marketing major and has creatively developed an internship, which accommodates his schedule, his classes and his family. In addition to being hard-working and creative, he showed up to pick me up this morning fifteen minutes early. This type of industriousness is just what our graduates need to create every advantage for themselves in any economy.
 ARTICLE:
By GINA GRECO
A Reaffirmation of Why I Became an Educator
“Impersonal, disconnected, and unfulfilling.” That is how I would have answered if you asked me 10 years ago what I thought of online teaching. As a teacher, I feed off the energy of the crowd and thrive on exciting and entertaining my students to the point of drawing even the most resistant into attending class. When the economy and my growing family necessitated that I teach online as well as in the classroom, I couldn’t have been more surprised by the satisfaction and joy that could come from a distance-learning program.
To view entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=qCrbjqTGncnqhhXHJfFNTKshnHCz4rxk
The Curse of the Class of 2009
According to the article below, this year’s graduates will experience the lowest wages in the last twenty five years and can be impacted by those low wages for at least a decade.
Interestingly, I graduated in 1984 which was the last really bad economy. I got a job with a degree as an English major and was paid $14,000 a year with a company car. This was a time when almost all graduates were majoring in Business. It was a good job and ended being a place where I made my career for seventeen years before I started my own company. At age twenty-six, I was promoted to Assistant Vice President, and I managed a team of fourteen people. Many of my friends also landed strong starter jobs such as this, which yielded great experiences as time went on.
What made those of us stand out and become recession-proof was:
1) A willingness to learn, to grow, to work hard and to do high quality work.
2) Experience through internships which could attest to our business acumen and maturity.
3) A strong academic record complemented by leadership experience.
4) A creative, determined and resourceful attitude which involved making a difference.
If you are graduate who really offers value, focuses on results and is a delight to work with you, too, will have the strongest chance of landing a job as a starting point which can blossom into a career for you. Don’t worry if the job isn’t paying much, focus on what experience it provides to you so that when the economy turns around you will be ready to soar.
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ARTICLE:
Wall Street Journal
By SARA MURRAY
The bad news for this spring’s college graduates is that they’re entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years.
The worse news: Even those who land jobs will likely suffer lower wages for a decade or more compared to those lucky enough to graduate in better times, studies show.
To view the entire article visit
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124181970915002009-lMyQjAxMDI5NDExMTgxMTE5Wj.html
Gen Y Gets Working
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Gen Y’ers are fast realizing that the days of acting like your boss works for you are over. In this new economic climate, as the article below implies, Gen Y’ers are learning to be both effective and humble in their business approach. They are realizing that coming to work early, staying late, taking on greater responsibility and looking for specific and measurable ways to solve problems contribute directly to their employability and promotability. Impacting the company’s bottom line is the measure of their contributions and often the deciding factor in whether or not someone is retained during tough times. They are also realizing that strong work exposure—the ability to really contribute on the job—trumps a non-thinking, non-active job where there is little productivity output or long term results to show.
Additionally, Gen Y’ers are learning to look at their job as an opportunity to contribute and to build valuable personal and professional skills which can help them catapult to a positions of greater responsibility and pay once the economy turns around. Those who can deliver these kinds of results will be the fuel of the new economy and the drivers of their own unlimited potential.
If you are an out of work Gen Yer because you took some liberties with a former employer or job, make amends. Admit your faults. Don’t let your pride keep you from learning your lessons, mending fences and building rapport which can help you the rest of your career. Being stubborn is a career stopper. Learning to be flexible is a career builder.
ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By ALEXANDRA LEVIT
When the oldest members of Generation Y (born roughly 1978 to 1993) began graduating from college several years ago, a collective groan was heard in offices throughout Corporate America.
People said many Gen Y-ers, also called Millennials, had an excess sense of entitlement and were arrogant and lazy. They wanted to do work on their terms and it seemed they wanted feedback on that work every five minutes.
But then the economy tanked. Now, millions of Gen Y-ers are reinventing themselves to show how much, and how quickly, they can add value to their organizations.
To view the entire article visit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124131312939880579.html
Lumina’s Leader Sets Lofty Goals for Fund’s Role in Policy Debates
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Jamie Merisotis, the 45-year-old President of the Lumina Foundation, has a lot to teach college presidents and K-12 principals through the actions in his first year in this position. First, he has set ambitious goals, the primary one being 60% of the U.S. population earning degrees or credentials by 2025. Second, Merisotis has asked key questions like, why are other developing countries outpacing the U.S. in education and why have we been satisfied with academic performance which is at a 40-year-old standard from which all other countries have moved ambitiously beyond?
Third, he has broadened Lumina’s scope and mission to be a policy-driven change agent in addition to a grant-funding organization. Fourth, he has taken specific steps to model progressive and successful European models in Indiana, Minnesota and Utah so that those models can be improved and expanded in other areas in the U.S. Fifth, Merisotis is forging necessary partnerships with businesses and business leaders who can support, buttress and take action on behalf of this mission. Finally, Merisotis gets that more Americans students need access and student success preparation for continued life success. If we are going to have 16 million more graduates by 2025, we all need to have this same vision, standards, commitment and collaboration.
ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By SARA HEBEL
Soon after Jamie P. Merisotis took over the Lumina Foundation for Education last year, he began talking about a “big goal.” America must increase the proportion of its population with degrees or credentials to 60 percent by 2025, in order to remain globally competitive and meet the nation’s growing demand for college-educated workers, he said. The United States, he warned, is falling behind, and the foundation would make reversing the trend the core of its work.
To view the entire article please visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=3BtgtkkntsQJxWqc5P3r2k9G9twJmjgd
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
According to a new survey by the Fordham Institute, the number of students enrolled in AP exams has increased by 50%. Teachers surveyed believe that the reasons most students are pursuing these courses is to enhance college essay applications, instead of seeking the challenge and intellectual rigor that such courses provide. Teachers surveyed said that 56% of students overestimate their abilities in class and are “in over their heads.†In addition, 60% of teachers said that parents push their children into these classes when they often don’t have the basic foundation required to well.
Interestingly, this survey comes at a time of great debate about raising the lowest performing students while challenging those who are able to perform best scholastically. According to Dr. Robert Sternberg, for students to do well in the world they need analytical, creative and practical intelligence. Right now, the push for the AP courses emphasize analytical intelligence, but if we don’t ask those same students to develop their practical knowledge and their creative framework they will be marching through assignments and tests without mastering deeper learning. This creates students who care more about college applications than knowledge, students who care more about beating the system than truly learning from it and graduates who eventually cut quality corners in the world of work, adding no extra value and often draining an organization’s profitability.
ARTICLE
New York Times
by Jacques Steinberg
A survey of more than 1,000 teachers of Advanced Placement courses in American high schools has found that more than half are concerned that the program’s effectiveness is being threatened as districts loosen restrictions on who can take such rigorous courses and as students flock to them to polish their résumés.
To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/education/29class.html?ref=education
Invoking the Sputnik Era, Obama Vows Record Outlays for Research
CAROL’S SUMMARY: Obama made a huge commitment to science funding from grade school through corporate American, as stated in the article below. Innovation,  strides in science, health and industry will not only help solve some of the world’s leading problems, it will also help us to create jobs and industries which can sustain our economy and the global economy for years to come.   Currently, at the high school level America is number 27 in science compared to other developed nations. This focus and funding will help to turn around waning scores in science and math as we prepare students for the suite of competitive skills they will need as adults.
ARTICLE
New York Times
By Andrew C. Revkin
In a speech on Monday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, President Obama presented a vision of a new era in research financing comparable to the Sputnik-period space race, in which intensified scientific inquiry, and development of the intellectual capacity to pursue it, are a top national priority.
To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/science/earth/28speech.html?_r=1&ref=education
On the Job, but on the Outlook for Work
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Even introverts should open their minds to the power of social networking in a down economy. As the article below indicates, people who get out and meet others through women’s groups, special interests, sports and hobbies will have more job connections and information about jobs than people who keep to themselves. You can network in person or on-line through LinkedIn and sites like FaceBook, but a combination of both strategies is likely your best bet. So, put yourself out there and reap the rewards of expanding your social circle to people who can help you and vice versa.
ARTICLE
New York Times
by Laura M. Holson
Networking before the pink slip arrives is a measure of the anxiety seeping into nearly every corner of the work world.
So a few weeks ago, Katherine Wu, an executive at NBC Universal, packed an overnight bag with her yoga mat and drove 80 miles to Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y., to a retreat organized by 85 Broads, a women’s networking group. In between spa treatments and sun salutations, she and 17 fellow executives discussed career prospects in an unsettled economy.
To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/fashion/09networking.html?emc=eta1