Confessions of a Retiring “Eagle”
This past semester, I did something I have never done before in my 20 years of full-time teaching at Wake Tech Community College: I applied to retire. Like many who…
Articles by Kelly Markson
A “Controversial” Koch-Funded Speaker Finds Open Minds at Wake Tech
By now you have heard the story. It plays out like a script. A “controversial” speaker—almost always a conservative or libertarian—is invited to a campus. Protests, and in some cases…
Dear Secretary DeVos, Please Prioritize Financial Literacy
Congratulations, Secretary DeVos, on your recent appointment to lead the U.S. Department of Education. Now the real work begins. Your position requires you to prioritize competing educational ideas to promote…
A Grassroots Effort Is Changing College Instruction for the Better
Here is a dirty little secret: I am a teacher at a community college, but I have never taken an education course. The same is true for most of my…
Community Colleges: Much More Successful Than Statistics Seem to Show
The mainstream media’s mantra about community colleges is that their performance should be evaluated based on degree completion statistics, just as it is for traditional four-year colleges and universities. But what about the students who never intended to earn a degree? The cited statistics on completion are not very meaningful if they fail to consider the intentions of the institution’s students. Yes, many community colleges (and others) have low graduation rates, but it is a bad mistake to leap from that to the conclusion that they are “failing their students.” Rather, they are serving a widely diverse student population with a wide range of programs particularly well.
Economics As It Could Be Taught
A community college economics teacher throws out the standard textbooks and focuses on economic thinking instead of math.