This week's NY Times "Education Life" supplement has some interesting articles about higher education. The Rise of the Perma-Temp discusses the increasing use of adjuncts for teaching roles in universities. Tests Are Not Just for Kids discusses the push towards standardized assessments for college students (e.g. to move from sophomore to junior), which has been proposed as part of next year's reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. The article discusses some of the practical benefits, as well as the concern that this "will lead schools to overemphasize the measurable at the expense of the immeasurable."
