Dr Flavius Akerele III's The E Team Education blog

“The U.S. Department of Education released its third round of College Affordability and Transparency information on Thursday, calling attention to the nation's most- and least-expensive colleges”. “Started in 2011 as a requirement of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, the information —with price lists by sector—is part of a continuing effort to give prospective students and their families more information about college. At the same time, the lists call out colleges whose prices are rising most quickly”. “Some of the lists look at tuition alone, while others include net price, subtracting grant aid from the total cost of attendance, which includes expenses like housing. The government calculates increases in tuition and net price on a three-year basis, in accordance with the federal higher-education law”. Read the rest: http://chronicle.com/article/New-Lists-Show-Nations-Most-/140057/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en Just sharing! Dr Flavius A B Ake...

  Does anyone have any positive inspirational stories to share? I know they are happening and would love to hear them. Let’s hear about the positive in education today! Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam

“The tone of questioning at Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing left little doubt that there will be action soon on the issue of sexual assault in the military. But the witness list seemed stacked against one of the bolder proposals — a push by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to take serious sexual assault cases out of the military’s chain of command”. “There were 20 witnesses at the eight-hour hearing, and all but two of them supported keeping these cases within the military justice system”. “Under Gillibrand’s proposal, military prosecutors would handle the decision to take a case to court-martial for all serious crimes except those that are uniquely military in nature. Military chiefs of staff would have the power to establish courts, empanel juries and pick judges, and commanders would not be able to overturn convictions or reduce sentences”. Read the rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/06/05/was-the-sexual-assault-hearin...

Today, I am writing not so much about education, but about certain aspects of our society that are probably not helping our education system. Have you tried calling your bank, or your utility company to ask a simple question about something lately? Be prepared to have at least half a dozen numbers memorized, plus date of birth, and social security number. Standardized tests in school are all about the results, in other words the numbers. When did this phenomenon happen? When did our humanity become merged into digits? When did your number become more important than your name? From a customer service standpoint, if someone is calling because they are having a bad day, at the very least take the time to ask their name first before requesting their number! Treat them, as a human being not a digital file and you will create customer loyalty. This works in schools as well, treat our students as people not results and student ID numbers.     It is not too late to re...

“Ashford Offers Buyouts” “Ashford University has begun a voluntary buyout program for non-faculty employees, said a spokeswoman for Bridgepoint Education, which owns the for-profit institution. Enrollment has tumbled at the university, which is also grappling with uncertainty about its regional accreditation. To reduce class sizes, Ashford has hired more faculty members while eliminating all of its teaching assistant positions, according to the company. Next month the Western Association of Schools and Colleges is expected to publicly announce whether Ashford has succeeded in a revised accreditation bid . The university's current regional accreditor is the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools”. ( http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/06/24/ashford-offers-buyouts )     “Court's Ruling Sets Up Another Round on Affirmative Action” “WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court today issued its long-awaited ruling on a...

I saw this today and thought: is this progress? “In a Rare Collaboration, Researchers Will Study Student-Loan Counseling at DeVry U.” “Many academics say they have a hard time conducting unfettered research on students at for-profit colleges. And just about everyone says that all students, but particularly those who are first-generation college students from from lower-income families, need better counseling about the loans they are assuming to go to college”. “Now two professors at the University of Wisconsin at Madison will attempt to bridge both challenges with a new six-year study set to begin this September at DeVry University”. “The researchers, Sara Goldrick-Rab, an associate professor of educational-policy studies and sociology, and J. Michael Collins, an assistant professor of consumer science, will be studying the borrowing practices of 10,000 online students at DeVry”. “All of the students in the study will receive loan counseling through a special onl...

We have all heard the saying “it takes a village to raise a child”; the saying is actually influenced by various proverbs found throughout the continent of Africa, and in an ideal world is really true. When parents at school get to know each other, interact with each other’s kids, and perhaps even become friends, it fosters an atmosphere conducive to education. However, this is not an ideal world, this is a world often filled with mistrust, suspicion, and that is highly litigious. As a result, simple problems that should be solved by a conversation between two people become blown up, with some people trying to place blame, find a scapegoat, and just generally behaving badly. Parents please talk with the each other first and work out those simple problems with each other. It can be done as long as you all have the best interests of your kids in mind. The minute this escalates to administration, all our kids suffer because of the CYA (figure it out) syndrome.     ...

  Thought I would share an article or two today: “Job Searching While Black: What's Behind The Unemployment Gap?” “In the classic American story, opportunity is always in front of you. You finish school, find a job, buy a home and start a family; it's a rosy dreamscape.But that world is one-dimensional. Income inequality is just about as American as baseball and apple pie. And though the economy has improved in the past few years, the unemployment rate for black Americans, now 13.2 percent, is about double that for white Americans”. “Persistent unemployment and difficulty getting a job cumulatively impact the so-called wealth gap. Wealth or net worth is defined as a person's total assets — such as bank and retirement accounts, stocks and home value — minus debt. It's what families lean on in a downturn”. Read the rest: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/05/25/186609052/for-black-americans-finding-work-an-uphill-battle “How High Is African-A...

There are a lot of former educators in society for a variety of reasons, chief among them is retirement. However, there are those who were in the profession for less than five years who left for one reason or another, there are those who were substitutes, and there are professionals who taught as adjuncts part time. You do not hear much about these folks and their contributions to society, that is, unless of course they do something wrong. When you are an educator and you are doing good you do not get a lot of attention, in fact you are often anonymous; when you do wrong the headline (blasted across) is always “former teacher/educator.”. This is an interesting phenomenon and one that still remains quite consistent with certain elements of our society, with teachers being near the top of that list.     Why is this? Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam

My kids are off from school for the next two days, and it is not because they are on vacation; they go to a year round school, which means the school year does not end until the 3 rd week of July. They are out because, yes, you guessed it “teacher furlough days”! Although the kids are out of school, I know for a fact that most teachers are going to work these two days because they still have the same amount of work to do! We do not pay educators enough as it is in this country, that is a fact. We do not value those who teach, in fact we tend to devalue their contributions to society (we have heard the sayings so I do not need to repeat them). I understand these furlough days are supposed to be for budget purposes, however, how can we casually accept teachers (who are professionals) having to work without pay for several days during the year?     Food for thought… Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam

Two articles today: “Purdue Students Charged With Hacking to Change Grades” “Three current or former Purdue University students face charges of conspiracy to commit computer tampering and conspiracy to commit burglary to hack into computer networks to change grades, The Indianapolis Star reported. Some of the alleged grade changes were from A to A+ while others were from F to A. The investigation that led to the charges started when an engineering professor noticed that his password had been changed”. ( http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/06/14/purdue-students-charged-hacking-change-grades )   “Ugly Fraternity Incident at U. of Chicago” “The U.S. Postal Service has cut off mail delivery to the Phi Delta Theta fraternity after an incident in which fraternity members mistreated a mail carrier, The Chicago Sun-Times reported. The mail carrier received an order for 79 postal supply boxes, which he had to deliver in six or seven trips. After the last t...

“Senators Condemn For-Profit Colleges' Use of Military Tuition Aid” http://chronicle.com/article/Senators-Condemn-For-Profit/139741/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en The battle between certain elements in our government and the for-profit education industry continues. I should preface by saying, for me, this is not about taking sides but about wasting resources and having no quantifiable end goal. These senate hearings cost money, and the for-profit schools spend money defending themselves; all this money would be better spent on students. Unsubstantiated accusations go back and forth with no result, and the whole thing ends up being sideshow entertainment not progress in higher education. Progress will come if everyone steps away from the cameras and the media, and focus on real results based upon real problems . We know there are problems in certain institutions of the for-profit industry, but there are also problems in higher education in general across the...

From an article I read: “You finally landed that coveted job interview. Maybe you aced it; perhaps you flopped. Either way, you send a thank you note and check your inbox compulsively for a week, waiting not-so-patiently for some sort of response. But you hear nothing”. “This happens far too often”. “According to a new CareerBuilder study among 3,991 employees, 60% said they’ve experienced this as a job candidate”. “Why is this so common”? “Sadly, many times it is simple rudeness that is present when a candidate never gets a response after a job interview, says HR expert Steve Kane . This should never happen at a sophisticated, progressive employer. Obviously, if someone is going through the effort of preparing for an interview, they deserve some idea of their likelihood of receiving an offer”. ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/02/20/what-to-do-when-you-dont-hear-back-after-a-job-interview/ )   Experience: The sequence of ap...

We hear about student loan debt, we hear about gainful employment, we here about college educated folks working in restaurants, and I could go on. However, do you truly believe that going to college equates not being successful in the work place? “If college were easy, everyone would do it”; college has always been reserved for the elite and wealthy, with the occasional charity case thrown in. Name one politician without a college degree, name a president without one, or how about a fortune 500 CEO or president who tell you not to go to college. Do not equate bad economic times with education being useless: it does not add up. The people who are suffering by scale the most are those without an education. “Stop Scaring Students” “It is high school graduation time, and some columnists here in California and nationally, in platforms such as Forbes and U.S. News & World Report, seem to be heralding in the season by carrying articles questioning the value of a colleg...

 I thought I would share this article because it speaks volumes on the good immigrants do, since we mostly hear about the bad. What Immigrants Bring to America By Olúfémi Táíwò I mmigration opponents often don't understand how varied are our stories. Even immigration supporters sometimes treat us as charity cases who should be forever grateful for being taken onto American shores. The institutions that employ us also seem to expect exceptionally audible and constant thanks for having jobs in this land of opportunity”. “Anyone with a good job and prospects, immigrant or not, should probably feel grateful in this rocky economy. But on the whole, immigrants contribute as much as the American-born. Yes, we have good reason to come here; but don't forget that you have equally good reason to welcome us”. Read the rest: http://chronicle.com/article/What-Immigrants-Bring-to/139649/?crt Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam

“The student who was charged with violating conduct rules for speaking out about her rape and the way her allegations were handled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been exonerated, Chancellor Holden Thorp announced in a letter to campus Thursday”. “The student-run Honor Court charged Gambill in February under an Honor Code provision prohibiting “disruptive or intimidating behavior” that affects someone’s education. Gambill responded by filing a federal complaint with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. A couple of months later, OCR sent a letter to colleges warning them not to retaliate against students who make civil rights complaints with either an individual institution or the federal government. (An outside review, Thorp also said Thursday, found no evidence that UNC retaliated against Gambill.)” “UNC is undergoing a broad review and revision of its sexual assault policies, after Gambill and others filed a separate OCR comp...

I believe all teachers go through bouts of not liking teaching just like a lot of professionals from other industries. I enjoyed reading this blog. “I Don't Like Teaching. There, I Said It” By Sidney Perth “I will never forget the day. I was in my third year of graduate school and had reached a point where I was comfortable discussing things with a faculty mentor. Perhaps letting down my guard too easily, I told him that I was not so sure I liked teaching”. “That was an understatement. My admission wasn't because of a bad episode. And it wasn't that I was experiencing my first taste of burnout (that would come later). Rather, my discomfort with teaching stemmed from the broad experience I was gaining in the classroom. My Midwestern state university required teaching assistants to lead four 50-minute tutorials each week for a large introductory course. I had four semesters of that behind me, and two small courses that I taught on my own during summers”. ...

  I believe we all look forward to the day when a sexual assault is a complete anomaly and not the norm. In the meantime, I will count it as positive that the conversation is still going strong and that people are talking about being ‘proactive’ rather than having to ‘react’ to situations. We need to do more than give women instructions on how to stay safe in situations, we need to foster a culture where young men think the idea of assault is abhorrent and recognize what is consensual and what is not. “Beyond Rape Prevention” BOSTON -- Here's one variation on a common scenario: A student wakes up in the middle of the night to find that her roommate has crawled into her bed and is groping her. Afraid that if she resists, he might act out and even rape her, she has sex with him. What makes the scenario common? The fact that the woman didn't want to have sex, but still describes it as consensual. This makes it the sort of case -- like so many that unfold on ...

“Military calls sexual assault 'like a cancer'” “WASHINGTON (AP) - Military leaders said Tuesday that sexual assault in the ranks is "like a cancer" that could destroy the force, but they rejected far-reaching congressional efforts to strip commanders of some authority in meting out justice”. “Seated side-by-side at a long witness table, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of each branch of the military and Pentagon lawyers testified on what is widely viewed as an epidemic of sexual assault plaguing the services”. “Outraged by recent high-profile cases and overwhelming statistics, lawmakers have moved aggressively on legislation to address the scourge of sexual assault. They summoned the military brass to answer their questions at a jam-packed hearing”. “Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the problem of sexual assault is of such a scope and magnitude that it has become a stai...

  I saw this title today and was bothered about something: “For-Profit College Will Pay Up to $2.5M to U.S”. http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/06/03/profit-college-will-pay-25m-us Now the very short article is talking specifically about “American Commercial Colleges” however, the way the title reads seems more like a dig at all For-Profit schools. It is not unusual for some people to get a lot of their news information from just the headlines, but the trouble is the headlines need to be a clearer. There are a lot of good players in the education industry, and a For-Profit college is not inherently bad. As someone who has benefited from non-traditional education, I feel that what I learned is highly relevant and applicable in today’s market. American Commercial Colleges got dinged, not the whole For-Profit industry so let us be clear on how we report the news. We want to set a good example do we not? Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam