Category Archives: Education

It’s Not the PhD That’s the Problem

Posted on May 11, 2013 by

Noah Smith has an interesting post, “If you get a PhD, get an economics PhD.” While I agree with most of it, I think he is wrong about biology PhDs when he writes: Lab science PhDs. These include biology, chemistry, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Education | 8 Comments

This Is Not Graduate Student Education

Posted on April 3, 2013 by

I’ve been reviewing some grant applications over the last year, and there’s something that has been bothering me, so I’ve decided to inflict it on the hive mind. For obvious reasons, I’m not reproducing the exact texts, but under the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 15 Comments

Thoughts on Boston’s School Assignment Proposal

Posted on March 14, 2013 by

The NY Times has a story about Boston’s new assignment choice proposal, something I’ve discussed previously. Before we get to that, I noticed whenever Katharine Seelye writes about this, she refers back to the school desegregation battles of the 1970s … Continue reading →

Posted in Boston, Education | 4 Comments

When Data Will Make You Reconsider–And They Don’t Have to Be ‘Big’

Posted on March 6, 2013 by

When it comes to policy, it’s not clear to me that ‘big data’ will be any more effective in convincing people to change their minds, as I’ve noted regarding educational data: One of the themes that I continually flog like … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Statistics | 1 Comment

Obama Still Buys Into the STEM Shortage

Posted on February 19, 2013 by

One of the things that has gone relatively unnoticed is that Obama bought into the whole notion that the U.S. faces a STEM worker shortage. Riverdaughter dissects that particular bullshit (boldface mine): There are two problems with the idea that … Continue reading →

Posted in Democrats, Education, Funding | 6 Comments

The Politics of Irreconcilable Differences: The Pre-K Education Edition

Posted on February 18, 2013 by

So one of the good things from Obama’s State of the Union speech is his proposal for universal pre-kindergarten education–if nothing else it will help women re-enter (or stay in) the workforce. As is the case with any broadly popular … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Education, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

When Education Reform Isn’t Real

Posted on February 14, 2013 by

Kevin Drum, on yet another education reform ‘success’ that turns out to be a mirage (boldface mine): My cynicism about the ed reform community grows by leaps and bounds every time I read a story like this. And that’s pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in Education

A Question About the Death of the Lecture

Posted on February 11, 2013 by

It’s not something I follow closely, but every so often, I read posts about the supposed ‘death of the lecture’ (here’s one example and another here) that either argue for or against lecturing. Here’s what I find odd: as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 10 Comments

On David Brooks and the Real Challenge of (Inconvenient) Data

Posted on February 6, 2013 by

Someone urged me to read David Brooks’ recent column, “The Philosophy of Data.” My first reaction was, “The man has already engaged in ersatz sociology, I can’t even imagine the atrocities against statistics he’ll commit.” My second reaction was, well, … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Statistics | 4 Comments

The PhD Glut Isn’t Just Biomedical: Welcome to the Sh-tstorm, Chemists

Posted on February 4, 2013 by

Economist and author of How Economics Shapes Science Paula Stephan notes that there’s a PhD glut in chemistry too (boldface mine): It did not take long, however, for this to change. Faculty quickly learned to include graduate students and postdocs … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Funding, Jobs, NIH, NSF | 4 Comments