Total Career Success – Jackson Toby, Ph.D., Author of The Lowering of Higher Education in America on Raising the Bar

January 18, 2010 VoiceAmerica Radio Show Features Jackson Toby, Ph.D. and author of The Lowering of Higher Education in America. His unflinching look at this broken system and how it can be fixed documents just how far college admission standards have fallen, then measures the cost of remedial programs for underprepared high school students.

Houston, TX (Vocus) January 14, 2010

Jackson Toby, Ph.D. and author of The Lowering of Higher Education in America will be featured on Total Career Success, an Internet show on VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network, at 11 a.m. Central on Monday, January 18. The show is designed to inform and encourage listeners to achieve their career goals by featuring experts and business leaders to provide job search assistance and career development. After a half-century of teaching, distinguished educator Jackson Toby concludes that all too often, our current system tells high school students that college is an entitlement and not a challenge. The Lowering of Higher Education in America: Why Financial Aid Should Be Based on Student Performance is his unflinching look at this broken system and how it can be fixed. It documents just how far college admission standards have fallen, then measures the cost of remedial programs for underprepared high school students that merely get them where they should have been in the first place. This important book:

•Advocates using financial assistance as a motivator for stronger academic performance;
•Clarifies the negative impact of lowering higher education standards in the United States;
•Explains how the morphing of scholarships into financial aid, though well-intentioned, undermines higher education;
•Illuminates the confusion of the current amalgam of financial aid grants and loans…and how it can be streamlined.

Few in the United States will deny that every high school graduate should be entitled to attend college regardless of financial need. But should everyone be able to go regardless of academic preparedness? Are federal financial aid programs, all of which peg student aid to need alone and not to academic performance, dragging down college admissions and academic standards to the point where America’s schools, students, and economy will lose global competitiveness?

Show co-host Sheryl Dawson shared, “This is a penetrating and sobering analysis of our system of higher education. Dr. Toby exposes what many colleges and universities have swept under the academic rug.”

Co-host Ken Dawson added, “For many years we have called for higher standards in our schools to ensure that the job market has qualified candidates to meet the talent demands of companies. Dr. Toby gives a hard hitting argument for raising the bar. ”

The Lowering of Higher Education in America also tackles grade inflation, which rewards laziness while demoralizing hardworking students. In conclusion, Toby proposes an innovative solution: base federally guaranteed loans on both academic performance and financial need, creating a compelling incentive for students who need taxpayer assistance to develop serious attitudes and study approaches in high school.

Dawson said, “We cannot continue to lower our standards of excellence and expect to compete in a global marketplace. Now is the time for public schools, higher education and government to hold students accountable, challenge them to excel and to return to policies that promote excellence in education. Our nation’s competitiveness and the future of our workforce is at stake.”

The show will air live at 11 a.m. - noon Central on January 18, 2010. To listen, please visit Voiceamerica.com and search for Total Career Success. The archived show will be available for replay or download at the Total Career Success website, or from iTunes http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=311541702

About Jackson Toby, Ph.D.

Jackson Toby, Ph.D. taught sociology and criminology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, for fifty years. .He is professor Sociology Emeritus at Rutgers University and Adjunct Scholar for the American Enterprise Institute. He received his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University. For more information visit praeger.com/catalog/C37898.aspx

About Total Career Success

Total Career Success is broadcast on VoiceAmerica, the world leader in Internet Talk Radio, and syndicated on World Talk Radio; the show aims to engage listeners in new ways of thinking about their potential, their goals, and their future. The show hosts are Ken and Sheryl Dawson, principals of Total Career Success, Inc. and authors of Job Search: The Total System, 3rd edition. They have served corporations in outplacementand career development as well as talent management optimization for 30 years in their consulting firm Dawson Consulting Group. The show presents guests who are experts in their fields to share the lessons they have learned in succeeding in their various areas of excellence and to discuss tips about a broad range of career development issues, from specific career opportunities, to industries and workplace changes, to financial and advancement considerations. For more information, visit betterjobbetterlife.com and dawsonconsultinggroup.com

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