Category Archives: higherEd

Thumb on the PayScale

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Cedar Riener

In my last post, I took issue with the PayScale college rankings, as well as with how economics reporters framed these rankings, citing their low calculated Return on Investment as evidence that these colleges “make” students poor. Jordan Weissmann has graciously responded to my critique. … Continue reading →

Posted in education, higherEd, psychology, science | Tagged , , , | 22 Comments

The Absurdity of Ranking Colleges by Graduate Salaries

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Cedar Riener

Jordan Weissman has moved from the Atlantic, and is now covering economics at Slate. He has a post up provocatively titled (it is Slate, after all) “What College Will Leave you Poorest?” which covers the Payscale college salary rankings, in which … Continue reading →

Posted in education, higherEd, science | Tagged , | 8 Comments

How much does it matter how students feel?

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Cedar Riener

As I prepare my tenure portfolio, I am catching up on entering in my student evaluation data and comments into my big spreadsheet. While I don’t think student evaluations should serve as the only data by which to judge teachers, … Continue reading →

Posted in education, higherEd, psychology | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Oh I get tenure, with a little help from my friends

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Cedar Riener

To continue from my last post, one of the elements that disturbed me about defining scientist as “gets grants, has groundbreaking ideas” is not just that this narrow definition of scientist excludes worthy people, but also that it excludes certain … Continue reading →

Posted in higherEd, science | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Student Learning and Labor Policies, follow up

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Cedar Riener

My piece for the Atlantic ran yesterday, on how student learning is not directly connected to exploitative labor policies. I had some interesting conversations, on twitter and over email, so I thought I would share those with my readers. It … Continue reading →

Posted in higherEd, politics, science, teaching | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Teaching and learning, labor and fairness

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Cedar Riener

It seems a requirement that any conversation about higher education in America must begin and end with costs and economic outcomes. Along the way, our economic analysts nod to the power of knowledge (economic research shows it improves career prospects!), … Continue reading →

Posted in education, higherEd, politics, teaching | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

My Teaching Philosophy (part 327b)

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Cedar Riener

I’m putting some finishing touches on my syllabi here the night before classes start, and I thought I would share with my blog readers a one-page statement of my teaching philosophy that I put on each of my syllabi. Anyone … Continue reading →

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