‘Go to Berkeley’: Ron DeSantis said students seeking ‘woke’ classes should study elsewhere

[essentialsaltes]

3 years later, the 'new' New College is a total failure | Opinion​

Now that the Florida DOGE report is out, critics like me may have been too easy on New College.

[From that link] New College of Florida appears to be the most financially inefficient school in the university system, according to a study conducted by the state, with expenses per student and per degree far above average. The study was carried out by the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and state education officials are expected to review it publicly at the University of South Florida on Nov. 6.

['The study' link is also useful; just look for the stylized N for New College, like in grants per FTE researcher:]

[OK, back (briefly) to the oped.]

Its spending has gone from $53 million in 2020-21 to $93 million – yet it has been plummeting in test scores, GPA, retention, graduation rates and first-time-in-college attendance.

Not only do the folks running New College not have what it takes to run a higher education institution, they don't trust the people who do know what they're doing.

For example, the school has created a Retention Committee to try to put the brakes on a historically high outflow of students. Yet that Retention Committee has no faculty members on it.

 

[DaisyDay]

And:

The average SAT score is down 24 points since then; the average ACT score of 25 is the highest at New College since 2020. The state study also found New College has the lowest percentage of job placement among those with bachelor’s degrees and the lowest starting salary for graduates.​

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Berkeley is looking good.....

 

[Belk]

Huh. Who could of guessed putting anti-intellectual ideologists in charge of a system of education would lead to a poor outcome?

 

[ThatRobGuy]

And:

The average SAT score is down 24 points since then; the average ACT score of 25 is the highest at New College since 2020. The state study also found New College has the lowest percentage of job placement among those with bachelor’s degrees and the lowest starting salary for graduates.​

​

Berkeley is looking good.....

Huh. Who could of guessed putting anti-intellectual ideologists in charge of a system of education would lead to a poor outcome?

Is there a control group to compare it to?

https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/R2295-Disruptions-Gains-Effects-of-Pandemic-02-2023.pdf

https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/2021/COVID-Impact-Fall-ACT-State-and-District-2021-5.pdf

ACT scores are down across the board since the HS graduates of 2020-2022 had their learning disrupted due to the pandemic.


Also, it doesn't sound like comparing this place (which has a grand total of about 700 students from what I'm reading) to Berkeley is a apples to apples comparison.


That'd be kind of like saying "See this is why the thing I said about tech degrees being worthless is accurate, look at this results comparison between this normal college and ITT Tech"

The fact that someone can find a terrible school in Florida doesn't validate or invalidate the criticisms about Berkeley.