By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute The last few weeks haven’t been terribly good weeks for the student loan industry. In fact, the last year hasn’t been one to remember if you work at one of the loan agencies or associated institutions. Let’s take a brief review… In May of 2006, Sallie Mae was skewered on 60 minutes for its business … Continue reading A Slippery Slope
By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute Further travels with me this week involve a visit to the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. I’m here with 15,000 of my closest friends. I think I’ve shaken hands with half of them. AERA is one of those conferences that forces one into a strategic mode just to navigate: sessions at … Continue reading Answering the “Hard Questions”
By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute In this week’s news, we feature a new study by the DC-based Alliance for Excellent Education, which finds that over $1.4 billion is spent at US two-year institutions for developmental (remedial) education. The issue of remediation continues to become an increasing challenge for educational institutions in the US and Canada. Critics of remedial programming suggest … Continue reading Remembering the Alamo
By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute The affirmative action debate has been hanging around the collective heads of public higher education for the last three decades, with the debate coming to a head more recently with the impact of Proposition 209 in California and the expansion of similar legislative actions in a number of states. Higher education has always had preference … Continue reading Ensuring Diversity in Higher Education
By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute I have a pet peeve. And it involves all those state and provincial coalitions or organizations or strategies that use the term “K-20.” The “K-20” partnerships, like those found in GEAR UP and other programs, which are supposed to engage practitioners at the secondary and postsecondary levels to provide a seamless transition and opportunity for … Continue reading Climbing the “College Ladder”
The Swail Letter on Higher Education 