Financial Aid

Many Schools Suffering From Threat-Rigidity Response To COVIDIn the wake of COVID-19 shattering the traditional routines and plans of so many schools nationwide, I have lamented that schools haven’t done nearly enough to create more compelling learning experiences for each student. Many schools have instead focused on logistics and operations—which are important given health concerns, but also insufficient. In too many cases, schools have sought to replicate the traditional classroom in a new format—a striking 42% of teachers, for example, reported in a nationwide survey by the Clayton Christensen Institute that they replicate their typical day in a remote format. Or they have offered a subpar learning experience in which students don’t receive the supports they need, as this article by ...

Two 30 Year Veterans Discuss The Education Technology MarketEducation technology is not new. We may think it is because the technology part confuses our senses of fluidity and speed. That’s why in edtech, as with most things, perspective and context are priceless as they help illuminate where we are and maybe remove some of the shadows around where the market and thinking are likely to go. Pam Nelson and Al Kingsley have been in and around edtech for more than thirty years. Not collectively, each. In edtech, that’s basically forever. They’ve been investors, advisors, administrators, entrepreneurs in for-profits and non-profits, and in and out of C-suites. Kingsley, the current CEO of NetSupport is in the U.K., and a member of Forbes Technology Council. Nelson, in the U.S., now runs her o...

Cornel West Is Leaving Harvard For Union Theological SeminaryCornel West, a public intellectual, prolific writer and non-tenured professor in Harvard’s divinity school, is joining the faculty at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He made the announcement today in an interview with The Boycott Times, which bills itself as “an independent non-profit publication of global dissent.” West, 67, earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard in three years, graduating in 1974. He has a master’s and a Ph.D. from Princeton where he was on the faculty from 1988 to 1994. He taught at Union Theological Seminary early in his career and at Yale where he had a joint appointment in the divinity school and the American studies department. His departure will conclude his second stint on Har...

Enhanced Loan Counseling Now Available to Student BorrowersTwitterFacebookLinkedinemailiStock New features unveiled this week on StudentAid.gov are designed to help students better understand the process of borrowing for college and choose a repayment plan that’s right for them. Both the website and myStudentAid mobile app are now equipped with enhanced entrance and exit counseling modules. The new, streamlined entrance counseling module uses personalized information to help borrowers estimate the cost of their education, determine how much they can expect to borrow, and prepare for repayment after school. The enhanced exit counseling includes an assessment to help borrowers choose the best repayment strategy based on key factors, such as their marital status, tax filings, and employment s...

Opinions On Homeschooling Have Changed During The PandemicIt was one year ago when school buildings began to shutter and students retreated to their homes to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus. While not technically homeschooling (they were still enrolled in their school and working on curriculum prescribed by teachers, not their parents), many families got a hint of what homeschooling might feel like, and how the dynamics of their family might change were they to educate their children at home. If you only looked at social media, you would think it a complete disaster. Numerous posts on Twitter and Facebook decrying how unprepared and overwhelmed parents were went viral, as did calls to pay teachers multi-million-dollar salaries after parents had to try teaching their kids on the...

Pandemic Fallout: The Budget Axe Keeps Falling, This Week At University Of Wyoming, Wright State UniversityThe budget fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to plague campuses across the country. This week saw more announcements of pending personnel cuts and academic program terminations as university leaders struggled to cope with plunging revenues, decreased state appropriations, and sharply declining tuition and fees. Two of the largest impacts were at the University of Wyoming and Wright State University in Ohio. University of Wyoming On Wednesday, the Board of Trustees for the University of Wyoming approved the elimination of 11 academic programs. Those cuts are just the first of what are anticipated to be a series of cutbacks as the university tries to save as much as ...

The deeply distorted debate about reopening schoolsFor nearly a year, the Trump administration was accused of ignoring science by trying to bully schools into reopening during the coronavirus pandemic without requiring that proper safety steps being taken. Now the Biden administration, less than a month in office, is being accused of ignoring science — largely for doing the opposite.A popular construct of the criticism of the Biden administration goes like this: Frustrated parents everywhere want their kids back in schools right now, but fearful (and sometimes lazy) teachers don’t want to go. Their unions are nothing but obstructionist. Researchers say there is little evidence that schools contribute to increased community transmission of the coronavirus. President Biden, a friend of labor...

How Schools Can Stop Buying Stuff That Sits On The ShelfAs Congress seems poised to send K-12 schools another $130 billion in American Rescue Plan aid—in addition to the $60-odd billion in COVID relief it delivered in 2020—there’s a lot of talk about how much is being spent. Meanwhile, there’s been too little attention given to how effectively those funds are being used. As schools look to spend enormous sums on things like remote learning, education technology, COVID testing, personal protective equipment, and remediation, it’s time for a second look at how, when, and why schools buy what they do.The question of how, when, and why schools buy stuff usually travels under the yawn-inducing label of “K-12 procurement” and gets about as much attention as you’d expect. But this inattention has...

Boundless Potential: How Colorado Trustees Are Collectively Advocating For Public Higher EducationColorado higher education is at a crossroads. For decades, funding for Colorado higher education has not kept pace with inflation, and at the same time, the state’s student body has become increasingly more diverse. Today’s students are older, working more or working while in school, raising families and often attending postsecondary education institutions part-time. There is an opportunity for institutions to continue to represent the interests of their respective student bodies, but there is also a collective power in aligning key stakeholders around the needs of the state’s talent pool and determining how resources can be best aligned to support lifelong learning opportunities for all Color...

Is Santa Clara U. Better Than Princeton? Earnings Data Say “Yes”As one who ranked colleges for Forbes for about a decade, I am abundantly aware of both the complexities and the usefulness of assessing the quality of colleges and universities. Moreover, as I recently wrote on here, prospective students often tragically stumble choosing colleges, and rankings are one tool that helps them make informed decisions about where to attend. A recent entry into ranking colleges is a company called Optimal, which recently issued its Best Colleges 2021 rankings. It appears that Optimal’s philosophy is that kids (and sometimes adult learners) go to colleges overwhelmingly for the primary purpose of getting a good job, so the real important question is: how much money will I make after I graduate? Usi...