By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute For the past couple of weeks, readers have read with great interest the exploits of Alex Usher and me during our Middle East trek. Twelve days in the Middle East provide one with a valuable and varied perspective on what we do and the role of Western society in the developing world. It is an interesting … Continue reading Developing Our Most Valuable Resource
Yesterday, Yahoo Finance posted an article on the worst-paying college degrees in 2010 (see below). Among them are education ($35,100 starting; $54,900 mid-career), special education, child and family studies, and social work. For those of you that follow the trends on return on investment from advanced degrees, the stable outcome of the past decade-plus is that only advanced degrees, such as law, medicine, and other professional levels, are beating inflation. BAs are holding steady, but anything else, including the now-vaulted associate degrees, are losing ground. Continue reading Still Arguing About the Cost Issues
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute Last night I had the pleasure of speaking at the College Board Major Systems Meeting in Napa, California. The audience included superintendents and principals from mostly California, but also Washington state, Utah, and other states in the western region. The purpose of my discussion was to provide a macro overview of the changing world, ala my … Continue reading Living a Lie?
By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute This summer, Education Week’s Scott Cech wrote about test scores in 12 states, based on a study authored by Bruce Fuller of UC-Berkeley and the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) at Stanford. The report finds that while academic progress appears to be increasing in mathematics, the growth rates are below those posted before and … Continue reading Testing to Death
By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute She’s already starting to look presidential. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner and the candidate that many observers now feel has a lock on the presidency (not necessary a good indicator this far out from the election), is putting real issues on the table while the other Democrat and Republican candidates are still getting their collective … Continue reading Hillary Taking Charge in Postsecondary Education
The Swail Letter on Higher Education 