Join NAS this fall as we launch regular conference calls to foster discussion about key aspects of the college curriculum, campus culture, and higher education policy. We’ll hold one-hour calls once a month or so, open to all NAS members and interested observers, to provide updates and opportunities to be involved in the work to reform higher education.
Please mark your calendars for our fall conference calls.
Be sure to register for call reminders. For all calls, please call in to 1-903-230-0168 and use the conference code 3534925.
Friday, September 28, 2018, 3:00 PM
Topic: The Aim Higher Act
The Higher Education Act is up for reauthorization, and the House of Representatives is currently considering two competing bills. The PROSPER Act, the House Republican reauthorization bill, includes many items from the policy blueprint NAS released last year, the Freedom to Learn Amendments. The Aim Higher Act, recently introduced by House Democrats, fails to enact key reforms and instead ramps up federal spending, primarily on special interest groups. Join us as Policy Director Rachelle Peterson reviews the key features of the Aim Higher Act, and the tools available to help you play a role in the legislative process.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018, 3:00 PM
Topic: Beach Books
Each year, NAS releases the nation’s only exhaustive list of the common readings colleges and universities assigned to students over the summer. For many students, this is the only book they will read in common with their classmates. On October 2nd, NAS will release its eighth edition of Beach Books, compiling data from the last eleven years. Join Research Director David Randall as he unveils the key trends and data that NAS found, along with our proposals for reform.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018, 3:00 PM
Topic: Irreproducible Science
A reproducibility crisis afflicts a wide range of scientific and social-scientific disciplines, from epidemiology to social psychology. Improper use of statistics, arbitrary research techniques, lack of accountability, political groupthink, and a scientific culture biased toward producing positive results together have produced a critical state of affairs. NAS’s 2018 report The Irreproducibility Crisis of Modern Science found that many supposedly scientific results cannot be reproduced in subsequent investigations—and many of these faulty studies are cited as the basis of federal regulations. Join Research Director David Randall as he reviews how science came to be irreproducible—and what concrete steps NAS proposes the federal government should take to remedy this problem.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 3:00 PM
Topic TBD
Wednesday, December 12, 2018, 3:00 PM
Topic TBD
