Critical Analysis of Arthur Levine's A Race to the Bottom
A Race to the Bottom is a highly informative article detailing a study conducted by Arthur Levine. It relates to the quality of educational administration programs across various college and university campuses. This analysis will discuss the core concepts, logic, contexts, arguments and justifications, major points, and state my personal evaluation of the article.
Core Concepts
The major concepts of this article relate to the ineffectiveness of school leadership programs. Arthur Levine found that a majority of the programs were inadequate. He noted four areas in which these programs lacked efficiency. These areas of concern were the rise in off-campus low quality programs, weak research-intensive universities that are working towards awarding doctoral degrees in administration, competition for students is causing lowered program quality and admission criteria, and the fact that state and local school districts are adding to the problem by salary incentives for advanced degrees. Levine noted several major issues that affect school administration programs. First, he revealed that many people who had finished these programs agreed that the curriculum was irrelevant; they said that it did prepare them to deal with "on-the-job issues." Second, the issues of low admission and graduation standards were addressed. The study illustrated how many schools lower their standards to increase admission and create tuition "cash cows." Third, he discussed the issue of these schools having weak faculties.
In American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865 - 1900, H.W. Brands worked to write a book that illustrates the decades after the Civil War, focusing on Morgan and his fellow capitalists who effected a stunning transformation of American life. Brands focuses on the threat of capitalism in American democracy. The broader implications of focusing on capitalism in American democracy is the book becomes a frame work based on a contest between democracy and capitalism. He explains democracy depends on equality, whereas, capitalism depends on inequality (5). The constant changing of the classes as new technologies and ways of life arise affect the contest between democracy and capitalism. By providing a base argument and the implications of the argument, Brands expresses what the book attempts to portray. Through key pieces of evidence Brands was able to provide pieces of synthesis, logical conclusion, and countless
Some people love controversy; some despise it. Regardless of how one views a controversial topic, odds are he is fascinated by it and has his own thoughts on the matter. Journalist Leonard Pitts, Jr., who authors editorial articles for the Miami Herald, writes extremely opinionated pieces on current controversial topics targeting those who are not minorities. He writes with the goal of bringing to light issues that people would rather not discuss. Pitts’ style can be seen through pieces such as “Don’t Lower the Bar on Education Standards;” “Torture Might Work, but That’s Not the Issue;” and “If the Gunman is White, We’re OK With Mass Murder. No, Really, We Are.” In “Don’t Lower the Bar,” Pitts addresses the standards gap in the education system
Ms. Hall has had many years of public education experience and higher education training in which to hone her leadership style and framework. She started her career as a teacher in the Kirkwood School District. She then served as an assistant elementary principal at both Ritenour and Pattonville School Districts before being selected to serve as the assistant superintendent of the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District in 2008. Throughout her career she continued to pursue her education as a means o...
What stands out about American universities today? Is it the academic opportunities offered to students, experienced faculty, or strong sense of community? Or...perhaps they have lost their focus. It is not uncommon for universities to focus their efforts and budgets elsewhere; by building state of the art gyms, for example, remodeling luxury dorms, grooming campuses, or creating more management positions. College students and professors alike are subject to the nationally occurring changes in higher level education. Colleges are becoming commercialized and tuition is rising, but is the quality of education improving? In “Why We Should Fear University, Inc.”, Fredrik DeBoer is able to provide a personal take on the issue of corporate domination
"That's some catch, that Catch-22" (47). Some catch indeed, for Catch-22 "is the best there is" (47). A strange paradox preventing men from being grounded under any circumstances, Catch-22 eventually evolves into a justification for doing virtually anything. After all, it "says [anyone] can do anything [that] we can't stop them from doing" (416). A less obviously stated, but equally powerful, validation for one's actions is the guarantee of profit. "It [is] odd how many wrongs leaving money [seems] to right" (418), for the promise or presence of some form of profit, rights even the wrongs warranted by Catch-22. Milo Minderbinder takes full advantage of this powerful reasoning and uses it extremely well. Yet, rather than using it to right wrongs, Milo uses it to justify his own dastardly deeds. Therefore, throughout Catch-22, Milo's capitalistic greed leads him to be an emblem evil.
Kennedy, Mike. "Top Ten: Issues Impacting School Administrators." American School & University. American School and University, 1 Jan. 2001. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Many have come to the United States with the hopes of achieving the American Dream. America has been viewed as the land of opportunity, and a chance for a fresh start. But with opportunity also comes inequality and the chance of a powerful few taking control. Many inequalities are present within the article 15 Years on the Bottom Rung by Anthony Depalma. This articles chronicles disparities of the stories two immigrants who came to New York seeking the American Dream. Mr. Zannikos was very successful in achieving this goal. Through hard work and dedication, he came to own a chain of high-end successful diners in New York City. The other, Mr. Peralta, was just as hardworking, but was not nearly as successful. He was unable to achieve the American Dream despite all his efforts. Even with his hard work he found himself struggling to survive. He was quoted in the article saying “if I die tomorrow, there wouldn’t even be enough money to bury me.” The two men’s arrivals in New York are almost
In Ain’t No Making It, Jay Macleod explains his theories and findings on social reproduction of inequality. He begins by telling us more about some authors and their theories. This helped me have a better understanding on what this book is really trying to portray. One author I found interesting was Bernstein who focused on language patterns and social reproduction. By bringing up issues like this one that most people usually don’t think about, I was able to look at the problems that the Brothers and Hallway Hangers faced from a whole new perspective. I would not have noticed this throughout the book if these issues were not mentioned right away. I come from a very traditional family that believes that success depends on how much work you
In every institution the type of leadership style is important for a successful environment. In order to establish a successful school environment to compete globally, the leader should comprehend the basic leadership theories and styles (Glickman et al., 2010). The cultures at schools are important to the success of the students and overall of the school, but also can be very difficult to establish and maintain without the proper leadership knowledge (Waite, 1995). In United States many schools could be place in the categories of conventional, congenial, or collegial, because the strategies used for their leadership (Glickman et al., 2010).The chosen school could be classified according to different criteria and could be determine in which area their leadership pertains more. In order to analyzed and classify the leadership, it was imperative to observed the way the leader make decisions, the approached with the stakeholders, how the instruction is delivered, and how they realized their job (Marshall, 2005). In this analysis will be identify the category that this school will be, the school climate, the type of supervision and leadership.
In A Long Walk to Water by, Nya’s section demonstrates determination and how determination is an important attribute for people to succeed and survive. Nya, an eleven-year-old Nuer girl who is living in Southern Sudan during a drought is required to walk back and forth to and from a pond to get water for her family. Firstly, Nya spends most of her days getting water from the pond but she is determined to provide her family with water so she continues her journeys to the pond and back for quite a long time. For instance, the text in A Long Walk to Water explains, “Waiting for water. Here, for hours at a time. And every day for five long months. Until the rains came and she and her family could return home”, (Park, page 27). Nya knows that she
School administrators are important in setting the path for a successful school (Glickman, et al., 2014). The principals could play a dynamic leadership depending on how they exercise their beliefs of the organizational and social environment (McNair, 2011). The principals are the primary facilitators for developing the foundations in learning that will last, to manage the student’s performance at schools, and seeking the improvement at school that will cause great impacts in school‘s education (Gordon,1989). In the recent years in the U.S., education has change in a more cultural diversity population, it is imperative that school supervisors, are trained to encounter this cultural issues, but also assisting others with the opportunities to develop appropriate abilities to deal with different cultures (Glickman, et al., 2014).
The researcher used twenty-eight (28) interview questions, and as such, could not cover the gamut of other relevant issues that influenced students and program effectiveness. Moreover, there were other unforeseen variables beyond the researcher’s control, which the researcher may not be able to grasp a comprehensive assessment of other pertinent variables that may affect the outcome of the study. Although there are eight hundred and twenty six (826) Upward Bound programs operating nationwide, many of the Upward Bound directors were not comfortable in participating in the study. The randomly selected population presents limitations in scope, as the study captured and represented two of the eight hundred twenty Upward Bound programs nationwide. Issues of time constraints in relation to meet and conduct interviews with Upward Bound directors hindered grasping some qualitative aspect of the research. Directors though compliant, could not answer some of the questions posed as it related to the new APR requirements at the time of the research was completed; and could not provide the results of their current APR report for analysis whether the stated objectives in their Upward Bound grant objectives were met or approaching the target percentage performance.
Newspaper articles and websites about those organizations and the people connected to them instructional leadership. Examples of organizations such as Michelle Reed, Teach for America, and The New Teacher Project are a few (Rigby, 2014). The focus was on three out of the eight Dimensions when writing the memo notes. Number one focused on the underline assumption that all leaders share a commitment to bring educational opportunities to all students. Number two, leaders focused on the practice of instructional leadership. The third Dimension is the role of the teachers. Teacher’s characteristics have the biggest or largest impact on student learning inside of schools. The research shows that school leaders influence teachers such as with their type of their instructional leadership style they should develop trust and professional community. Majority of principal’s instructional leadership action is focused on the teachers through direct interaction such as observations and feedback (Rigby, 2014). The three largest instructional leadership research found that there was an assumption that the primary role of the principle is that of instructional leader how it is conceptualized and what it looks
What does leadership mean in the context of educational leadership? Many definitions of leadership in education co-exist, attesting to the complexity and multi-faceted phenomena of the concept (Elwell & Elikofer, 2013). Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood organizational and psychological areas of study. Despite volumes of research and numerous theories, no one theory of leadership emerged as the sole predictor of the success of educational leaders. The current body of knowledge about leadership consists of narrow definitions of leader effectiveness that are disconnected from their context (Latham, 2014). Educational leadership influences and affects every dimension of the educational process from the
As mentioned before, leadership styles take an important role in running a school. Unfortunately, many principals have not yet defined their leadership style and struggle to administrate their school. They are responsible not only of teachers and students, but of every employee in the school. They have the power to control all the resources available to improve and meet academic goals. Despite their power, principals need to identify appropriate leadership styles to succeed as