Scholasticity

Professor Evaluations. Good as is?

2010-03-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

So, in the previous post I put up pages out of the faculty handbook that describes how professors are evaluated. The evaluation process is incredible rigorous and makes sure that teachers have an established teaching philosophy and classroom method that work. But after those six years, professors evaluate themselves and send it in to administration. Other than that, it is up to student to do professor evaluations to show Academic Affairs which teachers need to change their style.

This ins't a horrible system. But if teachers have been going unevaluated for twenty or more years, shouldn't they be evaluated? Students don't take their duty to Academic Affairs seriously. I think teachers should be evaluated every five years at least after the six-year tenure review. That is just my opinion. Is there any better idea of how to run professor evaluations? It would be great to give feed back to Academic Affairs. Policy could change along with the vice-president of Academic Affairs at the beginning of next year.

Faculty Evaluation Checklists (Out of handbook)

2010-03-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

Tuition increases

2010-03-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

With the economy being what it is, tuition is increasing around the country. For at least four years, maybe more, the cost of attending liberal arts colleges has been increasing. In Nebraska, it has been pretty regularly going up by $1,000 a year. At state colleges, the increase is a little less dramatic, but still pretty regular. So with the price of education increasing, how long until higher education becomes a luxury rather than a standard?
Not everybody is going to be able to afford college before too long. In four years, Doane's tuition has increased $4,000. When will this downward spiral turn around? Any opinions on when or what will need to happen before the situation gets any better?

Careers after college

2010-02-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

As a college student I worry about occupation after I graduate. Because I am studying to be a high school english teacher I am not torn about what career I will end up doing. I think I'll probably go into teaching.
But when somebody majors in psychology or history or (especially) theatre, then what will they do?
Well, the Nebraska College Recruiting Consortium (NCRC) tries to answer that question. They have career fairs all over Nebraska where students meet employers and they get to ask, "Where can my history degree be used to pay my bills?"
And a big round of applause to UNL for opening up their career fair to the liberal arts colleges around Nebraska. Huge industries will be flocking to Lincoln to whisper into the ears of thousands of potential employees. And bringing a resume to one of these things is an easy way to make sure your resume is seen.

So, with all of this to-do made about getting a job out of your college degree, I have to wonder, how big of an issue is this? How many college grads just go into the real world and keep getting hired into jobs they were qualified for out of high school because they don't know where to apply? Does anybody have any information about this?

Changes to "No Child Left Behind" act

2010-02-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

Well, the Bush administration's 2002 policy of "No Child Left Behind" is now under examination and congress is in the process of looking at how to divide the national funding and all of the necessary bureaucracy.
Basically, the idea behind the revamp is in the "Race To The Top" program where individual teachers are recognized and schools are given additional funding (or salary) by student IMPROVEMENT rather than national test score. There is even talk of crazy things like correlating principal pay to teacher pay so they aren't making twice to three times the amount the teachers salary no matter how the kids are doing.
And one of the biggest problems of the former "No Child" will hopefully be solved by giving extra money to the bottom 1% of schools to put some money where it's needed most and then wave the rest in front of the schools who are doing okay to try to raise the bar of education. Hopefully Congress gets the details ironed out and we can see what the nation's schools can really do.
Please find out more and let me know if you think this new program will help or hurt our nation's schools.

A pretty thorough Article about what's happening:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-11-04-obamatop04_st_N.htm

Interview with the Secretary of Education about "Race To The Top":
http://vimeo.com/7905225

Scholasticity: Yes. It's a word.

2010-02-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

I love the book Frindle. Students create a synonym for "pen" and it gets used more and more until it is a widely accepted word.
This happens more likely than people think. Slang constantly gets reinvented by the next term to to express approval of something. "Cool" was adopted a long time ago and it is now hardly even thought of as slang. However "groovy" is all but extinct.

What makes some words (slang or not) last and others disappear from usage? Is it a single society or media's adaptation of the words to spread it? Cool was originally spread by the radio and later the television half a century ago. Is there older slang that popped up and lasted and was it because of it's use by the media?