Notes in the Margins: Unions, dual enrollment and early admission

Early Applicants More Likely to Gain College Admission; Higher admission rate of early college applicants fuels controversy. And the admissions advantage is big, according to U.S.News & World Report's analysis of the 233 colleges that report separate rates for their early admission programs. In 2009, the last year for which complete data is available, the typical college's early acceptance rate was 15 percentage points higher than its rate for those who sent their applications in by the standard deadlines, which are usually in December or January. In some cases, however, such as the University of Arkansas and SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry, more than 80 percent of early applicants gained admission, compared to less than a third of the regular applicants. (US News & World Report) A Curricular Innovation, Examined: The low cost touted by its advocates has helped fuel suspicion about StraighterLine: what kind of education can it possibly be offering for $99 a month? Students at Fort Hays State University, in Kansas, protested when news of its partnership with StraighterLine broke in early 2009; they worried that it would "cheapen the value of a degree from FHSU," and an English department committee there expressed doubt about the quality and rigor of StraighterLine's composition courses. (Inside Higher Ed) Faculty on 3 more UW campuses want to unionize UW-River Falls, Stevens Point and Stout filed petitions to hold elections, with union representation through AFT-Wisconsin. (Wisconsin State Journal) What's High School For? Dual enrollment may do more harm than good. Increasingly, students are turning up at college campuses with an impressive number of college credits, thereby bypassing introductory college courses. The problem is that high school is not college and completion of a dual enrollment high school class is not always a guarantee that students have learned the material. (Inside Higher Ed) In defense of the liberal arts Without citizens broadly informed by the humanities, we descend into a pyramidal society. A tiny technocratic elite on top crafts everything from cell phones and search engines to foreign policy and economic strategy. A growing mass below has neither understanding of the present complexity nor the basic skills to question what they are told. (National Review) In Study Abroad, Simple is Sophisticated The problem with many study abroad programs is that the approach toward education is usually linear. It doesn't put people and cultures together, it just sends students in. We have seen education as something to give to students, not as something they experience, give, and get. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

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