Educators » Carol J. Carter

Responsibility of College Payoff: Colleges and Students

We are entering the months of graduation, inspiring speeches and anxious and excited graduates. With college debt exceeding a trillion dollars last month, the cost of college outpacing credit card debt, and the unemployment rate among graduates at a sixty year high, many Americans are asking what this means in the short run and the long run for these students and for our economy.Â What we should also be asking is: Â a) what responsibility do colleges have in doing a better job of delivering graduates who are both knowledgeable and capable in the professional world; and, b) what responsibility do those graduates have to get a clue before they start college about what the real world expects and demands of graduates?Â Letâ€™s look at both of these areas.
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Business Leadership Lessons Applied to The Game of Education

Today’s working world has fewer jobs and more expectations for its workers. The economy is one reason employers have become selective with their limited positions, but another factor involves the speed in which technology is taking over certain jobs–all or part–to save both time and money. However, people who can bring something extra to the table, who can do something more than technology can, are still in demand.Â Thomas Friedman saysÂ this is why “everyone needs to findÂ their extra â€” their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment.Â Average is over.”
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“Extra Credit” Mindset or “Over Delivererâ€: Who Would You Rather Hire?

Many of today’s students are familiar with the option of “extra credit” on an assignment.Â Many high school classes give this as an option. Yesterday, I spoke with a professor who works with freshmen at a major state university. He doesnâ€™t believe in â€œextra creditâ€ because he feels that students should want to do a quality job because itâ€™s important not because they get extra brownie points.Â Â Â There may be a place and time for extra credit at the college level, but with some caveats.
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How Teachers Can Reinvent Themselves This Summer: Idea Soup

The most effective teachers, like the most effective students, are lifelong learners.Â WhileÂ Â many schools require educators to have ongoing trainingÂ andÂ professional development,Â many educators can craft their own learning experiences just like the most motivated and active students. Â Teachers like this provide a model for studentsÂ of vibrancy, imagination, and active learning; they Â prove to all of us that learningÂ doesn’t end with a certificate or degree.

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Opportunities for Low-Income Students: Summer Learning and Work Which Turns to Gold

For low-income kids, the oncoming summer vacation can bring forth different feelings than it does for privileged students. Due to a lack of accessibility, availability, and financial resources, low-income students often don’t have equal summer learning opportunities as privileged students, which contributes to increased summer learning losses and puts them at a disadvantage at the start of each new school year. Some of these students care for younger siblings all summer. Others play the role of parent to parents who may struggle with addiction or other issues. Others are in foster families or are raised by a grandparent because their parents are in prison or not fit to raise them.

This year, teen unemployment rates are soaring between 23.2 – 23.8 percentÂ ¹, which may prove to be even more problematic for low-income teens looking to work more hours to contribute to the family, make money for the upcoming school year, or to simply keep busy and off the street.

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Riding the Waves of High Teen Unemployment: Turning the Tide in Turbulent Waters

Teens enjoy using their summer months to unwind from the long academic year, but many also expect to spend summer working a summer job, or increasing the hours at their part-time job, to save money, get experience, and have something structured to do. And these are the lucky students who have the luxury of being able to get a “legitimate” job. Â Many disadvantaged students living in the housing projects or at poverty level will be struggling to avoid street temptations and other fast ways to earn money. This year almost one out of four American teens ages 16 to 19 were unemployed in February. On average, over the last 20 years, teens have held a steady unemployment rate of between 14 and 18 percent. The teen unemployment rate in 2012 has reached 23.2 to 23.8 percent.¹

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Defining Unique Skills Powers Economic Success for Grads

In a competitive global market theÂ soon-to-be college graduate andÂ new professional needs to know their unique talents and abilities in order to stand out from the crowd. Our economy is recoveringÂ slowly; a shift inÂ our schoolsÂ Â and colleges can set newÂ expectations toÂ better prepareÂ graduates forÂ workforceÂ realities. Many K-12 schools, whether out of choice or necessity, still teach to standardized tests and curriculums. However, the new professional is anything but standardized. The new professionalÂ is self-aware,Â stands outÂ because of their ability to develop unique strengths, can connect their education to their career, is fully integrated into traditional and digital communication, and understandsÂ how to use personal discipline for professional advantage. If there isnâ€™t enough time to emphasize this model in class, teachers can emphasize the importance of this exposureÂ outÂ of class.
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Skills to Succeed in the New Economy

Over the last few years, Americans have become more familiar with change. Our president’s campaign was based on change; our economy took a change for the worst and is making small steps to recovery; many members of our friends and families changed or lost careers; technology continues to change how we communicate, learn, listen to music, fight disease, etc. All of these factors have created a new economy that will only continue to get further away from what we know today (65 percentÂ of kids in grade school are predicted to have jobs that don’t exist yet.¹)

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Do All Students Share a Universal Learning Style?

Since 2008, researchers have been conducting studies which have challengedÂ the idea that students have different learning styles, according to Annie Murphy Paul in the article “Do Students Really Have Different Learning Styles?” Studies have shown that students do have preferred ways of learning, but that the mode in which information is presented — whether using kinesthetic, auditory, or visual lessons — has no effect on their ability to “absorb information”.Â Â What is useful, and where I differ from the research Paulâ€™s references, is the critical area of learning styles and self knowledge:Â to make a better commitment to study to how you learn, to link learning to careers and fields which match your abilities, and to manage both learning strengths and weaknesses.
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The 3-Year Graduate: Can You Get to College Too Soon?

How are some students curing “senioritis”? By avoiding senior year all together, according theÂ Wall Street JournalÂ article “High School, Only Shorter.” The most recent data on 3-year high school graduates shows about 2.9% of sophomores graduated in three years or less in 2002, which is up from 1.5% of students in the early 1990s. One reason for the rise is the increased availability of online classes, allowing students to continue working after the school bell rings and during summer vacation. In some states, students even receive scholarships incentives for graduating in under four years.

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