The August issue of Health Affairs, a leading journal of health policy research, has an article that starkly highlights two Americas: one that is educated and full of promise, and one that is not educated and truncated. Titled “Differences In Life Expectancy Due To Race And Educational Differences Are Widening, And Many May Not Catch Up,”…
Author: David Potash
Cheap – A Liberal Arts Challenge
Ellen Ruppel Shell, Boston University journalism professor and author, is a smart and informed writer. In her latest book, Cheap: the high cost of discount culture, Shell looks at the rise of discount culture – discount shops, outlet malls, and the proliferation of the cheap. Cheap, she takes pains to point out, is not the…
Democracy and College Learning
The nation’s premier organization on higher education, the AAC&U, recently published a report from President Obama’s National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement. An extension of the President’s call for a college-educated populace, the Task Force sought to facilitate a national conversation about learning and democracy. Further, the charge examined how education can…
Accreditation In The Spotlight – But What’s New?
The American Council on Education (ACE) is a national organization that seeks to provide leadership and a unifying voice for higher education. Headquartered in Washington, DC, ACE tries to influence public policy. Its impact, like that of other similarly situated organizations, is difficult to gauge. Perhaps best known for its work with college and university…
Necessary Lies
A well-crafted history arranges space and time into a set, frames a proscenium for our viewing, and knows when to raise the curtain and when to let it fall. It crafts order out of chaos; it conjures up beginnings, middles and ends where none exist, boxing up time, processing it and rendering it digestible. History…
Lost in Transition and Translation
Capturing attention and fears with the ominous subtitle “The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood,” Christian Smith’s Lost in Transition is a sociological study of 18-23 year old Americans. These are the early “emerging adults” discussed by many social scientists. Emerging adults have some of the traits of the adults of earlier generations, but are marked by delayed settling down,…
How Now, Mission Statement?
What makes for institutional effectiveness? If looking at a business organization, an array of well-recognized and well understood measures can answer the question. Profitability, market share, growth, earnings per share – the list is exhaustive and recognized. The measures themselves are also constantly being tested, evaluated and critiqued, for the market provides multiple incentives to…