False hope: our foolish love of shiny things

Computers 'do not improve' pupil results, says OECD (BBC News)
     Investing heavily in school computers and classroom technology does not improve pupils' performance, says a global study from the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]

    The think tank says frequent use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results.
    The OECD's education director Andreas Schleicher says school technology had raised "too many false hopes".
    Tom Bennett, the government's expert on pupil behaviour, said teachers had been "dazzled" by school computers.
    The report from the OECD examines the impact of school technology on international test results, such as the Pisa tests taken in more than 70 countries and tests measuring digital skills.
    It says that education systems which have invested heavily in information and communications technology have seen "no noticeable improvement" in Pisa test results for reading, mathematics or science....
     We've reported on the work of the OECD previously. See On education reform (4/25/15).

We're Number One! (According to EdSmart)

According to EdSmart, IVC is one of the top community college in the greater L.A. area. This is their write up:

Graduation and Transfer Rate: 55%
Student Population: 13,632 (2013)

In-state Tuition (2014-2015)
Off campus with family: $19,398
Off campus: $7,842

Out-of-state Tuition
Off Campus with family:$24,102
Off campus: $12,546

Irvine Valley College sits up top with a solid 55% graduation and transfer rate. With a student population of over 13,000 students, the high transfer rate translates into a lot of students making their goal of entering university. IVC is found within 50 miles of nine universities, making it an ideal location for students wanting to attend a four-year school. IVC’s success can be attributed to their honors program which enables students to achieve more in a challenging curriculum. Students in these programs are given priority consideration to UC schools like UCLA and UCI as well as several other universities.

Check the rest out out here:
TOP 10 COMMUNITY COLLEGES OF THE GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA
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Faculty hiring at the SOCCCD

     I wanted to highlight a recent reader comment re faculty hiring at the California Community Colleges.

Bob Cosgrove said...
     Having taught FT at 3 universities before coming to Saddleback College, I was pleased to find community college students comparable to students I had encountered elsewhere. That was in 1981. That has changed. CC districts have grasped the 50% rule* with a tenacity that has harmed curriculum and program review, the work of making departments run efficiently, and stretched faculty by the increased demands place on faculty to serve on committees. Some 60 percent of our classes in some divisions are taught by ou[r] part time colleagues. When I came to Saddleback we had 32 full time faculty in the English Department with a student complement of about 20,000; we now have a student body in the upper 30,000s but only 18 FT faculty to serve them. Many of the thoughtful ideas to make Student Success work is seriously hobbled by the lack of Full Time faculty in our labs, counseling centers, libraries and classrooms. If part time work is so helpful to reducing college costs, we should move to have part time administrators to save money. Perhaps some of that money can be moved to where students are—in our classrooms and labs.

11:35 AM, September 12, 2015

     *The 50% law creates a floor for expenditures on “instruction.” According to that law, at least 50% of expenditures must be on instruction—including faculty salaries, etc.
     Bob is saying, I think, that the 50% law has in some districts turned into a ceiling instead of a floor, limiting the amount of full-time instruction. (The 50% law became a focus eight years ago under Chancellor Mathur’s watch; his failure to monitor this percentage compelled the district to hire 38 faculty at once! At the time, Bob asked why Mathur wasn't being held to account. See The 50% crisis: never mind what Mathur says. Look at the data!)

What Is the Point of College? (New York Times)

By KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH

…Consider the declining proportion of fac­ulty with tenure. Tenured faculty are defined by more than the fact that they are hard to fire. Tenure allows professors to pursue intellectual projects without regard for what the trustees or the governor or the community care about. It gives them the kind of intellectual freedom that has helped make our universities the research powerhouses of the world. Adjunct faculty, on the other hand, are a lot less expensive — they’re paid less and typically lack health and other benefits — and you can easily expand or contract their ranks as demand fluctuates. In the Utility vision, students are consumers; they have needs and desires to be met, at a price they’ll pay. If pleasing the customer is the goal, a tenured faculty member who wants to teach what he or she considers worth teaching can be an inconvenience. Plus, at Utility U., one obvious way to better your ‘‘value proposition’’ is to cut costs. These days, three-quarters of the teaching faculty at America’s nonprofit colleges and universities are hired as adjuncts with no tenure and no research support. A few decades ago, only a quarter were….

This just in: "Community colleges gearing up for major hiring spree"

FILE: Professor David Thomas helps a student in a Fullerton College architecture class.LINDA BRINEY/COURTESY OF FULLERTON COLLEGE

via NPR:

Campuses across the state are speeding up the process to use $62.3 million in additional state funding in this year's budget to hire more faculty for the coming school year.
Gov. Jerry Brown's office estimates that California community colleges will hire 670 new professors with the funds.

“It’s a huge deal,” said Albert Roman, a vice-chancellor at the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District. “It’s probably the largest number of full-time faculty positions that we’ve hired in the history of this district.”

This year and next, Roman said, the campuses in his district will hire242 faculty through new hires and replacement of retiring instructors.

Officials at East Los Angeles College, the campus with the most students in the L.A. district, said the hiring spree will transform the campus. The college expects to have 60 new full-time professors in place by fall 2016.

“We have an endless, bottomless pit of need in English and math,” said Academic Affairs Dean Kerrin McMahan.

To read the rest, click here.

Sunday Not-So-Funny Funnies

Shooting at Sacramento City College Leaves One Dead and 2 Injured (New York Times)
     A shooting on the grounds of Sacramento City College left one person dead, two others injured and the campus on lockdown Thursday night, the Sacramento Police Department said.
     The shooting took place Thursday afternoon in a parking lot near a baseball field on the southern edge of campus, according to the police. The victim, who was not publicly identified, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another person was shot several times and was taken to a hospital, said Rick Brewer, a spokesman for Sacramento City College, and a third person sustained minor injuries….