The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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Needed: New Metrics

June 6, 2008

Alex Usher, Vice President, Educational Policy Institute

All over the world, institutions are increasingly worried about whether or not they are “world class”. In Malaysia, rectors get fired if their institution falls too far down the world rankings. In France, institutions are choosing to merge in order to boost their rankings. Ireland’s government has promised to have one university in the Shanghai top 20 in the next few years. In Taiwan, the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council has created its own new bibliometric ranking system to spur some of that country’s institutions into the top 100. In Canada and the United States, the clamour over World Rankings may be somewhat less, but that’s only because we drank the kool-aid on the centrality of research universities so long ago we barely remember when it wasn’t so. READ MORE...

It's never too late to learn!

In 1999, 44.5% of adults 17 years old and older participated in some type of adult education program. 1.1% participated in a basic education program; .9% in English as a Second Language programs, 9.3% in part-time postsecondary education; and 22.2% in career or job related courses.

SOURCE: Digest of Education Statistics





	Genders split up at more schools Jeremy P. Meyer, Denver Post In ways big and small, gender is playing more of a role in public education as schools explore separating the sexes in lunchrooms, classes or even entire schools. Single-sex education has been a longtime province of private and parochial schools, but recent research and school choice are making it an attractive option for public schools despite protests from civil libertarians. It’s time to open the doors to out-of-state school models Julia Steiny, Providence Journal Across the nation, charter laws have spawned certain schools that are so successful they’re being replicated in other towns and states. Nonprofit providers of these nationally acclaimed schools have been wooed and welcomed into communities hungry for better, more-effective options.	Educators told schools face a dropout crisis Associated Press, Anchorage Daily News High school educators have been told in Seattle that dropout rates for minority students, especially Native Americans, are at crisis levels in Alaska and five other Northwest states. The resegregation of Seattle’s schools Linda Shaw, Seattle Times Nearly three decades after Seattle Public Schools integrated almost all its schools through busing, that racial balance is long gone. The segregation is often the byproduct of who lives where. But other schools end up that way through the choices parents make. The Seattle School Board is weighing what, if anything, to do about the situation.


	A bid to boost ranks of minorities with PhDs: In its 14 years, the PhD Project has helped to triple minority presence on business school faculties Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, Christian Science Monitor Since its formation in 1994, The PhD Project has helped triple representation of these groups among the faculty of American business schools – from 294 to 903. Another 400 are working toward their doctorates. Student loans start to bypass 2-year colleges Jonathan D. Glater, New York Times Some of the nation’s biggest banks have closed their doors to students at community colleges, for-profit universities and other less competitive institutions, even as they continue to extend federally backed loans to students at the nation’s top universities.	Can we afford higher education’s external costs? James McCusker, Washington Herald A greater proportion of today's students is seeking higher education for practical, economic reasons, for example, but this is probably more a response to the rise in educational costs than it is a reflection of changed values in our society. Higher education level might mean lower BMI Baltimore Sun Highly educated men and women in the U.S. have a lower average body mass index than their less-educated counterparts, according to a new comparison of international data. Conversely, highly educated men and women in poor countries where malnutrition is prevalent tend to have a higher BMI than less-educated people.


	76% of Mongolian high school grads attend higher education Mongolia Web 35,000 of Mongolian high school students will enroll in schools of higher education next fall. A total of 46,000 students graduated this year from the country’s high schools. Chile’s investment deepening ties to U.S. Marcela Sanchez, Washington Post Chile is pushing hard to build “human capacity” with a $6 billion dollar investment in higher education, by far the largest in Latin America, according to Jeffrey Puryear, education expert at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. In the 1960s, a similar academic training program, largely funded by the U.S. government and U.S private foundations, proved to be a sound long-term investment for Chile. Students who graduated from California universities helped modernize Chilean agriculture and substantially contributed to the country's economic success of today.	French higher education under threat of change Toulouse, The Economist (France) For years, Europeans have talked of doing something about higher education, so as to prepare better for the “knowledge economy”. But lingering taboos—over tuition fees, private finance, or competition—have inhibited the timid and frustrated the bold. Now, however, there are the first stirrings of genuine change. Now France is having a go. It has 1.4m students enrolled in 82 state-owned universities. There are no tuition fees, nor is selection of students on entry allowed, apart from the required baccalauréat. Lecture halls are swamped; first-year medical students camp out early for scarce places. Campus libraries close at weekends. Undergraduate intake mix widens B.B.C. News Universities in the UK have continued to recruit more students from backgrounds with no tradition of going into higher education, figures show.


	What’s in a name? As B.C. grants university status to five postsecondary institutions, questions are raised about what the change in title actually means Elizabeth Church, Globe & Mail There were showers of confetti at Capilano College when B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell came by this spring to announce it would become a university - part of a whistle-stop tour that saw the province approve such name changes at five institutions in a matter of days. Now that the hoopla has ended, the question remains of what the change in status actually means. Depending on where one stands, this new university is either a triumph for accessible, flexible higher education, or the latest example of political pressure making a mockery of attempts to set priorities and standards. Study: Sources of growth in degree holders across urban and rural Canada Statistics Canada University degree holders in large cities are more prevalent and are growing at a more rapid pace than in smaller cities and rural areas, a new research paper has found.	Students teach province a valuable lesson Julia Kilpatrick, Montreal Gazette The Quebec government will soon start cutting cheques for as many as 80,000 former students who were charged too much interest on their student loans. Investigators cite paper security chaos at border stations: audit Ottawa, Canadian Press Thousands of blank forms used to issue work permits and other valuable documents for visitors to Canada are going missing because border officers are sloppy about security, says a new audit.


	More places for toddlers Adele Horin, Tenterfield Star Almost 95 per cent of four-year-olds will be enrolled in a preschool program following the Government's commitment of an additional $21 million a year to preschool education, the Minister for Community Services, Kevin Greene, said. HSC maths gets radical overhaul Bruce McDougall, Daily Telegraph HSC Maths is being radically overhauled under sweeping changes that include a new, more basic course tailored to vocational education students. Thousands of high school students pursuing apprenticeships and traineeships will benefit from the proposed “practical” course aimed at improving their Maths skills.	TAFE fees rise in bid to tackle skills crisis Farrah Tomazin, The Age Victoria’s top TAFE courses are set to cost twice as much under the most dramatic State Government shake-up of the sector in years. In what could prove a politically sensitive move, Skills Minister Jacinta Allan is planning to overhaul funding for Victoria's vocational education and training system as part of an ambitious bid to tackle the skills crisis by having more people obtain higher qualifications. School principals walk off the job Associated Press, Sydney Morning Herald Victorian public school principals will walk off the job for four hours on Wednesday in protest at what they say are poor pay and conditions.


	Supporting High Quality Career and Technical Education through Federal and State Policy Betsy Brand, American Youth Policy Forum A new paper by the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) presents ideas on how federal and state policy can expand the availability of high quality career and technical education (CTE) as a strategy to improve student performance and engagement. The paper argues that CTE should be a key element in secondary school reform and that CTE is a valuable pathway to postsecondary education and careers. The paper also addresses policy issues on defining student success beyond just academic skills, increasing the availability of applied teaching and learning, using multiple assessments to determine student performance, cross-training of teachers to blend abstract and applied content, and ensuring the quality of CTE programs. This paper’s recommendations are drawn from four AYPF forums and a meeting of policy experts on CTE held in Washington, DC during 2007-2008, funded with the generous support of the James Irvine Foundation. The Condition of Education (2000-2008) National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) releases the newest addition of its annual report, The Condition of Education to ensure reliable, accurate, and timely data, which are necessary to monitor the progress of U.S. education, Congress has mandated. This year’s report presents indicators of important developments and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on participation and persistence in education, student performance and other measures of achievement, the environment for learning, and resources for education.


The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher. To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.