The Answer Sheet: harvard


Posted at 12:25 PM ET, 03/11/2013

The Harvard 'plumbers'
By Valerie Strauss
We at the Washington Post are all too familiar with important people who feel the need to find and close leaks to the media. But we were surprised to find that Harvard officials decided they had to secretly plug a leak.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:25 PM ET, 03/11/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Closing a Media Leak?, Harvard University

Posted at 08:23 AM ET, 01/24/2011

JFK's Harvard application: 'Lackluster' applicant
By Valerie Strauss
John F. Kennedy's 1935 application to Harvard College is now online, and it shows him to be something less than a superlative applicant.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:23 AM ET, 01/24/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  History | Tags:  college application, college essays, harvard application, harvard college, jfk, jfk anniversary, jfk application, jfk documents, jfk library, john f. kennedy, joseph p. kennedy, kennedy family

Posted at 12:35 PM ET, 01/21/2011

Say it isn’t so on IMPACT, Mayor Gray
By Valerie Strauss
Here’s why I was so disappointed to a plan by D.C. schools officials to have the flawed IMPACT teacher evaluation system reviewed by a Harvard think tank.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:35 PM ET, 01/21/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  d.c. schools, edulabs, harvard research, harvard thinktank, harvard university, mayor gray, mayor vincent gray, merit pay for teachers, michelle rhee, performance pay, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation

Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 01/20/2011

Harvard’s unofficial early admissions process
By Valerie Strauss
Harvard University doesn’t have an official early admissions process, but some students still learn before everybody else whether they are being looked on with favor by the admissions folks. Meanwhile, the current early admissions seasons is the toughest ever for some schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:00 AM ET, 01/20/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  college admissions, college admissions process, dartmouth university, early action, early admissions, getting into ivy league, harvard admissions, harvard university, how to get into college, ivy league, ivy league admissions, university of michigan, yale university

Posted at 10:40 AM ET, 12/08/2010

Schools eligible for 2011 John Lennon Scholarship
By Valerie Strauss
The John Lennon Scholarship Program created by Yoko Ono is now accepting applicants from a certain group of schools. Here they are.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:40 AM ET, 12/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  Appalachian State University, Bard College, Belmont University, Berklee College of Music, Birmingham-Southern College, Brown University, California State University Northridge, Carnegie Mellon University, Catawba College, City College of New York, Clark Atlanta University, Colorado State University, Columbia College (Chicago), DePaul University, Drexel University, Elmhurst College, Emory University, Florida State University, Full Sail, Georgia State University, Harvard University, Hunter College, Indiana University, Ithaca College, Lehigh University, Loyola University (New Orleans), Michigan State University, Middle Tennessee S. University, Millikin University, New England Conservatory, New York University, Northwestern University, Oberlin College, Purchase College (SUNY), UCLA, University of Alabama, University of California Los Angeles, University of Cincinnati, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Florida, University of Houston, University of Idaho, University of Memphis, University of Miami, University of Michigan, University of North Alabama, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of North Texas, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, Wilkes Community College, Yale University, john lennon, john lennon scholarships, menc, national association for music education, yoko ono

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 11/09/2010

Harvard’s strange ‘Strange Bedfellows’ education event
By Valerie Strauss
You might think, or at least I would, that a ticketed discussion at the Harvard University Institute of Politics on education would include people with different views. But with Michelle Rhee, Jeb Bush and John Podesta as the panel, the "discussion" will sound more like an echo chamber.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 11/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  School turnarounds/reform, School turnarounds/reform, School turnarounds/reform, School turnarounds/reform, School turnarounds/reform | Tags:  arne duncan, charter schools, education department, harvard, harvard university, institute of politics, iop, jeb bush, john podesta, margaret spellings, michelle rhee, no child left behind, obama education reform, president obama, race to the top, school reform

Posted at 01:13 PM ET, 10/28/2010

New college rankings based on quality, cost
By Valerie Strauss
The folks at Kiplinger.com, which offers financial advice, did some numbers crunching and came up with their list of the best values in private universities and liberal arts colleges, taking quality and cost into consideration.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:13 PM ET, 10/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  best values in education, caltech, college costs, duke, harvard, higher education costs, kiplingers, kiplingers best values, mit, princeton, private schools, rice university, swarthmore college, total college costs, yale

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 07/17/2010

Harvard profs dropping final exams
By Valerie Strauss
Hundreds of Harvard professors have stopped giving final exams and there is some thought that they have been “going the way of the dodo” for years. Are final exams necessary?

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 07/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning | Tags:  FAS and harvard, final exams, final papers, harvard college, harvard drops final exams, harvard university

Posted at 04:38 PM ET, 05/20/2010

Harvard endowment losses fueled financial crisis -- report
By Valerie Strauss
Endowment losses at Harvard and five other universities that were triggered by risky investment strategies helped fuel the financial crisis, a new report says.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:38 PM ET, 05/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  endowments and financial crisis, harvard endowment, report on endowments

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/13/2010

Getting real about super-selective colleges
By Valerie Strauss
Bruce Vinik, a college admissions counselor, writes about why students who seem to be perfect in every way don't get into the school of their dreams.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Admissions | Tags:  brown admissions, college admissions, columbia admissions, getting into harvard, getting into stanford, getting into the ivy league, harvard admissions, ivy league, selective colleges and applicants, who gets into harvard

Posted at 02:55 PM ET, 05/10/2010

Yale and Harvard at the Supreme Court
By Valerie Strauss
If President Obama wins confirmation for Elena Kagan, his choice for the Supreme Court, it will mean that every justice on the court went to law school at Harvard or Yale. Does this matter? Should it?

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:55 PM ET, 05/10/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Harvard and Yale and supreme court, Ivy League and Supreme Court, Kagan and Harvard, Supreme Court justices and Harvard, Supreme Court nomination, elite and law school, justices who went to harvard

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 05/09/2010

The funniest commencement speeches
By Valerie Strauss
Most graduation speeches are boring; who really remembers theirs? But some classes get lucky, and are graced with a speaker who says something memorable because it is profound rather than sappy, or because it is really funny, or because it is profound and funny at the same time. I like the funny ones, so here are excerpts of some of the funny ones.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 05/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  commencement speeches, degeneres speech, ellen degeneres and tulane, funny commencement speeches, funny graduation speeches, graduation ceremonies, graduation speeches, hilarious commencement speeches, jon stewart and commencement address, jon stewart and william and mary, lady gaga and commencement address, lady gaga and new york university, obama and commencement, obama and graduation, obama at hampton, will ferrell and harvard

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/07/2010

Ethics expert to head Harvard Business School
By Valerie Strauss
With the image of America's corporate world bruised, Harvard names an ethics expert as dean of its influential business school.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  business ethics, business schools, business schools and ethics, doo, harvard and faust, harvard business school and new dean, harvard dean, harvard names new dean, nitin nohria

Posted at 02:20 PM ET, 04/25/2010

New strategy to teach vocabulary -- Viadero
By Valerie Strauss
A Harvard researcher develops and tests a new strategy for directly teaching all-purpose academic words to middle school students.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:20 PM ET, 04/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research | Tags:  Catherine Snow, Harvard research, research, teaching vocabulary, vocabulary

Posted at 10:49 AM ET, 04/19/2010

An analysis of pay-for-grades schemes -- Willingham
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham from the University of Virginia writes about the results of experiments in school districts to pay students for their work, and explains the psychological reasons it sometimes works--and sometimes doesn't.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:49 AM ET, 04/19/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Daniel Willingham, Harvard project and paying for grades, grades, guest bloggers, paying for grades

Posted at 04:07 AM ET, 04/12/2010

New Harvard research on teacher effectiveness
By Valerie Strauss
By Debra Viadero. A new statistical analysis from a group of researchers at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research adds a new wrinkle to the known body of research on the effectiveness of teachers.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:07 AM ET, 04/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  Debra Viadero, Harvard research, research on teachers, teacher effectiveness

Posted at 11:46 AM ET, 10/09/2009

What's So Great About Harvard?
By Valerie Strauss
Harvard University is known for providing its undergraduates with an unexpectedly high number of graduate assistants as teachers rather than professors because, apparently, the profs are too busy with more important things than teaching. Now those poor kids can’t get a hot breakfast. Why, at a school where tuition is $33,696 for undergraduates this year and the total package including room, board and student services fee is $48,868? Isn't it time to stop viewing Harvard as standing alone as the platinum standard for higher education?

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:46 AM ET, 10/09/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  Harvard University