Rating: ****
Tags: Education, Higher, Lang:en
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: August 2, 2010
Added: September 5, 2019
Modified: September 7, 2019
Summary
Sigit Purwadi's
Library -
What's gone wrong at our colleges and
universities―and how to get American higher education
back on trackA quarter of a million dollars. It's the
going tab for four years at most top-tier universities. Why
does it cost so much and is it worth it? Renowned sociologist
Andrew Hacker and
New York Times writer Claudia Dreifus make an incisive
case that the American way of higher education, now a $420
billion-per-year business, has lost sight of its primary
mission: the education of young adults. Going behind the myths
and mantras, they probe the true performance of the Ivy League,
the baleful influence of tenure, an unhealthy reliance on
part-time teachers, and the supersized bureaucracies which now
have a life of their own. As Hacker and Dreifus call for a
thorough overhaul of a self-indulgent system, they take readers
on a road trip from Princeton to Evergreen State to Florida
Gulf Coast University, revealing those faculties and
institutions that are getting it right and proving that
teaching and learning can be achieved―and at a much more
reasonable price.**