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GRE Participation Down
Tweet Share on Facebook December 8, 2008 Comment (5)The Educational Testing Service is reporting that they expect the number of GRE tests taken this year will go down, the first time there has been a dip in participation in an economic downturn, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed report.
ETS expects to administer only about 621,000 to 625,000 tests by the end of this year, a decrease from last year's record high of 633,000. The drop is slight but is a cause of concern for postgrad educators, who expected an increase like those seen for the GMAT (10.4 percent) and the LSAT (6.2 percent), the entrance exams for business and law schools, respectively. Typically during a downturn, interest in graduate school goes up.
Educators have various theories as to why the GRE numbers are expected to drop:
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Cheating on the Rise Among High School Students
Tweet Share on Facebook December 2, 2008 Comment (38)A new survey of American teenagers finds that academic dishonesty is rampant and getting worse at high schools. A whopping 64 percent of high school students surveyed by the Center for Youth Ethics at the Josephson Institute in Los Angeles said they had cheated on a test at least once in the past year, up from 60 percent in 2004. Thirty-eight percent said they had cheated two or more times, while another 36 percent said they had used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment, up from 33 percent two years ago. Cheating on homework is also widespread; 82 percent said they had copied another student's work at least once in the past year.
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Rhee Challenges Obama to Get Behind Her on School Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook December 2, 2008 Comment (20)Earlier this year, U.S. News interviewed Michelle Rhee, the controversial chancellor of public schools in Washington, and had this to say about her:
"If you want to quickly become the most unpopular person in a city, close down a school. No, make that 23 schools. Then, fire 34 principals, offer buyouts to 700 teachers (while pressuring hundreds more to leave), and fire 98 employees from the school district's central office. That's what Michelle Rhee . . . has done since she took control of the district in the summer of 2007. Of course, she's not trying to make friends; she's trying to turn around one of the nation's most troubled school districts." (Read full story.)
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