Tag: education

Affecting Higher Education And Jobs – Drop In Students Who Come To The US To Study
EDUCATION

Affecting Higher Education And Jobs – Drop In Students Who Come To The US To Study

David L. Di Maria, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Driven largely by the global pandemic, the number of international students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities fell by 15% – or 161,401 students – from 2019 to 2020. However, early data for 2021 indicate the number might bounce back soon. This is according to new data from the Institute of International Education and the U.S. State Department. As a university administrator who specializes in international higher education, I see six important takeaways to consider. 1. A record decrease While a drop was expected due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic, which included international travel restrictions and suspension of U.S. visa services, the number of international students in the U.S. has actually b...
Changing Science Education To Improve Science Literacy
EDUCATION, SCIENCE

Changing Science Education To Improve Science Literacy

To graduate with a science major, college students must complete between 40 and 60 credit hours of science coursework. That means spending around 2,500 hours in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career. However, research has shown that despite all that effort, most college science courses give students only a fragmented understanding of fundamental scientific concepts. The teaching method reinforces memorization of isolated facts, proceeding from one textbook chapter to the next without necessarily making connections between them, instead of learning how to use the information and connect those facts meaningfully. The ability to make these connections is important beyond the classroom as well, because it’s the basis of science literacy: the ability to use scientific knowledge ...
Men Have Access To Significantly More Higher Education Programs In Texas Prisons Than Women
EDUCATION, Journalism

Men Have Access To Significantly More Higher Education Programs In Texas Prisons Than Women

Alexa Garza has been out of prison for three years, but she still remembers how confining it felt. “I was surrounded by walls,” said Garza, who was incarcerated for two decades starting when she was 19. “I found that reading was an escape for me. I was able to read and learn and grow, and I knew that education was the key for me.” Already a high school graduate when she entered prison in Texas, Garza set out to obtain a higher education behind bars. That goal took the better part of her sentence to achieve. After a decade, she had earned two associate’s degrees. It took her five more years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Now a justice fellow for the national nonprofit Education Trust, which works toward education equity, Garza is raising awareness about the challenges of accessing post-seco...
3 Ways Teachers Can Do Better With Students Of Color In Special Education Less Likely To Get The Help They Need
IN OTHER NEWS

3 Ways Teachers Can Do Better With Students Of Color In Special Education Less Likely To Get The Help They Need

When I was a special education teacher at Myrtle Grove Elementary School in Miami in 2010, my colleagues and I recommended that a Black girl receive special education services because she had difficulty reading. However, her mother disagreed. When I asked her why, she explained that she, too, was identified as having a learning disability when she was a student. She was put in a small classroom away from her other classmates. She remembered reading books below her grade level and frequent conflicts between her classmates and teachers. Because of this, she believed she received a lower-quality education. She didn’t want her daughter to go through the same experience. Ultimately, the mother and I co-designed an individualized education plan – known in the world of special education as an I...
We Asked 6 Education Experts – How Should Schools Teach Kids About What Happened At The US Capitol On Jan. 6?
EDUCATION

We Asked 6 Education Experts – How Should Schools Teach Kids About What Happened At The US Capitol On Jan. 6?

Teachers scrambled to create lesson plans to help students make sense of the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol right after it happened. It’s a fraught task. Even the news media wasn’t sure what to call this unprecedented attack on U.S. democracy. Was it a coup? A riot? An act of domestic terrorism? Likewise, it’s not clear where lessons should begin. The Conversation U.S. asked six education experts how teachers – and parents – can help young people comprehend, analyze and process what happened. Don’t avoid the topic Dr. David Schonfeld, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and professor of clinical pediatrics, University of Southern California Educators may worry they don’t know the right thing to say and will unnecessarily ...
Undesirable Threats To Student Privacy Plaque Remote Education
EDUCATION, IN OTHER NEWS

Undesirable Threats To Student Privacy Plaque Remote Education

An online “proctor” who can survey a student’s home and manipulate the mouse on their computer as the student takes an exam. A remote-learning platform that takes face scans and voiceprints of students. Virtual classrooms where strangers can pop up out of the blue and see who’s in class. These three unnerving scenarios are not hypothetical. Rather, they stand as stark, real-life examples of how remote learning during the pandemic – both at the K-12 and college level – has become riddled with threats to students’ privacy. As a scholar of privacy, I believe all the electronic eyes watching students these days have created privacy concerns that merit more attention. Which is why, increasingly, you will see aggrieved students, parents and digital privacy advocates seeking to hold schools an...
Pivot to remote learning creates a chance to reinvent K-12 education
EDUCATION, VIDEO REELS

Pivot to remote learning creates a chance to reinvent K-12 education

Many of the nation’s 57 million K-12 students will spend at least part of the 2020-2021 school year either dealing with distance learning or a hybrid model that keeps them out of classrooms several days a week. They’ll spend lots of time using teleconferencing software, with teachers either convening classes live or pre-recording lessons. Getting children to excel won’t be easy. Zoom and similar programs can be challenging for teachers and boring for “digital natives” accustomed to watching more entertaining stuff on their devices. Based on my experience both as a writer and a producer of films and TV shows in Hollywood and a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh – where WQED, the nation’s first educational television station got started – I recommend four creative ways to overcome th...
Black men face high discrimination and depression, even as their education and incomes rise
SOCIAL JUSTICE

Black men face high discrimination and depression, even as their education and incomes rise

Are you a highly educated and relatively wealthy Black man in the U.S.? Studies that we have done and also those by others show that you are at increased risk of discrimination and depression. Our research on the intersection of race and gender in the U.S. shows that while education and income reduce the risk of discrimination and depression for whites and Black women, this is not so for Black men. This underscores other research we have done that suggests Black men are especially singled out as dangerous, threatening and inferior. The first author, Shervin Assari, is a physician and an associate professor of family medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Many of his studies have documented that black men still face depression, which could stem from discrimination,...
5 ways higher education can be seen as hostile to women of color
EDUCATION

5 ways higher education can be seen as hostile to women of color

In 2019, Amy Bonomi, a women’s studies scholar, co-edited “Women Leading Change: Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Cliff, and Slipper.” The book examines the perspectives of 23 female leaders on issues of leadership and the challenges of confronting structural racism, bias and discrimination at colleges and universities. Here are five takeaways that Bonomi offers from her book about how higher education can be hostile toward the women of color who serve as college and university leaders. 1. Not reflected in leadership Only 30% of college and university presidents are women. Although nearly 40% of Americans are people of color, according to a 2017 study, just 5% of college and university presidents are women of color. This 5% is even more striking when you consider how approximately 45% of underg...
Is online education right for you? 5 questions answered
EDUCATION

Is online education right for you? 5 questions answered

Editor’s Note: When U.S. News & World Report released its best online education program rankings this year, many schools that fared well in the rankings were quick to call attention to their success. Here, Vanessa Dennen, a researcher of online learning and co-editor-in-chief of the journal The Internet and Higher Education, offers insights into what college students should consider before they enroll in an online degree program. 1. Is online education as easy and convenient as it seems? Online learning may give students a choice about when and where to study, but this flexibility should not be confused with being easy or fast. Learning is a process and it takes time. By studying online, you might be able to eliminate commute time and the dreaded hunt for parking on campus, but you sti...