Kevin Schofield

This week the Commission on Higher Education, set up by the Department of Education, issued a draft of their widely-anticipated report on the state of higher education in the United States.It doesn't pull a lot of punches. The commission registers a litany of complaints, which fall into four…

I'm over in the UK this week, and in this morning's paper there was a fascinating report about a study giving Omega-3 supplements to children that seemed to dramatically boost the children's ability to concentrate. If it checks out, we might be hearing more about this in the U.S. soon...

Inside Higher Ed has a super interesting, in-depth article discussing Penn State's aggressive marketing campaign which tries to remake the school's image as "chic." They did a large spread in a fashion/style magazine; they cut a deal with MTV on a TV show, and they've been advertising on…

If you're a follower of Doonesbury, you know that Alex has been wrestling with where to go to college to study engineering. Gary Trudeau decided to let readers vote on doonesbury.com for either RPI, MIT or Cornell. What ensued, in hinfsight, should have been expected. MIT and RPI students both built…

I'm constantly amazed at the scholarly journals that exist out there. Here's a new one: the International Journal of Motorcycle Studies, which is about the "cultural phenomenon of motorcycling" and not about mechanics. The authors' bios show an interesting diversity, including faculty of…

InfoWorld has an interesting article about the intersection of IT education and business education. Which raises the question: what is the proper education for a CIO? It also raises the follow-on question: once they have the formal education, what's the idea path that someone should follow…

Bloomberg reports on a new study released by the Department of Education on science abilities for fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders in the US.  Fourth grade scores went up, eighth grade scores held steady, and twelfth grade scores went down.It would be nice to think that this means four years…

Northwestern University has a bit of a scandal going on... someone took photos of a hazing ritual involving the women's soccer team, and the photos are posted on the Internet. You can imagine that the school would imediately crack down on hazing and other outrageous student conduct. Well, not quite.…

MSNBC has a really interesting article today about textbooks, the process through which they are written, published and selected in the United States, and the forces that control their content. It's an amazingly political process wher the real control is in the hands of a very small number of people…

Much happening in California last week... a judge in Oakland has blocked the state from denying a high school diploma to seniors who failed to pass the California High School Exit Exam (or CAHSEE). CAHSEE tests for eighth-grade level math and tenth-grade level English abilities. Students…