Teaching and Learning
More Ideas for Creating Dynamic Classrooms (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Two different strategies: one which focuses on reading strategies that encourage students to shape class discussions; the other leans into active learning that doesn’t require advanced preparation.
Stop Assigning Traditional Essays (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Matthew Brophy lays out some of the new techniques while also asking higher-education leadership to support instructors, who are often navigating this new, uncertain territory on their own.
Why Does the Trump Compact Talk about Grading? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): The desire for objective grades connects to broader ideas about merit.
4 Ways to Better Grade Team Projects (Lauren Vicker and Tim Franz, Inside Higher Ed, October 14, 2025): Simply grading the final group output is insufficient. Here are better ideas.
Ungrading and Assessing the Unassessable (Keegan Lannon, Inside Higher Ed, October 10, 2025): On wrestling with alternative grading.
Motivation Effects and Efficiency of Retrieval Practice over Lecture (Cindy Nebel, Learning Scientists, October 10, 2025): Retrieval practice is one of the most robust strategies that we have for durable learning. The author reviews a study that pushed retrieval practice to its limits and asks if we are wasting time with lectures; should we just jump straight to the practice?
Getting Students Off Screens and into the Conversation (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 9, 2025): Some suggestions for keeping students engaged and prepared from a faculty member at the University of Texas, Arlington.
Extra Credit Reading
Americans Faith in Higher Education Has Declined Even Further (Emma Pettit, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): According to a new survey from Pew, seven in ten Americans say that higher education in the US is generally heading in the wrong direction. At the same time, polling from the American Higher Education Barometer suggests that Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Trump’s Higher Ed Cuts and strongly trust universities to do what’s right. You choose!
Brown University Rejects Trump Proposal to Overhaul Policies for Preferential Funding (Marina Dunbar, Guardian, October 15, 2025): University joins MIT in refusing invitation, saying that compact would ‘restrict academic freedom’.
The Logical End Point of Trump’s Higher-Education Agenda (Kevin Carey, The Atlantic, October 15, 2025): A ‘compact’ offered by the administration could devastate racial diversity at elite universities.
Colleges Are Told Their Programs Don’t “Advance American Interests” (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): The U.S. Department of Education has eliminated funding for critical and less commonly taught languages, area studies, and global-business education, telling colleges that “their awards aren’t in the interest of the federal government” and “don’t advance American interests or values.”
Dartmouth’s President Balks at Trump Compact, Sources Say, as Feds expand Offer to ‘Any Institution’ (Francie Diep and Megan Zahneis, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 14, 2025): The president of Dartmouth College, an initial recipient of the Trump administration’s much-debated “compact” for higher education, has told faculty members that she will not endorse the current version of the agreement, two sources told The Chronicle.
Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT (Liam Knox, Bloomberg, October 13, 2025): Preferential federal funding would be tied to accepting specific policy changes like DEI bans.
The Healthy Minds Study (The Healthy Minds Network, October 2025): A detailed picture of mental health and related issues in college student populations finds that 18 percent of college students experienced “severe depression” in 2025.
Why Colleges Must Not Ban Speakers (John K. Wilson, Inside Higher Ed, October 13, 2025): We cannot censor our way out of a crisis of repression.
In Emergency Meeting, Vanderbilt Faculty Senate Votes to Condemn Trump Administration ‘Compact’ (Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout, October 11, 2025): Calls on Chancellor and Board of Trustees to reject the Compact as “compromising the mission, values, and independence” of Vanderbilt.
MIT President Says ‘We Cannot Support’ Trump’s Compact (Claire Murphy, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10, 2025): The premise of the compact is “inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth wrote.
Future Education Expectations of High School Students Decline to the Lowest Leve in 20 Years for Both First-Generation and Continuing Generation Students (Pell Institute, September 2025): Just under 44 percent expected to earn a bachelor’s degree or more in 2022 — down from nearly 72 percent two decades prior.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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