Friday
November 21, 2008
Advertisement
News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education
March 16, 2006
The Wrong Conversation
The annual college-admissions tournament is in full swing, encouraged by newspapers and magazines that have made a good business of promoting status anxiety among parents and students by touting the latest rankings and secrets of Ivy League admissions offices. But in reality, the universe of students with the luxury of being overwhelmed by long application forms, AP courses, extracurricular activities, and grueling SAT-prep classes is small: Only 11 percent of college-bound seniors enroll at institutions that reject a majority of their applicants. For most students, the hard part of college isn’t getting in — it’s getting out.
Related stories
- Dual Degree for a Different High School Population, May 30
- Admitted — to College and Grad School, June 22, 2007
- Taking ‘College Guide’ National, March 21, 2007
- Out of Control Admissions Hype, April 12, 2006
- Rich Student, Poor Student, March 16, 2006
The numbers are stark: Only 37 percent of college students graduate in four years, less than two-thirds finish in six. For low-income and minority students, graduation rates are even worse. This is happening at the worst possible moment in history — the market for unskilled labor has already gone global and higher-skill jobs aren’t far behind. We aren’t going to be bigger or cheaper than our Chinese and Indian competitors in the 21st century; our only option is to be smarter. Yet we’re squandering the aspirations and talent of hundreds of thousands of college students every year.
Clearly, major changes are needed.
We can start by restructuring high schools, which continue to act as if most students don’t go to college when in fact most of them do. Two-thirds of high school graduates enter postsecondary education soon after graduation, and more than 80 percent matriculate by their mid-20s. But many arrive unaware that their high school diploma doesn’t mean they’re ready for college work. Far from it. More than 25 percent of college freshmen have to take remedial courses in basic reading, writing, or math — victims of high schools that systematically fail to enroll many of their college-bound students in college-prep classes.
It’s true that many students arrive in high school behind academically, but high schools need to buckle down and prepare them for college anyway because that’s where they’re going, ready or not. College-prep curricula should be the norm unless students and parents decide otherwise.
We also need to make college more affordable for first-generation college students at the greatest risk of dropping out. We’ve been losing ground here in recent years — federal Pell Grants pay a far smaller portion of college costs than they once did, while states and institutions are shifting many of their student-aid dollars to so-called “merit” programs that mostly benefit middle-and upper-income families. Meanwhile, the ongoing erosion of state funding for public colleges and universities, combined with the unwillingness of those institutions to look hard at becoming more efficient, has produced huge increases in tuition.
As a result, low-income college students have an unpleasant choice: Take out massive student loans that greatly limit their options after graduation, or work full-time while they’re in school, and thereby greatly decrease their odds of graduating. In addition to a renewed federal commitment to college affordability, state lawmakers should resist the urge to pour vast amounts of money into need-blind merit aid programs. And institutions should think twice before taking the advice of for-profit “enrollment management” consultants who counsel reducing aid to the low-income students who need it most.
We need to get serious about creating universities that are actually designed to educate undergraduates successfully. Many institutions are far too concerned with status, research, athletics, fundraising — almost everything except the quality of undergraduate education. Yet research has shown that those institutions that truly focus on high-quality instruction, combined with guidance and support in the critical freshmen year, have much higher graduation rates than their peers. Our colleges need to be held more accountable for the things that matter most: teaching their students well and helping as many as possible earn a degree.
The education secretary’s commission appears poised to put higher education accountability squarely on the national agenda. That’s a good thing. But the panel’s proposal shouldn’t focus on a No Child Left Behind-style top-down system based exclusively on standardized tests, government-defined performance goals, and mandated interventions. Rather, the panel should pursue accountability through transparency, mandating a major expansion of the performance data universities are required to create and report to students, parents, and the public at large.
Finally, the media should look beyond their own lives and aspirations when they shape the public perception of higher education and the admissions process. Caught up in the same status competition they help perpetuate, many simply don’t realize how many college students arrive unprepared, struggle financially, and never finish a degree. For the vast majority of students, and for the nation as a whole, the stakes are far higher than who gets into which Ivy League institution.
Want it on paper? Print this page.
Know someone who’d be interested? Forward this story.
Want to stay informed? Sign up for free daily news e-mail.
Advertisement
Comments
Help Make This Country Better!
I forgot to ask one thing.....
In this country you are considered a legal adult at the age of 18. You can vote, your parents aren’t held responsible for anything you do, you can be tried as an adult, you can file your own taxes, etc.....yet, when it comes time for you to ask for government funding, all of a sudden, you are considered a ‘dependent’ and your parents are automatically responsible for your education, even the ones that flat out refuse to pay for it!? Why? Is it because the government really doesn’t want to help more people out? Are they trying to save up all our tax dollars to so they can spend billions in useless wars? And leave the future generation hanging and unable to obtain a decent education to move this country forward.
What about someone like me? Do I seriously have to wait till I’m 24 to get aid, or get married or become a single parent before the government says ‘oh, now you’re an adult and we’ll help you as one’???
Then they wonder why so many students drop out......or never finish college. Yes, some don’t have the motivation or the focus or the discipline.....but some simply just don’t have the money.
They shouldn’t give financial aid only to the ones who are 24+ yrs old, married, or are single parents or whose families are poor. They should also give it to individuals who are loyal citizens of this country, whose parents may or may not be able to afford higher education, and those students who really have no one else to turn to except the government thats supposed to take care of its citizens. The long-term effects of helping everyone out will have more positive effects on this nation than pinching pennies. Everyone should have the right to obtain education if they choose to. No one should be left to wander because of the outrageous costs or the lack of funding available.
The education system in schools and colleges need major reconstruction to better prepare students for the future. But, so does the federal government which needs to reevaluate its financial aid programs. There are hundreds of thousands of students like me who are struggling to make ends meet, trying to find a way to get higher education to secure their future, yet the outrageous costs and no means of paying for it OURSELVES (without parents help) is leaving us very depressed and uncertain about the future. Someone please help change the system. It will take a lot of work, but I guarantee most students will be supportive of it because it will take them less time to finish a degree and help keep their GPA’s high. I admire the students who persevere and spend as much as 10 years getting their degrees. But, there needs to be a better way for those of us who had certain goals and dreams in mind and yet whose circumstances change and sometimes force them to quit school.
Fiona, at 11:50 am EST on March 7, 2008
entrenched industry
An entrenched indsutry, reluctant to change until forced to? Sounds familiar. Why won’t higher education embrace change and search for innovation instead of slavishly following fads? Your guess is as good as mine, but I am pretty sure it relates closely to keeping what you have for as long as possible before being forced to do more!
j, Associate Prof., at 8:45 am EST on March 16, 2006
March Madness
As a former Ivy admissions officer, I have witnessed the status anxiety of the upper middle class first hand. Such affects a tiny proportion of those families who consider college, as the author rightly points out. But it is this small group that writes for, and reads, the NYT and the “how to get into an Ivy or Ivy-like” guidebooks where this handwringing goes on. The author does a good job of pointing out the larger, structural issues that continue to threaten the link of access to higher education, societal health, and democracy.
A. G. Rud, Purdue University, at 9:41 am EST on March 16, 2006
I was one of those kids. Started college at age 25 (after a stint in the Army), took nearly 10 years to graduate. I worked fulltime during most of those years, and went to three different colleges. I found that in order to maintain a good GPA I could only take a couple of classes per semester. But I did graduate, and went on to graduate school. I’m now ABD in my field.
My question is, why is it a crisis if it takes most people more than 4 years to complete a bachelor’s degree? So the heck what? You have to work to live; this is not news to most of us. The article seems to be assuming that “not graduating in 4 years” equals “not graduating at all.” Why?
I do agree that colleges and universities need to be making some changes. But maybe one of those changes is to stop assuming that students live the kind of lives that allow them to drop everything and spend 4 years doing nothing but school.
Sheryl, at 9:50 am EST on March 16, 2006
Adjustments
I find it interesting that the author neglected to mention anything much that the schools could do — and mostly concentrated on what the rest of us should do to “support” them.
What we need to be looking at is things like how college got so expensive and what we can do to bring its price back down (and that doesn’t mean how much we can milk rich kids to subsidize poor ones either) — we need to find the fat and eliminate it.
After that, we need to take a long, hard look at classes and requirements. Many graduates are unprepared for their jobs; many have taken lots of courses related to little but entertainment and aristocratic cocktail party fodder. This needs to be redesigned, because as it is it is awfully hard for many to see what it is that college offers them besides a diploma. If the answer to this is “entertainment” or “a deeper understanding of social justice” than you can probably bet that you’re not looking at the right things.
What about flexibility for part time students? How many night classes do you have? Do you even have part time students? Many people would like to go to college full time and end up going to part time for financial reasons before dropping out completely because of the cost, inconvinience and messiness of it all. Where are the advising resources for part time students? Are they available? How often? For how long?
Just some things to think about.
Kevin, Undergraduate, at 10:35 am EST on March 16, 2006
why it is important
Sheryl, I think the issue boils down to mean the longer something takes the less likely someone is going to complete that task. Often I see students who are in their 6th year for an AA degree bail out because they either cannot maintain the same level of energy anymore, or they have had major life changes. I think in your case the military prepared you for taking as long as it takes to get the job done. I think this is one of the major benefits to military experience. However, many individuals who attend college do so when they just get out of high school. In these cases the majority are 18 years old (I was 17 when I went to college) so the maturity and ability to stay focused is not as ingrained. Instead, we see these kids come out of high school and enter into college with absolutely no clue as to “what they want to be when they grow up.” As a result they change majors four or five times, and become super super seniors.
I myself, graduated in little over four years. However, there were good friends of mine who entered my undergraduate university at the same time I did and were still struggling to get their AA degree. I contribute this to a lack of focus and a lack of understanding for what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Because of that some students would be better served to work a few years and then enter college (much like Sheryl). However, our concern as a nation would be how many of these students would return to college after making some money and starting a family? Some, but not as many as we think (though on-line learning might change this). So high schools and colleges need to come up with a plan on directing students and helping them maintain their energy. If not, we will continue to see high drop out rate.
VG, at 11:05 am EST on March 16, 2006
“Aristocratic” parties
A quick thought for you, Kevin — not all learning is directly attached to a topic being covered. As an English Professor — one of those fields that people sometimes discount because people wonder where they will go to be paid to read novels and poems. It is a dangerous thing to discount. After all, I teach students half of what they will be spending their time doing in any business setting — reading and writing at an advanced level. Most employers are more interested in skill sets. Those skills can be picked up in a number of different places.
Matthew M. DeForrest, JCSU, at 1:15 pm EST on March 16, 2006
Silli-ness about higher education
Most students could probably tell us, if we were to ask the right questions to encourage verbalization of their intuitions;
a) the smartest students squirm through the best schools in four years, because of skills learned from those students’ family or elite culture. Unfortunately, those students flow through the pipeline that leads to Washington, D.C.
b) more ethical and/or cautious students (whose parents can’t always bail them out of trouble) will take a little more time to get through a professional program and avoid the ethical morass of U.S. politics.
c) wannabe students poke around for many years considering their options to avoid the swamp of the upperclass. Potential employers have to wonder if these “slower students” will play ball as the game is played.
d) community college and other students (or non-students) are mostly disgusted with all the above. They want to just fix computers or cars or weld or make pottery; anything to avoid the slimy confrontations inherent in making it big.
e) then there are the gangstas.
In sum, top universities don’t really teach the “a” group, but just polish pre-existing skills. Most students intuitively know this, but wrestle with lesser evil choices.
Honesty: best policy or field of land mines?
Dr. F. Gump, at 2:10 pm EST on March 16, 2006
Takes more than money
A heart-felt review of issues facing education. As faculty, I’ve seen how disrupted many of my students’ lives have been — divorce, single-parent. Many of those students require so much hands-on attention, I do not see enough money to finance the additional staff time. Frankly, I hope more volunteers step up — and soon.
Also:
* Many states with high unemployment are trying to position themselves as the next Silicon Valley by raising graduation standards. OK — what about those students with high-skill, high-wage technical skills who are happy with the current system? Will this result in an unintended consequence — those high-skill students will dropout early? This needs a lot more thought.
* Testing. Yes, the recent SAT scoring mess could frighten anyone from testing. Unfortunately, given the public’s perception of questionable quality involving K-12 education (viz., the recent Aurora, Colo., high school kerkuffle), testing will NOT go away. A reasonable level of knowledge about grammer rules, math, and the state capitals will be required.
* Data transparency. Yes. Now.
* Reading and writing is not enough. Doing is necessary. Many of those who got laid off read and write at college level — just couldn’t produce anything of value.
Art D., at 2:30 pm EST on March 16, 2006
Does anyone know how this study counts students participating in a program that’s expected to last five years? I went to a liberal arts college with an associated conservatory, and we had a number of students graduate with two degrees (B.A. and Bachelor of Music) in five years. They were considered by the institution to be graduating on time. So were the students partcipating in the 3-2 physics program (three years studying physics at their home institution, two years at a partnering research institution studying engineering). Is graduating in four years really the best measure of educational success?
Rachel, at 8:15 pm EST on March 16, 2006
Keep in that financial aid options go down after the usual 4 years, some grants and need based aid has a cut off point.
grad, at 9:40 pm EST on March 16, 2006
“The Wrong Conversation”
I thought this op-ed indeed had an important focus and made an excellent contribution on its main points. On another point, accountability, I can encourage you to believe that the Commission on the Future of Higher Education is not going to recommend ” a NCLB-style, top down system based exclusively on standardized tests, government defined performance goals and mandated interventions". In fact, not a single part of that description is likely to be accurate. Your inclusion of this description is ironic considering your title “The Wrong Conversation". Your remarks following that description are more likely to be the direction of the Commission: “transparency", “expansion of the performance data", for “students, parents and the public at large". You have incorrectly assumed that some press reports and anxieties expressed by the academy are an accurate depiction of the work of the Commssion. I can assure you, they are not. Charles Miller ChairmanCommission on the Future of Higher Education
Charles Miller, Chairman, at Commission on the Future of Higher Education, at 6:05 pm EST on March 18, 2006
Charles Miller makes a fair point. I hadn’t meant to imply that the Commission on the Future of Higher Education endorses an NCLB-style system, but the article clearly reads that way. My mistake. For the record, I think the Commission’s emphasis on transparency and creating more information about higher education quality and student learning is absolutely the right one.
Kevin Carey, Research and Policy Manager at Education Sector, at 3:05 pm EST on March 19, 2006
Not convinced, Mr. Miller
Chairman Miller,I’ll believe it when I see it. Or, more accurately, when I see who wins the next presidential election.
Skeptical, at 4:25 am EST on March 20, 2006
Advertisement
Jobs Related to The Wrong Conversation
or search for jobs directly.
Assistant Director of Admission
Western Carolina University
The Office of Undergraduate Admission is a service department of the university serving students, the faculty, and the ... see job
Junior Scientist
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
The University of Minnesota is a premier employer and a talent magnet attracting leading faculty and staff from around the ... see job
Post Doctoral Fellow-USC
University of South Carolina
A leader in academe, the University of South Carolina holds the Carnegie Foundation’s highest research designation and is ... see job
Professor — Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Cornell University
Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New ... see job
Academic Coordinator — Department of Women’s Studies & Department of Asian American Studies
University of California, Irvine
Position: Academic Coordinator The Department in Women’s Studies and the Department in Asian American Studies, in the ... see job
Digital Art Adjunct Faculty Pool
Howard Community College
HCC is seeking to create a pool for positions in digital media. There is an opening in the Spring Semester for a Monday class ... see job
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR — Film and Electronic Arts
Bard College
The Film and Electronic Arts program at Bard College invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track assistant professor ... see job
Assistant Director 002616
University of Maryland University College
The Assistant Director, Faculty Services will provide leadership and direct the day-to-day operation of the Faculty Services ... see job
Director of Business & Enterprise Services (DBES)
University of California, Los Angeles
Under the general direction of the Deputy University Librarian (DUL) and University Librarian (UL), the Director of Business ... see job
Part-Time Faculty, Psychology (PL)
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University, located in Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky near the Heart of the Bluegrass, is a ... see job
Home
| Sign up | Log in
| About us
| Work for Us
| Press Releases
| Rights and permissions
| Contact us
| Advertise
| Partners
| RSS 
| Podcasts
| Links
| Privacy
| My Account
© Copyright 2008 Inside Higher Ed
I AM One....
I completely agree with the author. I graduated form high school in 2005 and I can honestly say I was blessed to go to a school that had excellent college prep classes for their students. They offered a wide variety of AP classes and partnered up with some local community colleges to help students finish some of their basic college classes while still in high school. I graduated HS with 32 college credits under my belt and multiple honors. I was ready and excited for college.
However, trying to get approved for the so-called ‘financial aid’ screwed me over. According to the FAFSA you have to be 24 years old to be considered ‘independent.’ If not, then your parents are primarily responsible for education. Has anyone considered what happens to us honor students when our parents REFUSE to pay for our education, and your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) according to Fafsa is too high to qualify you for student aid. My EFC for my first 2 years was over $14,000. I took out a few thousand dollars in student loans. The rest I paid on my own. Some money I had saved up, and I worked simultaneously to pay for the rest. However, I did not want to go into debt for huge amounts of money if I was planning on majoring in a profession (ex. teaching) which doesn’t pay enough to begin with! How am I supposed to feel comfortable taking out huge student loans without a salary to support the debt later?
After struggling to pay for school on my own for 2 years, I quit. My grades were suffering cause I would come home from work after midnight and I didn’t have time or energy to handle my 15 credits. I have taken 2 semesters off hoping to save enough money to go back to school, but I can never do that while struggling to pay bills. It seems it will take a few years before I can go back to school. I spent most of last month talking to FAFSA reps. trying to change my status from ‘dependent’ to ‘independent.’ They all said they felt sorry for my circumstances but they couldnt help me. I fact, one of them suggested I get *married* to my boyfriend just so I can apply without needing my parent’s information to qualify for funding! How screwed up is that!? I am dying to go to school and get an education. I am smart and want to make use of that and yet I cannot get help either from my parents (even if they can afford it) or from the government! Can’t they let people file as an independent or provide some type of aid based on their circumstances.....? Or do I have to go get knocked up before I’m 24 and have a dependent myself to get some funding (according to their rules)....???
Fiona, at 11:30 am EST on March 7, 2008