Female elementary school teachers’ comfort with mathematics has an outsize effect on the girls they teach, according to new research. Girls taught by a female teacher got a learning boost if that teacher had a strong math background, but had consistently lower math performance by the end of the school year if she didn’t, according … Continue reading »
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California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris Lauds Gov. Brown’s Budget Proposal that Increases Funding, Improves Online Education
SACRAMENTO — California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris today praised Gov. Jerry Brown for including in his proposed 2013-14 budget additional funding for community colleges and for his leadership of an initiative to help more students achieve their academic and career goals through improved online education. “Governor Brown’s leadership in passing Proposition 30 means … Continue reading »
IRS Says Colleges Must Be ‘Reasonable’ When Calculating Adjuncts’ Work Hours
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the new law designed to expand health insurance to more Americans, has put adjuncts and their workload in the spotlight. The Internal Revenue Service this month issued proposed rules for employers that acknowledge the special work circumstances of adjuncts—among them, the way adjuncts rack up work hours outside … Continue reading »
Colleges’ Use of Adjuncts Continues To Climb
When Rob Balla left advertising to teach college, he thought it would take two or three years to land a full-time job. Nine years later, he’s still stringing together part-time jobs, even though he has two bachelor’s and two master’s degrees and teaches beginning writing courses — the bread and butter of many freshman schedules. … Continue reading »
IRS to Issue Guidance on Health Care for Adjuncts
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(PPACA), community colleges will now have to determine whether adjunct faculty work enough hours to be considered eligible for health insurance benefits. Through the new law, full-time employees (FTEs) at community colleges are entitled to a prescribed set of insurance benefits for a limited cost (no greater than 9.5 percent of … Continue reading »
Open-Book, Closed-Book, or ‘Cheat Sheet’? Researchers Test the Merits of Different Exam Types
Like many faculty members, Afshin M. Gharib and William L. Phillips have strong preferences for giving certain types of examinations. Both men, associate professors of psychology at Dominican University of California, have kept up a running debate on the topic. Mr. Gharib likes open-book tests because the scores result in a normal, bell-shaped distribution curve … Continue reading »
What Motivates Teachers: It’s More Than Money
…In a 2010 lecture entitled “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,”author Daniel Pink described the three important factors for motivation in the workplace: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. School leaders take note: These are precisely the factors that are being stripped away from teachers in the name of greater accountability. In the same lecture, Pink … Continue reading »
College Cuts Part-Time Adjuncts’ Hours to Avoid Provisions of Health-Care Law
As of December 31, the Community College of Allegheny County is reducing the workload limit for temporary part-time adjuncts from 12 to 10 credits per semester so that the Pennsylvania institution will not be required to provide health benefits to them. A spokesman for the American Association of University Professors said his organization had not … Continue reading »
New CSU Chancellor Requests 10 Percent Pay Cut
Timothy P. White, California State University’s incoming chancellor, has requested a 10 percent pay cut, saying in a letter to trustees, that he hopes the move will send a signal that “public higher education matters to all of us, and that we each must play a part in the rebuilding.” CSU’s board of trustees met today in Long … Continue reading »
Tenure Decisions at Southern Cal Strongly Favor White Men, Data in a Rejected Candidate’s Complaint Suggest
A female professor at the University of Southern California has filed a federal discrimination complaint against the institution, saying that the decision this year to deny her tenure fits a longstanding pattern in the university’s humanities and social-sciences departments of promoting white men at much higher rates than women and members of minority groups. Mai’a … Continue reading »
