Reviews from academic journals, major news media, and websites (updated Jan. 4, 2008):
Professor Deidre Smythe from the University of Windsor reviewed the book for the Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthroppology stating that we “have created a riveting and controversial book, long overdue, focusing on the topic of student disengagement and the implications of grade inflation for Canadian universities.”
Dave Armshaw, writing from the perspective of the community colleges for the journal College Quarterly, provides readers with specific details of the book and its contributions, suggesting that universities might have a few things to learn from community colleges.
George Leef, VP for Research, John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, Raleigh, NC, writes that “you have to tip your hat to University of Toronto Press. It has brought to the public a shockingly frank book about the state of higher education in Canada.”
Kristen Lipscombe is a journalist with the Chronicle Herald in Halifax. Kristen is a recent university graduate herself, so she knows exactly what we are talking about when we refer to the crisis in our universities.
Support from secondary school teachers:
Some of the strongest support for the book comes from high school teachers. Many are afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation, but a group has organized in Owen Sound to voice their concerns, calling themselves “MendEd.” We spoke to them and a group of concerned citizens in September at The Downtown Bootstore. One of their members, Bill Murphy reviewed IvoryTower Blues noting that “most teachers will agree with Cote and Allahar, but like these professors, they feel powerless to be catalysts for change.” Hopefully, MendEd will be the starting point for a ground swell of support for real change at all levels of education.
In December, I spoke at the Credit Integrity Symposium sponsored by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.
For comments on the book see the following blogs:
Ken Steele, Senior Vice-President of Education Marketing of Academica Research Group, on Ken’s Blog.
EduBlog.ca, which is “dedicated to helping individuals, like you, who are seeking an education in Canada.”
Dale Kirby’s Post-Secondary Education Blog, “devoted to the identification and discussion of major issues, policies, practices and problems in post-secondary education in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and beyond.”
Amazon is not known for quality control of its reviews, but Jason Wray writes that ITB presents a message that “is straightforward and alarming. I have seen much of the problems discussed here throughout my education, and I sincerely wish I could have read this back when I was still in high school. This should be recommended to all students, and certainly discussed; it would be an insult to the material for this book to be held up as a high truth to be learned from only one side or merely skimmed over by intended readers.”
Administrators in denial:
Thus far, two university adminstrators have written reviews of the book. I recommend that these reviews be critically scrutinzed for defensiveness on the part the administrators as they attempt to deny that serious problems exist in the system with respect to academic disengagement and grade inflation (a similar “circling of the wagons” appears to be happening at the secondary school level in Ontario). Also note that as a result of this defensiveness, their “reviews” are actually rebuttals that tell readers very little about the book.
Review #1: Allan Hutchinson, in his Globe & Mail review, agrees that the problems we identify do exist, but contends that they do not constitute a crisis. This is curious logic, but after several email exchanges with him, I discovered that he is a university administrator who has not taught undergraduate students for years. Instead, he has had the luxury of teaching law-school students (pre-sorted for interest and ability). Good for him, but his dismissive review doesn’t help the rest of us. A “crisis”is defined both as a “turning point for better or worse” and “a situation that has reached a critical phase.” If the problems exist, and he agrees they do, than we either ignore them at our peril or turn them around.The Globe & Mail did not publish my response to Hutchinson, so here it is:
It is always frustrating to read a review written by someone who merely skimmed the material. Hutchinson’s review of our book Ivory Tower Blues and Rybak’s What’s Wrong with University tells us more about him and his view of higher education than about either book. When he does refer to the books, he is often in error (Rybak is a student, not a former administrator) or misleading (we do take professors to task for their share of the crisis). However, Hutchinson’s carelessness is most egregious when he claims that we do not offer solutions to the crisis. We do offer solutions, in part by discussing how other countries structure their educational systems, but we are very clear that viable solutions to the Canadian situation can only be proposed after the public is made aware of the crisis and it implications, and a public debate takes places about how best to proceed. The discouraging thing about Hutchinson’s review is that we are likely in agreement on most points about what is wrong and what needs to be fixed, yet in dismissing our book(s) and misinforming the public, he sets back the discussion and debate that need to occur before solutions are undertaken.
Review #2: Benedikt Hallgrímsson is an associate dean, undergraduate science education, in the faculty of medicine at the University of Calgary. In an online review of ITB in the magazine University Affairs, Hallgrímsson ackhowledges the problem of widespread disengagement, but advocates a two-tier system “to serve the needs of academically inclined high-achieving students … by offering small “boutique” undergraduate programs that are selective, challenging and often research-intensive.” Disengaged students would be treated to an expensive “education-lite” that would suit their “diverse” abilities. Such recommendations are elitist and short-sighted.
University Affairs published my response to Hallgrímsson, along with a letter from another reader who is critical of Hallgrímsson’s reading of the book and proposed solution to the crisis.
University Affairs also published a letter from Jon Cowans commenting on a (dismissive) reference to Ivory Tower Blues in an article by Alan Slavin, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Trent University, titled “Has Ontario taught its high-school students not to think?”. Cowans, “a high school teacher with more than 30 years’ classroom experience,” corrects Slavin’s misinterpetation of the analysis of the crisis provided in Ivory Tower Blues, by stating:
In my view, the actual reasons for the decline are those cited in Ivory Tower Blues: falling academic standards, mark and grade inflation, decreased study time among students, the lack of vocational programs, pushing students to attend university, credentialism, the dumbing effects of electronic media in youth culture, the social promotion of failing students and, not unexpectedly, student disengagement and a sense of entitlement.
Miscellaneous reviews:
Reviews can also be expected from self-styled experts who do not have experience with the crisis “on the ground”; that is, they have no direct and/or recent experience with undergraduate teaching. Instead, they deal with abstract economic theories and abstracted statistics, many of which are out of date. Their stake in the debate appears to be that they make a living by giving advice to universities in terms of how to keep the tuition dollars rolling in. The unexamined assumption is that enrollments should keep rising and that it is a “crisis” if they plateau or drop.
An outlier from an advocacy group:
The first such review from a self-styled expert comes from one Alex Usher, vice-president of the Educational Policy Institute, which advertises itself as a non-partisan think tank, but which is apparently an advocacy organization, selling itself to educators in terms of its counsel on “access” and “retention”. Mr. Usher, who has apparently never taught at a university, claims in his review that we should just get used to credentialism, that there are no problems with the youth labour market, and that it is no big concern that universities are becoming the new high school.This is the most convoluted review to be published thus far. Apparently, his solution is to keep everyone in school for as long as we can, regardless of how poor the quality of education is and how disengaged the students are, and to hold on to a blind faith that their “skills” will find a place in the economy. Hmmm.