- Barbara Hulit, president of Fluke and board member of Washington STEM, offers her thoughts on growing a well educated local workforce for a technology focused economy. While I don't fundamentally disagree with any of her points, I do think she is missing something. Like so many others, she fails to address the more significant problem of student disinterest in these fields which has plagued STEM for a decade or more. Certainly the numbers have stabilized or rebounded slightly, but our best intentions won't lead to any improvements if there isn't a significant interest among students in these programs. It will be interesting to what the program she cites in the article.
What if you build it and they don't come? - Not all local political leaders think the WSU takeover of University Center is a good idea. Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe and Rep. Luis Moscoso weigh in on the subject, suggesting that the WSU proposal does nothing to strengthen educational opportunities and that we must be more focused in the allocation of limited resources.
- The Herald's editorial board thinks much work lies ahead in establishing a trusting relationship between WSU and the other partner institutions at University Center if the larger goal of expanded educational opportunities is to be achieved.
I would ask the Herald's editorial board just exactly why they think any of these partners would participate. Seriously, these institutions have worked hard to establish these programs and to build up the University Center. The editorial board would have them give it their all for a couple more years so WSU can create a plan to get rid of them. Really? You think that's something they ought to do? Really?
When it comes to 4-year education in Snohomish county, the Herald's editorial board has completely lost all sense of reason. - Jerry Cornfield provides the background on the journey to the get Washington State University to take up residence on the Everett Community College campus with the long term goal of creating a 4-year, degree granting institution here in Snohomish county.
While the legislation will make the coordinator for the multi-college University Center program at EvCC, there are no solid plans nor funding to move beyond this arrangement. It seems to me that we risk losing eduction opportunities if the other existing partner colleges pull out of University Center or if the recently announced WGU online university takes hold.
Showing posts with label Links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Links. Show all posts
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Advisory Bored Reading List 06/05/2011
Advisory Bored Reading List 06/04/2011
- Nicole Brodeur in the Times thinks the Washington legislature missed the mark related to education in the most recent session. We cut pay across the board, but didn't build in any accountability for performance, Perhaps, Brodeur thinks, we need to lower our expectations for schools.
- PayPal tycoon Peter Thiel has started to award his 20 Under 20 scholarship, $100,000 to skip college for now and venture out to start an innovative business instead. Thiel has been in the news lately for his thoughts on the education bubble and what he considers a lack of innovation.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Advisory Bored Reading List 04/15/2011
- Truly a sad commentary. The only state education institution that didn't participate in the University Center is the one that will be allowed to run it in the future.
My favorite quote was "providing new approaches to old problems". Honestly, this providing old approaches to new problems. But hey, it's only money. We got plenty of it for post-secondary education. Sigh ........
- Danny Westneat doesn't pull any punch in this article about the UW's decision to enroll more out-of-state students. In his opinion, the UW is doing exactly what we asked them to do - to get by with less and less money.
"Sheesh, we weren't even willing to go along with a temporary, 2-cents-per-can tax on soda pop last year. Now we're going to get all indignant when the UW looks to the other 49 states because we're too cheap?"
As Westneat points out, the funding is only going to get worse. The state paid 70% - 80% for the cost for me to attend the UW back in the ... well just you never mind. It's fallen to 45% today and heading south.
Westneat thinks we need to fund education as we had in the past, but I have to wonder if that's possible. It's a lot easier to subsidize 80% of a student's tuition if only 10% of graduating high school seniors go on to college. In a world where k-16 is almost mandatory of the "best paying" jobs, well that's a lot of money.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Advisory Bored Reading List 02/22/2011
- Everett School Board will discuss a possible censure of board member Jessica Olson on Tuesday, February 22nd. Olson's tenure has been marked by ongoing controversy with her interaction with the school district leadership and fellow board members. She won her seat on a platform of more openness.
Personal opinion here: After the past leadership of Everett schools, openness would be very welcome, but Olson has failed to move the objective forward. It's nice that she fights all these battles, but maybe she should consider winning a one or two. The real censure should come from voters who replace the ineffective Olson and the other secretive members of the board.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Advisory Bored Reading List
Michele Martin provides us with her thoughts of how school prepares students for more school, not "real" life. I couldn't agree more that we set an expectation of well-defined problems with single right answers. I wish I lived in that world.
The author draws an interesting analogy between testing driven education and fad diets. Even if we meet our goal, have we done so in a healthy manner that allows us to maintain that goal.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan highlighted the efforts of Granite High School's ShopGirls team at last years Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition. He used there performance as an example of strong career and technical education (CTE) programs.
In this post the author highlights the findings in Pathways to Prosperity report that questions the current "College for All" goal for education. Many jobs will require more than high school but less than a BA. Many students may not be well served by the current 4-year university system which does not prepare students for careers.Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Questions and concerns are raised as whether college should just be about getting a job. REALITY CHECK: the only reason most people are going to college is to get ahead in their professional careers. This hand-wringing over creating "better, well-rounded people" is nonsense (that's my opinion, not necessarily the authors).
