Dr Flavius Akerele III's The E Team Education blog

This was just announced and the hope is to help veterans voice their negative concerns about schools:   “Complaint System for Student Veterans” “The federal government this week announced the launch of a new online complaint system for college students who are veterans or active-duty members of the U.S. military. The Education Department and Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , are participating in the interagency effort to protect students and Post-9/11 GI Bill investments. The complaint system will be a way for students report negative experiences with colleges and universities. Veterans groups called the announcement a "game changer," according to Stars and Stripes .” Read it here: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/01/31/complaint-system-student-veterans I would suggest that they accept positive reviews as well because good work should be rewarded as well (just my thought). D...

I am sure some people will object to this blog, but so what. I would like to discuss executive pay at some non-profit institutions. Higher education has evolved a lot in the last decade, partly because the makeup of the students is changing. You have folks going back to school after a 15 year break, some going to school for the first time, and of course military students using their benefits. That is a lot of money waiting to flow into an institution. One of the big ‘selling points’ of working at a non-profit institution versus a for-profit institution   is that “there is not as much pressure to enroll students” or “the money the school makes is put back into the school”. Please name me one school that does not want full seats at all times, and is ok with losing money?   The myth of less pressure is just that, a myth. Remember, not all for-profit schools are bad or unethical. For-profit schools do tend to be up front about metric goals, and what rewards you wil...

For the last decade or so, I have become more and more disappointed with the “state of the union speeches”, and not because of whoever is in office, but by the post-speech garbage that passes as political commentary and opinion and the mass amounts of electronic hate that flow past my screen whether or not I want to see it. What I am talking about is simple manners. Politics is part of life, it has shaped the history United States (actually a lot of countries) in ways that we cannot avoid and should not avoid. Our children initially tend to learn their politics from us parents because we have this tendency to talk a lot and not realize our kids are listening. Later in life, we hope our kids develop their own ideas, but secretly we do not mind if they agree with our points of view. Whatever your point of view, political affiliation, or whatever ‘label’ you want to put on yourself (I have written many times on how I dislike labels), I hope you are teaching your kids one a...

City College is currently slated to close due to loss of accreditation, and 85,000 students are going to have to find another home. (The brouhaha comes as the college struggles to retain its accreditation and remain open. An accrediting commission announced in July that the college had failed to satisfy accreditation standards and that it would lose its right to do business and receive state funding next summer. The city of San Francisco sued the commission, claiming that its evaluation process had been flawed. A judge has since blocked the commission from revoking City College’s accreditation until a trial can determine if the process was proper.) http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Troubled-CCSF-backs-off-big-administrator-raises-5173287.php An article from today: “City College of San Francisco Backs Off Proposed Raises for Top Officials” “The state-appointed special trustee who was chosen to run the troubled college on Friday abruptly withdrew a pro...

Laureate Education, in just the United States runs: Kendall College National Hispanic University NewSchool of Architecture and Design Santa Fe University of Art and Design Walden University University of St Augustine What this means is that we should pay attention to the decisions they make and to what is going on with them. “Laureate Education’s National Hispanic U. Stops New Enrollments” “National Hispanic University has stopped enrolling new students amid serious financial problems, four years after it was purchased by the for-profit higher-education company Laureate Education Inc., the San Jose Mercury News reported.” “Laureate is a private company that operates a network of about 70 colleges in 30 countries. It bought the university, which enrolls about 600 students, in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. At the time the company planned to add 8,000 students online and start degree programs in Mexican-American studies and in Spanish.” ...

 My kids have been reading for a while now, but every so often, it still makes me smile to see them excited over a book. My son, got the first three books of a series for Christmas, and my daughter got another series; they promptly tore through all of them and have been dragging us back to the library regularly for the rest of the series (the library is my friend). I feel great that we passed on this pleasure to our kids, and I know that we developed this from our parents. It is contagious and a great habit to ‘catch’! I do not need a study to tell me that it is good for my kids, however, let me share something: “Don't Underestimate the Power of Pleasure Reading” “A recent study by David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano of The New School for Social Research in New York City argues that reading literary fiction (as compared with reading popular fiction, or nothing at all) temporarily enhances one's ability to understand others' mental states and deepens empath...

“Obama Promises Government wide Scrutiny of Campus Rape” “President Obama pledged on Wednesday to develop a "coordinated federal response" to address campus rape and sexual assault, calling for more-transparent enforcement of applicable laws and greater emphasis on developing effective campus policies to prevent and respond to sexual assault.” “Although "an inspiring wave of student-led activism" has spurred more students to report such assaults, Mr. Obama said during remarks at the White House, colleges need to do more to keep students safe. Government agencies can help them come up with better policies and put those ideas into practice, he said.” “The White House Task Force on Protecting Students From Sexual Assault, which the president created on Wednesday in a memorandum to executive departments and agencies, will lead the new effort. Its objectives are to: Provide colleges with evidence-based best practices for preventing and respondi...