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Henry Holt and Co.
August 2010
On Sale: August 3, 2010
288 pages
ISBN: 0805087346
EAN: 9780805087345
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
What's gone wrong at our colleges and universitiesβand how to get American higher education back on track A quarter of a million dollars. It's the going tab for four years at most top-tier universities. Why does it cost so much and is it worth it? Renowned sociologist Andrew Hacker and New York Times writer Claudia Dreifus make an incisive case that the American way of higher education, now a $420 billion-per-year business, has lost sight of its primary mission: the education of young adults. Going behind the myths and mantras, they probe the true performance of the Ivy League, the baleful influence of tenure, an unhealthy reliance on part-time teachers, and the supersized bureaucracies which now have a life of their own. As Hacker and Dreifus call for a thorough overhaul of a self-indulgent system, they take readers on a road trip from Princeton to Evergreen State to Florida Gulf Coast University, revealing those faculties and institutions that are getting it right and proving that teaching and learning can be achievedβand at a much more reasonable price.
 Media BuzzDiane Rehm Show - NPR - May 16, 2011
Colbert Report - September 2, 2010
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - August 17, 2010
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