Recently added articles from Connection, New England's Journal of Higher Education:

Achievement Tests?

Apr 01, 2007; Harney, John O ... One trend that no amount of data can capture is the increasingly routine spinning of notions of "achievement" for ideological purposes. This past fall, a study conducted by the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy for the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) ...

Leisure

Apr 01, 2007; Anonymous ... What higher purpose could be tied to education than increasing leisure time? And yet the English songwriter Andy Partridge might have had it right when he complained, "They taught me how to work but they can't leach me how to shirk correctly." Added leisure time appears not to be among the many ...

Male Motives

Apr 01, 2007; Anonymous ... The new gender gap in education is increasingly well-documented. In Massachusetts, new research by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy shows boys score lower than girls on the state's standardized assessment tests, more often wind up in special education and drop out of ...

Baum Fragments

Apr 01, 2007; Anonymous ... In February testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Skidmore College economist and College Board senior policy analyst Sandy Baum offered a cornucopia of ways to improve higher education financing. Among other things, she urged Congress to use ...

Testing Out

Apr 01, 2007; Anonymous ... Stonehill College is the latest New England institution to go "test-optional." Giving applicants the choice of whether or not to submit SAT or ACT scores is "mission-consistent," according to Stonehill officials who noted in a statement: "Our mission states that the college educates the ...

The Empty Pipeline

Apr 01, 2007; Dobelle, Evan S ... Perhaps the most disturbing data in this "Trends & Indicators" issue of CONNECTION concerns the "education pipeline." For every 100 public high school ninth-graders nationally, only 69 will graduate from high school four years later, only 39 will enter college the fall after they graduate, ...

A Trend Toward Excellence

Apr 01, 2007; Cathcart, Mary R ... CONNECTION'S annual "Trends & Indicators in Higher Education" issue is so rich with trend data and analysis that readers may forget the human faces behind the numbers. Last month, the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) recognized some of the people and programs working to ...

Trend: Shrinking Opportunity

Apr 01, 2007; Haycock, Kati; Gerald, Danette ... In recent months, there's been a surge of attention to issues of access and success in higher education. The U.S. Education Secretary's Commission on the Future of Higher Education talked about it. State policymakers are proposing new goals and accountability systems to address these issues ....

Foundation Course

Apr 01, 2007; Harney, John O ... CONNECTION Interviews Nellie Mae Education Foundation President Nicholas Donohue Nicholas C. Donohue is the new president and CEO of the Quincy, Mass.-based Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the largest philanthropy in New England devoted exclusively to education. Donohue succeeds ...

An Independent Path to College Success

Apr 01, 2007; Danziger, Michael P ... In Hartford, Conn., more than $11 million was recently committed to support college access for low-income students. Federal funds under "No Child Left Behind?" Nope. A gift from the Gates Foundation? Not that either. The millions were pledged by a group of Hartford-area private, or ...

What's in Your Valise?

Apr 01, 2007; Adelman, Clifford ... Determining What Students Learn in College What would we think of U.S. higher education if we knew that 59 percent of bachelor's degree recipients completed two or more courses in college-level mathematics such as statistics or calculus? Or that 35 percent completed a writing course ...

Educational Malpractice?

Apr 01, 2007; Smith, Robert B; Fleming, Dana L ... Higher Ed May Be Courting Trouble with Overpaid Execs and Restless Consumers The number and complexity of state and federal regulations governing U.S. colleges and universities is on the rise. Consumerism, soaring tuition costs, burgeoning student loan debt and the high expectations of ...

Next Stop for the Grassroots Movement: Education Policymaking

Apr 01, 2007; Mohler-Faria, Dana ... For the first time in many years, Massachusetts has an "Education Governor." Swept into the corner office on the strength of a historic grassroots movement and a mission of civic renewal, Gov. Deval Patrick has put education at the top of his list of priorities-and it's little wonder why. Like ...

The Economic Impact of New England Higher Education ... and K-12

Apr 01, 2007; Ludes, Jacob III; Alam, Nadia; Kampits, Eva ... Economists and business leaders have recognized the role played by colleges and universities in driving economic development through their purchasing and employment (to say nothing of their longer-term contributions to workforce development and knowledge creation) and the institutions often ...

Foundations and Higher Education: Whose Agenda?

Apr 01, 2007; Schneider, John C ... A little over 15 years ago, I went with my university's provost to visit the higher education program director at a major foundation. The two had a lively exchange and we were invited to submit a proposal that was the brainchild of a creative young assistant professor of engineering. We got the ...

Warning Lights

Apr 01, 2007; Butler, Lawrence M ... New Dashboard Reports Help Institutions Gauge their Performance The annual "Trends & Indicators" issue of CONNECTION paints a statistical picture of the social, demographic and educational landscape that New England colleges and universities inhabit. We can even glimpse in these data ...