Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk

by Richard H. Hersh, John Merrow, Richard H. Hersh (Editor), Tom Wolfe (Contribution by), John Merrow (Editor)

Overview

Two decades ago A Nation at Risk sounded a national alarm on K-12 education. Now, an equally urgent alarm is being sounded for higher education in America. In Declining by Degrees, leading authors and educators such as Tom Wolfe, Jim Fallows, and Jay Mathews provide us with a valuable understanding of the serious issues facing colleges today, such as budget cuts, grade inflation, questionable recruitment strategies, and a major focus on Big Time Sports. Tied to the PBS documentary of the same name, Declining by Degrees creates a national discussion about the future of higher education and what we can do about it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403973160
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/01/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Richard Hersh has served as President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Trinity College (Hartford), and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at The University of New Hampshire and Drake University. He also served as Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Oregon and was Director of the Center for Moral Education at Harvard University. In his early career he was a high school teacher, professor and dean of teacher education.

John Merrow is the Peabody Award winning president of Learning Matters, Inc. He is Host and Executive Producer of The Merrow Report on PBS and NPR. He is an education correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS.

Richard Hersh has served as President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Trinity College (Hartford), and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at The University of New Hampshire and Drake University. He also served as Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Oregon and was Director of the Center for Moral Education at Harvard University. In his early career he was a high school teacher, professor and dean of teacher education.

Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) was one of the founders of the New Journalism movement and the author of contemporary classics like The Right Stuff and Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, as well as the novels The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. As a reporter, he wrote articles for The Washington Post, the New York Herald Tribune, Esquire, and New York Magazine, and is credited with coining the term, “The Me Decade.” Among his many honors, Tom was awarded the National Book Award, the John Dos Passos Award, the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, the National Humanities Medal, and National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lived in New York City.

John Merrow is the Peabody Award winning president of Learning Matters, Inc. He is Host and Executive Producer of The Merrow Report on PBS and NPR. He is an education correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS.

Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) was one of the founders of the New Journalism movement and the author of contemporary classics like The Right Stuff and Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, as well as the novels The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. As a reporter, he wrote articles for The Washington Post, the New York Herald Tribune, Esquire, and New York Magazine, and is credited with coining the term, “The Me Decade.” Among his many honors, Tom was awarded the National Book Award, the John Dos Passos Award, the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, the National Humanities Medal, and National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lived in New York City.

Date of Birth:

February 5, 1927

Date of Death:

August 3, 2004

Table of Contents

Foreword—Tom Wolfe * Introduction—Richard H. Hersh & John Merrow * Extra, Extra, Don't Read All about It—Gene I. Maeroff * Degrees of Indifference? Where the Public Stands on Higher Education—Deborah Wadsworth * College Admissions: A Substitute for Quality?—James Fallows * Caveat Lector: Unexamined Assumptions about Quality in Higher Education—Jay Mathews * Liberal Education: Slip-Sliding Away?—Carol G. Schneider * Six Challenges to the American University—Vartan Gregorian * Beyond Markets and Individuals: A Focus on Educational Goals—Howard Gardner * This Little Student Went to Market—David L. Kirp * How Undergraduate Education Became College Lite (A Personal Apology)—Murray Sperber * College Sports: America's New Peculiar Institution—Frank Deford * Worlds Apart: Disconnects between Students and Their Colleges—Arthur Levine * Leaving the Newcomers Behind—Roberto Suro & Richard Fry * Talking the Talk: Rhetoric & Reality for Students of Color—Heather D. Washington * It's Only a Port of Call: Reflections on the State of Higher Education—Julie Johnson Kidd * The Curriculum and College Life: Confronting Unfulfilled Promises—Leon Botstein * Afterword—Richard H. Hersh * Afterword—John Merrow

Editorial Reviews

I have never heard a single parent speculate about what value might be added by . . . four undergraduate years, other than the bachelor's degree itself . . . an essential punch on the ticket for starting off in any upscale career. The book before you is, to my knowledge, the first to confront the question head-on. All those boys and girls . . . do parents—does anybody—have any idea what happens to them in college?” —from the foreword by Tom Wolfe

“Anyone who cares deeply about American higher education will read this book and feel enlightened and enraged, delighted and despondent, encouraged and in despair. A 'must read' for those interested in both good news and bad, from higher education's influential insiders and jaded outsiders.” —Lee S. Shulman, President, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

“The decline of our once-proud colleges and universities—well documented in this book—is the bitter fruit of our ever-more ineffective K-12 education. This book makes it clear that our nation is still at risk.” —E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of Cultural Literacy and The Schools We Need

“This [is an] outstanding assessment of the current state of the nation's schools...Forecast: Since most children in America attend 'good enough' schools, this book's potential market is enormous, and the author's high profile will help.” —Publishers Weekly on Choosing Excellence

“No pre-service teacher should consider his or her professional education complete if it does not include regular viewings of The Merrow Report, the documentary series now airing on PBS and National Public Radio.” —Library Journal on Choosing Excellence

“Merrow aims to create a smarter consumer of schools....He succeeds in that he gives parents a framework for what they should be seeking and very practical hints on evaluating schools.” —Karin Chenoweth, Washington Post on Choosing Excellence

“This book points out that there's more to a school than its four walls and reputation, and more people need to be aware of all the choices that are out there.” —Scholastic on Choosing Excellence

“This single volume is an expansive reality check for anyone about to dump $20,000 for their daughter's private education unaware how much of that tuition is siphoned into projects that have zero effect on whether she becomes a first-rate writer, nurse or architect.” —Northeast Breeze on Choosing Excellence

From the Publisher

Intended to complement a PBS special of the same name-part of the long-running series on American education, The Merrow Report-this collection presents a confusing set of essays by a number of leading educators, scholars, and reporters. With contributors who include Vartan Gregorian, Jay Matthews, and Murray Sperber, one might expect a comprehensive and trenchant analysis of issues facing higher education today; instead, this collection appears limited to providing authors with an opportunity to vent about whatever aspect of college life they find most personally offensive. Sperber's account of his involvement in the development of large-scale undergraduate creative writing courses is engaging, but the charges leveled by other authors regarding teacher education, the student affairs profession, and the culture of college life range from unsubstantiated to bizarre. Finally, the standard of evidence provided by each author to support his or her conclusions is inconsistent, which makes it difficult for readers to determine which criticisms are grounded in research. The actual connection between these essays and the ideas that will be presented in the companion PBS special is unclear, but one hopes that the documentary will offer a more coherent and level-headed critique of higher education. Not recommended.-Scott Walter, Univ. of Kansas Libs., Lawrence Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal