David L. Kirp

How can you turn an English department into a revenue center? How do you grade students if they are "customers" you must please? How do you keep industry from dictating a university's research agenda? What happens when the life of the mind meets the bottom line? Wry and insightful, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line takes us on a cross-country tour of the most powerful trend in academic life today--the rise of business values and the belief that efficiency, immediate practical usefulness, and marketplace triumph are the best measures of a university's success. With a shrewd eye for the telling example, David Kirp relates stories of marketing incursions into places as diverse as New York University's philosophy department and the University of Virginia's business school, the high-minded University of Chicago and for-profit DeVry University. He describes how universities "brand" themselves for greater appeal in the competition for top students; how academic super-stars are wooed at outsized salaries to boost an institution's visibility and prestige; how taxpayer-supported academic research gets turned into profitable patents and ideas get sold to the highest bidder; and how the liberal arts shrink under the pressure to be self-supporting. Far from doctrinaire, Kirp believes there's a place for the market--but the market must be kept in its place. While skewering Philistinism, he admires the entrepreneurial energy that has invigorated academe's dreary precincts. And finally, he issues a challenge to those who decry the ascent of market values: given the plight of higher education, what is the alternative? Table of Contents: Introduction: The New U Part I: The Higher Education Bazaar 1. This Little Student Went to Market 2. Nietzsche's Niche: The University of Chicago 3. Benjamin Rush's "Brat": Dickinson College 4. Star Wars: New York University Part II: Management 101 5. The Dead Hand of Precedent: New York Law School 6. Kafka Was an Optimist: The University of Southern California and the University of Michigan 7. Mr. Jefferson's "Private" College: Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia Part III: Virtual Worlds 8. Rebel Alliance: The Classics Departments of Sixteen Southern Liberal Arts Colleges 9. The Market in Ideas: Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 10. The British Are Coming-and Going: Open University Part IV: The Smart Money 11. A Good Deal of Collaboration: The University of California, Berkeley 12. The Information Technology Gold Rush: IT Certification Courses in Silicon Valley 13. They're All Business: DeVry University Conclusion: The Corporation of Learning Notes Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: An illuminating view of both good and bad results in a market-driven educational system. --David Siegfried, Booklist Reviews of this book: Kirp has an eye for telling examples, and he captures the turmoil and transformation in higher education in readable style. --Karen W. Arenson, New York Times Reviews of this book: Mr. Kirp is both quite fair and a good reporter; he has a keen eye for the important ways in which bean-counting has transformed universities, making them financially responsible and also more concerned about developing lucrative specialties than preserving the liberal arts and humanities. Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line is one of the best education books of the year, and anyone interested in higher education will find it to be superior. --Martin Morse Wooster, Washington Times Reviews of this book: There is a place for the market in higher education, Kirp believes, but only if institutions keep the market in its place...Kirp's bottom line is that the bargains universities make in pursuit of money are, inevitably, Faustian. They imperil academic freedom, the commitment to sharing knowledge, the privileging of need and merit rather than the ability to pay, and the conviction that the student/consumer is not always right. --Glenn C. Altschuler, Philadelphia Inquirer Reviews of this book: David Kirp's fine new book, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line, lays out dozens of ways in which the ivory tower has leaned under the gravitational influence of economic pressures and the market. --Carlos Alcal', Sacramento Bee Reviews of this book: The real subject of Kirp's well-researched and amply footnoted book turns out to be more than this volume's subtitle, 'the marketing of higher education.' It is, in fact, the American soul. Where will our nation be if instead of colleges transforming the brightest young people as they come of age, they focus instead on serving their paying customers and chasing the tastes they should be shaping? Where will we be without institutions that value truth more than money and intellectual creativity more than creative accounting? ...Kirp says plainly that the heart of the university is the common good. The more we can all reflect upon that common good--not our pocketbooks or retirement funds, but what is good for the general mass of men and women--the better the world of the American university will be, and the better the nation will be as well. --Peter S. Temes, San Francisco Chronicle Reviews of this book: David Kirp's excellent book Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line provides a remarkable window into the financial challenges of higher education and the crosscurrents that drive institutional decision-making...Kirp explores the continuing battle for the soul of the university: the role of the marketplace in shaping higher education, the tension between revenue generation and the historic mission of the university to advance the public good...This fine book provides a cautionary note to all in higher education. While seeking as many additional revenue streams as possible, it is important that institutions have clarity of mission and values if they are going to be able to make the case for continued public support. --Lewis Collens, Chicago Tribune Reviews of this book: In this delightful book David Kirp...tells the story of markets in U.S. higher education...[It] should be read by anyone who aspires to run a university, faculty or department. --Terence Kealey, Times Higher Education Supplement The monastery is colliding with the market. American colleges and universities are in a fiercely competitive race for dollars and prestige. The result may have less to do with academic excellence than with clever branding and salesmanship. David Kirp offers a compelling account of what's happening to higher education, and what it means for the future. --Robert B. Reich, University Professor, Brandeis University, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Can universities keep their purpose, independence, and public trust when forced to prove themselves cost-effective? In this shrewd and readable book, David Kirp explores what happens when the pursuit of truth becomes entwined with the pursuit of money. Kirp finds bright spots in unexpected places--for instance, the emerging for-profit higher education sector--and he describes how some traditional institutions balance their financial needs with their academic missions. Full of good stories and swift character sketches, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line is engrossing for anyone who cares about higher education. --Laura D'Andrea Tyson, former Chair, Council of Economic Advisers David Kirp wryly observes that "maintaining communities of scholars is not a concern of the market." His account of the state of higher education today makes it appallingly clear that the conditions necessary for the flourishing of both scholarship and community are disappearing before our eyes. One would like to think of this as a wake-up call, but the hour may already be too late. --Stanley Fish, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University of Illinois at Chicago This is, quite simply, the most deeply informed and best written recent book on the dilemma of undergraduate education in the United States. David Kirp is almost alone in stressing what relentless commercialization of higher education does to undergraduates. At the same time, he identifies places where administrators and faculty have managed to make the market work for, not against, real education. If only college and university presidents could be made to read this book! --Stanley N. Katz, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University Once a generation a book brilliantly gives meaning to seemingly disorderly trends in higher education. David Kirp's Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line is that book for our time [the early 21st century?]. With passion and eloquence, Kirp describes the decline of higher education as a public good, the loss of university governing authority to constituent groups and external funding sources, the two-edged sword of collaboration with the private sector, and the rise of business values in the academy. This is a must read for all who care about the future of our universities. --Mark G. Yudof, Chancellor, The University of Texas System David Kirp not only has a clear theoretical grasp of the economic forces that have been transforming American universities, he can write about them without putting the reader to sleep, in lively, richly detailed case studies. This is a rare book. --Robert H. Frank, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University David Kirp wanders America's campuses, and he wonders--are markets, management and technology supplanting vision, values and truth? With a large dose of nostalgia and a penchant for academic personalities, he ponders the struggles and synergies of Ivy and Internet, of industry and independence. Wandering and wondering with him, readers will feel the speed of change in contemporary higher education. --Charles M. Vest, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line

Marjorie E. Wechsler

This timely book will help policymakers and practitioners convert their visions of high-quality early education into on-the-ground reality by providing a much-needed, richly detailed look at how states can design, fund, and manage exemplary programs. The authors describe and analyze how four states—Michigan, West Virginia, Washington, and North Carolina—have built early education systems that positively affect student outcomes. Sharing a commitment to advancing key elements of a quality preschool education, each of the states developed programs with different enrollment requirements, services, and oversight. All of them, however, rely on common overarching strategies, such as: establishing standards and supporting improvement, investing in knowledgeable educators, coordinating and aligning early education programs with elementary school, seeking sufficient funding sources and mechanisms, and building broad-based support. This book offers powerful lessons for anyone who is committed to delivering engaging, age-appropriate preschool programs for all. “This book is so valuable—it’s a ‘how-to’ for the current generation of political leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, who want to develop early education policies and practices that work.” —James B. Hunt, Jr., former Governor of North Carolina “This book provides critical insights for addressing the key challenge to preschool policy: fulfilling preschool’s promise at scale.” —W. Steven Barnett, National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) “A great resource for everybody engaged in state-level processes on behalf of young children, providing valuable lessons from leading states to help other states chart their own path.” —Elliot Regenstein, Foresight Law + Policy “A detailed and fascinating account of how distributive leadership, collaboration, and professional learning can greatly and positively influence teachers’ effective use of data.” —Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers

Changing Children's Lives

On the Road to High-Quality Early Learning

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

The Idea of Racial Equality in American Education

Just Schools

James D Marver Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy David L Kirp

Listen to a short interview with David L. KirpHost: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane The rich have always valued early education, and for the past forty years, millions of poor kids have had Head Start. Now, more and more middle class parents have realized that a good preschool is the smartest investment they can make in their children's future in a competitive world. As The Sandbox Investment shows, their needs are key to the growing call for universal preschool. Writing with the verve of a magazine journalist and the authority of a scholar, David L. Kirp makes the ideal guide to this quiet movement. He crouches in classrooms where committed teachers engage lively four-year-olds, and reveals the findings of an extraordinary longitudinal study that shows the life-changing impact of preschool. He talks with cutting-edge researchers from neuroscience and genetics to economics, whose findings increasingly show how powerfully early childhood shapes the arc of children's lives. Kids-first politics is smart economics: paying for preschool now can help save us from paying for unemployment, crime, and emergency rooms later. As Kirp reports from the inside, activists and political leaders have turned this potent idea into campaigns and policies in red and blue states alike. The Sandbox Investment is the first full story of a campaign that asks Americans to endorse a vision of society that does well by doing good. For anyone who is interested in politics or the social uses of research--for anyone who's interested in the children's futures--it's a compelling read.

The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics

The Sandbox Investment

Mark G. Yudof

Cases and Materials

Educational Policy and the Law

It may "take a village to raise a child," but most American families are struggling, with diminishing social support, to do the job on their own. While parents work longer hours for less and the costs of childcare, healthcare, and college skyrocket, the share of the U.S. budget spent on kids has fallen 22 percent since 1960. More and more children may well not make it to a healthy, productive adulthood. That's terrible for them--and for us as well.It doesn't have to be this way. In this book, renowned expert David L. Kirp clarifies the importance of investing wisely in children. He outlines a visionary "Kids First" policy agenda that's guided by a "golden rule" principle: Every child deserves what's good enough for a child you love. And he offers lively and inspiring, on-the-ground accounts of five big cradle-to-college initiatives that can change the arc of all children's lives: strong support for parents; high-quality early education; linking schools and communities to improve what both offer children; giving all youngsters access to a caring and stable adult mentor; and providing kids a nest egg to help pay for college or kick-start a career.

Five Big Ideas for Transforming Children's Lives and America's Future

Kids

Majorie E. Wechsler

Titilayo Tinubu Ali

Madelyn Gardner

Anna Maier

Hanna Melnick

Patrick M. Shields

"The authors describe and analyze how four states--Michigan, West Virginia, Washington, and North Carolina--have built early education systems that positively affect student outcomes, providing a much-needed, richly detailed look at how states can design, fund, and manage exemplary programs"--

"In The College Dropout Scandal, David L. Kirp outlines the scale of the problem and argues that we actually have the tools to boost graduation rates and shrink the achievement gap. It's not elite schools like Harvard or Williams who are leading the way, but places like City University of New York or Long Beach State that have undertaken the hard work to improve student success. Through on-the-ground reporting, conversations with university administrators and presidents, and accessible overviews of the latest research, Kirp illustrates a range of institutional reforms, like using big data to quickly identify at-risk students, and the behavioral strategies, from nudges and mindset changes, that have been proven to boost undergraduate learning and raise graduation rates. Shining a light on an underappreciated yet crucial problem in colleges today, Kirp's engaging and hopeful book will help push more students, especially poor and minority ones, across the finish line and keep their hopes of achieving the American Dream alive"--

The College Dropout Scandal

John P. Dwyer

Larry A. Rosenthal

An account of the legal battle to open up New Jersey's suburbs to the poor, looking at the views of lawyers on both sides of the controversy. It is a case study of judicial activism and its consequences and an analysis of suburban attitudes regarding race, class and property.

Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia

Our Town

Frank Levy

Eugene Bardach

Dave Weimer

Lee S. Friedman

Martin A. Levin

Stuart H. Altman

An Alternative To Container Deposit Legislation

The Buyback Strategy

For David Kirp, a gifted storyteller and journalist, the concept of community stretches beyond a cliched figure of speech to describe what happens when people make decisions that reshape one another's lives. He has collected a fascinating variety of such stories from across America to re-create the immediate experience of community--tales that signify in their particulars, giving meaning to the much bandied-about idea of civic virtue. They paint a rich picture of how, for better and for worse, Americans live together. We meet two San Francisco families, one Nicaraguan and the other black, trying to live peacefully with each other; residents in the fire ravaged Berkeley hills, whose greed and architectural ambitions thwart attempts to build the new Eden of their dreams; parents and teachers fighting against long odds to improve the East Harlem public schools; residents of a small southern town caring for a parentless teenager with AIDS; residents of the New Jersey suburb of Mount Laurel deciding whether poor families will be allowed to live in our town; and neighbors choosing sides when a black teenager kills his gay white neighbor. While there are real heroes--Ethel Lawrence, the Rosa Parks of the affordable housing movement; and Deborah Meier, tireless advocate for better schools--the stories are mainly about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. These beautifully written tales reveal individuals in the process of forming new alliances or falling back on familiar ones, bowling alone or promoting the common good. They show us, past all self-delusion, who we really are.

Almost Home - America's Love-Hate Relationship with Community

"Reveals a sensible way to rebuild public education and close the achievement gap for all students. Indeed, this is already happening in a most unlikely place: Union City, New Jersey, a poor, crowded Latino community just across the Hudson from Manhattan. Kirp explores the game-changing reasons behind Union City's successful schools, including quality early education, a word-soaked curriculum, and hands-on help for teachers. Improbable scholars offers a playbook for reform that will dramatically change our approach to reviving public education"--

The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America's Schools

Improbable Scholars

Listen to a short interview with David L. Kirp Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane The rich have always valued early education, and for the past forty years, millions of poor kids have had Head Start. Now, more and more middle class parents have realized that a good preschool is the smartest investment they can make in their children's future in a competitive world. As The Sandbox Investment shows, their needs are key to the growing call for universal preschool. Writing with the verve of a magazine journalist and the authority of a scholar, David L. Kirp makes the ideal guide to this quiet movement. He crouches in classrooms where committed teachers engage lively four-year-olds, and reveals the findings of an extraordinary longitudinal study that shows the life-changing impact of preschool. He talks with cutting-edge researchers from neuroscience and genetics to economics, whose findings increasingly show how powerfully early childhood shapes the arc of children's lives. Kids-first politics is smart economics: paying for preschool now can help save us from paying for unemployment, crime, and emergency rooms later. As Kirp reports from the inside, activists and political leaders have turned this potent idea into campaigns and policies in red and blue states alike. The Sandbox Investment is the first full story of a campaign that asks Americans to endorse a vision of society that does well by doing good. For anyone who is interested in politics or the social uses of research--for anyone who's interested in the children's futures--it's a compelling read.

David L. Kirp

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