New York City public school teachers are the kind of people who aren’t afraid of a problem. Case in point: Natasha and Adam McCabe — a husband and wife pair of teachers — recently founded edPeople, a site geared toward helping teachers network and build their professional communities.

On the surface, the site allows teachers to create profiles, upload their portfolios and make professional groups that can link teachers across the city. Principals can also post jobs, free of cost — different from other networking sites like LinkedIn. More important than that, they say, is improving the quality of education by allowing teachers to find the kinds of schools they most want to work in.

“Teacher quality really matters at a school, but paradoxically, teachers don’t have the same professional networks as people do in other fields,” says Natasha, who struggled to find information about teaching jobs when switching careers from fundraising. “It can be an isolating field. Your ability to find jobs that suit you and to network is fairly limited.”

Adam, who has taught high school math in the Bronx for seven years, said he faced a similar challenge when searching for the right teachers to hire at his school. “I took part in some interview processes, and it was hard to find the best candidates for certain positions.”

It is possible for teachers to find jobs through the Department of Education, teachers unions and other online resources, but the McCabes hope that edPeople will help get those in their field to take initiative. “Teachers are active, goal-oriented, assertive people. We want them to have the ability to make choices for themselves and not be passive in their careers,” Natasha said.

Another problem the website seeks to address is the high rate of teacher attrition, which is climbing according to 2013 data from the United Federation of Teachers. Nearly 10 percent of new teachers in New York City quit before their first year was finished in the 2011-2012 school year, and nearly one-third of teachers hired in 2008 are no longer in the city’s schools.

“Teacher turnover is a huge problem,” Adam said. “I’ve witnessed teachers who may have been happy at one school, but because of what seems like a lack of options they either leave NYC schools or leave teaching all together.”

EdPeople is a labor of love for the pair, and also one of hope. The site was recently launched in beta, but their ultimate mission is to have more of their colleagues end up as they are — happily teaching in schools where they feel supported and in step with their schools’ teaching philosophy and administration.

“If we could create a thriving, supportive professional community among city teachers, it’s a great thing for everyone — especially students,” said Natasha.

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According to a study published by Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy, teens who spend some time bagging groceries or syphoning fries into happy meals have a larger shot at success throughout their career.

Paul Harrington, a Drexel University labor economist and lead author of the study, says that work experience in a formal job during high school (from ages 16 to 19) correspond to a 20 to 25 percent increase in salary for teens almost a decade later. In this case, a “formal” job means a gig in food service or retail for a larger company, as opposed to work like babysitting or cutting the neighbor’s grass. High school students who work, he says, are also more likely to have a job a decade after high school than their peers. The numbers are even stronger for teen boys, Harrington says.

“I think there’s a dignity in work,” Harrington says. “It’s really important for people to understand how they contribute to making an organization function. The way you understand how that works is by doing it.”

The study did reveal some bad news, however. As the economy has suffered, jobs for teens have become more difficult to come by. In the Metro Philadelphia area, the study revealed that in 2000, about 44 percent of teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs. Today, that number has fallen to 25 percent, mostly due to the lack of employment opportunities and to the fact that older workers are holding onto jobs longer than they have in previous decades.

The other piece of data that the study revealed is that attendance in high school is a very strong indicator of good things to come. Harrington says that having high daily attendance in high school means that students have a much higher chance of graduating from college.

“Woody allen said 90% of life is showing up,” Harrington says. “Turns out he was right.”

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With so many bars turning their attention to the craft of the quality cocktail, it can be easy to assume that the concept has saturated the bar market. That’s not true, sadly, and — depending on where you live — it can be hard to track down a well-made cocktail in your neighborhood. There’s no reason why you have to actually leave the house to drink in style, however. A new online teaching program called Drink Skool, created by some of the most respected names in the beverage industry, cuts out the middle-man and gives you the basics on how to turn your own bar into a craft cocktail haven. And unlike most DIY home-improvement projects, the worst that can happen here if you screw up is you get to make another cocktail. Sounds like a win-win.

Drink Skool is “definitely for consumers who have some enthusiasm and have some base knowledge about spirits and cocktails, or bartenders that are getting started, but not anything above that,” one of the partners, Doug Frost (also of the industry standard advanced training program Beverage Alcohol Resource — and one of the more renowned wine experts in the world) explains. “What we’ve tried to do, is distill it — sorry for the pun — into bite-sized chunks so people can go, ‘Ok I got that.’” As Frost points out, mixing a perfect cocktail isn’t exactly rocket science; it’s all about following a recipe and locking down a few standard techniques, all of which the — totally free — course walks users through online with a sense of fun and a sense of humor. “I would hope the outcome of what we’re doing is someone will go, ‘This isn’t that hard,’  buy a few a things and start making their own cocktails,” says Frost. “There’s no reason they can’t.”

Among the program’s lessons are the basics of mixing a cocktail, learning how to taste and appreciate the differences between types of spirits, and important bar techniques like muddling.

It’s an attempt to demystify the concept of mixology, Frost says. “I’m hoping that people will take some time to try a couple of techniques, at least for their favorite cocktails, and end up recognizing that there’s no great mystery in this,” he explains. “Instead it’s about measuring, buying better quality products, and using fresh ingredients. You don’t cook with canned stuff and expect it to taste wonderful.”

Get Skooled:

Right off the bat, there are two crucial things home cocktail enthusiasts need to learn, Frost says. First is the difference between shaking and stirring. Get a stirrer, he says, anything will do, but a nice long-handled spoon is best. “Learn to stir so you don’t break the ice up, and all you do is chill down the drink.” Shaking is for when you want a cocktail to be light and airy because it has bubbles in it; learning to know which recipe works best with either technique is a fundamental place to start. Also of primary importance, he says, is freshness — what he calls “the foundation of what has changed mixology in the U.S.” There’s no substitute for fresh juice, he asserts. “If somebody’s squeezing fresh juice, it’s mind-blowing what happens to flavor of that cocktail as opposed to a mix.”

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There’s a lot more to summer camp than bunk beds and campfires. Mason Griffin, head of YMCA camps in New York, has the encouraging spirit and enthusiasm that seems to embody everything that camp represents. He answered some of the most common questions that parents have about summer camp.

How can parents choose the right camp for their children?

It’s important for parents to go to the camp and meet the camp director — they should meet the people that will be caring for their child. That’s a great way to make the decision as to whether or not the kid should go to sleepaway camp, actually. Many times, the child will have a reaction that they’re going to have fun and are ready to take the plunge with sleepaway camp after visiting.

What do children take away from camp?

One of the biggest things we do for kids is have them demonstrate that they can learn. They learn that they can develop archery skills, that they can make more baskets in basketball than when they first arrived, that they can climb up a really scary-looking tower and go through their fear. The child may not be doing well in school, but in camps they are taught that you can learn, you can do things that are hard for you. There is very little bullying at a good camp. It’s a really corrective emotional experience.

How can parents decide if day camp or sleepaway camp is the right option?

Often, the child knows what he or she is ready for, so listening to the child is a good idea. Often a precursor is that the child feels secure staying with friends. Does the child have experience sleeping away from home, away from mom and dad? If the child is not comfortable doing that, then they wouldn’t be comfortable at a sleep-away camp just yet.

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As the air conditioners hum and drip, the summer months in New York can be hot enough to send anyone running indoors. Jamie Bilella, president of the North American Association of Summer Sessions — and dean at Montclair State University — says that while beating the heat, students of all types can benefit from summer classes that will round out their schedule and help them achieve their educational goals.

Take on a challenge. It can seem counter-intuitive, but Bilella says summer is an ideal time to tackle that tough course students may have been avoiding. “There may be one course that students are intimidated by, and the summer is an ideal time to take it,” Bilella says. Because students often take fewer courses at a time in the summer months, he says “they can focus all of their energy on that challenge.”

Explore. For students who want to think outside their major, summer can be a great time to do it. Bilella suggests that students who didn’t get into the class they were coveting, or who want to try a new elective outside of their focus of study should think about the summer. Also, if students have a course required for their major that they didn’t get to take during the year, summer sessions can fill that gap so that they can start the fall semester with their degree requirements on track

Get on it. Bilella says the No. 1 mistake people make regarding summer sessions is to miss out on them until later in their academic career. “Unfortunately, freshmen don’t pay attention to the summer offerings until they’re juniors,” he says. “They should recognize the opportunities of summer and winter early on.”

Stay on track. Graduating on time is good for the bottom line — and taking a summer course can help make that happen. “Maybe you’re looking to catch up because you didn’t take a heavy course load for a few semesters, or you want to get ahead to take advantage of a study abroad opportunity or focus on an internship,” he says. “Summer makes it possible to stay on track to graduation.”

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Summer camp doesn’t have to be all about yarn crafts and popsicle sticks. Your kids don’t have to travel to a sprawling forest or be devoured by mosquitoes to have a memorable summer camp experience. These unique day camps cater to a variety of interests and take place right here in NYC.

Walk the catwalk at Fashion Camp NYC

This week-long intensive day camp is designed for teen fashionistas. Campers learn the ins and outs of the retail industry from experts working in design, merchandising and more. The week includes seminars, group projects and field trips.
Starts July 15. Fashioncampnyc.com

Rawk out at Girls Rock! Camp
This all-girls music camp features performances by working musical artists and workshops on topics ranging from songwriting to DJing. The philosophy encourages experimentation and collaboration with other campers.
Starts July 29. http://williemaerockcamp.org

Build a robot butler (maybe) at Brooklyn Robot Foundry
Week-long courses teach young scientists how to build and use robots. Activities vary based on interest and age, but robots are a sure bet. Starts June 12. http://brooklynrobotfoundry.com

Shape up at Exerblast
This high-tech adventure day camp combines fitness with gadgets. Kids design their own obstacle courses, solve puzzles, and rack up points to cash in for prizes.
Starts June 6. www.exerblast.org

Nerd out hardcore at Backpacks and Binoculars
A camp for lively urban explorers ages 5 – 10. Campers travel through all five NYC boroughs, visit major cultural institutions and parks, and embark on walking tours in a variety of neighborhoods. Activities throughout the week focus on STEM education.
Starts June 13. www.backpacksandbinoculars.com

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In a high-tech global economy, few people dispute the need for Americans to excel in fields that will help them compete in the world market. In “STEM the Tide: Reforming Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education in America,” Claremont graduate professor of education Dr. David E. Drew tells us why the U.S. underperforms in these critical areas and suggests ways to get back on track.

Why does America perform poorly in STEM education?
The main reason is that we don’t support or respect our teachers as much as other countries do. In countries that out-perform ours, being a teacher is a higher-status job. They have much more professional development, and they’re paid more. Fifty years ago, our underperformance didn’t matter that much. Now, we have a high-tech information economy, so you need different kinds of skills. You’re competing not only against the person from the next town, but with people around the world.

What are our strengths?
Ironically, even though we have a weak K-12 system, we have one of the strongest higher education systems in the world. In the U.S., we believe in giving people second and third chances. Many countries have rigid structures where you take a test before you’re 18 and they tell you what you’ll be doing when you’re 45. Our system is more consistent with human nature.

How can we change the way we think about STEM achievement?
Other countries teach these subjects to everybody, and they succeed. Let me give you a metaphor: Every parent looks forward to the day their newborn will one day learn language. It is a complex cognitive task, but every person in our society does it. That’s how we should be looking at STEM education.

How will liberal arts education fit into the new economy?
I think it’s vital. We must have a cultural context, a historical context and a philosophical context in which we apply technology.  There have been too many instances of masterful technological achievements that have wrought havoc on society. We’ve got to be able to merge values with technologies.

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University of St. Thomas professor Stephen D. Brookfield is perhaps the most prolific writer on adult higher education in the U.S. His books use personal experience to flesh out his teaching philosophy. Brookfied’s latest, “Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults,” takes a look at power dynamics.

“Power is everywhere in the classroom. You can’t avoid it,” he says, from his office in Saint Paul, Minn. “So I thought, instead of writing a book that’s full of these approaches — which is probably what people are expecting — let’s examine how these power dynamics skew the way teaching techniques are experienced by students.”

“Powerful Techniques” touches on a number of concepts Brookfield has written about before: developing critical thinking, facilitating discussion, utilizing the creative arts. But this time the author emphasizes the adjustments he has made to his teaching style due to notions of power and trust.

Though Brookfield is still a believer in student-controlled, self-directed learning, he now introduces the concept with more than a touch of caution.

“If I’m asking people to make decisions about the curriculum, or I’m involving them in setting up the grading system, one of the responses I often get is: ‘You’re playing a game with us and we don’t know what your agenda is,” he explains. “So now I begin by saying, ‘Here are the non-negotiable things  about the class; here are the things I want you to decide; and here are places where we can negotiate.’ By being less naive about us all having the same power, I’m able to gain a student’s trust and build something from there.”

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In 2011, Hendrix College student Dale J. Stephens started receiving a lot of unexpected press. His website, UnCollege.org, delivered a hypercritical cost-benefit analysis of college at a time when many parents and students were questioning their faith in higher education for the first time.

In one of the many interviews Stephens gave that year, he casually mentioned that he was working on a book. He now admits that he probably should have said “thinking about,” rather than “working on” his book, but the quote was published anyway and Stephens was soon approached by curious book agents.

Stephens got around to writing the book, and the result was released last week: “Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More Than Your Peers Ever Will.”
To be sure, Stephens approaches the issue from a unique perspective. With his family’s begrudging support, he left his California public school at 12 and developed his own curriculum right up until he took the ACT and applied to colleges.

“I spent a lot of my time in college wondering, ‘If I was able to get into college without going to high school, why is there any reason that I need to go to college to get into life?’” he says. “And why am I paying $40,000 a year for this, when I can figure out how to learn for free?”

This month, the 21-year-old Stephens is crisscrossing the country on a media blitz — From the “Today” show, to Katie Couric, to South by Southwest — preaching a vision of a free, unfiltered, self-generated education.

“It’s about taking ownership and realizing that no one is going to give you an education,” he says. “If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to go out and find it for yourself: live abroad, do internships, research, build your portfolio, feed your networking community. We think that a college is going to give us those things in one nice package, but the reality is that you’re going to have to do it on your own whether you’re in school or not.”

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We asked chefs for their take on the chicken vs. egg question at the annual benefit for the Careers through Culinary Arts Program, which funds scholarships for students who aspire to be in the kitchen.

SCHOOL FIRST

“If you have experience before you go to school, I think it gives you an edge on learning so you can absorb things that you may be familiar with but not quite confident in. Start with school, get the tools you need and remember that the on-the-job training is really how you learn what the industry is all about.” Michael Lomonaco, Porter House New York

“It’s important to go to school. Actually, if you can combine both, like working during a school break, it’s even better. School is supposed to teach you the basics. The chef [will] teach you to connect what you learn. Nowadays I think it’s important to study first, then go.” Matteo Bergamini, SD26

“I recommend culinary school first. It gets you prepared in the sense of seeing the reality of what you’re going into. It also helps you understand a lot of culinary terms that we use.” Yuhi Fujinaga, The Sea Grill

RESTAURANT FIRST

“I think it’s great to go into a restaurant to make sure it’s actually something you want to do. Culinary school’s a pretty big investment in time and money.” Marc Murphy, Landmarc

“Work in a restaurant. It’s about whether you like it or not. If you don’t love it, you’ll never make it. You have to live it, eat it and breathe it. And when you go to school, you learn things, and you learn a lot, but you need to see whether you’re suited for it. And you can’t tell until you get out there and work in the field.” Sarabeth Levine, Sarabeth’s

“Working at a restaurant gives you all the tools to learn before you get [out] there. I worked in a restaurant first, and the moment I got to culinary school I felt like I had the biggest head-start in the world.” Kelvin Fernandez, The Strand, American Bistro

Q&A: Do you even need to go to culinary school? 
“I went to culinary school and I dropped out. … I’d say like 80 percent of my cooks are dropouts or they didn’t go to school at all. Thomas Keller did not go school.” Kyung Up Lim, Michael’s
“You don’t need to go, but I do think for some people it is worth it. It depends on the person. I personally didn’t go to culinary school.” Sam Yoo, Torrisi Italian Specialties

“I would say no. It’s all about if you can do 80 hours a week and do 12 hours a day and get burned every day — that’s when you know you want it. It’s not necessarily you go to school, you learn it and you come out and be a chef — and that’s what a lot of the schools make it out to be. There’s a lot of really hard work before that happens.” Joseph Fortunato, Extra
Virgin

“No, by no means. I’ve wasted a lot of money just going to school and then [realizing] it’s not what it’s like on the Food Network.” Chris Wyman, Scarpetta

‘It depends on the person’

“Culinary school gives you the knowledge — even how to hold a knife, which is very good. But also, [at a] restaurant, if you have a very good chef, like a teacher, [it’s almost like how] the culinary school teaches you.” Maria Loi, Loi
“I think it depends on the person. I did not go to culinary school, but I know some very good cooks that did and I really think it depends on how you learn. I just went to a restaurant and asked if I could work for free, and that’s how I learned.” Sam Henderson, wd-50

“I think culinary school gives you a great basis to learn the things that you really need to know to get started, but there’s nothing really like restaurant experience. Working in a restaurant is definitely going to enhance your skill level. But culinary school is a great basis and I would never not recommend going to culinary school if you have the opportunity.” Sean Quinn, Chadwick’s

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In the grand tradition of science fiction, it is time we accepted it — computers have taken over. So says Bronwen Grimes, a technical artist at Valve.com and one of the many young entrepreneurs featured in a video in support of programming curriculum in schools by the nonprofit Code.org. The video has gone viral, reaching over 9 million views in one week.

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  Viral video says students need to learn to code

“Computers are everywhere,” Grimes says. “You want to work in agriculture, entertainment, manufacturing — it’s just all over.”
The video taps some big forces in software engineering — Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Drew Houston — alongside boldface names from outside of the computerverse, like singer will.i.am and basketball star Chris Bosh. They make the case that programming helped them learn how to problem solve and that anyone can do it.

Professor Lev Manovich teaches computer science at the CUNY Graduate Center and writes about technology and culture. He says that countries like China are getting ahead of the United States by teaching programming in high school, and that students should be taught not only how to code, but how to understand programming concepts like how a web browser or a search engine works.

“I think we need to take a larger and more expansive view that coding is not just the only thing you need to know. It’s one element and there’s a difference between writing a program that has five lines and learning how Gmail works — a program with 5 million lines of code,” he says.

The film is set to show in movie theaters this week. A curriculum that includes computer programming, however, has yet to go viral.

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When academics generate data on race in higher education, they often include an asterisk next to the Native American category. That little mark lets researchers know the population is “statistically not significant,” usually meaning roughly less than 1 percent of the student population.
In March, Stylus Publishing will release what is perhaps the most comprehensive collection of writing by Native American scholars to date: “Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education.” With contributions from more than a dozen leading Native Americans in higher education, the new book examines the Native American college experience from almost every angle — from the first-year experience, to tribal colleges, to Native American Greek organizations and culturally sensitive housing.
“One of the things that constantly came up [for the Native American academics] was this concept of invisibility: in scholarship, research, data, curriculum and on the campuses,” says Heather J. Shotton, the lead editor of the book. Shotton is a professor at Oklahoma University and a member of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. “For us, the idea was to offer some perspective on Native students, from Native professors.”
Shotton is quick to point out that the Native experience is different from other minority groups.
“I think what separates Native students is that Native people are not just a racial or ethnic group. We are also considered a political group,” she says. “We are citizens of sovereign nations — tribal nations, but also citizens of the United States.”

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As a coach and trainer for creative professionals, Dave Mowers says when starting out in graduate study, “You’ll be surrounded by opportunity, new and fascinating people, lofty ideas, incredible demands and intense feedback and attention.” Can you make it pay off? Mowers lays out what to know before committing the time and money.

Why should we think about grad school right now?
There are signs of economic recovery. We have many industries, and advanced training and education are key to the innovation movements across the board.

Are there common mistakes people make when deciding to apply or choosing a school?
The No. 1 mistake is the assumption that any specific program will change your life and solve financial problems. People’s second mistake is taking an initial rejection as a stopper. But the biggest mistake is taking on the cost without a realistic plan for managing finances after the program is complete.

Is enrolling in continuing studies classes a good alternative to immersing yourself in grad school full time?
Continuing studies programs offer an amazing route to achieving your career goals. Programs like this are staffed by professionals working in the field. Most of them participate because they are interested in cutting-edge development, staying current with thought leadership in their industry and sharing a passion for their discipline or work.
What to remember when taking the next steps: Research is free. Spend time online with schools that interest you, but also visit open houses. Learning about a school is the first step to learning from the school.

Applying is not committing. Applications aren’t cheap, but they’re a small investment compared to the cost of attending a school. Find out what you need to succeed and take it from there. You don’t have to accept.

Keep an open mind. Sure, there is always a program ranked No. 1, but there are also other schools that may offer you better options for placement upon graduation.

Ask for it. Graduate schools are competing for your business. Make sure you are meeting face-to-face with a committed team of people who will help you get the experience you want.

What happens after?  Business is still business when you finish, and it comes down to who you know. Graduate school should provide you with a network that will move you toward your professional goal.

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Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder graduated from Harvard in 1987 and was thrown into a sinking economy — and a job market not terribly interested in English majors. Today she’s a family college consultant, and she sees her clients struggling with the same obstacles she ran into post-graduation — only much worse.

Her latest book, “The Unemployed College Graduate’s Survival Guide: How to Get Your Life Together, Deal with Debt, and Find a Job After College,” mines some of the wisdom she picked up in the ’80s and appropriates it for an even bleaker job market.

“I wanted to create a survival guide that took this job crisis seriously. This isn’t advice you’d give to just any generation. This generation is unique in history, and the same rules just don’t apply,” says Snyder, from her home in Lancaster, Pa. “They’re really caught in a double whammy. There’s obviously a recession, but there’s also a demographic crunch going on: There’s just more older people now, and they’re holding onto their jobs much longer.”
Kerrigan’s guide begins with a strong dose of emotional reassurance for post-grads feeling let down by their job status and judged by their parents.

“In my experience, the kids are more aware of the realities than the parents are. Parents are having a hard time adjusting their expectations,” says Snyder. “There is a way Americans have approached college for generations: Choose a school first, discover what you’re interested in while you’re in school and start thinking about a job in your senior year. The stakes are so much higher for these kids, and we need to start thinking about the payoff of this investment a lot sooner.”

The new realities
In her book, family college consultant Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder dissects the outdated wisdom of American higher education. Here is just one example:
Outdated thinking: A college degree ensures financial security.
The new reality: College can be a risky financial investment, and that risk needs to be hedged. A family only has so much money to help launch a child into the workforce. Diverting some of those resources toward a home or starting a business is a better strategy.

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George Saunders, creative writing professor at Syracuse University and author of “Tenth of December”

These days George Saunders’ talents are more in-demand than perhaps any other American writer: His latest collection of short stories, “Tenth of December,” recently appeared on the cover of the New York Times Magazine with the headline, “George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You’ll Read This Year.” Heady times. But back in the ’80s, Saunders found himself out of work with an MFA in creative writing — and looking straight into a pile of looming debt. These days he teaches at Syracuse University — in the very same MFA program he once attended. And, over the years, he has developed more than a few insights into the true value of post-graduate education.

Do your students ever struggle with perceptions that an MFA in creative writing isn’t practical? Did you struggle with this when you were a student?
Some of them do, sure. One of the most satisfying things is when a family that has been skeptical comes to our third-year graduation event, hears their child read from his or her work and is converted. Personally, I never felt that way, no. When I got into the Syracuse program I was working as a groundsman, so being in an MFA program was a big step up.

Do you feel that national conversations about higher education are too focused on job preparation?
It seems to me that it is, yes — although maybe that’s not surprising, given the scary job market and the tricky and shameful way that a student loan has basically morphed from a high-minded government program designed to provide civic benefit, into, well, a credit card [with] high-interest rates and merciless payback conditions.  Students now are so weighed down with this debt — which seems to me is a kind of welfare program that benefits the banks and the colleges but not the student — that there is, of course, pressure on them to start paying it back… and not go loafing around the desert with a backpack and a copy of “On the Road.”

Is there value in a creative writing MFA beyond becoming a better writer?
Well, I’d argue that the task of working through pieces of fiction or poems helps us become not only better writers, but better people. Writing somehow tends to move us from a position of one-dimensional certainty about a topic to a more ambiguous or even confused state — and that is mind-enlarging. On a more pragmatic level, I think the MFA degree has made it easier for our grads to get teaching jobs. This didn’t used to be true, but increasingly it seems so.

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His latest book, “Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities,” charts the legacy of modern higher education, from 12th century scholar Peter Abelard to the current proliferation of online courses. But this is no history lecture. DeMillo’s book challenges public universities to either adjust their models or be left behind.

“Since medieval times, the natural tendency of the university is to think more about their own value systems and professors’ needs than the needs of society,” says DeMillo, from his office at Georgia Tech. “I think it’s time to start thinking about what a university offers to the public. There’s a feeling among leaders that they have to compete with schools above them in rankings. That means they have to become research institutions and spend lots of money on buildings. But is that serving the student?”
DeMillo senses that the changing economic landscape is forcing universities to do some soul-searching.

“There is an elite band of universities that can afford to set their own agendas. And there’s some startup higher education organizations that are experimenters,” he says. “But in the middle you have some 3,000 institutions that don’t have international brands or big endowments, and many are clinging to an outdated model where they hold all the cards. But now you can get the equivalent course material for free online, so it’s time to rethink why they can ask a family to pony up so much money.”

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1. Choose the tasks that you are going to delegate.
Pull out the weekly to-do list, as well as the short- and long-term goals, and see what you can thoughtfully pass along. Consider your partner a resource and when you need the support, think about how you can use the time that you are already paying someone for and discuss the opportunities for your children to jump in and help out.

2. Really think about the right person to do the task.  
“I am better at making dinner for the kids,” you may think. You most likely can do it faster, but so what? If you are doing more than your share, then how much time are you really saving at the end of the day? Wouldn’t it be better to let go of some of your list to free up some of your time? Anyone can get better at something if he or she puts in the effort, so give your family, your employees or your friends the chance to help you and improve their skills.

3. Be available the first time your partner does the task so you can answer questions or help if they need it.
You can actually show someone how you want something done. If they don’t follow your directions, then retrain them. Consider giving them a reason as to why you have a preference for how it gets done; it will be easier for them to remember when there is a reason attached.
 
4. Give positive feedback and show your appreciation.
Accept that people aren’t exactly like you and will approach tasks differently than you would. Let them. Thank them. Remember, if you delegate well, then you will end up with more support, more time and a group of people who want to help you.

5.  Take the time to explain the task and make sure that you have supplied them with all of the tools, equipment and information they need to do the job.
It may take forever to explain how to do anything the first time, but once you take the time to train your partner, mother-in-law, daughter or sitter how to do something around the house, you’re done.

The post Tips on delegating tasks at home appeared first on Metro.us.

“It started as a way to think out loud about some of the dilemmas I was facing,” says Reed. “But as a community developed around it, it became a way to address larger issues in higher education.”

By 2007, “Confessions” was picked up by Inside Higher Ed — one of the most popular websites in the field. It soon developed a loyal nationwide following and, now, a book deal: “Confessions of a Community College Administrator” was released this month by Jossey-Bass.

Reed cut down on the snarky humor for the print version — mostly. This “Confessions” is a scholarly diagnosis of a system in peril.

“It’s taken me years to finally see an underlying structural problem with our higher education system,” he says. “Economists define productivity as the amount of stuff you can produce in a given amount of time, and our economy has steadily increased productivity. But in education the time is fixed: We denominate learning in units of time — semesters, credit hours, years. So we can never increase productivity like the rest of the economy. We wind up becoming more and more expensive by definition, which means higher tuition, more adjunct professors, etc.”

Reed admits that finding alternatives to credit hours is no easy process, but he’s willing to suggest some adjustments for the time being:

“We define the point of a course as the student being able to do X by the end of it, for example. Well, if the student is able to do X in six weeks instead of 16, shouldn’t they go on to the next thing?” he says. “Right now we make them do the full 16, during which we’re paying people.”

The post ‘Confessions of a Community College Dean’: blogger diagnoses broken system appeared first on Metro.us.

Writing this sentence on Twitter would be a total waste of characters. Instead, your cover letter should start with your pitch: “I’d be a great fit for the ABC position because XYZ.”

Stop saying that you have “strong analytical skills” and instead analyze the job description and craft some very concise and specific statements demonstrating why you’d be perfect for the gig.

Lose your laundry lists
Why does your résumé include laundry lists of each daily task you performed for all the jobs you’ve ever had? If you were a part-time receptionist, anyone who looks at your résumé will know that you answered the phone. What made you good at this job? How did you stand out?

Candidates should always pitch themselves as achievers as opposed to doers. Make accomplishments the focal point of your resume and cover letter — and cut out the rest.

Stop the résumé firing squad
We all know the drill: Modify a few résumé buzzwords, change the company name and job title on your cover letter and fire off multiple applications into cyberspace.

Instead, opt for a quality-over-quantity approach by applying to a few positions very well. Standing out requires more time than you may be spending right now.

Ditch the cover letter robot vibe
Write a cover letter the way you would write a blog post — with a human voice.

Read your cover letter aloud. Now read a post on your favorite blog aloud. Notice a difference? Your cover letter is written in a robotic voice that you may think sounds professional. It’s not.

Remove words like “strong communication skills” and “good phone etiquette” from your application and write a persuasive cover letter that has some action in it. Walk the walk.

The post Use your voice to land an interview appeared first on Metro.us.

The three-year, $50 million Measures of Effective Teaching study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found it was hard to predict how much students would achieve in a school year based on their teacher’s years of experience or knowledge of pedagogical technique.

But researchers found they could pick out the best teachers in a school and even predict roughly how much their students would learn by using a formula that equally weighed student input, test scores and detailed classroom observations.

Taken alone, each of those measures was fairly volatile. Judging teachers by student performance on state tests, for instance, turned out to be unreliable and inconsistent. Judging teachers by a principal’s observations also didn’t identify who could be counted on to boost student proficiency on state math and reading tests.

Combining all three measures into a properly weighted index, however, produced a result “teachers can trust,” says Vicki Phillips, a director in the education program at the Gates Foundation.

The study comes at a time of bitter political wrangling over teacher evaluations in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — and provides ammunition for all sides.

Education reformers who have been pressing to dismantle tenure systems  protecting veteran teachers from layoffs could take heart in the finding that seniority doesn’t predict classroom success.

Yet the report also bolstered union leaders who argue that teacher evaluations shouldn’t be tied so heavily to value-added measures — complex algorithms that gauge whether students do better or worse on state tests after several months in a given teacher’s classroom.

Scores across the states

The Obama administration has pushed states to give heavy weight to quantitative measures such as test scores in designing teacher evaluations. More than a dozen states have moved in that direction — in some cases making it impossible for a teacher to earn a good review if his or her test scores are low, no matter how well the teacher performs on other measures. States including Florida, Louisiana, Colorado, Michigan and Ohio have been particularly aggressive in tying teacher ratings to test scores.

The post What measures the best teacher? More than scores, study shows appeared first on Metro.us.

What did you find when you interviewed faculty at for-profit schools?
Their background was not typically in higher education. They usually came from the workforce, so the more hierarchical, for-profit model was something they were more comfortable with. I found a lot more top-down control at these schools. That’s  different in traditional institutions, where faculty have a lot of autonomy to determine how and what they teach.

Were their goals different?
A common motivator I found was a desire to provide students with real- world knowledge, not just the theoretical aspects of what they were teaching.

What do for-profit schools tend to do well?
They’re very innovative in the way they deliver education. They were the first to offer online courses. When they first started doing that, many in traditional higher education sort of looked down on that idea. But now you’d be hard- pressed to find a traditional school without online courses.

What do they tend to do poorly?
There are major issues with for-profit graduation rates. There are, of course, many different types of these institutions. It’s a broad spectrum, but overall it’s problematic. Also, the loan default rates are much higher than at traditional institutions.

The post Looking at the business of higher education appeared first on Metro.us.

Milgram says it’s all about “looking for trends that can help inform how the job market will fare long-term.” We got some help from industry insiders.

The industry: Real estate
“Even after five years of a challenging real estate market, employees of real estate companies are extremely happy with their jobs,” says Doug Claffey, CEO of Workplace Dynamics. “The entrepreneurial nature of the industry gives employees a great deal of control over their own destinies and success.”

The industry: Retail
Talent acquisition company iCIMS pores over data to learn who’s receiving the most applications and doing the most hiring.

“At the end of 2012, iCIMS evaluated the data and noted which industries were experiencing an increase in applicant submissions for open positions,” says CEO Colin Day. “Retail, transportation and health care all received the largest number of open position applications, with retail ahead in the volume of submissions.”

The industry: Biosciences
While 2013 might not be a big year for biosciences and pharmaceuticals it’s an area worth watching. “We don’t think there’s much room for growth with the large pharmaceutical companies,” says Chuck Pappalardo, managing director of Trilogy Search. “This sector is too important for us not to keep a close eye on it, but the coming year — and possibly even the next five years — won’t be its finest hour.”

The post 3 job opportunities to watch in 2013 appeared first on Metro.us.

But all that is just barely enough to overshadow the burgeoning reputation of Blue II, the school’s adorable English Bulldog mascot who just launched a national tour and is steadily building a social media empire along the way.

Along with their human assistants, Blue II and his eventual successor, Blue III, have been barnstorming the country in a van bearing their wrinkly likenesses, hitting major markets to further boost Butler’s basketball profile through slobbery cuteness and social media savvy.

On Twitter, Blue II shares photos and interacts with his 11,000 followers. He’s also got his own blog and posts filtered photos to Instagram and video updates to YouTube. Oh, and he’s on Pinterest, Foursquare and Facebook, and shares live video via Ustream.

“He was already so popular on campus, but thanks to social media and traveling around, that’s automatically raised his status and put him on another scale,” says Butler’s director of Web marketing Michael Kaltenmark, who doubles as Blue II’s owner, chauffeur and ghost-tweeter.

So far, Blues II and III have hit Louisville and Nashville in conjunction with basketball team road trips. Next up are swings through Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Columbus, Pittsburgh, D.C. and New York City.

But how do Blue II and Blue III feel about the grind of a traveling celebrity? “The dogs love it,” Kaltenmark says. “I think they just enjoy getting out of the office.”

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With social media tools, much of this research can now be crowdsourced through social channels. Your online pals and social media connections could hold the key to your dream job if you know who and what to ask. Here are three ways to get started:

Know the position
Not everything you need to know about the job is in the formal job description. The best place to find out what life is like in a given position is a space where people with that job title gather. This could be an industry-specific Twitter chat, a LinkedIn group or even a Meetup event. Once you’ve identified contacts who can give you insight about the job, inquire politely if you can ask a few quick questions. Most professionals are eager to help others and make new contacts, and will be thrilled you turned to them.

Meet potential co-workers
Whether or not you’ll enjoy a job can often have as much to do with who you work with as what actually you do. You’ll want to know how well the team works together and how the office personalities mesh.

If you’re not directly connected with anyone in your prospective company on LinkedIn, you can always ask a connection to help you reach out. Utilize big social media networks like Facebook and Twitter to find current and former employees, and then ask if they have a few moments to talk about the company. You might even invite a contact out for coffee to find out more about the company.

Prepare for tough questions
   
If you know what questions you’re likely to be asked, you’ll be better prepared with intelligent answers. Companies such as Google and Apple are notorious for asking weird, brain-teaser questions. You’ll want to find out what the most common interview questions are so you’re prepared for the basics. Then you’ll want to discover what off-the-wall questions the company is likely to ask.

There’s no way to prepare for every curve ball, but using a site like Glassdoor can help. The site allows you to see the questions other users have been asked, which can be invaluable in your own interview prep so you’re ready for even the toughest questions.

The post 3 ways you can crowdsource your job search appeared first on Metro.us.

Think about other things that matter to you and carve out time for them. It could be your family, friends, meeting new people, a sport or something else.

— Dan Schawbel is a Gen Y career expert, the founder of Millennial Branding and the author of “Me 2.0.”

Metro does not endorse the opinions of the author.

The post Resolve to get ahead in 2013 appeared first on Metro.us.

2. Office environments beg for cookies. This delicious batch is made by four-times James Beard Award winner Dorie Greenspan. Beurre & Sel Classic Jammers, $14, www.beurreandsel.com

3. Primping deskside just got easier. Tarte limited-edition curler and mascara set, $16, www.tartecosmetics.com

4. This full-bodied wine pairs perfectly with hearty winter meals. And yes, it’s OK if you just bought it for the festive star label. Clos de Los Siete, $18, stores nationwide

5. Valrhona’s delicious new Caramelia Milk Chocolate Pearls — milk chocolate over a toasted puff cereal center— taste like high-end Whoppers. Perfect for the 4 p.m. sugar crash. $8, www.valrhona-chocolate.com

The post Holiday guide: Gifts for coworkers appeared first on Metro.us.

No company name

It’s common on Craigslist to find jobs that don’t include the company name, because Craigslist doesn’t require a company to include its name. In fact, they make it easy for companies to post anonymously, so many do. This prevents job-seekers from doing research on the company they’re applying to, and limits your ability to find out whether the company is one that you’d want to work for and whether it’s a scam.

No unique e-mail

Many job postings request that you respond to one of Craigslist’s automatically generated anonymous e-mails, which unfortunately means that you have zero idea who you are actually sending your résumé to. Even if there is a company name in the posting, many scammers will use an anonymous Craigslist e-mail so that you think you’re applying to the company they mentioned even though you’re not.

Check-cashing and wire transfers

Some of the most common job scams on Craigslist are “mystery shopping” jobs in which companies ask to send job seekers large checks ($2,000 for example) which can be deposited into their bank accounts. It seems easy enough — the job seeker gets to keep a percentage of the check as long as they wire the remaining funds back to the company through Western Union.

But the checks are always counterfeit, and once the bank discovers the error, the job seeker is out $2,000 and the scam company walks away with the wired funds from the job seeker’s bank account.



Asking for personal information

Some job scams are simply phishing for personal information, either to steal identities or gain access to banking and credit card information. If you’re searching for jobs on Craigslist, never give out personal information like bank account numbers, Social Security numbers or even your home address. Provide only your e-mail address and phone number as contact information on your résumé.

The post Red flags to look for on Craigslist posts appeared first on Metro.us.

The scholarships will go to nearly 200 students who are not eligible for federal grants, government-backed loans or work-study positions, the school said.

The Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, a private family foundation, provided the scholarship grant. It is the largest scholarship for undocumented immigrants ever given to a U.S. university, the foundation said.

“These motivated, hardworking and inspiring students are an asset to our state and our country,” the fund’s president, Ira Hirschfield, said in a statement. “Now that it’s legal to do so in California, we encourage other foundations and private donors to consider providing funding to help undocumented students achieve their potential.”

Higher education has become a battleground in the nation’s immigration wars that have seen the Obama administration grant leniency to young people brought into the country illegally as children even as a number of states have sought to crack down on illegal immigrants within their borders.

Last year, California signed into a law a bill dubbed the California Dream Act that allows illegal immigrants to receive privately funded scholarships to attend the state’s public colleges and universities after attending at least three years of high school in the state.

Critics say the California Dream Act gives illegal immigrants a false promise because their status will not change after graduating from college and they will remain unable to find legal employment.

But that reality may well be shifting. President Barack Obama will push for comprehensive immigration reform during his second presidential term, his spokesman said in November.

The post Berkeley to give college scholarships to illegal immigrants appeared first on Metro.us.

Harvard faculty voted last month to require registration of parties and ban drinking games, and Cornell ordered fraternities to have live-in advisers. This fall, Dartmouth began security checks at Greek houses and Princeton University banned freshmen from joining them.

The moves are the latest effort to regulate campus behavior since rules controlling students were abolished in the 1960s. Disobedience crested last year for Ivy League schools. A Dartmouth hazing article detailed rituals involving bodily fluids. A Cornell student died of alcohol poisoning, and Yale was hit with a discrimination complaint after fraternity members chanted what seemed like a pro-rape slogan. “Colleges have been in an arms race to prove to students that they’re cool and give more freedom than the others,” says Lisa Wade, head of the sociology department at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “Now, maybe the pendulum is starting to swing the other way.”



Top schools not immune

Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth are among the worst offenders:

   

An undergraduate house at Harvard is under fire for an annual hookup party its residents call Incest Fest. The event is so named because only house members are allowed to attend. Two university clubs have also staged pranks ridiculing homeless people in Harvard Square, according to the Crimson, the student newspaper.

   

At Yale, one of eight private schools in the U.S. Northeast that make up the Ivy League, eight students drank so much at September’s Safety Dance — an annual 1980s-themed party — they had to be hospitalized. That prompted the school to ban the event.

   

Dartmouth was rocked by a hazing scandal in January when then-senior Andrew Lohse wrote in the school newspaper about eating omelets made from vomit and other degrading rituals at Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

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