This post is a paper I published in 1997 in American Journal of Educational Research. Here's a link to a PDF of the original. It became the framing chapter in my 1997 book, How to Succeed In School Without Really Learning. Here's the abstract: This article explores three alternative goals for American education that have … Continue reading Public Goods, Private Goods — The American Struggle over Educational Goals
This post is a piece I published in History of Education Quarterly in 2006. Here's a link to the original, complete with footnotes. It's an elaboration on the presidential address I presented at the annual meeting of the History of Education Society in October, 2005. It then became a chapter in my 2017 book, A … Continue reading Mutual Subversion: A Short History of the Liberal and the Professional in American Higher Education
This post is the transcript of my discussion with Chris Saldaña of University of Wisconsin as part of the podcast, NEPC Talks Education. Here's a link to the audio version of this podcast. This is how NEPC describes the conversation in its press release for the podcast: In this month's episode of NEPC Talks Education, … Continue reading NEPC Podcast: Conversation with Chris Saldana about Education Policy
This post is the text of the preface I wrote for the Chinese translation of my book, A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of the American System of Higher Education. The translators are Professor Sun Bi and research assistant Liu Zitai from the School of Education at South China Normal University. It will be published … Continue reading Preface to the Chinese Edition of A Perfect Mess
This post is about a 1975 paper by James G. March, which was published in, of all places, the Texas Tech Journal of Education. Given that provenance, it's something you likely have never encountered before unless someone actually handed it to you. I used it in a number of my classes and wanted to share … Continue reading James March: Education and the Pursuit of Optimism
This post is an essay by Julien Berman that was published recently in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. How higher education failed America’s poor For decades, policymakers claimed to expand college access. In reality, they steered poor students into the least valuable degrees. Julien Berman The best investment you can make … Continue reading Julien Berman — How Higher Education Failed America’s Poor
This is a piece I published in Aeon in October, 2017. It provides an overview of my book that came out that year, A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education. It’s a highly improbable rags-to-riches story, in which the US system of higher education went from pitiful in the 19th century to powerful in the … Continue reading Rags to Riches: How US Higher Ed Went from Pitiful to Powerful
This post is an essay of mine that is now the opening chapter of my new book, The Emergent Genius of American Higher Education. The path toward its latest iteration was long and winding. Let me count the curves along the way. This version was published in Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal for the Historiography of Education … Continue reading A System Without a Plan
Here are the syllabi for classes I taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Each syllabus includes links to nearly all course readings, tips for doing the reading, and class slides. As a result you can take the course, either individually and in groups. Feel free to share the syllabi with anyone you want. … Continue reading All of My Course Syllabi, Including Links to Readings, Reading Tips, and Slides
This post is an op-ed I published in 2018 on the online international opinion site, Project Syndicate. The original is hidden behind a paywall; here are PDFs in English, Spanish, and Arabic. It's a brief essay about what is distinctive about the American system of higher education, drawn from my book, A Perfect Mess: The … Continue reading The Exceptionalism of American Higher Education
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 