“Early college” is an increasingly popular program that allows students to earn college credit in high school. Among the advantages it offers to high school students is the ability to earn transferable college credits or a career-focused credential before they graduate. It also gives them a foretaste of what to expect in college and helps … Continue reading “Is Early College Paying Off?”
Distance education has expanded greatly thanks to the internet, making higher education accessible to non-traditional students. Distance-learners simply turn on their computers and join their online class to access lectures, readings, assignments, and more. North Carolina is ahead of the nation in distance education. As of 2017, 91 percent of North Carolina colleges offered distance … Continue reading “Did You Know? North Carolina’s Robust Online Education Options”
A quick scan of the news confirms that college students spend more on higher education than ever before, but they lack the necessary skills to succeed in the workplace. Apprenticeship programs could offer a promising college alternative, but establishing them can be difficult. That could change, however, as the Department of Labor (DOL) is making … Continue reading “Trump Moves Forward on Apprenticeships—But More Needs to Be Done”
North Carolina schools have a serious literacy problem; most likely, that means it has a teacher education problem. The University of North Carolina system is exploring ways to correct the situation—yet questions remain whether they can effect much improvement. The 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that less than 40 percent of the … Continue reading “Educate the Educators!”
For too many politicians and presidential hopefuls, a free college education is a cure-all for inequality in America—so long as the federal government can pour enough money into it. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), for instance, has opted to make “baby bonds” the centerpiece of his campaign. Under this policy, fleshed out in … Continue reading “‘Baby Bonds’ Would Skyrocket College Costs, Bilk Taxpayers for Billions”
As more students have headed to college and a degree is seen as a way to shape students as workers and as citizens, higher education’s mission has become more important. Its leaders, and their personal beliefs, have become more contentious, too. In recent months, many conservative thinkers have publicly debated how to reform higher education—or, … Continue reading “Reforming Higher Education: A Reading List”
Traditionally, higher education introduced students to life’s most fundamental questions: “What is good?”; “What is true?”; “Do our lives have meaning beyond the material?”; and so on. The focus used to be on developing the whole person: To lift students morally and ethically, to pique their curiosity in all things, and to instill, as Cardinal … Continue reading “Repairing Academia’s Crisis of Meaning”
A series of disasters face art colleges and the art departments of American universities. Their campuses are closing, their freshmen numbers are dwindling, and their graduates are struggling. Getting more students into an art program is a hard sell. To restore their appeal, art schools would do well to de-politicize their programs and focus on … Continue reading “Politicized Art Schools Are Losing Students to the Atelier Movement”
Freshman composition occupies a unique position in a college curriculum. It is the only class required of about 90 percent of enrollees whose diverse aptitudes and prior writing experience present a challenge for instructors every semester. In Why They Can’t Write, instructor John Warner of the College of Charleston proposes a course he says will … Continue reading “College Writing Courses Are in Trouble, But This Isn’t the Solution”
When students graduate high school, they know about the benefits of a college degree but not career training. Students who get some career and technical education (CTE) in high school can develop job skills and prepare for their future career without a college degree. How states design their CTE programs, however, determines how useful this … Continue reading “A Tale of Two CTEs: Kentucky’s Strengths and Missouri’s Weaknesses in Career Training”