Global Strategies

"An Existential Crisis for Law Schools"

There is, apparently, a limit to the number of lawyers the US economy can employ, and we’ve reached it. Yet, both Oregon’s “40-40-20” educational goals and, probably, the OEIB’s developing “Return-on-Investment Dashboard” (here) assume more education is always good and will pay more. Not so, it seems, for lawyers. From the NY Times article “An Existential Crisis for Law Schools” by Lincoln Caplan (here):

July is the cruelest month for recent law school graduates. State bar exams next week are make-or-break affairs, determining how many will be allowed to practice law. Those exams once set a graduate on the path to a lifelong career. Not anymore. A huge number of new graduates, if lucky enough to find work, will not be employed in legal jobs that require passing the bar.

Only 55 percent of 43,735 graduates in 2011 had a law-related job nine months after graduation, said William Henderson of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, who analyzed recent data from the American Bar Association. Twenty-eight percent were unemployed or underemployed. And at the 20 law schools with the highest employment, 83 percent of graduates were working as lawyers. At the bottom 20, it was a dismal 31 percent.

These numbers are far worse than jobs data going back a generation and should be a deep embarrassment to law schools, which have been churning out more graduates than the economy can employ, indulging themselves in copious revenues that higher tuitions and bigger classes bring in. A growing list of deans acknowledge that legal education is facing an existential crisis, but the transformation to a more sustainable model will be difficult and messy……

“UW joins Stanford, others; will offer free online classes"

"The University of Washington is joining a massive, free experiment in online education that adherents believe has the potential to revolutionize the way college classes are taught, open up access to some of the university's most sought-after courses, and drive down the cost of a degree."

Online education in higher education has entered a new phase. And, to my knowledge, higher ed in Oregon is neither an active participant in any of the consortiums developing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs, here) nor making any plans to use MOOCs to cut the escalating cost of higher education for Oregon students. The University of Washington, on the other hand, is. From The Seattle Times article “UW joins Stanford, others; will offer free online classes: The University of Washington and nine other top-tier schools are joining forces with an online startup that is offering university courses for free” by Katherine Long (here):

The University of Washington is joining a massive, free experiment in online education that adherents believe has the potential to revolutionize the way college classes are taught, open up access to some of the university's most sought-after courses, and drive down the cost of a degree.

The university has signed a contract to provide an online startup called Coursera with courses in math, computer science, computational finance and information security. Coursera already provides free courses to anyone wanting to participate, although students do not earn credit, at least for now…..

And, from the NY Times article “Universities Reshaping Education on the Web” by Tamar Lewin (here):

As part of a seismic shift in online learning that is reshaping higher education, Coursera, a year-old company founded by two Stanford University computer scientists, will announce on Tuesday that a dozen major research universities are joining the venture. In the fall, Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally.

Even before the expansion, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, the founders of Coursera, said it had registered 680,000 students in 43 courses with its original partners, Michigan, Princeton, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania.

Now, the partners will include the California Institute of Technology; Duke University; the Georgia Institute of Technology; Johns Hopkins University; Rice University; the University of California, San Francisco; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; the University of Washington; and the University of Virginia, where the debate over online education was cited in last’s month’s ousting — quickly overturned — of its president, Teresa A. Sullivan. Foreign partners include the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, the University of Toronto and EPF Lausanne, a technical university in Switzerland.

And some of them will offer credit.

“This is the tsunami,” said Richard A. DeMillo, the director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at Georgia Tech. “It’s all so new that everyone’s feeling their way around, but the potential upside for this experiment is so big that it’s hard for me to imagine any large research university that wouldn’t want to be involved.”

Because of technological advances — among them, the greatly improved quality of online delivery platforms, the ability to personalize material and the capacity to analyze huge numbers of student experiences to see which approach works best — MOOCs are likely to be a game-changer, opening higher education to hundreds of millions of people......

Oregon seems left out and left behind. Where do all these online developments leave the institution that form the Oregon University System? And why doesn’t their Board of Higher Education have a special committee of board members and administrators charting a course for Oregon’s public institutions that saves Oregon students money and preserves the various institutions?

“Didier Drogba Becomes China’s Biggest Soccer Import”

Soccer star Didier Drogba has arrived in China. From the Time World article “Didier Drogba Becomes China’s Biggest Soccer Import” by Austin Ramzy (here)

When he arrived at Shanghai’s Pudong airport Saturday, former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba was greeted as a savior. Fans of his new team, Shanghai Shenhua, mobbed the 34-year-old Ivory Coast star, chanting his name, shooting photos with their phones and waving Ivory Coast and Shenhua flags before he hopped into a black BMW with the team’s director. Later in the day, Drogba told a press conference that his move was about more than his reported $300,000-a-week salary, which would make him one of the highest paid players in the world. “Money is not the most important,” he said, the Associated Press reported. “I am here for a whole new experience.”

China, the world’s biggest exporter, is now becoming a key importer of thirty-something-year-old soccer stars, and Shanghai is the leading destination. At the beginning of this year Shanghai Shenhua signed Nicolas Anelka, Drogba’s former Chelsea teammate, to help propel it to the top of the Chinese Super League. During his first game, against rivals Beijing Guoan, Anelka scored and then raced to the visitors’ end to celebrate with a small contingent of fans who traveled to the capital. But the team lost 3-2, and Shenhua has been lackluster ever since. It is now ranked 12th in the 16 team league, just three places out of the relegation zone….

From Wikipedia (here):

Didier Yves Drogba Tébily  (born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian footballer who plays as a centre forward for Shanghai Shenhua. He is the captain and all-time top scorer of the Côte d'Ivoire national football team (Ivory Coast). He is best known for his career at Chelsea, and has scored more goals for Chelsea than any other foreign player and is currently Chelsea's fourth highest goal scorer of all time. His key attributes include his physical strength, ability in the air, and his ability to retain possession of the ball…..

700 California high school grads get "seal of biliteracy" in Mandarin

Several years ago the University of Oregon's Center for Applied Second Language Studies developed the “Oregon Roadmap to Language Excellence: Striving to Create the Conditions that Will Allow Every Oregon Graduate to be Proficient in English and Functionally Proficient in Another Language by 2025” (here). Among it recommendations (#5, p. 9, here) was the following:

Enhanced Diplomas

At both the K-12 and postsecondary levels, certification of language ability on diplomas will reward individual performance and create demand for effective programs. More important than the certificates themselves are the rewards that can be attached to them. Universities may wish to earmark scholarship support for students with language certificates, and businesses could recruit and offer pay incentives to graduates of either the K-12 or higher education system. In addition, proficiency-based scholarships would reward heritage speakers for their special language and cultural abilities and promote diversity of campuses and treating bilingualism as an asset rather than a liability. These scholarships should be based on demonstrated proficiency and be contingent on continued language learning throughout the college years.

Neither K-12 education in Oregon, nor, to my knowledge, any school district in Oregon, enhances its diplomas with certificates or seals of foreign language ability. California statewide, however, now does. From the Ed Source article “Over 10,000 students awarded ‘seal of biliteracy’” (here):

For the first time, graduating seniors from around California – more than 10,000 – have been awarded a state “seal” indicating their proficiency in two languages.

The award, which consists of a gold seal affixed to a student’s high school diploma, is the result of legislation (AB 815) authored by Assembly member Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) and  signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last year.

Some 59 districts around the state were already awarding their own seal of biliteracy, but this is the first time that it has been done statewide.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority – 70 percent – of those earning the seal demonstrated proficiency in Spanish, followed by French (10 percent) and Mandarin (7 percent).  Some 2 percent of students were proficient in Japanese, with a similar percentage in Cantonese and German. Altogether, students with proficiency in 40 different languages, including American sign language, were awarded the seal.

The California Department of Education could not provide a breakdown as to what proportion of those receiving the seal were native English speakers.....

Oregonian's Hovde suggests "possible investment in study-abroad programs"

“…there should also be a lot more folks demanding that leaders think outside of the school building to save even more long-term money and get more students engaged. More online learning, possible investment in study-abroad programs and support for families that choose home schooling, private schooling or other legitimate education options are imperative.” - Oregonian columnist Elizabeth Hovde

Oregonian columnist Elizabeth Hovde has come out in support of the proposed Portland Public Schools $482 million capital bond measure. I agree with most of what she writes. PPS schools are in bad shape and need upgrading and solid maintenance. She also makes a case for many of the changes I believe are necessary in PPS educational programs. But we part views on politics. She thinks, it seems, that the public could approve this $482 capital bond measure and then PPS will follow through on making needed educational changes. I don’t think that is likely to happen. Yet another “No” vote, unfortunately, is needed to push PPS to make needed changes. As the Oregonian Editorial Board wrote (here):

Sometimes, as Portland voters have found, the best way to make something better for the long haul is to do the unthinkable, and say no.

I do want to give Hovde special praise for being the first columnist to give any support to the idea of high school study abroad.  In her Oregonian column “Facing reality on the PPS bond: Foundational fixes should come before reform,” she writes (here)

As people choose to fund the needed maintenance of school properties -- keeping students safer and saving money in the long run -- there should also be a lot more folks demanding that leaders think outside of the school building to save even more long-term money and get more students engaged. More online learning, possible investment in study-abroad programs and support for families that choose home schooling, private schooling or other legitimate education options are imperative.

Getting back to board member Regan's quote about how last time the board felt it had to rush "without really taking the time to really understand what our community was looking for," the board should know this: The community is looking for high-outcome education at the lowest cost possible. That isn't very realistic, especially in education's current form. That's why these other areas need exploration.

Yes, I'm demanding "high-outcome education at the lowest cost possible." I want changes relevant to the 21st century, and I don't think we can afford to wait.

Kolkata, India

India’s seventh largest city, according to Wikipedia (here), is Kolkata with 4.46 million people. For comparison, the largest US City, New York, has 8 million people. Los Angeles, second in the US, has 3.7 million, Chicago, in third, has 2.6 million, and Portland at 29^th has 583,776.

From Wikipedia (here):

Kolkata, or Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly river, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India's oldest operating port as well as its sole major riverine port. As of 2011, the city had 4.5 million residents; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. As of 2008, its economic output as measured by gross domestic product ranked third among South Asian cities, behind Mumbai and Delhi. As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Kolkata confronts substantial urban pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overpopulation, and other logistic and socioeconomic problems.

In the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Kolkata were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading license in 1690, the area was developed by the Company into an increasingly fortified mercantile base. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Kolkata in 1756, and the East India Company retook it in the following year and by 1772 assumed full sovereignty. Under East India Company and later under the British Raj, Kolkata served as the capital of India until 1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to New Delhi. The city was a centre of the Indian independence movement; it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics. Following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata—which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics—witnessed several decades of relative economic stagnation. Since the early 2000s, an economic rejuvenation has led to accelerated growth.

As a nucleus of the 19th- and early 20th-century Bengal Renaissance and a religiously and ethnically diverse centre of culture in Bengal and India, Kolkata has established local traditions in drama, art, film, theatre, and literature that have gained wide audiences. Many people from Kolkata—among them several Nobel laureates—have contributed to the arts, the sciences, and other areas, while Kolkata culture features idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods (paras) and freestyle intellectual exchanges (adda). West Bengal's share of the Bengali film industry is based in the city, which also hosts venerable cultural institutions of national importance, such as the Academy of Fine Arts, the Victoria Memorial, the Asiatic Society, the Indian Museum, and the National Library of India. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Kolkata differs from other Indian cities by giving importance to association football and other sports.

And:

Bengali, the official state language, is the dominant language in Kolkata. English is also used, particularly by the white-collar workforce. Hindi and Urdu are spoken by a sizable minority. According to the 2001 census, 77.68% of the population is Hindu, 20.27% Muslim, 0.88% Christian, and 0.46% Jain.

The standard defense of “outsourcing”

As an Obama supporter, I have nuanced and mixed feeling about Obama’s attack on Romney for his role in “outsourcing.” I understand that the American public, and particularly the crucial demographic of middle aged, white men, have a negative view of outsourcing. A view that I find just a bit too knee-jerk jingoistic and nationalistic. I am more of an international free trader and think these jingoistc attitudes hinder Oregon, and the US as a whole, from developing more aggressive exports policies. We spend too much time fighting imports and outsourcing and not enough time marketing our good and services abroad.

Romney, however, would rather lie about his role in outsourcing than defend the practice.

I do note the classical economic argument for “outsourcing,” via Brad DeLong, Adam Ozimek, and Greg Mankiw (here):

As with any change in technology that increases the volume of international trade in goods and services, the “outsourcing” of service-sector jobs creates winners and losers–but almost surely more and bigger winners than losers. Big winners are workers in poor countries who get better jobs working for firms that can now export services to rich core countries like the United States. The major losers are those who previously held the now-outsourced service-sector jobs in the United States, who must now find new and different jobs and almost surely find that their skills are worth less. But even in the United States the losses to the losers are outweighed by gains to winners: American workers who find their skills in industries in higher demand as foreigners spend their increased dollar earnings, American consumers who see the prices of what they buy fall, and American shareholders and managers who see the profits of their companies increase. We should worry about the distributional consequences of “outsourcing” and how policies can cushion and offset them. But we should never overlook that–as is almost surely the case with expanded trade–”outsourcing” increases the total size of the economic pie….

Neither politics nor the reporting of politics is perfect!

“Clinton Makes Effort to Rechannel the Rivalry With China”

Economic competition is heating up in Asia. Meanwhile, Oregon refuses to expand the Asian language competencies of its next generations. From the NY Times article “Clinton Makes Effort to Rechannel the Rivalry With China” by Jane Perlez (here):

.... President Obama, fearful that the United States risked being shunted aside in Asia, embraced an initiative last fall known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership that aims to create a new free trade group among some Asian countries, several Latin American nations and the United States. Canada and Mexico were invited to join the talks at the recent G-20 summit meeting in Mexico.

But by not inviting China to participate, Washington again raised suspicions among Chinese economists and political analysts about its intentions.

“It’s much ado about nothing,” said Fred Hu, the chairman of the financial advisory firm Primavera Capital Group, and former chairman of Goldman Sachs in greater China. “How can you have a credible trade organization if you exclude the biggest trading nation?” Mrs. Clinton’s Asia tour is seen in the region as being prompted in part by China’s success in turning itself into the engine of Asia’s economic powerhouse.

At the turn of the century, “China’s rise was viewed by many of its neighbors as a potential threat,” said Peter Drysdale, editor of the East Asia Forum at the Australian National University in Canberra. “But when economies from South Korea to Thailand revived and the regional production-sharing networks matured, and China embraced an activist economic diplomacy to open its markets toward Southeast Asia, everyone seemed to benefit.”

Now Washington is worried about being left on the outside, looking in.

“Asian integration without the United States is the real competition,” said Liu Xuecheng, one of China’s leading experts on America. That, he said, is “the real challenge to the United States.”

"Last Train Home"

In his blog post “The Most Important Film I’ve Seen in Years: ‘Last Train Home,’” James Fallows writes (here)

…. It's about the situation of the migrant workers who staff China's vast export industry, as they reflect on the families they have left back in their villages and place all their hopes on their once-a-year chance to go home, for Chinese New Year. But the power of film, and the patient artistry of Lixin Fan in getting one Chinese family to share the most intimate features of its life over a period of several years, surpasses what mere words can do. I could tell you that the panorama in front of the Guangzhou railroad station, when hundreds of thousands of people compete for a limited number of seats on outbound trains, is one of patience, panic, desperation, and human passion on a scale simply never seen in North America. If you watch the crowding at Guangzhou station in the film, you will have an entirely different idea of it, which you will never forget….

Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, have the potential to transform education, especially higher education and high school. They are already "breaking down financial and geographical barriers to education by enabling thousands of students to come together online to learn for free." The following infographic gives an overview.