Current Reading

This blog is primarily for me to blog my responses to books that I'm reading. Sometimes I blog about other stuff too, though.

Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond.

Word cloud

Word cloud

Sunday, May 22, 2016

All of this has been shilled before and will be shilled again

I'm looking at a bunch of things I read a few years ago.  Here's a fascinating infographic from the Brookings Institution:

I don't have any problem with the basic concept of parsing out different segments of the STEM job market,m and I certainly do NOT object to  people who note that not all STEM jobs need a 4-year degree.  At the same time, I have this nasty feeling that definition creep can easily lead to even more inflated estimates of our country's alleged "need" for STEM graduates.  You start with a broad definition, one that isn't just about 4-year grads, and get a large number of jobs.  Then you point to the large number while arguing for the importance of a particular segment, without noting any of the crucial context or caveats.

All of this has been hyped before and will be hyped again

This is a fascinating survey of hype over educational technology.  Naturally, though, I must remind the reader that this time it's different!