It's been a busy one. Here's a (small, incomplete) peek inside the life of a tenure-track mama prof.

(1) Traveled on work trips to Seattle, San Diego, Boulder, Laguna Beach, Washington (twice), and Chicago—and most of that was just June.

(2) Spent two weeks at Northwestern University, 10-plus hours per day, learning the technical in's and out's of cluster randomized trials at a veritable "geek camp." Had a blast. Imported generous family members to babysit during the day and parented my 7-month-old daughter every evening, awaking three to five times every night to nurse.

(3) Wrote and submitted three paper proposals to the American Educational Research Association.

(4) Completed final edits on two articles forthcoming this fall.

(5) Watched as my 3-year-old son wore a suit and went down the aisle as ring-bearer in his nanny's wedding. Cried my eyes out.

(6) Wrote a proposal for nearly $700,000...

As discussions about the future of for-profit colleges intensify, my email inbox has begun to fill with inquiries. Why haven’t I weighed in? What do I think—is Congress on the right track? What does my recent conspicuous silence portend?

While I’m flattered (and a little confused) by a seeming desire to hear my opinion, the truth is I haven’t been ready to provide one. Over the past few months I’ve spent a lot more time thinking about the for-profits and the tough questions their growing presence in higher education raise. I’ve struggled with an intellectual exercise of sorts, attempting to set aside the financial interests associated with the sector and simply consider whether common objections to the industry would exist even if its colleges were not-for-profit.  It’s not easy to sleep at night when wrestling with complex demons like that.

I’ve come to the conclusion that yes, object...

There's a bit of an uproar in California over an arrangement between the for-profit Kaplan University and the California Community College Chancellor's Office that makes it possible for students locked out of community college courses to enroll in a Kaplan course at a reduced rate. The arrangement stems from the overcrowding and under-resourcing of the California community college system, which is nothing less than under siege. Of course, it also stems from a completely sensible desire of Kaplan to expand its reach and enrollment. The California State Legislature, by failing to adequately support its community colleges, created that opportunity. Kaplan is doing exactly what we'd expect any educator to do—responding to student demand. We denigrate that action only because it will also result in profits. Let's at least be honest about that.

To me the really distasteful part of the...

Dear readers, I am running from job to kids, kids to job—and thankfully my lovely husband has had a few minutes to guest blog on my behalf. So, please meet Liam Goldrick, co-founder of The Education Optimists and policy director of the New Teacher Center.

"College for 'Some'"

by Liam Goldrick

Richard Vedder and my wife, Sara Goldrick-Rab, squared off yesterday on Patt Morrison's radio program on Southern California Public Radio yesterday. They addressed the question, "Who needs college?"

Vedder, the founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C., recently announced a joint proposal suggesting that some kids shouldn't go to college at all (as recently described in this New York Times article). As Sherman Dorn notes, making such distinctions is tricky and generally involves suggestions that "the type of people who don't benefit from college" are...

The recent decision by the American Educational Research Association to hold a news conference condemning Arizona's new immigration law was somewhat unpredictable, and according to at least a few observers, unwise. For example, Rick Hess told The Chronicle it wasn't "smart politics" to "baldly politicize the role of research." The Chronicle's editors fanned the flames further by titling its article "Education-research group puts itself on the border of advocacy."

Oh, the horror—research and advocacy meeting, having coffee, perhaps even deciding to date. The children that could result are feared by Ph.D.'s everywhere, particularly those evil twins: Compromised Objectivity and Biased Conclusions.

Of course academia trains us to think, like Hess, that research is worthy only when fully divorced from politics. Our research questions should be derived from theory, stemming only from the...

My e-mail in box is full of stories sent by friends and colleagues who share my interests in higher education and public policy. I open dozens of links each day, and once in awhile I'll pause, laugh, or stop and think. Rarely, however, do I find myself suddenly overcome with nausea.

Of course, there's a first time for everything. Business Week reports: "The boom in for-profit education, driven by a political consensus that all Americans need more than a high school diploma, has intensified efforts to recruit the homeless." No, I'm not kidding. The article goes on: "Chancellor University in Cleveland ... explicitly focused recruiting efforts on local shelters after it realized that Phoenix, owned by Apollo Group was doing so."

What world are we living in? So-called educators are hitting the homeless shelters in search of financial aid-eligible students to enroll in college? And they ...

These days I'm wearing more than a few hats. I'm an untenured assistant professor, a consultant, a blogger, a daughter, a mama, a sister, a wife, a granddaughter, a friend, a boss ... and also a human being's food supply. Yes, five to six times a day I generate enough milk to satisfy the appetite and growth requirements of a nearly 15-pound 4-month-old baby girl. For the record, she consumes about 13-15 percent of her weight in milk every day.

Annie was born in January. I resumed work when she was just two weeks old. I resumed full-time work (e.g., at least 40 hours a week) when she was a month old. I began flying with her when she was four weeks, and started traveling one or two nights away from her on trips when she reached three months. Yes, that's right—I didn't have a maternity leave. Sure, I was offered one: 12 weeks unpaid. I just wasn't in a financial position to do it. ...

The College Board's Advocacy and Policy Center reports that "too many students are borrowing more than they are likely able to manage" and this is particularly true for black undergraduates. According to researchers, fully 27 percent of black BA recipients borrow more than $30,000 for college, compared to 16 percent of white BA recipients. The gap is especially large among independent students (those who are a bit older, are parents, or independent for other reasons)—more than one in three black independent students who earn BA's graduate with high levels of debt, compared to less than one in four white independents.

This is a trend we need to know more about. There have been a few articles written about race differences in college-financing patterns and receptivity to financial aid, but none have been especially adept at sorting out the underlying reasons for variation by...

It was really hard to watch the American Graduation Initiative get cut from SAFRA. It was one of the most promising initiatives for higher education in decades, representing a real shift from a culture of focus on college access to one focused on student success. I was crushed to see it go unfunded.

Of course, I'm feeling a little better since Jill Biden called for a White House summit on community colleges, to be held this fall. An Obama conference is a decent consolation prize. It's actually a coup, when you think about how seriously community colleges have been taken by policy makers in the past (read: not at all).

Washington needs to make the most of this opportunity. Doing this requires pushing far beyond a pleasant conversation about "best practices and successful models." Because let's be honest—there aren't very many "best practices" we can feel confident in scaling up...

Are students attending for-profit institutions getting their money's worth, especially compared to attending community college? I've tackled this question before. Now, another study commissioned by a for-profit college has appeared, claiming to fill gaps in our knowledge.

Since I only have a PowerPoint presentation of the findings to review, and my opinion is pretty well-expressed in other media coverage, I'll just hit a few notes I've not yet seen mentioned elsewhere.

1.  The authors want to claim that the for-profit sector is outpacing the capacity of community colleges to expand their enrollment.  To back this up, the study compares recent enrollment growth in the two sectors.  But they fail to mention the very different levels of overall enrollment: Community colleges enrolled approximately 1.2 million more students in 2009 than were enrolled in 2007. In comparison, there were 1.4 ...