I am sure that Atlanta Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall . . . → Read More: Widespread fraud in Atlanta student test scores]]> Schools across the nation that are under increasing pressure to raise their students’ test scores now have a choice. They can engage in all that messy and complicated teaching stuff or they can just follow Atlanta’s example and simply change the students’ incorrect answers to the correct ones.

 I am sure that Atlanta Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall figured she had found the simple answer to the school testing problem. How do you get the scores up? Since the students were giving the wrong answers on the tests, why not simply help them out a bit by erasing their wrong answers and substituting the correct ones?

 Hall was named national superintendent of the year for her brilliant success in raising the test scores and the only problem she had was keeping her secret from leaking out. After all, dozens of teachers were involved in the fraud. So she turned nasty to keep the cover-up in place, using disciplinary measures, intimidation and retaliation to keep her employees in line.

Now that the secret is out, what does she have to say? Sorry, she’s on vacation in Hawaii!

You can read a New York Times report on this here.

 It only leaked out after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution determined that the grade improvements were statistically improbable and went looking for answers. What they found were erasure marks on the tests. That’s right! The answer to improving our schools was right there all the time, on the top end of every pencil in the school!

 For those of us who spent time in higher education and constantly wondered how on earth all these kids who knew next to nothing about grammar, math and civics made it out of high school, the answer was right there at the end of the pencil.

 What does this say about the moral and ethical standards in high schools? How common is this practice? I used to think it was just dumbing down the curriculum, but now it turns out to be nothing but fraud. Ms. Hall and her co-conspirators have given up on education and abandoned their students as hopeless, unteachable morons. The only way to get them to pass a test is to cheat for them. Just when you think the state of our education system can’t get any worse, we get this news.

 Imagine the impact these scores had on students. The hopelessly dumb ones are told they are A students. “Hey, maybe I’m smart enough to go to college!” And what about the smart students who work hard only to find that the ones who rarely show up and sleep through their classes get the same grades? Why study at all? Why do we have schools at all? Why not let the teachers just take the tests and let the kids stay home in blissful ignorance?

 The U.S. Department of Education should call for a national investigation on this to find out how many other schools are doing the same thing. What good is it if no child is left behind if they aren’t really learning anything? Isn’t the goal of education teaching students rather than passing tests?

 Peter Thiel understands that higher education is a “bubble” where students . . . → Read More: Entrepreneur pays students NOT to go to college]]> The message of my book that colleges are charging too much for too little education seems to be gaining some traction, at least with the co-founder of PayPal, who is paying $100,000 each to 24 students to skip college and develop their ideas on their own.

 Peter Thiel understands that higher education is a “bubble” where students ruin their financial futures by going deeply into debt to purchase an empty diploma, while not learning anything that will help them live their lives. He is offering an alternate route. And you can read more about the program here.

 As far as I know, this is the first time this idea has been tried and I hope it will catch on. Parents seem to be locked into the idea that not sending your kid to college is a form of child abuse, even though study after study has shown that the majority of college students are disengaged from learning or don’t learn very much during their six years of very expensive classes. Half of the entering freshmen drop out before graduation, the rate of student loan defaults is on the rise and classes have become playgrounds where minimal work earns top grades.

The question then becomes why go to college at all? Until now there has not been a real alternative. Thiel’s imprimatur on the student’s record will certainly be more valuable than any diploma when it comes to jobs and instead of forcing the student into debt, Thiel’s graduates will start out in the black. It’s a great idea and we should all take a good look at it as an alternative to the ripoff palaces that American higher education provides.

 Colleges have convinced themselves that offering the latest cool program or . . . → Read More: Some colleges get off the construction treadmill]]> For nearly 25 years colleges across the country have been permanent construction zones as they raced to build buildings, increase enrollment and enjoy all the additional tuition money, but as any economist will tell you, this is how you build a bubble and bubbles eventually burst.

 Colleges have convinced themselves that offering the latest cool program or perk is more important than educational quality in attracting students.

 Now there are signs that at least a few colleges want to get off the bigger-is-better treadmill, declare themselves “the right size” and turn their attentions to education rather than construction.  You can read about this here in a story from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

 But you don’t have to look far to see the problem continuing. In my home town of Keene, New Hampshire, the local college went to the newspaper a month ago complaining about a cut in aid from the state. If this cut was enforced, the college said, they would have to – what else? – raise tuition!

 But a week later the college was back in the news announcing plans for a new academic building with a price tag in the $10 million range. So where is that money coming from? Not the state, not the federal government, not alumni, not endowment, but from bonds that will be paid by – what else – tuition!

 So students get stuck with the bill no matter what anyone else does. But they never object to this because it is very easy to just take out more and larger student loans to pay their bills. By the time they have to pay off that massive debt they are no longer in school. It’s a scam that has worked for decades and it’s good to know that at least a few colleges have decided to put students ahead of bigger campuses.

But what kind of work are these kids doing? Well, at Northern Illinois University, one team of students was assigned to paint the house of the college administrator who runs . . . → Read More: Student “volunteers” paint administrator’s house]]> “Volunteerism” is a major buzzword on college campuses, where administrators set up programs for students who are sent out into their communities to do public service work.

But what kind of work are these kids doing? Well, at Northern Illinois University, one team of students was assigned to paint the house of the college administrator who runs the volunteer program. She bought the paint and the brushes, got them transportation to her house and set them to work.

When a Chicago Tribune article exposed the abuse, the administrator, Angela Dressen, explained that she had more volunteers than jobs and her house had been damaged in a flood and…well, what the hell? She actually told the Tribune that painting her house was an “educational opportunity.” Dressen has since been reassigned, but the college denied this change had anything to do with her ethical lapse and college administrators went on to praise her for her leadership and for enhancing students’ “out-of-the-classroom experience.”

Many of these “volunteer” programs are nothing more than make-work projects for students to make use of the vast amounts of time that used to be spent studying. To keep students from drinking themselves into oblivion with all that free time, colleges use them as slave labor to enhance the college’s image and put hard working salaried people out of work.

Colleges are in such an arms race with each other to attract students that any thing that seems negative is a reason for parents and students to go elsewhere. One of . . . → Read More: Why colleges cover up campus crimes]]> My book details numerous cases of colleges covering up felonies to protect the college’s “good name,” but the process continues unabated for the same reasons I stated.

Colleges are in such an arms race with each other to attract students that any thing that seems negative is a reason for parents and students to go elsewhere. One of the first things the administrators did at the time of the Viginia Tech shootings was to send out an email command far and wide: “Make sure this doesn’t get out!” To hell with student safety, protect our image at all costs.

Richard Vedder does an excellent job of rounding up cases of this in his column today in the Chronicle of Higher Education called “Long Live a Free Press.” And, on a smaller scale, Paul Miller, an editor at the Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire bemoans Keene State College’s coverup of a sexual assault on an emoloyee in a dormitory utility closet in his column Rumor Control. The only way to change this is for people to take note of it and protest. Coverups don’t work when someone spills the beans.  Here’s to more bean spilling!

A recent op-ed in . . . → Read More: Unpaid internships exploit students]]> In my book I list all kinds of abuses that college administrators inflict on their students: high tuition that leads to cripling levels of student debt that pays for an education in which many students emerge as functionally illiterate. But I missed one of the ways colleges rip off their students: unpaid internships.

A recent op-ed in the New York Times by Ross Perlin, who is writing a book about the problem. shows how this works. The college offers academic credit for an unpaid internship at a for-profit corporation. While this seems to work out for everyone, it assumes that students are actually gaining valuable experience rather than just being sent out for coffeee. In most cases, however, the college has no idea if the students are learning anything at all. Colleges like this arrangement because they get to keep the tuition money for the course but don’t have to provide a teacher or a classroom or anything at all. It’s free money.

The corporation, meanwhile, gets free labor exempt from all labor laws and even the laws that protect employees from discrimination because these students are not really employees because they are not getting paid. It’s really closer to slave labor and what robber barron wouldn’t like to have a few slaves around?

And who does this benefit? Certainly not the kids in the lower income bracket who have to work during the summer to pay their tuition for the next semester. The only students who can take advantage of this are the ones who are independently weallthy enough to not need an income.

Unfortunately this is yet another case in which colleges mercilessly exploit their own students. It’s another program that looks like education on the surface  but is really just a way for colleges to get students to pay tuition and receive nothing in return. I can’t wait to read Perlin’s book.

But they also know that speaking out about it — especially in print — is a career killer and a fast track to a pink slip. Still, some . . . → Read More: Another Professor Speaks Out About Student Entitlement]]> College students’ sense of entitlement — they think they deserve high grades for not doing any work and not learning anything — are a common complaint among college teachers.

But they also know that speaking out about it — especially in print — is a career killer and a fast track to a pink slip. Still, some professors are so ticked off about conditions in their classroom that they can’t resist a public rant against our deteriorating higher education system.

That’s why I want to sing the praises of Elayne Clift, who took the giant leap into possible unemployment with an essay in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education.

Parents who really want to know what they are getting for those tens of thousands of dollars in tuition should take careful note and legislators who are looking for places to cut higher education should take a look at the highly paid administrators who allow this system to persist. We need to replace the administrators who look at students and see customers with the old type, who really cared about learning.

Representing more than 350 publishers, the finalists were selected from 1400 entries in 56 categories. These books are examples of independent publishing at its finest.

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and . . . → Read More: Five-Year Party named Finalist for Book of the Year]]> Foreward Reviews has named The Five-Year Party as a finalist in the education category for its 2010 Book of the Year awards.

Representing more than 350 publishers, the finalists were selected from 1400 entries in 56 categories. These books are examples of independent publishing at its finest.

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers selected from their readership. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor’s Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans this June. The winners of the two Editor’s Choice Prizes will be awarded $1,500 each and ForeWord’s Independent Publisher of the Year will also be announced. The ceremony is open to all ALA attendees and exhibiting publishers.

ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program was created to spotlight distinctive books from independent publishers. What sets the awards apart from others is that final selections are made by real judges—working librarians and booksellers—based on their experiences with patrons and customers.

On the other hand there are people who despise me and accuse me of being . . . → Read More: Making enemies I never met]]> Among the interesting things about writing a controversial book are the people from all over the country who take sides. I get fan mail all the time from people who read my book and loved it. These are mostly parents and professors.

On the other hand there are people who despise me and accuse me of being anti-education and anti-college, despite the fact that I deny all this quite carefully in my book. There are, according to my local newspaper, minions of educators from the college I used to work for who are angry that I wrote a book about THEM! Sorry, the book is NOT about you, but about party schools in general.

Of course I expected a lot of negative feedback, but I expected it would come from people who had actually read at least some of my book.

Another source of annoyanace is people who review my book but did not take the time to to read it! Instead, they read some of the published reviews and then write a review of the review! How bizarre is that?

When the Wall Street Journal reviewed my book on the day it was published, the reviewer mistakenly reported that I had called colleges “education free zones.” But that was a mistake. What I really said in the book was that colleges were “education optional zones,” which is quite a bit different. You can get an education if you want, but if you would rather party instead, that’s okay.

I have now read a half dozen reviews of my book, including one in the Atlantic, that insisted that I used the “education free zone” terminology. When does this stop?

Does anyone out there think it is ethical to review books you have not read? It seems to me that everyone is eager to jump into the blogoshere with their opinions, yet no one wants do the work it takes to really have something to add to the conversation. Perhaps that is just part of living in the connected age.

When my college journalism students refused to do the work I assigned for them in my classes, they told me the problem was that it was “too much work” or “not any fun.” This connection puzzled me for years. Since when was learning supposed to be fun? 

When I learned how to write it was hard work. . . . → Read More: Is Big Bird to blame for student learning problems?]]>  

When my college journalism students refused to do the work I assigned for them in my classes, they told me the problem was that it was “too much work” or “not any fun.” This connection puzzled me for years. Since when was learning supposed to be fun? 

When I learned how to write it was hard work. Even after I tried my best, my papers would come back with comments all over them. “Awkward,” my teacher would write or “get to the point,” or “leave this out.” So I would try again and again before I finally submitted work that was considered acceptable. It was difficult, ego-deflating, back-breaking labor. Not a bit of fun was associated with it. 

But the idea that learning had to be fun was so pervasive among my students that I asked them some probing questions in hopes of finding an answer. When that didn’t work I began to consider how far back the connection between learning and entertainment was made. That led me all the way back to Sesame Street.

 Sesame Street first hit the airwaves in 1969 and was an immediate hit. Using puppets, catchy jingles, flashing lights and loud noises it fascinated pre-school children with short snippets of learning, quick changes of topic and bright colors. For parents who might feel guilty about parking their kids in front of the electronic babysitter it seemed like a miracle. This wasn’t abandoning your kids to the boob tube, this was educational TV.

 Thirty years later, however, the children of Sesame Street whose first teacher was a gigantic yellow bird arrived in my classes demanding – what else? – flashing lights, bright colors, constant shifts of topics, music, fuzzy puppets, make believe games and jokes. They wanted to be entertained in my classes. Anything less than that was boring. Work was boring. Writing was boring. Reading was boring. Learning was supposed to be fun.

 Many professors of my acquaintance caved into this demand to make their classes entertaining. There were word games, action games that involved running around the classroom, classroom clickers that turned their classes into quiz shows and the showing of movies. This was good for ratings on the year-end student evaluations but it was a total failure for teaching anything above the elementary school level.  You can dumb down history, geography, civics and economics into sound bites, but that’s a poor substitute for real learning.

 Real learning still requires hard work, reading, writing, studying, reasoning and putting together all those snippets of knowledge into the intellect’s matrix to create what should be the goal of higher education: wisdom. There is no short cut. The idea that higher education can achieve its goals through the entertainment of students is one of the great falsehoods of our times. It has already become apparent that our college graduates cannot compete with other nations where hard work is still required to obtain a diploma. It was hard work that made America a world leader and by turning out a generation that is allergic to work and waiting to be entertained by the world we are handing over our leadership role to places like China where education is still taken seriously.