Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk [Hardcover]

Richard H. H. Hersh (Editor), John Merrow (Editor), Tom Wolfe (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403969213 | ISBN-13: 978-1403969217 | Publication Date: May 12, 2005 | Edition: 1st

What is actually happening on college campuses in the years between admission and graduation?

Not enough to keep America competitive, and not enough to provide our citizens with fulfilling lives.

When A Nation at Risk called attention to the problems of our public schools in 1983, that landmark report provided a convenient "cover" for higher education, inadvertently implying that all was well on America's campuses.

Declining by Degrees blows higher education's cover. It asks tough--and long overdue--questions about our colleges and universities. In candid, coherent, and ultimately provocative ways, Declining by Degrees reveals:
- how students are being short-changed by lowered academic expectations and standards;
-why many universities focus on research instead of teaching and spend more on recruiting and athletics than on salaries for professors;
-why students are disillusioned;
-how administrations are obsessed with rankings in news magazines rather than the quality of learning;
-why the media ignore the often catastrophic results; and
-how many professors and students have an unspoken "non-aggression pact" when it comes to academic effort.

Declining by Degrees argues persuasively that the multi-billion dollar enterprise of higher education has gone astray. At the same time, these essays offer specific prescriptions for change, warning that our nation is in fact at greater risk if we do nothing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While it would be easy enough to raise an alarm about the declining quality of higher education in America by trotting out horrifying statistics and disturbing anecdotes, this book thankfully spends little time doing so. Instead, Hersh and Merrow have gathered essays focusing on the root causes of the decline as well as on a range of strategies for reversing it. In this, the varied backgrounds of the contributors, from journalists and policy researchers to university professors and administrators, serves the volume well. These pieces include, among other things, a comparison of how the media covers K-12 as opposed to colleges and universities, considerations of how marketplace models have shaped undergraduate education, and a variety of high-level, philosophical approaches to reimagining the place of higher education in our society. And while all the contributors have distinctive viewpoints on the problem, one thing becomes clear throughout: the state of American higher education is a product less of policy decisions, curriculum structure or student demographics than of the values and priorities of American society. To this end, the contributors do an excellent job sketching the larger cultural and economic forces-such as materialism, job specialization, the information explosion and the near-universal adoption of marketplace values-that they see as primarily responsible for the decline of America's colleges and universities. Because of its broad focus, the book will interest a wide range of readers, from educators and policy makers to parents concerned about their children's education.
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Review

"I have never heard a single parent speculate about what value might be added by . . . four undergraduate years, other than the bachelor's degree itself . . . an essential punch on the ticket for starting off in any upscale career. The book before you is, to my knowledge, the first to confront the question head-on. All those boys and girls . . . do parents-does anybody-have any idea what happens to them in college?"--from the foreword by Tom Wolfe

"Anyone who cares deeply about American higher education will read this book and feel enlightened and enraged, delighted and despondent, encouraged and in despair. A 'must read' for those interested in both good news and bad, from higher education's influential insiders and jaded outsiders."--Lee S. Shulman, President, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

"The decline of our once-proud colleges and universities--well documented in this book--is the bitter fruit of our ever-more ineffective K-12 education. This book makes it clear that our nation is still at risk."--E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of Cultural Literacy and The Schools We Need

Praise for Merrow's Choosing Excellence:
"This [is an] outstanding assessment of the current state of the nation's schools...Forecast: Since most children in America attend 'good enough' schools, this book's potential market is enormous, and the author's high profile will help."
--Publishers Weekly

"No pre-service teacher should consider his or her professional education complete if it does not include regular viewings of The Merrow Report, the documentary series now airing on PBS and National Public Radio."
--Library Journal

"Merrow aims to create a smarter consumer of schools....He succeeds in that he gives parents a framework for what they should be seeking and very practical hints on evaluating schools."
--Karin Chenoweth, 0Washington Post

"This book points out that there's more to a school than its four walls and reputation, and more people need to be aware of all the choices that are out there."
--Scholastic

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition (May 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403969213
• ISBN-13: 978-1403969217
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Merrow began his career as an education reporter with National Public Radio in 1974 with the weekly series, "Options in Education," for which he received the George Polk Award in 1982. He is currently President of Learning Matters and scholar in residence at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching at Stanford.

Since 1984 he has worked in public television as Education Correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and as host of his own series of documentaries, The Merrow Report. His work has been recognized with Peabody Awards in 2000 and 2006, Emmy nominations in 1984, 2005, and 2007, four CINE Golden Eagles and other reporting awards. A frequent contributor to USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Education Week, he is the author of Choosing Excellence (2001) and co-editor of Declining by Degrees (2005).

Merrow earned an A.B. from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in American Studies from Indiana University, and a doctorate in Education and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He received the James L. Fisher Award for Distinguished Service to Education from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in 2000 and the HGSE Alumni Council Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education in 2006. He is a Trustee of Teachers College, Columbia University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read, June 8, 2005

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Gershom (Whittier, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk (Hardcover)

This appears to be another book by educators to educators; a lot of preaching to the choir. It is long on analysis and commentary, but short on real solutions. Few would argue against the value of a liberal arts education, but who can afford upwards of $100,000 and four years' lost wages for a degree that does not provide a clear path toward a career? How will you attract the best and brightest to a campus bungalow, a stipend and a key to the faculty lounge? Most will agree that the ranking and selection process is broken, but what can college and university presidents do to fix it? We feel the stranglehold that college sports have on campuses, but it simply mirrors the revered place sports hold in the larger society.

For anyone familiar with higher education, there is much to agree with in this book, but little new information. All in all it is well written and a good read, especially the latter chapters.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Declining by Degrees, August 27, 2005

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McDoc (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk (Hardcover)

Having seen parts of the PBS presentation by the same name, I read Declining by Degrees with a clear idea of its content. This indictment of academia definitely resonated with me because I have been teaching college since the late 70's. The criticisms of current academic practice in this text were credible, clear and well written. I hope Declining by Degrees will be a wake up call for post-secondary education. Time will tell.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting, But Uneven, September 8, 2010

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Richard B. Schwartz (Columbia, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk (Paperback)

This book raises a number of issues, but one is paramount: we know all about `admissions', particularly with regard to highly selective institutions; we also know about graduation rates (chilling, in some cases). What we don't know about is what happens in between. Are students learning more now than a generation ago? Less? Decidedly less?

These questions are hard to answer with any rigor because we do not have common exit exams and common curricula. The answers are usually couched in very general terms, e.g., "All is fine. Our students have a high graduation rate; they tell our alumni pollsters that they had a good experience and they have jobs that pay well."

The authors approach this key (and other) issue(s) from differing perspectives. The contributors include journalists, administrators, faculty, association and foundation executives and even the redoubtable Tom Wolfe, who provides a foreword.

As with all such books, the collection is uneven. Some of the pieces are exceptional (Frank Deford's, Julie Johnson Kidd's, Vartan Gregorian's, e.g.); some are predictable and add comparatively little to the discussion (Murray Sperber's, Heather D. Wathington's, e.g.) and one is excellent but already appeared elsewhere (David L. Kirp's). Some are wise and insightful; some are a bit provincial. In other words, this is like nearly every other edited collection.

On balance, however, the book is worthy of attention. There are many thoughtful essays and a number of interesting statistics and facts (along with some amusing factoids). There is also a kind of internal dialogue, with contributors markedly disagreeing with one another. Leon Botstein, e.g., is very brave (and cogent) with regard to the ultimate marginality of student service personnel (whose numbers have proliferated) and Julie Johnson Kidd argues, convincingly, that we're not doing students a favor by placing them in an ethos of endless service personnel, a situation that will not be replicated in the outside world that they are soon to enter. At the same time, there are calls (from Heather D. Wathington, e.g.) for more and more `support' services, with the onus for student success being put on the colleges and universities rather than on the students themselves. Hence, the book provides a sense of the general issues at stake along with some cogent reflections on it.