The Dark Side of Choice in Higher Education
By Judith Scott-Clayton, The New York Times. March 25, 2011. Judith Scott-Clayton is an assistant professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Last week, writing on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, Susan Engel described a small-scale experiment giving high school students greater choice and flexibility over their education. In what was christened the Independent Project, eight students in western Massachusetts designed their own “school within a school,” in which they wrote and then followed their own curriculum. The project was meant to counter the traditional, highly structured high school experience, which, Ms. Engel argued, “doesn’t just fail to prepare teenagers for graduation or for college academics; it fails to prepare them, in a profound way, for adult life.” The essay caught my eye because a growing contingent in higher education has begun to worry about just the opposite concern: that college students may have too much choice and flexibility. So while Ms. Engel suggests that high schools ought to provide more of the freedoms of college, others are suggesting that perhaps colleges ought to provide more of the structure of high school. Learn more…
Best Jobs in America
CNN Money. Money looked for careers with great pay, superior growth prospects, intellectual challenge, flexibility and more. Here’s a list of the top ten jobs: (1) Systems Engineer, (2) Physician Assistant, (3) College Professor (4) Nurse Practitioner, 95) IT Project Manager, (6) CPA, (70) Physical Therapist, (8) Network Security Consultant, (9) Intelligence Analyst, and (10) Sales Director. See the full list…
Attracting and Retaining Talent: Frontline Workers in Long-Term Care
David Altstadt, Jobs for the Future. March 2011. America’s aging population is raising the demand for long-term care, whether in nursing homes or, increasingly, in assisted living facilities and through home-based care (Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute 2010). Assisted living facilities offer housing alternatives for older adults who may need help with daily living activities but do not require intensive medical and nursing care. Home health care enables seniors to live independently for as long as possible by providing a wide range of services, including not only assistance with daily living activities and housekeeping chores but also occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, and even skilled nursing. Learn more…
