Actually I do not remember using mom and dad’s emergency credit card for anything other than my textbooks.  Wow, were those things expensive.  I cringed the first time I went to purchase my books.  As I continued on my college education, this sick feeling would come to me at the start of each semester because of the copious amounts of money I was throwing to the school’s bookstore.

Of course nowadays, kids have got it easy.  Yeah, I said it, easy.  The ability to rent textbooks is taking over and it is saving students quite a good chunk of change.  How about that?

Sources: eCampus.com Textbook Rental

Finally, the government is beginning to see what educators on the front line of America’s war against illiteracy have known for the past twelve years:  No Child Left Behind doesn’t work.  It hasn’t worked from its inception, and it never will.  The law was designed by the federal government during the George W. Bush administration, with a far fetched guarantee that all American school students would be on or above grade level in all the major subject areas by the year 2012.  Aimed specifically at closing the performance gap between minorities and whites in public schools, it was based on the inaccurate assumption that the reason those groups performed poorly was due to the proliferation of unqualified teachers in the classrooms, teachers who were not paying adequate attention to the needs of minorities.

Teacher Accountability

As this idea was embraced by the states (whether they wanted to embrace it or not) the notion that teacher training was the culprit became synonymous with the core cause of the problem, and teacher accountability took center stage.  The idea of “highly qualified” designations for all teachers in public classrooms meant that evaluation standards would have to be tied to student performance.  The result was that some teachers of very high caliber appeared to look unqualified, while teachers of lesser quality (many of whom represented the racial groups targeted for performance failures, and who are unable to speak proper English themselves) were given the appearance of being highly qualified when they were not. How’s that for a government overhaul?

Standardized Testing

Along with the end of the No Child Left Behind era comes the end of the additional standardized tests implemented by states in order to prove to federal officials that they were compliant with the laws.  Most state boards of education, during the iron reign on NCLB, adopted all manner of extra end of year and benchmark tests that had less to do with helping students, and more to do with compiling documentation that could be used against teachers in the event their students did not perform well on the end of grade tests;  this documentation could then be used as grounds for dismissal, which would satisfy the requirements of No Child Left Behind and keep the school district safe from additional penalties.

The Future of Education

What comes next?  There’ s really no telling.  The American education system is so incompetent, as are its leaders from local to state and federal levels, that finding an answer could take fifty years or more.  Any ideas?  Please share.

That’s right, when you add your professor as a friend on Facebook, or follow his or her tweets, or tune in to their “extra” broadcasts on YouTube, it sends the message that you are invested in the wealth of information being offered.  Your professor will know you are serious about the course and about your future, and your participation in social media initiatives will be remembered when sitting in the back of each lecture or lab and quietly minding your own business is long forgotten.  That being said, you are probably wondering what the most popular social networks among college professors are.  At the top of the list is Facebook, followed closely by YouTube.  Check out the infographic for details:

We think that is taking it a bit too far.  Teachers are people, too, after all.  They need to stay in touch with others through social media just as much as other folks — but school districts beleaguered by complaints have had little recourse but to discipline some personnel over their indiscretions on Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Networks.  Here is a startling infographic featuring some of the worst offenders:

Masters in Health Administration – With a MHA degree it is likely that you could have the potential to earn almost two times the salary of a health administrator with only a bachelor’s degree.  That of course depends on a variety of factors.  It is typical to need a master’s degree in order to become a health administrator or a manger.

Master of Business Administration – An MBA will give you vast knowledge in all areas of business and administration.  It is useful no matter the industry that you wish to go into, but it is especially so in the financial and corporate fields.  Specialized MBAs are also quite helpful when it comes down to looking for a job.

Master in Computer Science – With this master’s degree you will be ready to pursue a career involving developing software or computer science and research.  The skills and knowledge that you acquire will be of great use in any computer based career.

Idaho was the first state to pass a law explicitly stating that, “No new employment contract between a school district and certificated employee shall result in the vesting of tenure, continued expectations of employment or property rights in an employment relationship.”  Voters in Idaho will vote in the fall of 2012 on whether to overturn that law.  In many states, this issue will not go to vote.  Measures tying teacher pay to performance and reducing the reliability of teachers’ positions within school districts has caused a mass exodus of teachers from the profession.  Some are moving to other states, while others are leaving the field of education altogether.

So who are the teachers we have left?  Or what does the face of teaching look like?  Here is an infographic that might shed some light on the subject.

Check out the data and see what you think.  We’d love to hear your comments.

In addition to the video, you should be aware that the RSA Animate video clip series presents some highly sophisticated ideas to young learners. The lectures have a visual aspect that keeps the attention strong and encourages analytic thinking. These are not only very entertaining videos, but also useful for education.  There are a lot of people in the field of education who are not interested in such engaging use of technology because it takes some updating and bringing oneself into the here and now with the modern tools of technology in education.  What these videos should show us is how easy and seamless it can be to take things up a notch in our education system to get our kids where they deserve to be with residential security alarms.

In today’s society, Internet learning (along with Internet everything else) is growing rapidly.  Online classes and lectures are a great benefit when perhaps a professor is out of town or for someone going back to school later in life and has a semester where they would prefer to be home with their kids too.  Making education more accessible is a huge benefit to our society and for the future of our country in order to be competitive with other nations.  But having felt so positively about my own non-online college experience, I can’t help but wonder if this trend may not be one that we want to dive into head first.  One aspect of college classes that was most beneficial for me was the interaction.  I was forced to be in groups with other students that didn’t think like me and stand up for decisions that I made in the actual presence of group members or professors, not just over email.  In a tough business environment, this is critical.  Are young adults who are taking over half of their classes online really getting this experience and this knowledge?

Another troubling fact that I have encountered regarding the effectiveness of online classes comes from some of the interns that have worked for me.  I hear them discussing their schedules for next semester and one person advising the other to take a particular course online since it’s so much easier.  Are the standards for these types of classes really being held as high as those for standard classes?  Is an online class made easier because the pressure of sitting in a classroom with no means of cheating on an exam isn’t there?  The natural pressure and situational factors of dealing with a professor and a class in person are incredibly beneficial in the real world.

I know that there are some colleges that don’t offer many online courses and students do it all the old-fashioned way.  Should the degree of someone who barely stepped in a classroom be valued equally?  I’m not saying that an online degree can’t have as much value, I’m simply stating that the system should have some way to note what type of degree a student has earned.