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James M. Lang is Associate Professor of English at Assumption College and former assistant director of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University. He is the author of Life on the Tenure Track: Lessons From the First Year.
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A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching
"Briskly moving through the basics, [Lang] tackles the hard questions...with humor and insight...On Course is a vital resource for educators, even those who don't fit the first-year college-teaching market. My copy is dotted with notes about new ideas to try out in my lecture class this fall. Happily though, I took away from Lang's guidebook much more than techniques."
--Barbara J. King, bookslut.com
"If you are looking for a [college teaching] job, get a headstart by buying and reading this book. If you already have one, your teaching still stands to gain much from it." --Greg Garrard, Times Higher Education Supplement
"I wish I'd had this book when I began teaching. Lang's countless practical suggestions could help everyone from the new teaching assistant to the most senior professor. He challenges us to be better, more creative teachers. At the same time, his description of the strains in learning to teach-- especially the anguish we can go through when grading-- are both funny and comforting."
--Paul Umbach, University of Iowa
Christopher Newfield is Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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The Forty-Year Assault on the Middle Class
"It is not every day that you get a meticulous analysis of higher education budgetary mechanisms within the same covers as reflections on Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. And the sheer generosity of spirit that underlies Newfield's rather depressing reflections is deeply attractive."
--Alan Ryan, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Newfield's argument is original, his evidence varied and rich, and his historical narrative coherent. He situates the university in its broadest social context, and shows that the 'culture wars,' far from being a sideshow, have in fact cleverly been fomented by conservatives to reshape the values of the university, the world-view of its graduates, and the economy which it significantly shapes and which shapes it."
--David L. Kirp, author of Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education
"In a crowd of recent works dedicated to the changing university and its place in society, Newfield's rich, cogently argued and readable book stands out. This is that rare thing, truly critical history: a solidly researched book that is at once a fine example of the sort of scholarship that the American university still makes possible and a serious argument about the university."
--Anthony Grafton, author of The Footnote: A Curious History
Daniel Koretz is Professor of Education at Harvard University
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What Educational Testing Really Tells Us
"Deconstructs the complexities of achievement testing for the educational layman." --Education Week
"Here we are, lost in Testland, bombarded by data about how well or poorly we or our kids have done on the latest exam. What do test results mean? Every expert has a different explanation. What to do? Read Daniel Koretz's new book, as soon as possible. Never have I seen a clearer or more sensible exploration of our testing frenzy. I thought one chapter, 'What Influences Test Scores,' or 'How Not to Pick a School,' was all by itself worth the price of the book. Read it and relax."
--Jay Mathews, Washington Post education reporter and columnist
"This is the most easily understood presentation I know of the deceptively complex world of educational testing, and the most important current issues. It should be welcomed with relief by a very broad audience, much of which is ignored in most presentations on testing. I would love to see it used in courses for virtually all future administrators, policy makers, and teachers. Anyone directing testing programs in school districts and states will find this invaluable when they have to explain what they're doing. This book is badly needed."
--H.D. Hoover, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa
Mitchell L. Stevens is Associate Professor of Education and Sociology at New York University. He is the author of Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement.
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College Admissions and the Education of Elites
In real life, Mitchell Stevens is a professor in bustling New York. But for a year and a half, he worked in the admissions office of a bucolic New England college that is known for its high academic standards, beautiful campus, and social conscience. Ambitious high schoolers and savvy guidance counselors know that admission here is highly competitive. But creating classes, Stevens finds, is a lot more complicated than most people imagine.
With novelistic flair, sensitivity to history, and a keen eye for telling detail, Stevens explains how elite colleges and universities have assumed their central role in the production of the nation's most privileged classes. Creating a Class makes clear that, for better or worse, these schools now define the standards of youthful accomplishment in American culture more generally.
"Skillfully blending facts and figures with evocative case studies, Mitchell Stevens illuminates the process of admissions to an elite college, and shows how vexed and conflicted it is."
--Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University
"Rather than serving as routes to social mobility, many college admission offices end up perpetuating the status quo. Mitchell Stevens's thoughtful and eloquent book illuminates the machinations of the system--and its consequences."
--Lloyd Thacker, President, Education Conservancy and editor of College Unranked
Malcolm Getz is Associate Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University.
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A Guide for the Perplexed
In a concise overview of decades of research, Getz reviews findings on the long-term returns of college education in different careers, from law to engineering, from nursing to financial management. Sorting through personal, professional, and institutional variables, he helps families determine when paying $40,000 a year might make sense, and when it merely buys an expensive rear window decal. He breaks down the formidable admissions game into strategies to improve the odds of acceptance, and he offers tips on tax breaks, subsidized loans, federal grants, 529 accounts, merit scholarships, and much more. Shrewd and sensible, Investing in College is an invaluable resource and a beacon of sanity for college-bound students and the families who support them.
"This is one of the most sensible guides to the college admissions process ever written, with a grasp of the money issues that no previous guide has had. Parents who worry about the rising price tag of college, who wonder what they are getting for their dollar, who want to know if College X is a better buy than College Y, will find Getz's well-supported arguments and data wonderfully revealing."
--Jay Mathews, author of Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That Is Best for You
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C. K. Gunsalus, former Associate Provost at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is Special Counsel in the office of University Counsel and on the faculties of Law and Medicine at UIUC.
The College Administrator's Survival Guide
"Tina Gunsalus's seminar on administrative survival skills kept a crowd of academic administrators rapt for five straight hours, and eager for more. Her advice was lucid, practical, and remarkably shrewd; she adroitly showed us how to elicit the best from ourselves and our faculty even in the worst situations."
--Michael Schoenfeldt, Associate Dean for Humanities, University of Michigan
"Tina Gunsalus has enormous experience as an administrator, and in this book, with the conversational tone that makes it so enjoyable to read, her knowledge and common sense shine through. The case studies she uses can be as funny as Richard Russo's Straight Man. Unfortunately, what sounds like a novel can be a real-life problem, and her recommendations for finding solutions are very useful. She used the cases in a workshop on our campus, and the academic leaders who attended found her compelling and thought-provoking--just like the advice in this book."
--Hal Irvin, Executive Director, Organizational Development, Georgia Institute of Technology
"Where was this book when I was department chair? It provides an extremely useful and comprehensive set of tools and skills that would help almost anyone in academic administration--and in a conversational tone, with a good dose of humor. I found myself laughing one minute and shaking my head in recognition the next. Colleges should buy this book by the truckload and provide copies to all the poor souls who are about to be thrown into the abyss of academic administration. I learned a tremendous amount."
--Laura Schreibman, former Associate Chancellor, University of California at San Diego
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Ken Bain is Vice Provost for Instruction, Professor of History, and Director of the Teaching and Learning Resource Center at Montclair State University
What the Best College Teachers Do
Winner of the Virginia and Warren Stone Prize, Awarded Annually by Harvard University Press for an Outstanding Book on Education and Society
"Bain's sound and scholarly yet exuberant promotion of America's 'best college teachers' abounds with jaunty anecdotes and inspiring opinions that make student-centered instruction look not only infectious, but downright imperative...Though he acknowledges nationwide trends toward grade inflation, he invokes a 1990 study that suggests students are most driven by 'high demands' and prefer 'plentiful opportunities to revise and improve their work before it receives a grade.' Likewise, the book argues that, even in the cutthroat climate of today's competitive colleges, students strive best in cooperative classrooms. The best teachers, Bain avers, understand and exceed such expectations."
--Publishers Weekly
"With the strong conviction that good teaching can be learned, and after 15 years of observing teachers in action, Bain undertook an exploration of the essentials of effective teaching. The result is an insightful look at what makes a great teacher, based on a study of three dozen teachers from a cross section of disciplines from medical-school faculties to undergraduate departments."
--Vanessa Bush, Booklist
"Bain, a historian and director of New York University's Center for Teaching Excellence, studied 63 outstanding college teachers (as deemed by students and colleagues as well as by an examination of their students' work) from diverse institutions in an attempt to identify their common traits. What he discovered is pertinent to all teachers, including those at the K-12 level."
--David Ruenzel, Teacher Magazine
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David L. Kirp is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of fourteen books, most recently Almost Home: America's Love-Hate Relationship with Community
Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line
The Marketing of Higher Education
Contributors: Elizabeth Popp Berman
Jeffrey T. Holman, Patrick Roberts
Debra Solomon, Jonathan VanAntwerpen
"Kirp has an eye for telling examples, and he captures the turmoil and transformation in higher education in readable style."
--Karen W. Arenson, New York Times
"Mr. Kirp is both quite fair and a good reporter; he has a keen eye for the important ways in which bean-counting has transformed universities...Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line is one of the best education books of the year, and anyone interested in higher education will find it to be superior."
--Martin Morse Wooster, Washington Times
"David Kirp's excellent book provides a remarkable window into the financial challenges of higher education and the crosscurrents that drive institutional decision-making...This fine book provides a cautionary note to all in higher education."
--Lewis Collens, Chicago Tribune
"In this delightful book David Kirp...tells the story of markets in U.S. higher education...[It] should be read by anyone who aspires to run a university, faculty or department."
--Terence Kealey, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line is more than a breath of fresh air: it is a healthy slap upside the head to academics who think they are immune to the grubbing and grabbing of raw market forces. Elegant, amusing, irreverent, refreshingly written, and beautifully edited, this book shakes the scales off a purist's eyes."
--David W. Leslie , Academe
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Lloyd Thacker, a thirty-year veteran of the college admission and college counseling professions, is executive director of The Education Conservancy. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and their two sons.
College Unranked
Ending the College Admissions Frenzy
"[College Unranked] is a collection of essays by some of the most thoughtful people working in college admissions today...[Thacker] has an unusual perspective, an irresistible writing style and a passion to help students."
--Jay Mathews, Washington Post
"These college-insider contributors deride the 'commercialization of college admissions,' the obsession with college 'rankings' and the 'test prep industry' in a compelling critique of college admissions today."
--Eric Arnesen, Chicago Tribune
"The truth could set you free! This collection of essays adds real insight to the search for college and re-centers the focus to the student's development and well-being. Full of excellent observations and advice."
--Richard H. Shaw, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, Stanford University
"This book is welcome, if not overdue. The leading figures in college administration and admissions articulate with insight, candor, and compassion what the college admissions process should and should not be. This book is required reading for every parent, counselor, and aspiring student. It is more honest, helpful, and important than any guidebook or ranking magazine that exploits the misplaced anxiety concerning college admissions among students and their families."
--Leon Botstein, President, Bard College
"College Unranked is the most important effort yet to yank back the college application/admission process from the grasp of college rankings, commercial guidebooks, and expensive private consultants, and to restore it where it belongs: in the hands of students and their parents. The voices of the book's contributors are a calm, thoughtful force propelling us through the national blast of anxiety that dominates college selection and admission."
--Bob Laird, former Director of Undergraduate Admission, University of California, Berkeley
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Christopher Avery is Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Andrew Fairbanks is former Associate Dean of Admissions at Wesleyan University.
Richard Zeckhauser is Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
The Early Admissions Game
Joining the Elite
"Based on an analysis of admission data at top colleges, as well as interviews with over 400 college freshmen [The Early Admissions Game] challenges the official line of college admissions deans, who have long held that applying early does not give prospective students an advantage over regular applicants. But the research confirms what many high-school counselors already suspected, and it is likely to fuel debate over whether early-admissions programs favor wealthy and well-connected students and should be eliminated or reformed."
--Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education
"Readers seeking solid information about elite colleges will find The Early Admissions Game refreshingly frank. Other readers concerned about restoring some equity to the process will also appreciate the book's generosity of spirit and suggestions for reform. The authors present a devastating portrait of elite college admissions--and early admissions in particular--as an elaborate and complicated 'game'...[where the winners] tend to be privileged students who have access to highly skilled counselors with information pipelines to elite college admissions offices."
--Peter Sacks, The Nation
"Avery and his colleagues describe college admissions as a casino on Mars: you have to guess the rules of the game you are playing, and the rules can change while you are playing it...[Their chief finding] is that applying early significantly increases the chances of acceptance...Colleges argue that the early-admissions pool is stronger than the regular pool...[but the authors] dispute that claim...The Early Admissions Game is intended as an exposé, for high-school students and their parents, of the realities of college admissions, but it is also a protest against the practice of early admissions. The authors believe that these programs benefit privileged students...[and] cheat disadvantaged students."
--Louis Menand, The New Yorker
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Richard P. Chait is Professor of Higher Education at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
The Questions of Tenure
Contributors: Philip G. Altbach, Roger Baldwin, Jay L. Chronister
Charles Clotfelter, James P.Honan, William T. Mallon
R. Eugene Rice, Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Cathy A. Trower
"Most books about academic tenure are based on anecdotal or subjective information, but this one attempts to analyze this contentious topic using empirical research. Chait...and several colleagues collected faculty employment policy statements from over 200 colleges and universities and then surveyed and interviewed many professors and administrators on a variety of topics related to tenure. This provided the data for the 11 chapters, which range from an overview of current policies to a study of trends in academic employment in foreign countries."
--Will Hepfer, Library Journal
"A thoughtfully constructed book that brings light to several aspects of tenure and related issues, where, until now, there has been mostly a good bit of heat and smoke."
--Stephen Vicchio, Baltimore Sun