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American higher education is sliding lower and lower
Stephen Krashen Comment:
False Accusations Against American Higher Education
Sent to the New York Daily News, August 13, 2009
Steve Salerno says "American higher education is sliding lower and lower" (August 13) because graduates can't find jobs and 46% of all college students drop out. They can't find jobs not because of their education, but because of the economy: There are fewer jobs available. College completion rates are down at least in part because more students are now going to college, including those who might be better off with a different path, and, because of the economy, many have to stop their schooling because they can't afford it.
There are many reasons to admire our institutions of higher learning: The World Competitiveness Report rated the US first out of 134 countries in quality of scientific research institutes, third in quality of management schools, first in availability of specialized research and training services, first in university-industry research collaboration, and sixth in availability of scientists and engineers. These high rankings may have something to do with the fact that the US ranks first in the world in the ability to compete with other countries economically ("global competitiveness").
By Steve Salerno
You may have heard about Trina Thompson. Unable to find work, she's
suing her alma mater, Monroe College, to recover $70,000 in tuition.
The Thompson case may not turn out to be the precedent-setter that
some theorize, because Monroe makes unusually bold promises to
students about post-college success.
But the sad truth is this: Practically all colleges are failing their
students nowadays, and in most cases at far greater expense than
Monroe failed Thompson.
Historically, criticism of education in America has targeted
grade-school and secondary education. Indeed, perhaps the best thing
about the K-12 is that in these polarized times, it is the great
uniter: Maligned by liberals and conservatives, Christians and Jews,
Red Sox fans and Yankee fans, and just about everyone else in the
grand American cultural stew.
Still, we take pride in the notion that when young adults get the
chance to get through college, the doors of opportunity truly swing
open. Our colleges and universities, we've been told again and again,
are the envy of the world.
To the contrary, one might say that the philosophical rot that has
long blighted primary education has now slowly and surely been
admitted to college. This was inevitable. Today's typical college
freshman is a product of the watered-down, "self-esteem-building"
curriculum that emerged in the late 1960s and held sway over U.S.
scholastic policy by the mid-'90s.
According to the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress,
over 20% of those churned out by America's high schools are functional
illiterates. Meanwhile, American students placed behind 16 of 30
nations in scientific literacy on a major international comparison,
and behind 23 of 30 in math.
What would make these subpar students suddenly able to handle the
rigors of a demanding college regimen?
Though colleges aren't quite as overt in protecting students'
feelings as K-12 schools, the same dynamic is visible in a wide array
of "enlightened" policies, beginning with admissions criteria. We live
in a "college is for everyone" world. Rather than drawing any bright
shining lines between those who are ready for college and those who
aren't, universities widely offer remedial courses to incoming
students.
About 1 million freshmen per year - that's a third of all freshmen -
need such crash courses, according to the U.S. Department of
Education. Because some of these students never catch up, higher-level
coursework often must be dumbed down.
Further, the very definition of what constitutes "a good education"
has flexed from a set of time-honored expectations to the more
accommodating paradigm known as "student-directed learning." Loath to
force ill-prepared students to stretch by mandating a core sequence in
math and science, most colleges permit them to concentrate in their
major subjects and fluffy electives.
A 2004 study of 50 major colleges and universities found that half
failed to require students to take a suite of core courses in such
basic subject areas as math, science and economics - and a quarter
required just one such core course or none at all.
Meanwhile, grades keep rising. Grade inflation is no news flash, but
the magnitude of the problem startles. An exhaustive analysis by a
former Duke University professor early this year showed that average
GPAs at state-run colleges rose steadily over the past half-century
and have now hit 3.0. The trendline is even more pronounced at private
colleges; some elite schools boast collective GPAs approaching 4 -
which is straight A's.
And yet - the final irony - none of these concessions is enough to
ensure the successful completion of a four-year degree program. The
dropout rate at U.S. colleges is a jaw-dropping 46%. Among free-world
nations, only Mexico fares worse.
It's time to stop kidding ourselves about the lower and lower quality
of the higher education our young men and women are apt to receive.
Salerno, author of "Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless," was a visiting professor at three different colleges from
1996-2005.
— Steve Salerno, with comment by Stephen Krashen
New York Daily News
2009-08-13
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/08/13/2009-08-13_american_higher_education_is_sliding_lower_and_lower.html
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