Brad Rourke

Category: education

  • The Civic Implications of Student-Centered Education

    My friend John Creighton and I have been thinking together about what it might mean for education to become far more “student centered – a trend that has already begun. Education is one of those areas that so far has been sheltered from some of the more turbulent changes taking place in society. But we…

  • College For Profit: Its Time Has Come

    Andrea Jarrell passed on to me an item she saw in the always-useful Inside Higher Ed. It’s an interview with Harold T. Shapiro, the new chairman of DeVry, Inc. Yes, that DeVry. The for-profit school. Before you turn up your nose, know this: Shapiro is former president of University of Michigan. Many of my friends…

  • Cheaters Prosper

    Perhaps you noticed the articles recently announcing the Josephson Institute’s latest installment of their annual survey of youth perceptions on ethics. It’s something I take note of, since I used to work at a think tank on ethics. The Josephson survey is always good for some alarmist fare, and rightly so. Perhaps the most striking…

  • Baylor: A Mulligan For New Students

    This article by me first appeared in Pajamas Media. Competition between colleges is as tough as it ever was and will definitely get tougher. But this seems ridiculous. My friends at Ethics Newsline brought to my attention that turns out that Baylor University has been paying students who are already admitted and attending the school…

  • Hard, Ain't It Hard

    This column first appeared (with a different title) in Pajamas Media. There’s not much I do that’s actually difficult anymore. It didn’t used to be that way. When I applied to colleges, it was suggested to me that I create a number of tiers of schools: the long-shots, the probables, and the back-ups. I collected…

  • Hard, Ain’t It Hard

    This column first appeared (with a different title) in Pajamas Media. There’s not much I do that’s actually difficult anymore. It didn’t used to be that way. When I applied to colleges, it was suggested to me that I create a number of tiers of schools: the long-shots, the probables, and the back-ups. I collected…

  • Learners Are People, Too

    This article first appeared in Pajamas Media. On an airplane last week, I found myself seated behind the president of a large municipal school board along with a staffer. I know this because I am only human and could not help but peruse the board member’s briefing book over the owner’s shoulder. They were on…