K-12 & College Colliding?


 Living in Florida, I am used to keeping my head on a swivel. Hurricane season brings with it a heightened awareness of potential threats to the way life currently functions. Hurricane Ian serves as a strong reminder that the fall brings with it a heightened awareness of potential threats to the way life currently functions.

Looking at the landscape of education at the moment, the same may be said. There are three educational shifts I am seeing that are complementary and have the potential to substantially alter the landscape. Oddly enough, they are making K-12 and higher education more similar.
First, K-12 is shifting to operate more as a private market than as a fundamental public responsibility articulated in educational clauses of state constitutions. In practice this takes the shape of more schools in a community supported by taxpayers and scholarships to students who may use them at public and non-public schools – much like grants and loans in higher education.
Second, the continued debate on the extent to which, if at all, universities and colleges factor an applicant’s race/ethnicity in admissions is again underway in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. While many are understandably focused on potential higher education impacts, the argument is being framed by some as extending beyond higher education to K-12 as well which may further free educational institutions across the K-20 continuum from judicial oversight.  (see excerpt from Council of the Great City Schools amicus curiae submission)
Third is the College Board's decision to not make AP test scores by state and race/ethnicity public. It makes one wonder if this signals a beginning where information that is collected by compliance and has been historically shared is no longer made available in public reports. This did not happen by happenstance or human error, it was a conscious business decision informed by high-level conversations.
So, this fall I find myself preparing for two potential storms, hoping it all unnecessary. I'll do this by first assembling my hurricane survival kit. And, second, strategizing for a future where early childhood, elementary, secondary and #highered all become imperfect markets where the consumer lacks access to the information/data it needs because companies deem it #intellectualproperty.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking Back at 100 In-person Talks

Image
It is an honor to be invited to give a talk, as agendas are often tightly packed. Recently, I hit 100 invited presentations, which led me to wonder: where have I been?  The answer is illustrated in the map above - which includes 76 cites(1). From Boston, MA to Conway, AR to Godfrey, IL and Plano, TX to major cities along the western coast and places in-between.  With each visit I get to better understand, and hopefully empower, the wonderful people and communities they create. To all that have invited me to been community with you I again share a sincere, thank you.  While a minor surgery has me sidelined for the next month, I look forward to being back on the road and in your town soon. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the chance to learn new tools like  Datawrapper  as I heal. Note:  (1)The map also includes places where I gave a "refereed" presentation; meaning I submitted a proposal that was peer-reviewed and accepted.
Read more

Collecting Data that Matters for Today's Students

When I began in my role at the Lumina Foundation I often I'd get a pitch to build a data tool for "students." Yet when I asked for them to define what was meant by "students," the response was underwhelming.     This ocurred at a time when enrollment drops and  #attainment  data showed what we needed was an effort to reach  #todaysstudents  ,particularly  #adults  who identify as  #black ,  #hispanic ,  #nativeamerican  to empower them with the information they sought when deciding to enroll.   It is with that spirit, and understanding, that we engaged the thoughtful  Sova team of  Alison Kadlec   Verónica (Vero) Guajardo, PhD (she/her/ella) Stephanie Gardner, Ed.D.   Quintina Barnett Gallion  to conduct this research.  The goal of which was to hear directly from adult students of color to help ensure that current and future data tools feel relevant and useful to them I encourage you to learn from Sova’s Turning the Mirror: Data Adult Learners of Color Want to S
Read more

The Failure of, and Oppression Perpetuated by, Academic Fiefdoms

  Let's end academic fiefdoms. They exist, and we see them constantly in written formats.   As I completed a  #blind -review of an  #academic  paper and was bothered; deeply. The literature review, where the work of others is recognized, was sparse.  Here are five reasons why it should not be: First, the methodology suffers.  Without understanding how others in the field examined the problem one's  #methodology  suffers. The implementation of many researched  #practices  also occur in other  #states  where  #scholars  have deployed a range of  #analytical   #methods  to understand on-the-ground perspectives. Ideally, literature reviews empower scholars to leverage the analytical thoughtfulness published by others.  Second, the discussion is shallow. A literature review pulling findings from existing scholars situates findings and discussions within a richer context allowing one to detail how the findings are similar too, or different from, existing studies. Third, uninformed ne
Read more