Amidst the COVID-19 health crisis disrupting educational and instructional continuity, students, parents, and educators are asking and being asked questions about the current educational process, which is also spurring discussions about the value of education. The following is a selection of education-related news stories from the past few weeks, offering insights about the shifts…
Category: Education
Let’s All Imagine Genius
Lady Aberlin and Daniel Tiger sing the genius of Mr. Fred Rogers. In a short five minute song, they share that we all doubt ourselves, anxious that our differences are what makes us unacceptable to others. Instead, Lady Aberlin, Daniel Tiger and Mr. Rogers encourage us to imagine that our differences define our unique genius.…
A Glimpse Into the Undergraduate Experience during COVID-19 Signals Declining Sentiment about the Value of a College Education
A student who attends a public flagship university in California characterizes distance learning as: Chaos is an apt description. Zoom is challenging to manage and pre-recorded lectures lack humor. It’s difficult to focus on lectures… Third year undergraduate The student, like many others, struggles to continue learning, conflicted about missing friends and her life in…
Is COVID-19 Affecting Admissions Rates?
Below is a comparison of the admissions rates between Fall 2019 and 2020 at a sampling of the most selective universities, ranked from lowest difference to highest: COLLEGE NAME FALL 2019 ADMIT RATE FALL 2020 ADMIT RATE DIFFERENCE Brown University 7.1% 6.9% -0.2% Princeton University 5.8% 5.6% -0.2% Northwestern University 8.9% 9% +0.1% Duke University…
Opportunity amidst upheaval
The continued COVID-19 health crisis, and its impacts both economically and socially may have wide-ranging consequences for colleges throughout the United States. Families confronted by an array of changing circumstances are recalibrating their educational decision making processes, especially for high school seniors choosing between multiple colleges or deferring enrollment, as well as continuing college students…
Test-Optional Confusion
Cornell University admissions officers will not require that Fall 2021 first year applicants submit SAT or ACT scores as part of their applications. Cornell’s policy change applies only for the Fall 2021 application cycle, so underclassmen in the Class of 2022 and younger may once again be required to submit SAT or ACT scores. Yet,…
Fiscal Reckoning Dead Ahead
The $14 Billion bailout for U.S. colleges and universities as part of the recent CARES Act will not solve the widening financial deficits in higher education. Costs to maintain buildings and the physical grounds, despite the lack of students present on campus, as well as salaries to faculty and staff must still be paid. Additionally,…
Managing a return to normal in the time of COVID-19
Emerging from “shelter-in-place” is not as simple are reopening school and college campuses, and welcoming students back into the buildings. The on-going health risks of subsequent outbreaks of COVID-19 absent a proven treatment or vaccine, along with the convoluted governmental structure to protect public health, creates complexity for students and parents trying to plan for…
Distance learning in meme
The million dollar question: How’s the distance learning going? It’s a mixed meme bag, according to college students’ own words. First, new protocols have developed for virtual learning: “When someone new joins a Zoom Chat” But, some things don’t change; no one wants to be the “try hard” no matter if in a virtual sense…
A Renaissance in the Midst of COVID-19
Educators and students, participants in the Modern American Educational Industrial Complex, are mere glimmers of the Jeffersonian ideals of “essential merit”, which historian Joseph F. Kett defines as: …merit that rests on specific and visible achievements by an individual that were thought, in turn, to reflect that individual’s estimable character…’Merit’ was that quality in the…
More Economic Difficulties for Gen Z and Millennials
Graph courtesy of The Wall Street Journal Current college students, many who find themselves at home though would rather be finishing their school year on college campuses around the country, will be confronting along with their older colleagues who graduated college in 2019, 2018, a possibly more complicated problem that of protracted unemployment. In addition,…
University of California Responds to Creative Marbles Consultancy
The above letter is a response from Han Mi Yoon-Wu, Director of Undergraduate Admissions for the University of California Office of the President, after I emailed both UC President Janet Napolitano and the UC Board of Regents to request a response to my recent Open Letter to the University of California. I’m sharing Ms. Yoon-Wu’s…
What is The New Normal?
Hat Tip to ZeroHedge, April 14, 2020 If 10% of Americans will not immediately return to “life as normal” and 71% of Americans will act with caution once the “all-clear” is sounded, what will the “new normal” look like? And, particularly if parents are part of the 71% or 10%, how will we educate their students,…
Academic Meritocracy In Peril
Dear The College Board CEO David Coleman: After viewing your live cast on Daily Homeroom with Sal [Khan of Khan Academy], I respectfully request responses to my questions regarding the 2020 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, as well as my concerns about your replies regarding current high school students’ and their families’ worries. In stating that…
Good news with a caveat
As the graph above shows, for counties in the “Acceleration” and “Late Accumulation” stages, including the United States, the peak of the first wave of COVID-19 infections appears imminent, while countries like China and Korea are in the recovery stage of the cycle. So, the current efforts to “tampen the curve” by sheltering in place…