VOL. 33, NO. 4 | SUMMER 2014
NCLB goes to college 1 We are all contingent 2 Students are not guinea pigs 13 Reclaiming the promise 14 Mobilizing for equity 16
Ripped apart The trends deprofessionalizing faculty and staff are hurting students, too
Power grab 4-Profits R Us The education racket Building a profession How administrative Let’s not emulate Privatizers are co- Taking the reins to bloat is killing the ‘efficiencies’ of opting our service for achieve real teacher education PAGE 5 for-profitsPAGE 7 the public good PAGE 10 education reform PAGE 12 EDITOR’S NOTE
OUR MISSION Fighting to do our jobs TheAmerican Federation of Teachers is a union of professionals that champions ON SO MANY LEVELS, and in so many plac- faculty is 48.5 hours.) fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; es, higher education is in deep trouble. Young ■ In 2012, the American Association of Univer- and high-quality public education, healthcare people feel they can’t afford to go to college, sity Professors-AFT chapter at Rutgers Univer- and public services for our students, their families and our communities. We are and, for a large number, it’s true. A huge ma- sity learned that the administration had en- committed to advancing these principles jority of students leave college with debts that tered into a seven-year secret contract with through community engagement, limit their choices about where to live and Pearson to provide online degree programs. organizing, collective bargaining work from the day after they graduate. The contract let Rutgers and Pearson split the and political activism, and especially Remember the old notion of higher educa- revenues. The union fought back. through the work our members do. tion funding being a shared partnership be- ■ Pearson, a private, British-based company, is tween government (state and federal), institu- drawing profits from all over the U.S. education
RANDI WEINGARTEN tions, private sources, and students and system—from administering testing associated President families? That’s faded as the partners have with the K-12 Common Core State Standards, LORRETTA JOHNSON pulled back, shifting the burden onto the to the edTPA assessment of teacher perfor- Secretary-Treasurer FRANCINE LAWRENCE backs of students. mance in New York and other states, to the Executive Vice President Another notion that is under question is modularization of course offerings at Miami-
MARCUS MROWKA the place of faculty at the center of the enter- Dade College (an opportunity provided by the Acting Communications Director prise, guiding the academic mission of provid- Florida Legislature). ROGER S. GLASS ing teaching, research and service. ■ The adoption of new, watered-down course Editor BARBARA McKENNA The last charming artifact of better times sequences for graduation at the City University Managing Editor in higher education is the idea that education of New York (Pathways) and the State Univer- ADRIENNE COLES is a public good that benefits civic and eco- sity of New York (Open SUNY), without the DANIEL GURSKY ANNETTE LICITRA nomic life as much as the individual, and thus consultation of faculty. VIRGINIA MYERS deserves public investment and protection. ■ The embrace of massive open online courses MIKE ROSE Contributing Editors Not to be too cynical, but for many of the and other online delivery methods that go LAURA BAKER folks leveraging power today, higher educa- around traditional faculty roles and disaggre- JANE FELLER SEAN LISHANSKY tion is viewed as a source of private gain for gate teaching and learning processes. Copy Editors financial institutions like Sallie Mae and Wells These circumventions around the faculty JENNIFER CHANG Fargo, and for for-profit education groups like and staff’s traditional roles are nothing com- Production Manager the Apollo Group, Education Management pared with the massive end run of converting MICHELLE FURMAN PAMELA WOLFE Corporation, Coursera and Pearson. Heck, as the full-time tenured academic corps into a Graphic Designers Sen. Elizabeth Warren is loudly noting, even contingent, underpaid, undersupported work- JENNIFER BERNEY the U.S. government is raking in profits on force with very little say over academic matters Production Coordinator SHARON WRIGHT student lending that it is not distributing to affecting student success. Production Specialist serve education goals. The bill she has just In this issue, we explore the implications of SHAWNITRA HAWKINS introduced, the Bank on Students Emergency broadscale deprofessionalization. We close ALICIA NICK Production Staff Loan Refinancing Act, would address that. with a report on the annual AFT higher ed is- Given their place at the heart of the enter- sues conference, where ideas crystallized AFT ON CAMPUS (ISSN 1064-1971, USPS 008-636) is published quarterly by the American Federation of prise, faculty and academic staff—the front- about how we must fight for our students and Teachers, 555 New Jersey Ave. N.W., Washington, DC line education professionals—should be in our profession. The theme was reclaiming the 20001-2079. Phone: 202-879-4400 www.aft.org the best position to frame and articulate promise of a higher education system once Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and what’s at stake in this battle over the future of touted as the envy of the world. additional mailing offices. higher education. But, faculty systematically Economist Jared Bernstein, a keynote POSTMASTER: Send address changes to AFT On Campus, have been disarmed and demonized, robbed speaker, described how the interests of a very 555 New Jersey Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20001-2079. of their voice on professional matters, and few—the 1 percent—are holding hostage the MEMBERS: To change your address or subscription, notify your local union treasurer or visit www.aft.org/ enervated by the whittling away of academic health of our economy. AFT members really members. freedom, tenure, governance and job “get” what’s going on in this increasingly strati- Letters to the editor may be sent to the address above or to [email protected]. security. fied world, he said, urging educators to start AFT ON CAMPUS is mailed to all AFT higher education Deprofessionalization examples abound: barking an alarm for the rest of Americans who members as a benefit of membership. Subscriptions ■ In 2011, administrators at Kean University are not paying as close attention. represent $2.50 of annual dues. Nonmember subscription price is $12/year. in New Jersey asked faculty to produce time The toll taken on educational quality when
© 2014 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, AFL-CIO sheets to prove that they were working at least our members are deprofessionalized is mount- 35 hours a week. An incredulous KU Federa- ing. It’s time to start barking and reclaim the Cover illustration: NENAD JAKESEVIC tion of Teachers fought back. (National news promise of higher education. coverage noted that the average work week for —BARBARA McKENNA WHERE WE STAND
No Child Left Behind goes to college
RANDI WEINGARTEN, AFT President
YOU’VE LIKELY HEARD the horror stories Unfortunately, the bad ideas don’t end grams, we need a systemic approach to pre- from the K-12 world: Students reduced to data there. paring teachers and a higher threshold to points; teachers defined through algorithms. Last summer, the Obama administration ensure that every teacher is ready to teach on Evaluations based on the latest trend in ques- unveiled a proposal to rate higher education his or her first day in the classroom (as we tionable science—value-added modeling, or institutions based on graduation rates, gradu- outlined in the AFT Teacher Preparation Task VAM. Seasoned, well-respected educators ate earnings, student loan debt and the num- Force’s “Raising the Bar” report). We need to losing their jobs because of officials emphasiz- ber of students to receive Pell Grants. And like help programs to prepare confident and com- ing testing over teaching and learning. ratings for K-12 schools and the proposal for petent teachers, instead of penalizing them for Unfortunately, this bad idea has legs—it teacher preparation programs, these ratings not fitting into some misguided formula. isn’t limited to K-12 anymore. Proposed “re- would determine levels of federal funding. And any ratings system must take into ac- forms” in higher education are strikingly simi- As you well know, our higher education count the vast diversity of higher education lar to K-12 accountability systems already in system is made up of a wide range of institu- institutions in this country and the students place, with a disturbing focus on high-stakes tions and programs that offer educational they serve. This doesn’t mean that these in- testing. These proposals come from many of opportunities to a diverse group of people—a stitutions and our educators shouldn’t be the same people who push austerity, polariza- tion, privatization and deprofessionalization in their quest to convert our system of higher The proposed methodology isnothing more than a quick-fix, education into one that is defined as a profit- able commodity. test-and-punish, market-based approach recycled from the Some are calling it “No Child Left Behind highly flawed, data-driven policies of K-12 teacher evaluations. goes to college.” Regardless of the name, let’s stop bad ideas from becoming bad policy. Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently strength that would be undermined by any held accountable. Quite the contrary. We announced plans for new regulations to assess efforts to homogenize. must work together to ensure that all higher teacher preparation programs that would be The questions abound: How would this education institutions provide a rigorous based on the test scores of their graduates’ proposal account for different institutional education for all students, with an engaging students. Programs that graduate teachers missions, such as open-access community curriculum created by well-supported fac- with low student test scores would lose their colleges, historically black colleges and uni- ulty professionals. federal funding. versities, and Hispanic-serving institutions? The Obama administration needs to hear While the Obama administration’s focus What about developmental education or non- from you about how these proposals will do on assessing teacher preparation programs is degree seeking learning? more harm than good. And with a fast-track correct, the proposed methodology is nothing A recent Gallup/Inside Higher Ed poll, timeline, the time to act is now, to stop these more than a quick-fix, test-and-punish, mar- found that 65 percent of college presidents feel bad ideas from becoming our new higher edu- ket-based approach recycled from the highly that this proposal is not sound policy. They cation reality. flawed, data-driven policies of K-12 teacher cited concerns that the plan—which is pur- Action begins with a conversation—fol- evaluations. portedly intended to increase access, reduce lowed by an email to your colleagues, your If implemented, these regulations could costs and improve outcomes—would reward friends, your family; a letter to your local drastically alter teacher preparation programs. more-affluent institutions while penalizing newspaper; or a phone call to your state or As noted by Stanford University education those that serve lower socioeconomic groups federal legislator. professor Linda Darling-Hammond, programs and nontraditional students. That doesn’t It’s time to reclaim the promise of higher would be given a perverse incentive “to stop sound like improved access, reduced costs education by ensuring that all students have training special education teachers, bilingual and better outcomes to me. access to high-quality and affordable higher teachers, teachers for very high-need schools Taken together, the results of these pro- education, through fostering diverse institu- and others whom we know are likely to net posed reforms could be disastrous for stu- tions that provide a richer educational envi- lower VAM scores, … just as medical schools dents, faculty, and academic staff and ronment for all students. An accessible, af- would stop training AIDS physicians and start communities. fordable and high-quality system of public moving to suburban pediatrics if they were What we need is real solution-driven higher education is critical to the health of the going to be rated on the mortality rates of change. nation. patients.” When it comes to teacher preparation pro- We need your voice.
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 1 We are all contingent Reorganizing higher education and society
BY GARY RHOADES are like those in other service sectors, with ployee and postdoc positions could rightly whom we must form common cause. be considered apprenticeships leading even- THE SHAPE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, as tually to tenure-track appointments. That is Transformation of the professoriate of society, is changing. In our not-for-profit no longer the case. institutions, policymakers and managers Over the past four decades, a systematic dete- If you do the math, then you see that most are working to reorganize academic em- rioration in the structure and working condi- professors are teaching off the tenure track, ployment to at-will, just-in-time, pay-for- tions of the professoriate has occurred. This without hope of tenure and with limited to no “performance” work. They are reorganizing has coincided with a systemic disinvestment job security. They are teaching at the will— colleges and universities to operate like in public higher education and, in particular, and too often the whim—of the employer. businesses seeking to maximize institu- in instruction. The disinvestment is such that That means they are teaching without the tional revenues and minimize investment there is a structural deficit, evident in massive protections of academic freedom and without in instruction. This model serves corporate student debt. Access to higher education is substantial involvement in basic academic business’s needs. But it’s a disservice to a increasingly stratified by class, and educa- and educational governance matters. large portion of our student populations, tional opportunities for un- and underserved Losing ground on governance particularly the growing number of low- potential college students—a group growing income, underserved populations that are in number—is increasingly compromised. Underlying the numbers story is professors’ seeking educational opportunity. The changes in the professoriate are declining influence in the various realms of At the same time, academic employees well-known: academic and educational decision-making. are pushing back. We are working collec- ■ The disproportionate growth of faculty Partly in response to state disinvestment in tively to re-establish working conditions— working in part-time positions, such that higher education, demands for accountabil- including academic freedom—that enhance they now account for roughly half of the ity, and the infusion of high-technology de- 1 educational quality, student learning and professoriate. livery systems, administrators have increased success. We are also working to reorganize ■ The growth in full-time nontenure-track their exercise of “strategic” managerial dis- colleges and universities: to prioritize stu- positions, with these faculty accounting for cretion. That discretion has involved apply- dents’ education, reduce students’ debt and 19 percent of the professoriate. During the ing the logic of the market to academic deci- expand affordable, high-quality higher edu- late 1990s, full-time nontenure-track faculty sion-making, thereby reducing—and not cation for all. The battles raging in education accounted for 58.9 percent of new full-time uncommonly, overriding and replacing—the hires in the professoriate.2 role and plans of faculty in various academic ■ The growing reliance on—but diminished and educational matters. Gary Rhoades, a professor and director of the University of Arizona Center for the Study of employment prospects of—graduate teach- Managerial discretion has expanded into Higher Education, is the past president of the ing assistants, graduate research assistants educational and even pedagogical realms, in
ILLUSTRATIONS BY NENAD JAKESEVIC ILLUSTRATIONS American Association of University Professors. and postdocs. At one time, graduate em- ways that dramatize the reduced influence of
2 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 faculty on the direction of their colleges and bargain, notably in the heartland states of universities. These realms include enroll- organized labor. On the other hand, we are ment management, the development of of- also in a time of the greatest foment in collec- fices of instructional assessment, teaching tive bargaining for members of the academic centers, and centers for learning and instruc- workforce in three decades, including, nota- tional technologies. Contingent faculty are bly, in the private sector of independent col- completely excluded from these processes, leges and universities. while tenure-track faculty frequently opt out In the first half of the 2000s, for instance, 78 of them, partly because of speeded up de- new bargaining units were formed, an in- mands for teaching and research productiv- crease of 15.7 percent.3 Units representing ity, and partly because they recognize that only part-time faculty were at the core of this they have no real influence on these deci- growth: Indeed, by 2012, more than 147,000 sion-making realms. faculty in part-time positions were in collec- Whatever the cause, the effect is that fac- tive bargaining units, 21 percent of the overall ulty are losing control over even that most academic workforce. basic realm of their jurisdiction, the class- Moreover, consider the range of organiz- room. Managers make various decisions ing targets and strategies that emerged dur- about course management systems, about ing and after the Great Recession. The dis- the purchase of new instructional technolo- tinctive dynamism of the times is expressed In the new world of successful gies, and about the outfitting of classrooms— not simply in the growth in bargaining units, places where faculty reign, but over which but also in who is organizing, where organiz- organizing, there is a dimension they have little or no control. ing is taking place, and why. For example, the of coalition building and an Reduced faculty control is particularly first union campaign that I authorized at the explicit connection with students. clear in traditional distance education, mas- American Association of University Profes- sive open online courses, and decisions to sors as general secretary in 2009 was for a outsource segments of the general education group of physicians, dentists and basic sci- curriculum to Pearson or other third-parties, ence faculty at the University of Connecticut at Chicago and the University of Oregon (both often for-profit providers. In each of these Health Center. It would be the first stand- in joint AFT/AAUP campaigns and units, and cases, academic managers have developed alone unit of a health center in the United in Illinois in conjunction with the IFT). Both structures and created mechanisms to bypass States to unionize. sites featured significant solidarity among effective faculty decision-making related to The issue that triggered the organizing was contingent and tenure-track faculty. the curriculum. Exceptions can be found, and a proposal to sell off the academic health cen- What is more, the successful two-day strike collective bargaining agreements can build in ter to a private company. Sound familiar? It this spring at UIC highlights what is at stake— protections against this. But the pattern is a echoes in the scheme of politicians to priva- the public purposes of public universities. As strong one, and the growth of these high-tech tize the State University of New York Down- UIC United Faculty leaders Lennard Davis and infusions is linked to the furthering of contin- state Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Walter Benn Michaels wrote in the online gency in academe. The model of high-tech successful mantra of United University Profes- magazine Jacobin: employment is a just-in-time, just-in-the- sions in this battle, “Keep it open, keep it pub- “Unlike the flagships of state universities classroom, just-at-the-manager’s-will type of lic, keep it serving Brooklyn,” points the way around the country…we don’t think our job is employment. for a broad, coalitional, public interest union- mainly to educate the children of the upper ism that holds much promise. middle class. … [W]hen we [the faculty and the Building coalitions administration] put together a ‘Strategic to regain our ground The public purpose Thinking Report’ back in 2005 we explicitly The way forward lies in emphasizing not our of public institutions said we’re not looking to recruit ‘better’ stu- plight or our specialness but our commonality The fate of faculty and professionals is inextri- dents; we want to do a better job of educating with many other employees in the service cably linked to keeping high-quality, afford- the students we have. The UIC faculty is com- economy. able healthcare and higher education avail- mitted to that mission. And the whole point of Despite the trend line in reorganizing aca- able to people of modest means, who are the the strike is to help us fulfill it.”4 demic professions and institutions in ways growth population and the majority in the Davis and Benn Michaels also make the that reduce academics’ role, organizing gains schools. These are the people privatized point that although they are part of a union give us reason for hope. Not since the initial higher education is turning its back on more that uses the tag line “A Union of Profession- introduction and explosive expansion of and more, tracking them into dead-end, als”—professionals, as distinct from workers— unionization in the academy in the 1970s has short-cycle certificates, or turning them over “what we’ve all begun to realize is that, what- there been such interest in—and animus to- to the predatory for-profits that are only too ever it meant in the late 19th and early 20th ward—faculty collective bargaining. On the happy to sweep up their Pell Grant money. century, in the 21st century that distinction is one hand, we are in a time of an unprecedent- Recently, for the first time in two decades, pure ideology. Professionals are workers— ed assault on the rights of public sector em- faculty at two large public research universi- and professors are workers.” That identifica- ployees, including faculty, to collectively ties have unionized—the University of Illinois tion is at the heart of the work UIC faculty have
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 3 PERCENTAGE 23% BECOMING INCREASE 286% 259% 123% CONTINGENT 1976 768,071 The Growth of Nontenured 2011 Faculty, 1976-2011
436,293
286% 356,743 Percentage increase in the number 353,681 of part-time faculty, 1976-2011 290,238 199,139 160,086 In 1976, full-time tenured and tenure- track faculty outnumbered part-time 80,883 faculty by 43 percent. By 2011, the ranks of part-time and nontenure-track faculty Part-Time Full-Time Graduate-Student Full-Time Faculty Nontenure-Track Employees Tenured/Tenure- had swelled to outnumber full-time Faculty Track Faculty faculty members by almost 2.5 to 1. NOTES: Percentage growth is from 1975 for full-time faculty members, and from 1976 for all other categories. In 1976, graduate- student employees included both full- and part-timers; in 2011, all graduate-student employees were defined as part-time.
SOURCE: Analysis of IPEDS data by John W. Curtis for AAUP
ties they serve. More than that, though, at the unique burdens imposed on adjunct faculty While we recognize the unique core of the coalitional strategies is faculty today, we are coming to realize that all in this positioning themselves not as special profes- academy are contingent. burdens imposed on adjunct sionals above the fray, but as professionals Like so many others in this post-industrial faculty today, we are coming to and workers who are committed to serving economy, in some sense, we are all also ser- realize that all in this academy the sons and daughters of the urban working vice workers, fighting against the push to class, lower-middle and middle classes, and make all employment at-will. We need to are contingent. underserved populations. form common cause to change that, as work- The broad-based, coalitional approach ers in the early 20th century did in a manu- to unionization is also evident in a new sort facturing economy. The path to that collec- of organizing campaign. The aim is to orga- tive success is not through framing ourselves nize adjunct faculty in the geographical in terms of our plight, our lost professional space in which they work, which ranges and privileged status, or the fact that we have across various institutions within a metro- lower wages than our education merits. The politan area. The metro campaigns target path lies in aligning ourselves and our condi- private universities and seek high levels of tions of work to the students and communi- union density to raise the “industry” stan- ties we serve and to the growing populations dard across the metro area. The AFT’s metro of underserved prospective students. Such a campaign in Philadelphia goes beyond stance will put us on the right side of history, campus-by-campus card campaigns and in the position of working toward a time focuses on building a community network when, in the words of the late Irish poet Sea- of union activists across the region, in coali- mus Heaney, “hope and history rhyme.” done in coalition with various other workers tion with various groups in that region. on and off campus. Notably, current successful organizing tak- Endnotes ing place in the academy is turning our weak- 1. Gary Rhoades, brief amicus curiae for Pacific Lutheran Metro organizing University and Service Employees International Union, Local nesses into strengths. It takes the deteriorating 925, No. 19-RC-102521 (NLRB filed March 29, 2014); and Gary In the new world of successful organizing, conditions of faculty employment and influ- Rhoades, “Disruptive Innovations for Adjunct Faculty: Com- mon Sense for the Common Good,” Thought & Action 29 (Fall there is a dimension of coalition building and ence over a range of decision-making realms 2013): 71-86. an explicit connection with students. Build- as a starting point for asserting a collective 2. Martin J. Finkelstein, Robert K. Seal, and Jack H. Schuster, The New Academic Generation: A Profession in Transition ing coalitions requires faculty to show how project that is part of the larger labor move- (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). what is happening in higher education in- ment. It also involves taking the conditions of 3. Joe Berry and Michelle Savarese, Directory of U.S. Faculty Contracts and Bargaining Agents in Institutions of Higher Edu- volves turning the academy away from its adjunct faculty who are distributed across and cation (New York: National Center for the Study of Collective public mission. Faculty have framed their yet deeply embedded within metro areas as Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, 2012). working conditions as significant not simply the basis for strong organizing across tradi- 4. Lennard Davis and Walter Benn Michaels, “Faculty on Strike,” Jacobin, February 14, 2014, www.jacobinmag. for them but for the students and communi- tional boundaries. For while we recognize the com/2014/02/faculty-on-strike/.
4 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 system of colleges and universities. Everywhere, it seems, legions of adminis- trators, including many who have never taught a class, are engaged in strategic plan- ning, endlessly rewriting the school mission statement and “rebranding” their campus. All these activities waste enormous amounts of time, require hiring thousands of new “dean- lets”—administrators who are not of the fac- ulty—and, more often than not, involve the services of expensive consultants. This re- branding business is so foolish that it is diffi-
Colleges reined in spending on instruction and faculty salaries, hired more part-time adjunct faculty and fewer full-time Power professors, and yet, found the money to employ more shift and more administrators How the growth of administration and their staff. is wrecking our campuses cult even to caricature. With the help of con- sultants, the University of Chicago School of BY BENJAMIN GINSBERG other factors inconsistent with medically ac- Medicine rebranded itself “Chicago Medi- cepted criteria. cine,” while my own university’s medical A PROFESSION IS SOMETIMES defined as Students of bureaucracy have often ob- school rebranded itself “Hopkins Medicine.” an occupational group whose membership is served that organizations that delegate I hope these new brands came with consul- limited to those who have undergone years of power to professionals who are actually tants’ warranties. I have a feeling that the next specialized training as well as considerable trained to implement the entity’s mission group of administrators will want to introduce indoctrination designed to promote accep- generally perform more effectively than their own brands—after, that is, rewriting their tance of the group’s code of conduct. Many those in which decision-making authority is schools’ mission statements. public and not-for-profit institutions, and centralized in the hands of managers and Two recent reports point to the onward some for-profit institutions as well, are built administrators. Look at the old General Mo- march of the administrative vandals across around an elite profession—engineers, physi- tors, for example, which was run (into the the wreckage of America’s campuses. cians, economists and the like—whose mem- ground) by administrators at company head- bers actually carry out the institution’s core quarters while its engineers were powerless. Money is not going tasks. Typically, the members of this profes- In a similar vein, the ongoing shift in deci- to the classroom sional stratum believe that their norms should sion-making power from physicians to ad- According to the National Center for Educa- determine institutional conduct and will resist ministrators in hospitals and other health- tion Statistics, in 2010-11, less than 30 per- efforts by managers to deviate from profes- care entities very likely diminishes the cent of the $449 billion went to American sionally defined standards. In hospitals, for quality of care received by patients. colleges and universities was spent on actual example, physicians frequently oppose efforts instruction. Indeed, for every $1 spent on The administrative takeover by administrators and insurers to base pa- instruction, $1.82 was spent on non-instruc- tient-care decisions upon ability to pay, staff In recent years, of course, the power of educa- tional matters including “institutional sup- convenience, bed utilization policies and tional professionals in America’s colleges and port,” i.e., the care and feeding of deanlets. If universities has declined sharply relative to the ratio of deanlets to professors in 2010 had Benjamin Ginsberg, author of The Fall of the that of administrators. This shift in power been the same as in 1976, there would now Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative within the university from academic profes- be nearly 400,000 fewer deanlets whose com- University and Why It Matters, is the David sionals to administrators has been an unmiti- Bernstein Professor of Political Science and chair of bined salaries account for one-fourth of all the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at gated disaster for higher education, under- tuition dollars paid by students and their
Johns Hopkins University. mining what was once the world’s greatest parents in 2010. I guess financially hard- BY ERIC WESTBROOK ILLUSTRATIONS
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 5 pressed parents can take solace in the fact about spending. The character of these students are constantly demanding more that their children will have no difficulty find- choices is evident from the data reported by services and amenities that may or may not ing deanlets with whom to work—though Carlson. Colleges reined in spending on have much to do with learning. At the same professors might be in short supply. instruction and faculty salaries, hired more time, mandates and accountability de- Scott Carlson, writing in the Chronicle of part-time adjunct faculty and fewer full- mands from the federal government are Higher Education, confirms this sad tale by time professors, and yet, found the money forcing colleges to provide services and reporting that increases in administrative to employ more and more administrators engage in activities that were unknown even staffing drove a 28 percent expansion of the and their staff. three decades ago. These claims are not higher education workforce from 2000 to completely false. Students do benefit from 2012. This period, of course, includes sev- A boom in services academic counselors and other academic eral years of severe recession when colleges Much of the ongoing growth in administra- support professionals. But often they are saw their revenues decline and many found tion, it seems, is connected with “student given services they neither want nor need. themselves forced to make hard choices services.” Colleges argue that contemporary Every professor can point to examples of the foolishness and extravagance of student service activities on his or her campus. On Schools have chosen, not been many campuses, the student services dean- lets have organized a shadow curriculum of forced, to spend more. And what recreational, inane and trivial courses (my they have chosen to spend personal favorite is called Learning Kitchen at one school in the Washington area) that money on is the administrative they encourage, and sometimes even re- superstructure, not the quire, students to take. As to government mandates, certainly the education of students. federal government does mandate a variety of expensive activities on the part of universi- ties. However, as economists Robert Martin and R. Carter Hill show in an excellent 2012 HEATHER WILSON paper, external cost drivers such as federal or state mandates are far less important than ‘Our skills were treated as a commodity’ internal or voluntary factors, particularly growth in administrative spending, in ex- plaining rising costs on college campuses. Schools have chosen, not been forced, to spend more. And what they have chosen to AFTER FINISHING LIBRARY SCHOOL, I was hired to work in a for-profit college library. spend money on is the administrative super- The year and a half that I worked there proved to me that the institution’s library, like structure, not the education of students. most other resources, seemed to exist for only two reasons: meeting baseline accreditation Educational finance is important, but it is standards and drawing in more customers. As a result, our skills, which we had honed at not the whole story. The expansion of admin- the graduate and professional levels, were treated as part of a commodity rather than istration has also distorted and perverted a vocation. Decisions about the library were made by corporate offices on the other side higher education. To professors, the purpose of the country, and we struggled to gain even the most basic resources, such as staples of the university is teaching and research. and printer paper. In order to meet the accreditation standards that allowed this company to provide financial aid, the company provided the minimal number of required resources Everything else is ancillary and judged by its in the form of online databases. However, the library catalog and databases were kept contribution to the institution’s true purpose. in a closely monitored interior portal that couldn’t be accessed off campus. The same Administrators, however, have a perverse vi- resources were offered at every campus in the company regardless of what programs sion of ends and means. To them, the pur- were offered there. pose of teaching and research, along with Although these conditions are an affront to the field of librarianship and a disservice student services, is to bring customers into to students, the bottom line is this: It didn’t matter. Providing information literacy skills is the store. To them, courses are interchange- central to librarianship, particularly media and digital literacy, but this institution’s success able, the learning kitchen no less important depended on students not having those skills, not being able to find such prominent than calculus. To them, the humanities are information about higher education from simple Google searches. What I learned about completely dispensable, never mind that a information literacy has guided me as I’ve moved on to more traditional colleges that student without a liberal arts education is uphold the value of strong 21st-century literacy skills, and I’m not dismissive of my experi- ence in a for-profit college library. However, it should be clear to educators who approach likely to be relegated permanently to the these institutions that their success relies on our failure to create independent, literate white-collar proletariat. To them, a clever thinkers—that which is at the heart of what we do. mission statement is more important than an actual mission. Heather Wilson is now the Systems and Emerging Technologies Librarian at Ferrum College in southern Administrators have disempowered the Virginia, although much of her research is focused on the state of libraries in for-profit colleges. faculty and wrecked the university.
6 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 4-Profits R Us The line between real college and fake college is growing fuzzier all the time
BY TRESSIE McMILLAN COTTOM higher education we are rarely talking about level of enclosure. Faculty rarely move from all of higher education. That’s a problem for sector to sector. Students encounter difficul- WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS, the contemporary many reasons. ties transferring from not-for-profits to for- debate about higher education is mired in For one, it excludes more than 2 million profits and back again. polemics. Depending on one’s ideological students and tens of thousands of teachers A dean of a second-tier, regional school of position, college is either failing at everything and administrators. But it also blinds us to a education once told me that she counsels or should fail more spectacularly for less brutal reality: Every efficiency proposal to desperate graduates of her program to think money. It can seem as though there are two “fix” traditional higher education already ex- long and hard before taking a job at a for-profit clearly delineated positions at play, but what ists in for-profit colleges. From centralized college because “once you’re there you cannot remains fairly constant on all sides is an im- plicit agreement that the conversation is about “real” college. Ironically for us, marketing and advertising captures the Real college would be traditional, not-for- attention of both prospective students and prospective profit colleges that have, at least in principle, a public-good mission to serve students and employees. ... For-profit colleges are hiring the Ph.D.s the civic body. Real college is dead, long live traditional colleges produce but don’t employ. real college. In narrowing our debate to the form, function and survival of real college, we exclude the implicit other: “not real” college. The “not real” colleges are the expensive, curriculum control, no tenure system and no come back.” That kind of enclosure—from unprestigious, marginalized colleges that faculty governance, to unbundled services leadership to staff and students—is a boon for operate for profit. From big names like Uni- and student-customer models, the efficien- our little experiment but it’s hell on people versity of Phoenix to small regional “busi- cies of market-based proprietary higher edu- living it. ness” schools like Brookstone College in the cation are the logical end of a postsecondary Southeast, when we are debating about race to the bottom. Exacerbating inequality In the language of social science, the de- Let’s begin with people close to the center of Tressie McMillan Cottom is a Ph.D. candidate in velopment of parallel institutional domains the institution: faculty and staff. I give about sociology at Emory University and editor of the forthcoming For-Profit U: The Growing Role of (traditional and for-profit systems of higher a dozen academic lectures on for-profit For-Profit Colleges in Higher Education. She education) constitutes a natural quasi-exper- higher education a year. Those talks are usu-
blogs at tressiemc.com. imental design. The systems have a fairly high ally based on my research of how organiza- BY WILLIAM DUKE ILLUSTRATIONS
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 7 tional practices at for-profit colleges tenure-track job. That doesn’t mean exacerbate existing inequalities. they won’t have a doctoral degree, but Two years ago when I would give it does mean that most of the Ph.D.s that talk, I would get a handful of traditional higher education produces questions during Q-and-A. But the won’t work in the traditional profes- real engagement happened after the soriate. Given the state of contracting formal talk. A small line of audience full-time, tenure-track jobs in tradi- members would form, each angling tional higher education, for-profit col- to tell me a story about working in a leges are tapping a pool of overquali- for-profit college. Most of them were fied, underemployed labor. ABDs. They were experts in middle history, rare library collections, The price of scrapping graphic art, culture and humanities. governance And they were broke and broken. In Faculty governance is a cornerstone in many cases, they had delayed gradu- the labor relationship in traditional ation to get one more paper out to higher education. Many decry tenure reviewers or to take one more turn on as outdated and inefficient. The effi- the academic job market. ciency logic for ending tenure is about These academics use the same saving time and money, and increas- Internet that potential students use. ing student-customer satisfaction. They see some of the millions of ads blanket- the sector’s Google ad placement? Unemploy- We are able to see the truth of that for our- ing the Web. In 2012, the Apollo Group, the ment benefits. selves. For-profit colleges have jettisoned largest for-profit college company and owner The connection between labor and the faculty governance altogether. Tierney and of the University of Phoenix brand, spent for-profit college sector’s bottom line is mul- Hentschke refer to the total absence of faculty $400,000 a day in Google ads alone.1 For- tifaceted. Billions of taxpayer dollars are be- autonomy in for-profit colleges in benign profit colleges made the “jobs and educa- ing transferred from the federal financial aid “business-ese”: Actors in for-profit colleges tion” sector the fourth-highest industry ad- programs, as student aid commodifies job who are imbued with authority are more vertising on the major search engine and insecurity and turns it into consumer de- aligned with the interests of investors than e-commerce platform. And of that sector, the mand. In turn, those dollars feed ad buys on are actors in traditional colleges, i.e., faculty.3 top five advertisers also happened to be the Google. These different “incentives” can also be un- largest national for-profit college chains. To- Ironically for us, marketing and advertis- derstood as polar opposite ideologies of pro- gether, they spent more than $1.1 billion in ing captures the attention of both prospec- fessional identity and job role. Traditionally, online advertising with a single search en- tive students and prospective employees. faculty have been considered expert in some gine in 2011 (Table 1). For-profit colleges’ high profile also takes field of study. Governance, in part, was a way aim at higher education’s labor of preserving the role of expertise in curricu- issues: For-profit colleges are lum and pedagogy. In for-profit colleges, TABLE 1. Top Four Google Ad Buyers in hiring the Ph.D.s traditional curriculum is another market-tested deliver- “Jobs and Education” Sector in 2011 colleges produce but don’t able. It is most often designed by a corporate- For-profit College 2011 Google Ad Expenditures employ. level office and handed down to deans who, Fast-forward a couple of in turn, charge faculty with efficient content University of Phoenix $46.9 million years, and the Q-and-A seg- delivery. Pedagogical decisions are central- ITT Technical Institute $29.9 million ments of my talks are more ani- ized and bureaucratically controlled. And, DeVry University $19.7 million mated and more specific, but deviation is rarely tolerated. one thing remains the same: One former English teacher at a technol- Capella University $17.0 million Those living the difference still ogy-centered for-profit college told me SOURCE: Data drawn from 2011 fourth-quarter earnings report from Google and Adwords, analysis by Wordstream.com wait until the end of my talks to about his hiring process. After a series of tell me their stories. The stigma online application steps, he was invited to a of working in a for-profit col- pre-faculty online training session. The Spending on marketing, lege is, for them, real. But so is paying the training was paid but not a guarantee of not instruction rent. And that’s where the tension lies. regular employment. Not unlike the online In 2012, a congressional committee investi- A content analysis I conducted in 2011 of classes he would be teaching, the course gated the for-profit college sector. Among job ads in job databases specific to higher was taken with other pre-faculty candidates other things, the committee found that the education institutions found an abundance in an online forum. leading companies it examined spent “$4.2 from for-profit colleges. Just like traditional The candidates read corporate policies on billion or 22.7 percent of all revenue on mar- faculty positions, most of these jobs require a curriculum and pedagogy, and took a series keting, advertising, recruiting, and admissions terminal degree. By some metrics, fewer than of compliance quizzes. They also participat- staffing.”2 The No. 4 targeted search term for 22 percent of all Ph.D. students will land a ed in online discussion groups with each
8 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 other but always with a corporate trainer How ‘we’ are becoming ‘them’ Our collective refusal to engage the reality serving as moderator. The aspiring English For our part, traditional academics think there of for-profit higher education only accelerates professor was also a critically trained human- is a clear line of demarcation between “us” our headlong rush to become the thing we ist. In one online session, he says, he raised a and “them,” “real” college and “fake” college. critique. Every proposal for making over concern about the absence of any critical But this year, we have seen the University of higher education in the image of its free-mar- literature that pertained to racism or sexism Kansas system put the kibosh on academic ket gods already exists. We need not argue or inequality. As he recounts the story, the freedom on social media. A growing handful hypothetical ends to top-down bureaucracies, discussion group ground to a halt as the other of universities have decided that “trigger gutted faculty governance or market-tested faculty candidates waited for a social signal warnings” should be added to classes that curriculum. We know precisely what those from the corporate moderator. The signal deal with “racism, sexism or violence” (or realities look like. The only question left for came soon enough: The curriculum was to what some of us call reality). And all manner us—after we admit that we are not all Harvard be taught as is, and students should not be of student-as-consumer movements have and Yale and Princeton—is: Do we want to be forced to engage “controversial” material. emerged. The line between “us” and “them” the more efficient University of Phoenix, gets fuzzier all the time. And toeing the line Strayer or Everest? Are students doing better? out of a professional ethos also gets harder as Has this abundance of credentialed labor, the labor conditions producing our most Endnotes authoritarian models and technology adop- 1. Kevin Chen, “How For-Profit Colleges Ace Marketing and heated debates contribute to the growth and Flunk Education,” The Motley Fool, December 4, 2012. tion made for a better college? It may make legitimacy of for-profit colleges. Alienated 2. U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pen- for more routinized tasks. There are no ser- graduate students and contingent labor would sions. For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Protect Student Success (Washington, vice requirements or, I’m told, hours-long be right to consider one of dozens of ads from D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2012). faculty debates about minutiae in for-profit for-profit colleges when they discover prestige 3. William G. Tierney and Guilbert C. Hentschke, New Players, colleges. But there may be discontent of Different Game: Understanding the Rise of For-Profit Colleges and sandwiches are made of air. Universities (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). which we will never hear. Many workers in for-profit colleges sign nondisclosure agree- ments as part of their employment and do not have a faculty governance mechanism LALAIN WILLIAM with which to lodge formal complaints. Approaching for-profit teaching The real selling point of this efficiency, ‘like my pants are on fire’ though, is that the most important actor is the student-consumer. As a liberation pedagogue, I would never argue with the primacy of stu- dents in an educational endeavor. But are MY GRADUATE DEGREES are from a for-profit university. I teach online, on campus, at students more satisfied when their faculty are for-profits and at nonprofits, so I’ve experienced all sides as a learner and instructor. I’m a content-delivery tools? The results are mixed. hybrid. This spring, I am teaching 10 courses at four institutions. For-profit students have reported high What I’m noticing most about working at the for-profit is the micromanaging. It’s ultra-, satisfaction with their “caring instructors,” ultra-, ultra-micromanaged. I have a course adviser overseeing me, and a semester moderator even if, in the final analysis, they don’t think overseeing the adviser. I get emails if I don’t respond to introductory course posts within 24 it outweighs the high tuition cost. Care mat- hours—the engagement benchmark. ters, but care is not a function of efficiency. It Courses are prepackaged, with in-house textbooks. Instructors may not make any curricu- is more likely a function of something else lum changes. I received retraining because I was responding to student discussion boards using for-profit students like: small class sizes. For my own words. There is a list of prewritten answers to use when giving feedback, which gives all students, intimate learning environments the impression you’re making scholarly comments when all you’re doing is perusing a list provided to you. This makes students feel like they are getting deep, intensive individualized seem to matter, but they matter most for stu- attention. You’re cautioned to keep track and not to use the same prompts within the same dents like those who enroll in for-profits. discussion. It’s smoke and mirrors. They are more likely to be working, have sig- Last year, two instructors evaluated my class, and a third instructor worked to redirect my nificant gaps between formal schooling and noncompliance with the posting rules for student discussions. I was asked what I was willing to have concerns about their academic prepa- do to change. I sense that if they could automatize us and make us into grading computers, ration. Small classes and caring instruction they would do it. benefit from sound funding and institutional The pay started at $1,200—the lowest pay of all my institutions. I must fill out weekly time security. Perversely, the lack of funding and cards indicating lunch breaks. If I am away from my computer for more than 15 minutes, I have institutional security are the two conditions to justify it. I’m supposed to work less than 15 hours a week; however, I find it impossible to being used to justify efficiency regimes in teach a course and actually read three- to eight-page papers from 40-plus students in that traditional higher education. The market- amount of time. I calculated how much time I would be spending on grading students’ work if I worked less than 15 hours a week and found that it was around three minutes per student. I based enthusiasts either do not understand figure I’m making $1.23 per hour. I approach the work like my pants are on fire. the future they are selling us, based on the very products they created, or they are not Lalain Williams is an adjunct professor of psychology who teaches in New Jersey and much interested in the flaws of their logic. the Philadelphia area.
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 9 state appropriations per full-time equivalent student from 1987 to 2012, and the 37 percent drop in state fiscal support per $1,000 of per- sonal income over the same period1—began a cycle of escalating costs that saw inflation- adjusted public four-year tuition go up three- fold (and public two-year tuition go up nearly 2.5 times) over that same period.2 And the federal role, previously limited to providing grant support for the neediest students, gradually turned into a much broader func- tion of loan-financier for low- and middle- income families. The growing volume of edu- cational debt filled the gaping abyss between escalating college costs and stagnating family incomes.
Students as customers The new financing paradigm, which shifted responsibility for college costs to students and justified the act on the basis of future private benefits, was accompanied by con- ceptual and attitudinal changes that trans- formed students into customers, and institu- tions into vendors, in a market-driven transactional relationship with each other. The ensuing commodification of higher edu- The Education cation reshaped colleges and universities, which tacitly embraced and validated the The rise of the higher new paradigm by radically reorganizing their Racket education business and internal configuration, their spending priori- ties and their outward behavior. the fall of the faculty Competing in a zero-sum game of relative prestige, and chasing after upper-income students whose college selection is heavily BY BARMAK NASSIRIAN and ever-improving quality, made possible influenced by popular rankings, colleges be- by generous external support from govern- gan to shift budget priorities away from core Every great cause begins as a movement, ment, industry and philanthropy. academic functions to amenities,3 spent lav- becomes a business, and eventually Minimal tuition-dependency explicitly ishly on student recruitment and marketing degenerates into a racket. —Eric Hoffer framed the relationship between institutions efforts, and increasingly subordinated ad- and their students as noncommercial, con- missions, programmatic and academic poli- HIGHER EDUCATION’S metamorphosis veying to students that they were beneficia- cies to strategic plans devised mainly by into a business began in the early 1980s, ries of a cultural-scientific endeavor that administrators. when a toxic combination of external fac- promoted the advancement of learning, the These external changes were mirrored in tors—shrinking population of recent high betterment of mankind, as well as individual and reinforced through corresponding inter- school graduates, stagnating wages, and di- enlightenment and success. The external nal changes in the workings of institutions. minished state and federal support—con- support that made the public-good financing The rapid growth in the number and power of spired to disrupt the basic economics of how of higher education possible was predicated top administrators and professional staff, colleges and universities had operated in on a thriving U.S. economy and an expanding overreliance on underpaid adjuncts, the ad- past. From its inception in the colonial era middle class that enjoyed year-after-year real vent of student rankings of the faculty, and the through the multiple phases of its democratic increases in wages and an improving stan- gradual erosion of the faculty’s historical role and democratizing expansions, and most dard of living. as guardians of academic policy4 were impor- particularly during its postwar golden age, The structural changes that afflicted the tant ingredients in the emergence of the new higher education had been on a remarkably economy throughout the 1970s finally caught corporatized university. stable trajectory of ever-broadening access up with higher education by the decade’s end Virtually all of these changes were—and through changes in federal and state funding still continue to be—justified in the name of Barmak Nassirian is director of federal relations and policy analysis for the American Association practices. State defunding of higher educa- improving institutional finances and in- tion—evident in the 30 percent drop in real
ILLUSTRATIONS BY SEL Ç UK DEMIREL ILLUSTRATIONS of Colleges and Universities. creased accountability. That they paradoxi-
10 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 cally do the exact opposite is an inconve- nient footnote to the panic-driven efforts of federal and state policymakers attempting to make sense of costs and outcomes in higher education. Even beyond the underfunding and cost- shifting that set the privatization and corpo- ratization of higher education in motion, federal and state higher education policies have further exacerbated it by treating higher education as a widget to be mass produced with as little cost—and fuss—as possible.
The rise of legislative meddling Legislative meddling in and micromanage- ment of academic affairs is a fairly recent American phenomenon. In the first two decades of distributing financial aid under Thewidget-production model of higher education the Higher Education Act, for example, the U.S. Department of Education enirely de- maintains an astonishing position of agnosticism on the ferred to institutional judgments on aca- central question of academic quality. demic matters. Beginning in the early 1990s, however, Congress and successive administrations, us- compliance requirements further weakens ed degrees. Internal administrative function- ing the power of the purse, began to get more the faculty by increasing the number and the aries who view the university as an end in it- deeply involved in issues that were clearly authority of administrative and professional self, unless checked by powerful faculty who academic in nature. The length of an aca- staff who use regulatory compliance as the correctly view the university as a means to the demic term, definitions of satisfactory aca- ultimate trump card in their encounters with end, i.e., real learning, can hardly resist the demic progress, the number of times aided faculty judgments about academic policy. crushing external pressures for accountability students may retake some courses, and the Market competition for students qua defined as high graduation rates. definition of the credit hour are examples of customers, over-the-top amenities spend- topics on which the federal government now ing, excessive and often artless regulations, Misinterpretating the facts has issued mandatory policies. and administrative bloat are not only net As commonsensically intuitive as the impor- Even more troubling are the series of previ- cost drivers, they are also crowding out the tance of allowing the faculty to define the ous and pending attempts—thus far unsuc- core function of universities, i.e., teaching ethereal substance of higher education might cessful—to exert federal jurisdiction on such and research by the faculty.5 But their dam- be, policymakers and their allies in higher critical issues as transfer-credit evaluation and age to higher education far transcends mere education appear intent on following the path credit acceptance policies of institutions, their cost inflation. they have charted to the bitter end. As definition of full-time academic course loads, The gradual reduction in the ranks of ten- sketched out above, any reasonable assess- and their degree completion policies. ured faculty, the evisceration of shared gover- ment of American higher education would At the state level, public institutions have nance in the name of professional manage- recognize that public skepticism about out- faced tremendous political pressures to ho- ment, and the loss of faculty sovereignty on comes and accountability is directly linked mogenize their curricula, accept transfer academic policy together undermine aca- and linkable to erosion of federal and state credits almost regardless of quality and com- demic integrity and the very substance of support and to the fall of the faculty. parability, and compete for scarce resources higher education. The widget-production Policymakers, however, presumably look- on the basis of performance funding, which is model of higher education maintains an as- ing at the same facts, are increasingly draw- often reduced to a mechanical proxy for grad- tonishing position of agnosticism on the cen- ing conclusions that suggest the exact op- uation rates. tral question of academic quality, and instead posite by further shifting costs to students, These policies, while well-intentioned at- obsesses over production of credentials. As and further disempowering the faculty. tempts at improving outcomes and reducing the sorry example of the for-profit “career col- Congress, for example, is toying with the idea costs, have strengthened the widget-produc- lege” sector amply demonstrates, however, all of allowing the states to establish graduate- tion model of higher education and further credentials are not created alike. level equivalencies for non-university is- tilted the playing field in favor of administra- The quality of learning, of enhanced skills, sued—i.e., politically decided—credentials tors by reducing the power of the faculty to and of the educational experience is far more for teachers and principals. And the hottest design and oversee academic policy. Not only directly linked to the ability and freedom of policy innovation in the Washington echo do federal and state funding practices and qualified faculty to define the curricular, in- chamber, offered up as a panacea for all the intrusive policies undermine the faculty di- structional and assessment processes by rectly, the overlay of ever-more demanding which students advance toward their intend- (Continued on page 17)
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 11 Building the profession Creating partnerships for real teacher education reform
BY MARCY SINGER-GABELLA, School Officers. Reports such as those issued there is a strong press to assess the effective- STEVE WOJCIKIEWICZ AND JULIA KONRAD by the National Council on Teacher Quality ness of teacher preparation programs based disparage all but a handful of university-based on the value-added scores of their graduates. THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT of 2001 programs. Among state and federal elected These proposals also aim to shift funding to established a test-based system of account- officials and policymakers, impatience with nonuniversity educator-preparation providers ability focused on K-12 districts, schools and the status quo has driven many to advocate in order to open up the field to competition, a teachers. As we enter the second decade of the forms of accountability that are simplistic in rationale similar to that underlying the charter NCLB era, the spotlight has widened to in- design, hasty in implementation, and coun- school movement. clude teacher preparation programs. Teachers terproductive to existing efforts to improve The push for accountability in teacher have long been identified as the most impor- teacher quality. preparation comes at a time when the U.S. tant in-school factor in student achievement; Proposed reforms supported both in Con- education system faces profound challenges. it is unsurprising that questions of how to gress and the executive branch focus on out- While relative wealth remains a predictor of improve teacher quality have begun to drive comes, link funding to performance and cre- achievement around the world, the United talk on education policy. ate competition. The suggestions are strikingly States reports a particularly acute wealth and Calls to strengthen and hold programs ac- similar to K-12 accountability systems. Stan- achievement gap. Struggling schools, those countable come from voices both within and dardized test scores figure prominently, and that have suffered most from the wealth and beyond the profession—including the AFT, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, and the Council of Chief State Read our report Marcy Singer-Gabella is a professor of the practice “Raising the Bar: Aligning and Elevating Teacher Preparation of education and associate chair in the depart- and the Teaching Profession” is a 2013 report of the AFT ment of teaching and learning at Vanderbilt Teacher Preparation Task Force. It urges a systematic ap- University’s Peabody College of Education. Steve proach to preparing teachers and a more rigorous threshold Wojcikiewicz is a former teacher educator and an assistant director in the AFT educational issues to ensure that every new teacher is ready to teach from day department. Julia Konrad is a graduate student one. Download the report at go.aft.org/raisingthebar. and research assistant at Vanderbilt. ILLUSTRATION BY IMAGEZOO ILLUSTRATION
12 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 achievement gap, are more likely to be without resorting to simple test-based ac- teacher leaders to design field experiences staffed by inexperienced teachers. Among all countability. They must maintain education that enable teacher candidates to learn schools, the “greening” of the teacher work- as an academic and a practical field. And they through practice. Rather than simply drop- force is a growing problem: The modal num- must tackle the problems created by inequal- ping in to the school community, candidates ber of years of experience for teachers has ity in the schools, the greening of the teacher work there over the course of the year, side by shifted from 15 to one in just more than two workforce, and teacher churn. side with experienced mentor teachers and decades. Another, related challenge is in- other novices. As candidates learn, they in creasing system “churn,” constant teacher Partnerships for learning turn act as mentors and tutors for preK-12 turnover that cycles experienced teachers When confronting all of these challenges si- students, and as increasingly able assistants out of the profession, negatively affects multaneously, the fate of teacher preparation for master teachers. And master teachers de- school cultures, and increases costs for al- is intertwined with the fortunes of K-12 velop and refine new skills as they support the ready cash-strapped school systems. schools, educators and students. Proactive development of novices. reform must directly address both teacher Benefits also accrue to the schools and the Challenge and opportunity preparation and teaching practice. Schools students who attend them. Increasing the for teacher preparation must become sites of ongoing learning and ratio of adults to children in a classroom al- And so, teacher preparation is at a crossroads. growth, not only for students, but also for the lows for more personalized attention and dif- Even as school systems face increasing chal- adults who teach in them. University-based ferentiated instruction so that all students lenges, many policymakers continue to rely programs are uniquely positioned to ad- have access to rigorous curricula. Teacher upon old and ineffective methods of evaluat- vance this goal by developing partnerships candidates and clinical faculty offer not just ing teachers and their students. When dis- with K-12 schools. extra pairs of hands, but also access to exper- tricts and states depend on test scores and An illustration of the transformative poten- tise and resources for school innovation. By value-added measures alone, they ignore tial of these partnerships comes from ongoing matching candidates’ needs for real-world substantive concerns about methodology work at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Col- experience with schools’ needs for skilled and and reliability, and overlook the inability of lege of Education and Human Development. value-added estimates to provide insight into Peabody is partnering with principals and (Continued on page 17) why things are working or not. The promotion of new educator-preparation providers raises significant questions about the effects of NEHA SINGHAL separating the teaching profession from its intellectual base, and of enervating the pro- Would wealthy suburbs use fession with programs that provide curtailed students as guinea pigs? training and the suggestion of a short career. The K-12 accountability movement has exacerbated rather than solved education’s systemic issues. Schools at the bottom of the FIVE DAYS. A whole five days of training is what I received before I was assigned to teach my wealth and achievement gap struggle to meet first high school algebra class during Teach for America’s summer training. Though I had only the demands of test-based accountability, taken one calculus course in college and did not consider myself to be a “math person,” TFA creating a pedagogical gap to go along with did not find it relevant to provide in-depth training on math content or pedagogy. Without the others. These same demands constrain the opportunity to learn under the guidance of a seasoned educator, I became the classroom instructor, with very little preparation and inadequate ongoing training to meet the needs innovation in teaching and reduce teachers’ of children who were using their summer to catch up or get ahead in their classes. I often motivation. They situate blame for systemic wondered, would wealthier suburbs allow TFA to use summer school students as guinea pigs failures on individual teachers, and thus rein- for corps members learning how to teach? Forgotten in conversations about TFA’s training force the already low levels of respect and model are the hundreds of thousands of summer school children, primarily children of color in compensation endemic to the teaching pro- working-class neighborhoods, who have been used as experiments for more than 20 years. fession. When teachers seek professional Since I had been slated to teach at the Texas-Mexico border, I was looking forward to growth and advancement, they confront the conversations during training about institutionalized racism, income inequity and inhumane absence of real career paths within the immigration policies. Instead, I found myself with 900 other corps members assigned to teach profession. in various parts of the country participating in standardized sessions on “backwards planning” Yet there is opportunity here. With unprec- (that is, teaching to the test) rather than critically examining our roles in local communities. edented attention being directed toward TFA emphasized tracking test scores and basing student learning solely on high-stakes exams, some of which determined whether or not students would be able to move on to the next teacher preparation, there is room—and ur- grade. Not only was I too inexperienced to administer these tests, I was unprepared to do so in gent need—for proactive solutions that will a manner that would respect the fundamental right of children to a highly qualified teacher. enhance the profession of teaching and posi- We should be very alarmed that teaching youth of color is being sold to college stu- tively affect student learning. Solutions from dents as some kind of “exciting leadership opportunity” similar to alternative spring break, the field must address the issues identified which often serves to benefit privileged participants at the expense of local communities. above. They must put forth real reforms to answer critics of teacher preparation. They Neha Singhal is a social justice educator and organizer, and a TFA 2009 recruit. must hold teacher preparation to account
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 13 “An accessible, affordable and high- quality system of public higher education is AFT Higher Ed critical to the health of our nation—both to ensure that students reach their fullest po- tential, and to enable the United States to continue to develop as a just society, a vi- brant democracy and an engine of econom- reclaims ic opportunity,” said Weingarten.
Countering a dire message the promise AFT Vice President Sandra Schroeder, who is chair of the AFT’s Higher Education program and policy council and former president of RIDING THE MOMENTUM of a rising stu- AFT Washington, invoked our union’s rich dent, faculty and community movement, history of activism in welcoming members to the AFT launched its national effort to re- the meeting. “We need to be able to renew claim the promise of higher education dur- our energy because the threats are huge,” she ing the annual AFT National Higher Educa- said. “What we’ve had in this country is an tion Issues Conference in Baltimore, April education system that is the envy of the 9-11. More than 300 AFT members, world, built on a compact between the gov- leaders and experts in higher educa- ernment and its people. If we don’t reclaim tion, students, and community part- the promise of that compact, we may see ners attended the conference and were higher education become more of a private inspired by multiple calls to action. privilege than a public right.” “Higher education should be about Higher ed workers get it, said Jared Bern- expanding opportunities for middle- and stein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget working-class families, not a ‘debt sentence,’ and Policy Priorities and former senior eco-
and not a way for Wall Street and for-profit nomic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. He colleges to profit off of students and families,” was the evening keynote speaker, addressing said AFT President Randi Weingarten. jobs, higher education and the economy. Weingarten launched the national effort What has happened in higher education, in a speech and town hall meeting. She with the increasing reliance on a contingent stressed the need to unite to ensure rigorous workforce—nontenure-track, adjunct fac- instruction that is student-centered and ulty—mirrors the slow growth in the rest of faculty-driven, while supporting indepen- the economy, Bernstein pointed out. Wall dent and innovative research; to make col- Street has rebounded from the recession of Left to right: John Govsky (Cabrillo College lege affordable and accessible to all and more than five years ago; American families Federation of Teachers) offers strategies on relieve the burdens of those costs that have have not. Yet public policy has failed to pur- contingency; Tim Haresign (Council of New Jersey State College Locals) and Jamie Dangler been shifted onto students and families; to sue a full employment economy, and it’s (United University Professions) explore teacher foster diverse institutions that provide a hurting everyone—workers, families sending ed reform; and Jared Bernstein (Center on richer educational environment for all stu- kids to college, recent college graduates—the Budget and Policy Priorities) calls on AFT members to raise a ruckus about economic dents; and to ensure students are taught and more than 90 percent of the population who inequities. mentored by faculty and staff who are well- have seen its household income decline. Rep. prepared, professionally supported and Paul Ryan’s Orwellian budget, where cuts to have a voice in academic decisions. Pell Grants come under a heading of “Ex-
14 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 panding Opportunity,” is an example of the high-level disconnect. Those not hurt: the financial industry and the wealthiest Ameri- “This is a class issue: Inflation is threata to your assets. cans, who worry about inflation. “This is a Unemployment is a threat to your paycheck.” class issue,” he said. “Inflation is a threat to your assets. Unemployment is a threat to —JARED BERNSTEIN, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities your paycheck.” He called upon the educators in the room, who grasp both the roots and the sig- Maintain faculty control senter Charlie Eaton, a Ph.D. candidate at the nificance of economic inequality and social The very notion of free college or higher edu- University of California, Berkeley, showed immobility, to do more to raise the alarm in cation as a public good would be heresy to the cost of the capital fueling the $535 billion their communities—“to wake the sleeping the profiteers behind massive open online enterprise that was U.S. higher education in dog” of inequity. courses (MOOCs), for-profit education, and 2012. The financing costs of student loans some technology, courseware and publish- ($33 billion), institutional borrowing ($11 Make college free ing companies, pointed out a panel discuss- billion) and the profits taken by for-profit col- Another major speaker was Sara Goldrick- ing “Tech 2.0—Higher Education in the Age leges ($1 billion) tacked on an additional Rab, associate professor of educational pol- of MOOCs.” $2,861 per student in 2012. icy studies and sociology at the University of “Their M.O. is consistent,” said Susan In other sessions, participants gave feed- Wisconsin-Madison, who delivered the Irwin Meisenhelder, former president of the Cali- back to Jamie Studley, acting undersecretary Polishook Lecture. Her topic was college af- fornia Faculty Association and a member of of the U.S. Department of Education, on the fordability and the inadequacy of current the Campaign for the Future of Higher Edu- federal proposal to link a college rating sys- public financial aid programs to provide op- cation. “They address real problems, like af- tem to funding. They learned about ongoing portunity and success for a large, voiceless fordability and access, but always, somebody student-faculty-community activism around portion of the college-going public. somewhere is planning to make a ton of student debt, elevating the role of profes- “Students find financial aid inaccessible, money off whatever they’re touting as the sional staff, building bridges between K-12 unreliable, untrustworthy, volatile, pre- latest solution for higher education.” Educa- and higher education, and organizing to fight sumptuous (the expected family contribu- tors have to reclaim the high ground and be politicized accreditation decisions that
tion) and punitive,” she said. There is a per- part of the negotiations. Left to right: Randi Weingarten describes how the ception that aid is not linked to academic Community college expert Shanna Smith nation must reclaim the promise of higher education; Erica Smiley (Jobs With Justice) shares performance, which is not true. “Political Jaggers, of Columbia University, urged fac- ideas about getting Wall Street off our campuses; support for aid is diminishing. It is por- ulty to fight the forces of “efficiency” that seek and retiring leaders Sandra Schroeder (AFT trayed as the new ‘welfare,’ treated as un- to unbundle education services and reduce Washington) and Ellen Schuler Mauk (Faculty Association of Suffolk Community College) accept earned, and the students who need it cast as the quality of our graduates. For a few dollars tributes from their colleagues. undeserving. They use pictures to depict more per student, real educators can main- students who receive aid as black and tain coherence and retain more students who brown, when the majority are white.” complete degrees that hold greater value. threaten access for large swaths of the popu- Goldrick-Rab previewed a proposal, Another session that electrified the room lation. And they boned up on developments which she formally unveiled a few days later, was “Getting Wall Street Off Our Campuses,” related to the Affordable Care Act, teacher to make the first two years of college free for moderated by Barbara Bowen, president of preparation, and new strategies to strength- all students by more fairly distributing avail- the Professional Staff Congress at the City en the voice and organizing success of con- able dollars. “The best way to fight fear is University of New York and an AFT vice tingent faculty. hope,” she said. Hope would come from a president. Speakers talked about the almost “Together we can reclaim the promise of system that puts students, teachers and fami- unprecedented flow of capital from institu- higher education as a means to opportunity lies together fighting for the end goal of a free tions serving a public good into the pockets and success,” Weingarten said.
—BARBARA McKENNA college education. of predatory profiteers. For example, pre- PHOTOS BY JIM DARLING AND DONALD FELDSTEIN
AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 15 IN THE NEWS
FIRST CONTRACT RATIFIED IN CHICAGO Tenure-track and nontenure-track faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago have ratified a first contract that came after the faculty held a two-day strike in February and threatened another one for April. Faculty and Faculty at UIC are represented by UIC students at the University of United Faculty, a joint affiliate of the AFT, Illinois at Chicago
the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the UIC-UF PHOTO are a team. American Association of University Professors. It consists of two bargaining nation’s commitment to equal opportunity were the recommendations of the AFT units—of 725 tenure-track and 425 for all students, AFT President Randi Teacher Preparation Task Force’s “Raising nontenure-track faculty. Weingarten says. the Bar” report. The contract, which applies retroactively “This decision has made it clear that We don’t need “a quick-fix, test-and- for two years and extends through August equal treatment trumps equal opportunity, punish, market-based ranking of programs, 2015, increases faculty compensation, and it gives states the ability to write but real solution-driven change that will including a new minimum lecturer salary of affirmative action out of their law books,” support programs in preparing confident $37,500. Previously, a lecturer with a Ph.D. she says. “This ruling, taken with the and competent teachers,” says AFT Presi- who teaches a required writing course for Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting dent Randi Weingarten. all incoming freshmen earned only $30,000 Rights Act, takes us backward on racial a year. The contract also provides stability equality. We agree with Justice Sotomayor SUNY HOSPITALS ARE SAFEGUARDED IN through a system of promotions for these that ‘this refusal to accept the stark reality NY BUDGET New York legislators heeded lecturers. “We formed this union to give UIC that race matters is regrettable.’” the call of the community in Brooklyn, N.Y., faculty a collective voice and the protections and excluded from the state budget a pilot we need to advocate for our school, our WHITE HOUSE RELEASES PLAN TO RATE measure that would have opened the door students and our members,” says Joseph TEACHER ED PROGRAMS The Obama to privatizing the State University of New Persky, president of UIC United Faculty. administration has asked the U.S. Depart- York Downstate Medical Center and two “This agreement helps us do just that.” ment of Education to enact a plan to other hospitals in the SUNY system. evaluate teacher training programs by how “Allowing the private sector into public SUPREME COURT DECISION A SETBACK well the students in new teachers’ class- hospitals would have endangered the FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY The U.S. rooms do on tests. So far, the plan is getting continuation of health services that save Supreme Court’s April 22 ruling in Schuette a D from educators who worry that lives but that are often not offered at v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, test-driven education policy is no substitute for-profit hospitals,” says Frederick Kowal, upholding a constitutional amendment in for a systemic approach to preparing president of the United University Profes- Michigan banning preferential treatment teachers and a higher exit threshold to sions at SUNY and an AFT vice president. based on race, gender, ethnicity or national ensure that every teacher is ready to teach Two AFT affiliates, the United University origin, strikes a troubling blow for the on his or her first day in the classroom. These Professions and the New York State Public Employees Federation, represent workers at UUP President Fred Mobilizing for equity and SUNY Downstate. The Kowal spoke at a budget also has the Downstate rally this high-quality services first increases in state winter that featured support for SUNY unions, faith leaders All during May, the AFT, joined by its affiliates and and the community. campuses since 2008. community partners, is stepping up action to reclaim the promise of high-quality higher education, public services, public schools and healthcare. From a May Day workers’ march and rally in Montpelier, Vt., to a declaration of support for fair pay for contingent faculty in New York, to an AFT Washington-sponsored community Solidarity Day in Seattle, to a justice rally at the U.S. Supreme Court to mark the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, AFT members and locals are focusing on the urgent need to restore equity to national, state and local policies that allow all to
AFT PHOTO dream their dreams and achieve them. Members will join with allies to reclaim the promise and push The AFT and others rallied at the forward solutions that are right for our communities U.S. Supreme Court on the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board and for the future of our country. Learn more at of Education decision. www.aft.org/promise. DAVID GROSSMAN DAVID
For more on these and other stories, go to www.aft.org/newspubs/news/index.cfm. 16 AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 Building the profession other needed changes, not only in teacher sound next steps, and to respond to the unpre- preparation, but in teaching. In order for these dictable. The ability of universities to build (Continued from page 13) partnerships to flourish, we must move be- and support this theoretical and empirical caring adults to work with learners, we can yond rigid, egg-crate models of schooling in foundation is part of what makes universities improve and expand the resources available which individual teachers work in isolation in so important in this enterprise. to schools, particularly those in need. their classrooms. This could mean reconfigur- The deep challenges facing U.S. public Peabody’s approach to accountability is ing school schedules and teachers’ assign- education will not be solved through school- robust and productive. At Peabody, licensure ments to allow teachers to work and learn as university partnerships alone, but neither will candidates in early childhood, elementary, teams, led by master teachers, grounded by they be solved by saddling teacher prepara- secondary and music education must pass the established teachers and assisted by novices. tion programs with NCLB-style accountability edTPA, a national, externally scored, perfor- Capitalizing on the expertise of each member, systems. Teacher preparation leaders can take mance-based measure of candidates’ abilities such teams can strengthen capacity to re- important steps now to push the education to plan, enact, and assess teaching and learn- spond nimbly to evidence of student progress. system in the direction of systemic solutions, ing of rigorous content. Such performance Another necessary shift will be developing while at the same time addressing calls for assessments of teaching, administered before new staffing compensation arrangements reform and accountability. Positioning teach- candidates take over their own classrooms, are such that both mentors and prospective er preparation in relation to a broader project meant to act much like the practical compo- teachers are paid for their efforts. We must of building school capacity to serve learners nent of the board examination for physicians. find ways to make high-quality preparation well is a critical next move. By matching up Unlike value-added scores, they measure and professional learning affordable, and as resources and needs, and by disrupting con- candidate performance upfront. teachers take on new roles, differentiated pay ventional roles and work arrangements, we Peabody surveys employers and gradu- structures must be developed to recognize can increase the chances that more students ates—one, three and five years out—about differentiated responsibilities. have the opportunity and resources to learn, candidates’ abilities, from differentiating in- Additionally, as programs ratchet up can- and that their teachers have the commitment, struction for diverse learners to creating safe didates’ engagement in practice, and work knowledge, skills and staying power to enable and productive learning environments. These with schools to reorganize for student and their success. By committing to such an agen- offer another external check on program ef- teacher learning, we ought not back off from da, teacher preparation programs reclaim fectiveness. So do graduates’ ratings by their attention to theory and research: These pro- their role as the driving force to improve administrators on state-approved observation vide the foundation for teachers to make teacher quality and thereby education for all protocols. Following the lead of states and sense of their students’ learning, to plan students. partner schools, Peabody is now experiment- ing with student perception surveys, as recent studies reveal a potential correlation between students’ perceptions of support and chal- The education racket ficult to figure out which way things will go in the near future, what clearly hangs in the bal- lenge, and their level of achievement. (Continued from page 11) This collection of measures, combined ance is whether higher education will degen- with benchmark assessments as candidates ills of higher education by the think tanks, is erate into an outright racket, or whether it will progress through course- and fieldwork, pro- competency-based credentialing, which es- return to its idealistic origins as a cause. vide faculty with invaluable data to support sentially does away with the teaching func- program development. When woven into the tion of the university (and therefore dispens- Endnotes fabric of school-university partnerships, es with the faculty) in favor of educational 1. Data provided by the State Higher Education Executive Of- ficers and the National Association of State Budget Officers. shared attention to these kinds of measures 6 technology and self-paced learning. 2. College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2013 (New York: establishes joint accountability for the quality The chaotic policies that have brought College Board, 2013). of teaching. And this direct, in-your-face ac- higher education to its current state of disarray 3. Brian Jacob, Brian McCall and Kevin M. Stange, College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students’ Preferences for countability is a powerful impetus for innova- do provide an opening for pushback against Consumption? (National Bureau of Economic Research Work- tion and improvement, one which answers the status quo. First and foremost, these poli- ing Paper 18745, 2013). 4. There is no finer treatment of this topic than Benjamin Gins- critics of teacher education while still respect- cies have in many ways exhausted their own berg’s The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrator ing the complexity of the profession of teach- financing mechanism. With aggregate out- University and Why It Matters (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). ing. Most importantly, this approach to ac- standing educational debt now exceeding $1.2 5. On staffing patterns, for example, a recent Delta Cost Project countability focuses on building structures to trillion, the debt-financing trend of the last 30 issue brief found that the average number of faculty and staff per administrator declined by roughly 40 percent at most four- support better teaching rather than measuring years is simply unsustainable. The nation year institutions. Donna M. Desrochers and Rita Kirshstein, scores and waiting for better outcomes to faces two options as to how it will provide for Labor Intensive or Labor Expensive? Changing Staffing and Compensation Patterns in Higher Education (Washington, DC: emerge. higher education. One choice would elimi- American Institutes for Research, 2014). nate teaching and simply direct students to 6. Clearly, competency-based learning is appropriate for some Next steps for teacher students in some courses. But the hype among millenials, who learn on their own and take machine-graded offer it up as the solution to faster, cheaper credentials, betrays preparation and teaching tests. The other would promote a more Spar- a profound misunderstanding of education and the impor- tance of teaching. This hype also reflects an undercurrent of School-university partnerships of the sort tan, less overregulated and overmanaged cynicism in suggesting it is sufficient for needy students, who described here hold great promise. Yet, a focus are least likely to be able to navigate learning without the su- faculty-governed option focused on educa- pervision and handholding of caring and competent on such partnerships requires attention to tional needs of students. While it may be dif- teachers.
For more on these and other stories, go to www.aft.org/newspubs/news/index.cfm. AFT ON CAMPUS | SUMMER 2014 17 On Campus SUMMER 2014 | “Every efficiency proposal to ‘fix’ traditional higher education already exists in for-profit colleges.” —TRESSIE McMILLAN COTTOM PAGE 7 * * * 9.97 39.95 20.00 10.00 12.00 59.97 12.00 17.97 14.95 59.50 47.96 14.95 12.00 18.00 14.97 10.95 29.95 19.97 15.00 19.00 39.00 26.00 24.00 34.95 12.00
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