Boiling down the stratification literature
With a new doctoral student this fall, I advised that we arrange an independent reading course on stratification and institutions, because there is no doctoral-level course right now that fits the bill, and the breadth of topics pushed me to figure out the essential introduction to stratification (as one of four topics for the semester). […]
In which I mention John Lombardi, Philip Kotler, and Ernest Boyer in the same paragraph
Today’s John Lombardi column at Inside Higher Ed continues a discussion of the tensions of higher education that I had described a week before. Lombardi uses a marketing metaphor to explain how tuition cost-shifting over the past generation has pushed colleges and universities to cater more to students. He does so far more effectively than […]
Making sense of expertise
I’m back to rolling on the book today—deleted some outline stuff, but I added about 5-6 pages, the organization is much more clear (I hope!), and I know much more clearly where I’m going with the rest of the chapter. Most of what I added today concerned the birth of a testing industry as part […]
The politics of composite scales
The logjam is gone now, at least for chapter 2, thanks to a discussion with a classroom teacher (my wife). Talking the ideas over last night made me realize I had been dancing around the central dilemma of relying on tests: The same qualities that satisfy technical requirements for psychometrics distance us from knowing concretely […]
John Kingdon and accountability
John Kingdon’s Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies (1984) is now a classic in political science and policy analysis, arguing that issues attain policy salience when the streams of publicly-recognized problems, policy solutions, and politics intersect. My colleagues Larry Johnson and Kathy Borman used Kingdon’s framework to analyze higher-ed politics in Florida (and the temporary absence […]