College » Carol J. Carter

State Colleges Also Face Cuts in Ambitions

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Universities, many hard hit by the economy and their own endowments which have suffered record losses, are asking some hard questions about their mission, their future and the best way to deliver quality education with fewer resources than ever. It will take a lot creativity to develop ways that we can still give the majority of students access to what they need with few resources. Here are some ideas:

1) Analyze which courses, like student success, can be taught the summer before freshmen enter in an on-line, self-paced environment.

2) Recruit and train peer leaders to teach classes or assist teachers who have large class sizes in areas such as Student Success.

3) Recruit the retired to come and tutor your students for free. They have a wealth of experience which undergrads desperately need.

4) Work with faculty to hold students to higher levels of accountability. To succeed in our new global economy, students need high expectations and the personal governance to deliver their bestâ€”not just skate by. If our economy is going to turn around, students need to know that their ethic, drive and ambition will be the engine.

ARTICLE:
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: March 16, 2009
TEMPE, Ariz. â€” When Michael Crow became president of Arizona State University seven years ago, he promised to make it â€œThe New American University,â€ with 100,000 students by 2020. It would break down the musty old boundaries between disciplines, encourage advanced research and entrepreneurship to drive the new economy, and draw in students from underserved sectors of the state.

To view entire article visit http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/us/17university.html?emc=eta1

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools?

CAROL’S SUMMARY: With the current financial downfall, some blame the way business schools are taught. Schools like the University of Phoenix have become a popular alternative in the last decade because their classes are taught by business professionals, not professors studying business.Â Certainly, if traditional business schools emphasized more leadership, initiative and project-based learning more students would be â€œdoingâ€ business than studying about how to do business. Some of the case-based and project-based learning should involve consequences of poor actions as the ones we are living out right now in this depressed economy.Â If students could have a sense of the fallout of their actions, they would likely behave differently.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you agree?
2. What fundamental aspects are business schools neglecting?
3. How can business schools team up with more people from the world of business?
4. What experiences do business studentsâ€”or any student who wants to enter businessâ€”need to be a responsible, measured leader?

ARTICLE:

By KELLEY HOLLAND
Published: March 14, 2009

JOHN Thain has one. So do Richard Fuld, Stanley Oâ€™Neal and Vikram Pandit. For that matter, so does John Paulson, the hedge fund kingpin.

Yes, all five have fat bank accounts, even now, and all have made their share of headlines. But these current and former giants of finance also are all card-carrying M.B.A.â€™s.

The masterâ€™s of business administration, a gateway credential throughout corporate America, is especially coveted on Wall Street; in recent years, top business schools have routinely sent more than 40 percent of their graduates into the world of finance.

Visit www.nytimes.com to view the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Now, Get to Work

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Flexibility is key to surviving the competitive job market our distressed economy has created. Internships and volunteer work can give you the experienced edge employers are looking for, or skills may need to be practiced in other positions until your dream job opens up. Keeping busy networking with people who can help you or introduce you to someone key, taking an extra class or working for free under the tutelage of someone who has valuable business expertise can make all the difference.

Questions to consider:
1. If this economy is limiting your job prospects, what other positions or fields utilize the same skills? Are there any jobs or study opportunities overseas you might want to pursue?
2. Have you considered an internship or volunteer work? If you already have some of those experiences under your belt, which new volunteer job or responsibility would benefit you even more?
3. What, specifically, do you need to grow in (skills, knowledge, experience) to get the job you really want?
4. If you were recently laid off, is there some information you can take away from your former boss about how you can improve in your next position?
5. Who are the key people who can write you letters of reference which you can provide at any time?

ARTICLE:

By ANNA PRIOR
March 15, 2009

Here’s the bad news: If you are graduating from college this spring, you are facing one of the toughest job markets in years.

Employers expect to hire 22% fewer graduates than they did last spring, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

“Almost every level of the job market right now is shrinking,” says Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research for NACE. “You are going to have to compete for the job — as opposed to the last five years, when employers competed over you.”

Visit www.wsj.com for the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Great Depression a Timely Class Topic

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The current economic crisis has students more interested in history, because of parallels with topics like the Great Depression. There is an opportunity for students to reinvent themselves in much the same way the men and women did after World War II. The current generation of students has much to learn from the determination, spirit, perseverance and innovation the â€œGreatest Generationâ€ had to offer.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you find yourself more interested in topics of study that apply to you today?
2. How could teachers make more lessons applicable to the lives of their students?
3. How can students come up with their own solutions for some of our national and world problems?
4.What contributions can students make in the next few years that will equal the Works Progress Act, the vision behind the National Parks, and other programs hatched during the Great Depression?

ARTICLE:

By Mary Ann Zehr
March 9, 2009

Margo M. Loflin teaches sophomores in Oklahoma, a state that was once part of the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression era. But most school years, her high school students donâ€™t find the struggles of Oklahoma farmers to combat drought and financial hardship in the 1930s relevant to their lives. That’s not true this year.

“I’ve taught [the Great Depression] for a long time. Usually, kids are not interested at all. They were very interested this year,” she said recently.

Ms. Loflin, who teaches U.S. history at Norman High School in Norman, Okla., is among a number of history and social studies teachers who have found that because of the parallels they’re able to draw between the current economic crisis and the Depression, their students are seeing that history is relevant. Theyâ€™re engaging more deeply in history lessons than they have in previous years.

Visit www.edweek.org for the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

In Shifting Era of Admissions, Colleges Sweat

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Colleges are altering their admissions guidelines in an effort to attract and keep more students in this difficult economy. Faculty, advisors, tutors and college support staff will have to gear up to work with students who may be underprepared for college academically, emotionally or socially. What burden will that have for colleges and how will they deal with that added responsibility of size and readiness?

Questions to consider:
1. Has the economy affected your college selection?
2. How can you benefit from the changes in admissions?
3. How can colleges maintain high standards while admitting less prepared students?
4. What do colleges need to do to help the 2.5 million students remediated for math in this country and the 1.5 remediated for English?

ARTICLE:

March 8, 2009

By KATE ZERNIKE

As colleges weigh this yearâ€™s round of applications, high school seniors are not the only anxious ones.

Just as nervously, colleges â€” facing a financial landscape they have never seen before â€” are trying to figure out how many students to accept, and how many students will accept them.
Typically, they rely on statistical models to predict which students will take them up on their offers to attend. But this year, with the economy turning parents and students into bargain hunters, demographics changing and unexpected jolts in the price of gas and the number of applications, they have little faith on those models.

Visit www.nytimes.com for the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Rethinking College Prep Costs in Tough Times

In an effort to optimally prepare their sons and daughter for college success, parents often pay thousands of dollars to give them a leg up before they ever step foot on campus. In our current challenging economic climate, families may need to revise their strategy and enlist the help of free resources right around them: the school guidance counselor, college admissions counselors, and other frugal parents whoâ€™ve already successfully helped their kids work through the maze.

1) What balance exits with school counselorâ€™s time between high-potential students and students who struggle? What alternatives can we develop to involve and challenge all level of students about their future so that they can all progress effectively? The advisory class during the semester and summer boot camp or reading programs are some possibilities to achieve this.

2) How can parents be more creative about helping their studentâ€™s access free or lower-cost resources? What is the trade-off to well-meaning parents who do too much work for their children? What does that teach their students about self-sufficiency? What does that teach their students about how to work through difficulty and figure things out on your ownâ€”a key component to adult and workplace success?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
By ALINA TUGEND, Posted February 28, 2009 on www.nytimes.com

WATCHING our sonsâ€™ college funds dwindle to almost nothing, I am grateful that my older son is on his way to high school, not a university, this fall. Otherwise, we would not only be facing a staggering tuition bill, but we would also have to pay for what has become the obligatory precollege marathon.

Perhaps nothing, except the anxiety before the birth of a first baby, can match the concern parents feel about prepping for college. There is the same desire to control the process and fear that making a mistake can ruin a childâ€™s future.

So I can understand the inclination to buy every product and service possible to cover all bases.

Visit www.nytimes.com for the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

College Makes New Connections With Service-Learning Program

CAROL’S SUMMARY: In the past several years, service-learning has spread rapidly throughout communities, K-12 institutions, and colleges and universities. The recently issued report, entitled “Learning in Deed” from the National Commission on Service-Learning (Fiske, 2001) quoted National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) estimates that in the 2000-2001 academic year, more than 13 million school students were involved in service and service-learning.

One of best things about service learning, or volunteering, is that it helps students connect academics to real-world problems. When students have the opportunity to make this connection, it enriches their learning experience and broadens their understanding that the value of an education isn’t only found in what they can get, but in what they can give. Here are some questions to consider if you’re planning to enroll in a service learning program:

1) What kinds of service learning opportunities does the school, college or university you’re attending or considering offer? Is this offered across disciplines or only in the field of sociology?

2) On a scale of 1-5 (1=low; 5=high), how would you rank the quality of your school’s service learning program?

3) In what ways can service learning help you build and demonstrate leadership skills?

4) What kinds of causes are you most passionate about?

5) How are these experiences creating the leader within your child to be world-class ready, i.e. to have the skills and abilities to solve business, world and community problems in the most effective way?

ARTICLE:

Academic departments at Wagner collaborate with community agencies to deepen students’ volunteerism

By ELYSE ASHBURN, From the Chronicle of Higher Ed, February 27, 2009

Staten Island, N.Y.

Stuffing envelopes instills many qualities: humility, patience, tough fingers, and a pasty tongue. It is not, however, known for expanding the intellect. That’s what college is supposed to do.

And there’s the rub. It has been a persistent tension since the 1990s, when service learning became de rigueur on college campuses. At its most basic, service learning moves volunteer work from campus clubs into the classroom. How that actually plays out varies widely from place to place. Many colleges scatter students across dozens or even hundreds of community groups. Even within a single service-learning course, students might be working with a half-dozen different agencies.

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed, February 27, 2009

To view this article you must subscribe to http://chronicle.com

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Presidentâ€™s Budget Would End Bank-Based Student Lending and Significantly Expand Pell Grants

In keeping his promise to help every student afford a college degree, President Obama has signed into law a bill that abolishes the widely used bank-based student loan programs and put the savings toward the Federal Pell Grant. The Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid. Pell Grants are generally awarded only to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor’s or a professional degree. For additional information about student aid, you can choose to visit this web site:Â http://studentaid.ed.gov/

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Obama puts spotlight on education deficit

CAROL’S SUMMARY: According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (2006), the United States ranks in the bottom half–16th among 27 countries compared–in the proportion of students who complete college degrees or certificate programs. President Obama has committed his administration to raise this standard so that by 2020, U.S. graduates lead in college graduation rates world wide. His appeal isn’t only in terms of what we owe our young people ethically, but what it’s costing us as a nation financially. In this country, 1.2 million high school students drop out every year. This translates into 9 out of every 30 students. Of those 9, 4 will be unemployed, 3 will be on government assistance, and 2 will have no health insurance (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development www.ascd.org).

Turning around this disturbing trend must start earlier than high school. An article published by the Chicago Tribune (Dec. 11, 2008), reported that college preparation begins in elementary and middle school, too, based on separate studies by the ACT and the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research. The ACT report found that students who earned average scores in 8th grade had only a one-in-four chance of scoring high enough on the ACT to go to college. The Consortium study reported similar predictions.

These findings pose several important questions:

1) What can be done at the elementary school level to prepare students for success in middle school? Are we as a country addressing the needs of the whole child? Not only academically, but emotionally and socially?

2) What are middle schools (and parents) doing to prepare students to make a smooth transition from 8th grade to high school, what districts call “the freshmen transition”? As school reform advocates, how can we expand and support these programs?

3) What skills will graduates need in the 21st-century in order to complete globally? How can we help ensure that our schools are building the skills into the core curriculum?

ARTICLE:

He wants U.S. to have highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.
By Frank James, Posted February 25, 2009 at www.latimes.com

Reporting from Washington â€” President Obama on Tuesday laid out a series of challenges for the nation to meet in job training and college attainment, part of an effort to give every child a “complete and competitive education.”

The president, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, said his administration would provide the support needed to give the U.S. the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. He said there was a vital need for Americans to complete more years of education if the nation is to compete globally.

Visit www.latimes.com for the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Academic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: a Question of Education, Not Ethics

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Currently, the fight against plagiarism is approached by two schools of thought: moral and criminal. Both insist on academic integrity, yet both remain rather vague as to the definition of the intangible plagiarism.

Susan D. Bloom suggests that in this information and common-knowledge age, a third school that teaches the skill of proper citation is needed. That having professors teaching when, where, and how to cite will help students avoid plagiarism.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you know when to cite a quote?
2. How do you cite information in your school assignments?
3. What would make citation easier for you?

ARTICLE:

By SUSAN D. BLUM,

From the Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 2009

Student plagiarism is a problem on many college campuses. The two main approaches that institutions use to prevent it call for treating plagiarism either as morally wrong or as a crime. But neither avenue can be universally successful.

Institutions that approach the problem of plagiarism as a matter of morality often create honor codes. Such codes appeal to the desire of students to do the right thing. The codes assume that, with appropriate social pressure, they will. Students are asked to affirm that they will practice virtuous conduct as members of an academic community.

But while students may subscribe to the principles embodied in the notion of academic integrity, other principles can lead them to plagiarize or accept their classmates’ infractions. For instance, friendship and friendliness â€” student solidarity â€” are virtues that often take precedence over adherence to an academic code of honor.

To view this entire article you must subscribe to http://chronicle.com

Share this Article with Your Friends: