Sonya Stephens, president of Mount Holyoke College, states that a bill in Florida that would prohibit discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through 3rd grade public school classrooms, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, is less about protecting students than it is about cynically fueling America's political…

On the 50 anniversary of the enactment of Title IX, the U.S. Department of Education released proposed new regulations for Title IX policies. For the most part, these new regulations reverse regulatory changes made during the Trump administration. The Biden administration insists the new regs will "restore crucial protections" that had…

According to Douglas Challenger, American democracy just survived a near-death experience during the slow-motion coup that was the four years of Donald Trump's presidency. It culminated in his rejecting his electoral loss and pressuring officials and political allies to back his claims that the election was fraudulent and, at the end, inciting his…

Access is key to achieving an educated citizenry and maximizing human capital. It is equally important to ask "access to what?" While most of the world catches up to American higher education, the U.S. is in the midst of a shakeout of traditional residential colleges and universities. The question is not whether the status quo should be…

On May 11, the U.S. Department of Education released guidance for the $36 billion in emergency funding available to higher education institutions (HEIs). This new round of funding--authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act--makes $10 billion available to community colleges, $2.6 billion to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs),…

A gap exists between the ability to gauge the success of institutions by deploying a relatively simple set of measures typically based upon the federal cohort, versus the ability to monitor the successful (or unsuccessful) progression of the varied students who move through them. Daniel Regan questions which matters more. To gauge the health of an…

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was started in 2013 by three Black women who were sick and tired of all the lives lost. Since its inception, BLM has gone worldwide, a cross-continental connection of people standing in support of Black life through national protests, marches and other actions calling out racial injustice and police brutality…

The price of higher education continues to increase, and millions of Americans struggle with student loan debt. At the same time, a college degree is for so many a path to career success and financial security, and our region's employers depend on a talented pipeline of highly skilled workers to continue to grow and thrive. Pell Grants were…

The U.S. Department of Education recently reported that the national adjusted cohort graduation rate (the percentage of public high school freshmen who graduate with a regular diploma within four years of starting 9th grade) in 2018-19 was 86%, the highest it has been since the rate was first measured in 2010-11. Asian/Pacific Islander students…

Friday May 8, 2020 saw the release of the most disastrous monthly jobs report in American economic history. In this piece, the authors try to examine three issues for higher education institutions and students in New England. First, what is the magnitude of job losses in New England compared with the rest of the nation. Second, how have the…

Discussions of the problematic future of higher education were already an exploding industry before COVID-19, producing more to be read than anyone could possibly keep up with. Into that pre-coronavirus maelstrom came Bryan Alexander's "Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education" (see ED603630). The author identifies two fundamental…

International higher education is facing increasing competition and pressure from new market entrants, who are introducing disruptive models of delivering more affordable education on scale. Higher education is definitely more than ever at a crossroads in terms of securing its future existence, which is why it becomes essential for academic…

When teaching Political Philosophy to high school juniors in New York City, the author would spend evening hours pondering John Stuart Mill's treatise "On Liberty," asking herself how to help students through the difficult syntax and even more difficult ideas. Often, students would say at the outset that they agreed with Mill, but when…

The Trump administration has sent mixed signals about the future of the DACA program, creating uncertainty among recipients and their families. A leaked draft of an internal memo hinted that the Trump administration intends to cut the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Given such ambiguity, advocates like Gregory Chen, the…

Most employers hiring college graduates take it for granted that these candidates are more qualified than other potential employees who do not have a degree. Many job postings emphasize a college degree as a requirement for a position. There is longstanding evidence that people with college degrees make more money over their lifetime than those…