education-economics

After reading Reinventing Public Education, I believe that the only really hope for the future of American education lies in the contracting approach to public education that the authors describe. This is one of the only books on education I have ever read that understands that the problems with public education in this country have less to do with a lack of standards, poor teaching methods, or inequitable funding, than a system which fails to understand that schools are organizations that can only be successful through organic growth rather than government regulation. This book will appeal to both voucher supporters and ardent defenders of a public education system that is committed to educating all its students

As a doctoral committee member and professor for students writing dissertations in both business and education, I found Riley et al.'s text a good secondary source for students' review of both the writing and research process. The sections on research methods was especially focused. Usually when students get to the the actual dissertation process at the end of their program, they have forgotten HOW to do the requisite research (from prior courses). The only disappointment encountered was the book was out of stock this semester and the publisher wasn't clear when the book would be reprinted. Pity. It not only was the most comprehensive out there, it was the ONLY book that was most appropriate for DBA students.

This book really helped me do some soul-searching the last time I looked for a job. It leads you through a series of easy exercises to make you think about your strengths and weaknesses, and lays the groundwork for finding your ideal job. It also offers a lot of sensible, practical advice about what to do and what not to do, most of which I now feel is indispensable to a job search. I recommend this book to you if you are interested in learning more about yourself and how you stand out in the world. It's hard to show anyone else what you're great at if you don't know it for yourself.

Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson have put together a compendium of articles that attest to their central claim that, when thinking about the globalization phenomenon, "everything is connected. You can't really understand what's going on in one part of the world without looking at how it's related to everything else." Poetry, essays, illustrations, graphs, memoirs, and classroom exercises (one of my favorites: "How do you live on 31 cents a day?", p. 145) are collected that deal with colonialism, sweatshops, child labor, food production and distribution, consumerism and culture, and neoliberal capitalism. The selections are written by some of the best people in the field, and are almost always interesting. My only reservation is that Bigelow and Peterson could've spent more time on the military connection. But then one book can't be expected to do everything.

Bigelow and Peterson teach high school and fifth grade, and the anthology was clearly born from their desire to dialogue with their own students about globalization. But the anthology isn't limited to teenagers. It's actually a quite sophisticated and close-to-comprehensive collection that I intend to use in one of my own college classes on peace and justice. It fits a number of audiences nicely--high school, undergraduate college, lay reading.

Highly recommended! It would make a great post-Christmas, anti-consumerism gift.

This text is a marvelous book for students trying to get a handle on all of the pressures of college life - setting goals, learning to study, knowing who you are and where you're going. The language is simple, inviting and straightforward.

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Running A School Library Media Center: A How-To-Do-It Manual For Librarians by Barbara L. Stein (Professor, University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences) and Risa W. Brown (Library Media Specialist, Lake Highlands High School, Dallas, Texas), is a highly practical, "user friendly", how-to guide for librarians charged with developing, maintaining, and operating a private, parochial, or public school library media center. Individual chapters cover key issues including the efficient maintenance, building a collection, hiring and working with staff, promoting literacy, and much more. A comprehensive selection of appendix provides numerous resources at a librarian's fingertips, from lists of book an periodical vendors, to sources of reviews, to handling software packages that filter inappropriate Internet content. Running A School Library Media Center is fundamentally recommended for all dedicated school librarians.

This book is so readable and yet covers astonishing detail about many product types and market factors; when you're done, you'll feel you "own" strategies for timing your shopping and using your money to best advantage. It provides a framework for taking control; you'll no longer wonder whether you're being victimized by sharp marketing or overwhelmed by advertising and claim, or whether a "good deal" really is. As the title promises, you'll become more "savvy" no matter how much you thought you knew about shopping for and using goods and services.
Probably worth hundreds of times its value in savings!

Jill Freeze does an outstanding job in explaining the world of shopping online to people who might want to try it, but is concerned about privacy and safety. This is the perfect book to read if you've wanted to try online shopping, but need more information first.

Jill's style is entertaining and the book is quick-moving. You won't realize how much information you've accumulated while enjoying reading about the ins and outs of shopping online!

I highly recommend this book for newbies to shopping online. Jill explains everything clearly step-by-step. She also includes how to shop at Ebay and other online auctions. Most newbies would prefer to start their online shopping experience with something a bit easier, like buying this book at Amazon, for example, but everything you need to jump into the Ebay auction world is there if you decide to do that!

The book discusses how to look at the "big ticket items" online as well - things like houses and cars and colleges! You can do research online even if you end up buying the product at the local mall.

Jill Freeze is visually impaired and she is a perfect example of how online shopping makes life easier for SO many people in SO many different situations. I have been shopping online for a few years now, and have bought stuff from lots of e-tailers, including Amazon (yes, it was the first, and my favorite!), Webvan, Ebay, Half.com, Lands End, Drugstore.com, and many others. There's very little that you can't buy online, actually!

Jill discusses how to research the item you're looking to buy - she gives you lots of websites to check, but I found that she left out a few of my favorites:

BizRate.com - gives detailed reports on the different online stores - comparing on-time delivery, easy navigation of the website, prices, quality of items sold, etc. Yes, Amazon is very highly rated on Bizrate.com!

DealOfDay.com - looking for a deal? Check out what special offers are available at the online store of your choice ($10 off a $50 purchase, for example!)

BestBookBuys.com - My favorite thing to shop for online (and off-line, for that matter!) is books, and this website is the best for finding which store has your book at what price. You type in the title, author, or ISBN number, and it looks at about 30 different bookstores online and comes up with an easy-to-understand chart giving you the price (lowest price first), shipping cost, tax in what states, and best of all - AVAILABILITY of your book! Many shopping bots leave out this important fact. You can see the bottom line price - including shipping, and how soon your book will get to you. If you find that Amazon is your best bet for your latest must-have book (and it often is, all things considered), just click on "Buy" and BestBookBuys.com will take you right to the book detail page on Amazon (or whatever other e-tailer you click on) and there you are! Before buying from a bookstore that you aren't familiar with, check it out at Bizrate first.

Thanks, Jill, for a complete guide to the wonderful world of shopping online!

Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate

by Charles E. Glassick, Mary Taylor Huber, and Gene I. Maeroff

(San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1997)

In the Carnegie Foundation report, Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate, authors Charles E. Glassick, Mary Taylor Huber and Gene I. Maeroff create an even more inclusive vision of scholarship from the late Ernest L. Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, the Foundation's 1990 report. With the blessing of Boyer, The Carnegie Foundation's past president, these authors suggest standards and applications by which the entire range of an institution's scholastic endeavor (research, writing, teaching, etc.) can be documented and evaluated. The new report will greatly benefit institutions of higher education desiring to define and evaluate the academic performance of faculty.

The authors are impressively credentialed and each has been, or is currently, associated wit! ! h The Carnegie Foundation. Charles E. Glassick served as interim president of the Foundation between January 1996 and July 1997. Mary Taylor Huber is presently serving the Foundation as a senior scholar, and Gene I. Maeroff served the Foundation between 1986 and 1997. Presently Dr. Maeroff directs the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The report is remarkably thorough and extremely well done. In every respect it supports the paradigm Boyer proposes in his initial work. Therein is both its strength and weakness. One has only to read Boyer's work in order to predict the logic of the new report. This is not to question the merit of the new work, but rather to suggest that as much effort seems to have been spent in reconciling the two reports as in the stated purpose of formulating standards of assessing scholarship and evaluating the professoriate.

The report responds to what it considers to be a major societal transition! ! that requires higher education to keep pace and even facil! itate change. At stake, according to the authors, is "the capacity of higher education to meet its responsibilities for teaching, research, and service to society" (p. 5). The mission of higher education must be current, and the activities of faculty must relate "more directly to the realities of contemporary life" (p. 6). The authors link the evolution of higher education with historical precedents and key events from the educational philosophy of colonial days to its pragmatic role in the present. Within that philosophical shift, the priorities of faculty are established. While virtually all institutions continue to address education on the undergraduate level, some enjoy distinction in the areas of research, publishing, and service through the application of knowledge. The report observes that the performance of the professoriate is most often determined by the reward structure of their institution.

At the conclusion of the report, the questionnaire us! ! ed for the survey and the survey results are presented in table form. Responses are reported collectively and broken down per institutional classification. The results profile research, doctorate granting, comprehensive, and liberal arts institutions in an impressive manner. An institution should be able to compare its own policies with others, and, at the same time, determine progress in addressing critical issues in higher education. The survey is as much a report card on higher education as an effective tool for the construction of the report.

Scholarship Assessed discusses the strengths of Dr. Boyer's suggested definition of scholarship, specifically, "the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, and the scholarship of teaching" (p. 9). Thereafter, however, it begins to construct a timely system of evaluation intended to recognize, assess, and even link the contributions of the professoriate in its broadest sense! ! in a uniform and equitable manner. The results are both lo! gical and practical. It proposes six shared standards, comprising 1) clear goals, 2) adequate preparation, 3) appropriate methods, 4) significant results, 5) effective presentation, and 6) reflective critique. This methodology reflects the thinking of a broad range of higher education and para-educational systems. With little adaptation the standards can be applied to the evaluation of the professoriate.

The versatility of Boyer's system of standards is best demonstrated by its application to specific tasks such as teaching assessment. The system can potentially provide uniform evaluation of teaching performance when it is administered by administrators or students or by faculty during self-evaluation. Results might prove interesting when three vantage points are combined into a single profile. The system is a powerful diagnostic tool for identifying strengths and weaknesses in teaching. If applied in this way it can potentially influence faculty behavior and in a larger sen! ! se, provide focus for remedial attention.

Boyer's system might also be applied to learning assessment, providing certain adaptations are implemented. His fourth standard, "significant results," requires stronger definition. Specifically, it requires a clear means of learning measurement in conjunction with planned goals. His final two standards, "effective presentation" and "reflective critique," should be sufficiently defined to differentiate learning styles. An ultimate determination as to the system's suitability to assess learning would be its application to different learning theories.

Scholarship Assessed inseparably links itself to Dr. Boyer's initial report. While the first twenty-one pages of the work serve as interesting background, they are essentially unnecessary, other than to recognize the vision of a distinguished scholar. Initially, the tone of the report is reminiscent of a family mourning the loss of a loved one. Perhaps the ! ! report would have been even stronger and more credible if t! he authorship had extended beyond family members. The report could have very easily eliminated the tribute portion and stood on its own merit. Still, Scholarship Assessed is certainly worthy to be recognized as a stand-alone work. It will undoubtedly assume a place as a valuable resource of institutions of all classifications. It will almost certainly inspire further study for many years to come.

William G. Sunday

Yes, It's a very good book. If you're starting your own research, it's for you.