Debating How Much Education Society Really Needs

The question for many of those that do change occupations is whether their changes are due to their lack of a “higher education,” or because they do not possess the requisite skills to earn a stable living in a volatile world? The common perception, and a perception voiced in Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, is that high school students do not possess the attributes for this and future workforce because many of the future jobs will require postsecondary education. Continue reading Debating How Much Education Society Really Needs

Things Aren’t Always as They Seem

For decades, the Educational Policy Institute and SwailLandis has worked with schools, colleges, and universities to help these organizations increase student persistence and graduation rates. We’d like to say that we have been very successful in helping these places, but it is difficult to state because the actual change tends to happen long after our consulting and evaluation contracts have expired… Continue reading Things Aren’t Always as They Seem

Legislation to Improve Graduation Rates Could Have the Opposite Effect

By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Scholar, Educational Policy Institute This is an opinion piece I wrote for the Chronicle Review and published on January 23, 2004. I stumbled upon it the other day and thought it was worth a repost on The Swail Letter. Let me know if you agree, disagree, and whether the same holds true 13 years later. As Congress tackles the reauthorization … Continue reading Legislation to Improve Graduation Rates Could Have the Opposite Effect

Pushing Tin

By Watson Scott Swail, Ed.D. A new publication Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report illustrates that the most popular undergraduate programs remain in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and journalism. However, they are also the least employed of college graduates. The best employed are the STEM graduates: those in engineering, manufacturing, and construction. They are employed at a rate of 88 percent compared … Continue reading Pushing Tin