Prior learning assessment could be higher education's next big disruptive force, and ACE and CAEL are poised to catch that potential gold rush. But many remain skeptical about academic credit for work experience.
Paul Fain
Paul Fain, senior reporter, came to Inside Higher Ed in September 2011, after a six-year stint covering leadership and finance for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Paul has also worked in higher-ed P.R., with Widmeyer Communications, but couldn't stay away from reporting. A former staff writer for C-VILLE Weekly, a newspaper in Charlottesville, Va., Paul has written for The New York Times, Washington City Paper and Mother Jones. He's won a few journalism awards, including one for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association and the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award. Paul got hooked on journalism while working too many hours at The Review, the student newspaper at the University of Delaware, where he earned a degree in political science in 1996. A native of Dayton, Ohio, and a long-suffering fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, Fain plays guitar in a band with more possible names than polished songs.
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Most Recent Articles
May 4, 2012
Leaders of San Diego and Imperial County community colleges have publicly rebuked the University of California at San Diego for its plan to drop a longstanding transfer policy that guarantees admission to local community college students who take certain courses and maintain a high grade-point average.
May 1, 2012
Jonathan Gueverra, chief executive officer of the University of the District of Columbia Community College since shortly after the college's creation three years ago, has been named president of Florida Keys Community College. The new community college in D.C. is the city's first two-year institution.
May 1, 2012
The key action corporate leaders can take to improve higher education is to advocate for state-level policies that provide incentives for boosting productivity and that remove barriers to innovation, according to a report released Monday by the Committee for Economic Development.
April 27, 2012
Northern Virginia Community College is the latest two-year institution to announce a partnership with the University of Phoenix, with the announcement yesterday of a transfer agreement. Students from the community college will get a tuition discount when they transfer to Phoenix, according to a news release. They will also be able to tap the for-profit provider's prior learning assessment offerings, which can grant college credit for prior training and work experience.
April 26, 2012
Sophia, an online learning platform recently acquired by Capella Education Co., on Wednesday released 25,000 free tutorials aimed at college and high school students. The for-profit Capella plans this summer to introduce "Sophia Pathways for College Credit," a souped-up version through which students' competency in subject areas, beginning with college algebra, will be assessed for the granting of Capella credits, company officials said.
April 25, 2012
Lone Star College has begun charging varying rates for courses systemwide, based on cost of delivery, and plans to add student success incentives, some of them financial.
April 25, 2012
A U.S. District Court in Arizona last week approved a $145 million payment by Apollo Group, Inc., to settle a class action lawsuit, according to a corporate disclosure. Originally filed in 2004, lawyers for shareholders had alleged that company officials made misleading statements about a Department of Education investigation of student recruiting practices at the University of Phoenix.
April 24, 2012
The Aspen Institute on Monday released a list of 120 community colleges that made the cut to be considered for the second annual Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, which comes with a $1 million payout.
April 23, 2012
Major report from community college association sets broad goals for the sector, but is couched in familiar terms.
