Over the past few months, news about the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) has made national headlines and not in a good way: "Large SAT Score Decline Shows Failure of No Child Left Behind and State High-Stakes Testing Strategy" (FairTest 2011); "Eshaghoff, Emory University Student, Allegedly Took SAT For Other Students" (Huffington Post 2011); and…

Harvard is easily the most recognizable American institution of higher education, freighted with rich associations to the nation's leaders. This article provides an opportunity to examine the history of higher education through a lens often overlooked--fiction. By doing so, the authors provide a richer understanding of a particular institution and…

The March 24, 2008, edition of "National Review" (NR) was dedicated to the memory of its founder: William F. Buckley, Jr., who had passed away on February 27, 2008. It included thirty two different memorials about him written by prominent authors, editors, social commentators, fellow journalists, politicians, and historians. Then NR…

Historians of American education readily acknowledge that in the mid-19th century the German university and academic ideal rose in prominence among American academicians, who then worked diligently to replicate the German university model in the United States. During this same time, however, many more Americans were exposed to a different…

Having limited access to colleges and universities offering women the same educational opportunities available to men, elite women of the 19th century crossed national borders for advanced study and teaching opportunities. The career of Tsuda Umeko, founder of one of the first private institutions of higher education for women in Japan, leader in…

In recent years, there has been considerable and renewed interest in the effects of McCarthyism on academia. Ellen Schrecker's "No Ivory Tower" (1986), Lionel Lewis' "Cold War on Campus" (1988), David Holmes' "Stalking the Academic Communist" (1989), Charles McCormick's "This Nest of Vipers" (1989), Neil Hamilton's "Zealotry and Academic Freedom"…

In Central America the Cold War support of the elites by the United States was designed to ward off the communist threat. At the same time social and economic demands by the working and middle classes created revolutionary movements in the face of rigid and violent responses by Central American governments. Issues of social justice pervaded the…

In the post-World War II era, efforts to improve the accessibility and quality of higher education rose to prominence in US educational debates and policymaking. In retrospect, a confluence of factors helped to forge this growing social consensus about the need to create educational opportunity and to diversify the nation's colleges and…

A number of authors have drawn connections between progressive education and the Social Gospel movement, the Second Great Awakening, and other phenomena of 19th century America. In most cases these authors have focused on progressive educators from Protestant backgrounds, but progressivism reached into other American subcultures. Felix Adler was…

America has an over 200 year tradition of underground publications spanning a wide range of social and political expression. One notable period in this tradition was the era of the 1960s and early 1970s, and students' efforts to express themselves and challenge the status quo. Student attention was drawn to issues such as the Vietnam War, women's…

America is unique in that participation in sports has historically been linked to colleges and universities under the premise that participation serves an educational function and supplements the mission of higher education. Yet, intercollegiate athletics is seldom discussed in institutional accreditation self-studies, mission statements, or…

In the modern era, the National Education Association (NEA) is committed to the rights of teachers and faculty members to teach, undertake research, and lead fully political lives without fear of retribution. This devotion can be seen in policy statements, legislative activities, and the pages of "Thought and Action," its journal devoted to higher…

Today, there are critics of teacher education who believe that the system itself is archaic. These critics say that "schools of education" are by their very nature incapable of educating teachers. They say there is nothing worth preserving in them. In this paper, the author proposes that teacher education should engender a set of experiences that…

Paine and Sedlak (1994) refer to education in England as always having been "vertically differentiated" and "horizontally separated" (1994, 160). This paper takes their identification a step further by analyzing how the differentiation and separation of national education impacted the teaching profession. In addition, the paper will explore the…

Upon reviewing the story of higher education from the early eighteenth to the late twentieth century, the authors are able to evaluate the ideals of knowledge and how they have been transformed during this time period. Considering the implications education has on the training of students who become leaders in society, individuals should pay…