Career-specific majors crowd out liberal arts

Guest Blogger / April 7, 2010

There's a new trend at many of America's higher learning institutions: emphasizing career-specific majors at the cost of the liberal arts. A recent Newsweek piece by Nancy Cook, ???The Death of Liberal Arts???, covers the causes and potential effects of this movement. Budget cuts are forcing universities to reevaluate their teaching priorities, and simultaneously, students facing an increasingly difficult job market (just 41 percent of those aged 18-29 have full-time employment according to a recent Pew Research Center study) are choosing what they perceive as more easily marketable degrees than those acquired through a liberal arts education.

But will the rise in popularity of more ???useful??? degree programs serve its intended purpose of increasing job-seekers' employability? Many say no, citing the creativity and imagination associated with liberal arts programs as a necessary component of success in the job market. Cook writes: [quote]

Although many students now want to major in something that sounds like a job, the economy is shifting so rapidly that it's hard to predict the landscape of the labor market??? there's no guarantee that business training will offer students the best preparation for the future.

In Fordham's own Beyond The Basics: Achieving a Liberal Education for All Children, Checker wrote that how well members of society can adapt will not only play a large part in their capacity to find a successful career, but also will determine their chances to participate in public life and

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Career-specific majors crowd out liberal arts

Should federal dollars be used to try to turn around failing charters?

yes Terry Ryan / April 6, 2010

Charter schools are different from traditional district schools in that they are free of many regulations and operating constraints, but in return for their freedoms they are held accountable for their results. Those charter schools that fail to deliver results over time are closed, the theory holds. Yet, strict charter accountability in the form of closure collides with the efforts of states like Ohio to use federal school improvement dollars to turn around troubled charter schools.

President Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Duncan are pushing the school turnaround concept hard through the Race to the Top competition and School Improvement Grants. Andy has written extensively about the many challenges that face turnaround efforts, and has mustered much evidence against the cause. [quote]

Despite Andy's strong case against all turnarounds, I have argued that there are times when the turnaround strategy may have merit for school districts. Of course, we should take on turnarounds with a healthy dose of skepticism and with the understanding that most will fail. But, in cities like Fordham's hometown of Dayton, half of the community's schools perennially receive an F or D on the state's academic report card.

Why would we want to place an ironclad ???????no??????? on a reform-minded superintendent who might seek a portfolio of reforms, including the strategic use of turnarounds? Dayton has been in a perpetual state of reform for 15 years, including launching one of the largest charter sectors in the

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Should federal dollars be used to try to turn around failing charters?

Ohio superintendent under fire for asking teachers to do lesson plans

yes Emmy L. Partin / March 25, 2010

The superintendent of Ohio's Twin Valley Community Local School District has come under fire in his first year on the job from the local teachers union for, among other grievances, trying to make teachers do lesson plans:

???????I asked the teachers to do lesson plans, which they hadn't done in years. Sheryl Byrd [the local teacher union president] said that was a change in work expectations," he said Wednesday. "It's a requirement by the Ohio Revised Code, and we're going to follow it."

Here's what I want to know: when did lesson planning stop being a regular part of a teacher's job????? Don't most teachers view the process as fundamental to organizing their instruction, planning assignments, and ensuring they deliver the right content at the right time to their students?

It's no surprise when teachers unions fight education reforms, but resisting lesson planning????? Really?

--Emmy Partin

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Ohio superintendent under fire for asking teachers to do lesson plans

Promises, promises

yes Jamie Davies O'Leary / March 25, 2010

The National Council on Teacher Quality recently reviewed the 16 Race to the Top finalist states' ???great teachers and leaders??? application sections. NCTQ rightly pointed out one significant reform Ohio has going for it in this area ??? last summer the governor and legislature moved teacher tenure decisions until after a teacher's seventh year on the job (instead of after the third).

But in reading the rest of NCTQ's Ohio blurb, I can't help but notice how many verbs are in the future tense. The Buckeye State's ???yellow??? rating from NCTQ (???proceed with caution???/stoplight metaphor) seems too generous unless it's a flashing yellow and you're turning right onto a crowded 70 mph highway while driving a Smart Car.

NCTQ reports (italics and parenthetical comment mine):

The state adopted a new licensure system in 2009, which it promises will be calibrated with its performance-based evaluation system (which doesn't exist yet). Ohio??? also plans to revamp its guidelines to districts regarding how tenure decisions are made. Ohio also says it intends its new four-step licensing system to provide the foundation for new teacher compensation statewide.

And the kicker, the optional clause:

Ohio proposes that participating districts can ???opt to pursue??? compensation reform based on teacher effectiveness measures.

Andy has already done some great analyses of states' Race to the Top applications and has expressed frustration over several forward-looking promises and plans to create planning

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Promises, promises