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Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday defended the Obama administration’s proposed college ratings system to several Republican lawmakers, who criticized the plan. Testifying before the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the department’s budget, Duncan said that the college ratings system was needed to provide students with better information and to provide more accountability for taxpayer money. The department’s 2015 fiscal year budget request seeks $10 million to help develop the ratings system. Read more...

By Cheryl E. Ball. I've always done things the hard way, the different way, many times to the chagrin of my mentors. Some of my colleagues think I'm crass and that my research isn't scholarly, and some think my work is visionary and that I am forthright. If I were a crap academic (and there are plenty of us out there, tilting our own windmills), I might take the negative comments to heart, but instead I've proven over and over again why sometimes the hard way works.
My C.V. represents that proof, but doesn't represent HOW I was able to move from whippersnapper M.F.A. student doing the first electronic (interactive) thesis at my university to how I became editor of the leading journal in digital writing studies, winner of my field's top innovation award, and recipient of a Fulbright. Read more...

By Todd K. Platts. In my weakest moments I have broken down emotionally. Like many recently minted Ph.D.s I am witnessing the shattering of my dreams of becoming a full-time college professor by the vagaries of an academic job market destroyed by a fledgling economic system. Balancing the heartache and disappointment with the repeated failure to find gainful academic employment is not easy. How could it be? I have dedicated my whole adult life to this. Read more...

By Jerome P. DeSanto and Robyn L. Dickinson. The higher education chief information officer role continues to evolve rapidly, struggling to keep pace with the technology innovations that are continuing to speed to market. Higher education CIOs wrestle with a long list of priorities that consume their time. Cloud computing, virtualization, teaching and learning technologies, risk management, information management and security, enterprise resource management (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, business process improvement, disaster recovery, and on and on. Read more...

By Thomas P. Foley. Dear Secretary of Education Arne Duncan:
Congratulations on your MVP award at the NBA Celebrity All-Star game: 20 points, 8 boards, 3 assists and a steal -- you really filled up that stat sheet. Even the NBA guys were amazed at your ability to play at such a high level -- still. Read more...

By Adrianna Kezar. Policy makers and entrepreneurs decry accreditation for slowing innovation on campuses and reinforcing the status quo. For example, the American Enterprise Institute and American Council of Trustees have written papers and held sessions on the problem of accreditation holding back innovation. The Heritage Foundation constantly critiques accreditation. A 2013 Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions focused on questions of how accreditation is blocking innovation. And in blog postings, commentators decry accreditation for closing down for-profit providers such as Altuis Education. Read more...

By Bryan Alexander. American higher education now seems to be recovering at last from the 2008 financial crisis. Some states are increasing their support for public universities and colleges. Backlash against the impact of budget cuts seems to have the idea of austerity down a peg, if not discredited it entirely, which might free up more budgetary room for governmental support of education. On the private side, institutional endowments are finally rising after years of stagnation and decline. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. Online enrollment continued to grow at community colleges in 2013, even as many two-year institutions saw overall enrollment stagnate or drop, according to a report released Sunday by the Instructional Technology Council. The council released its annual report on online education at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges, with which it is affiliated. Read more...

By Carl Straumsheim. Heavy cell phone and social media use may hurt students’ grades and well-being, new studies suggests, but having friends and family at their fingertips may also be beneficial to those farthest away from home. In papers presented at this year's annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, faculty members and graduate students from Kent State, Louisiana State and New York Universities contributed to the growing body of research into the academic and personal consequences of cell phone and social media use among undergraduate and graduate students. Read more...