Wednesday, September 14, 2011

College isn't for everyone


I came across this interesting piece but I have not been able to link it to the source. It's a long article, but  if you want to know what it says in less than 10 words, here it is - not everyone has to go to college
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AMERICA'S MOST OVER-RATED PRODUCT: THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE
By Marty Nemko

AMONG MY SADDEST MOMENTS as a career counselor is when I hear a story like this: "I wasn't a good student in high school, but I wanted to prove that I can get a college diploma. I'd be the first one in my family to do it. But it's been five years and $80,000, and I still have 45 credits to go."

I have a hard time telling such people the killer statistic: Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. That figure is from a study cited by Clifford Adelman, a former research analyst at the U.S. Department of Education and now a senior research associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year!

Even worse, most of those college dropouts leave the campus having learned little of value, and with a mountain of debt and devastated self-esteem from their unsuccessful struggles. Perhaps worst of all, even those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that require a college education. So it's not surprising that when you hop into a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high-school dropout.

Such students are not aberrations. Today, amazingly, a majority of the students whom colleges admit are grossly underprepared. Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million high-school graduates of 2007 who took the ACT examination were ready for college-level work in the core subjects of English, math, reading, and science.

Perhaps more surprising, even those high-school students who are fully qualified to attend college are increasingly unlikely to derive enough benefit to justify the often six-figure cost and four to six years (or more) it takes to graduate. Research suggests that more than 40 percent of freshmen at four-year institutions do not graduate in six years. Colleges trumpet the statistic that, over their lifetimes, college graduates earn more than nongraduates, but that's terribly misleading. You could lock the collegebound in a closet for four years, and they'd still go on to earn more than the pool of non-collegebound — they're brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections.

Also, the past advantage of college graduates in the job market is eroding. Ever more students attend college at the same time as ever more employers are automating and sending offshore ever more professional jobs, and hiring part-time workers. Many college graduates are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions, such as driving a truck or tending bar.

How much do students at four-year institutions actually learn?

Colleges are quick to argue that a college education is more about enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest deception of all. Often there is a Grand Canyon of difference between the reality and what higher-education institutions, especially research ones, tout in their viewbooks and on their Web sites. Colleges and universities are businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a profit center. As a result, many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes, with necessary small classes staffed by rock-bottom-cost graduate students. At many colleges, only a small percentage of the typical student's classroom hours will have been spent with fewer than 30 students taught by a professor, according to student-questionnaire data I used for my book How to Get an Ivy League Education at a State University. When students at 115 institutions were asked what percentage of their class time had been spent in classes of fewer than 30 students, the average response was 28 percent.

That's not to say that professor-taught classes are so worthwhile. The more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members are hired and promoted much more for their research than for their teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are almost always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn't bring in the research bucks. Ernest L. Boyer, the late president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, used to say that winning the campus teaching award was the kiss of death when it came to tenure. So, no surprise, in the latest annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent said they were not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received. Imagine if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would quickly go off the market. Colleges should be held to a much higher standard, as a higher education costs so much more, requires years of time, and has so much potential impact on your life. Meanwhile, 43.5 percent of freshmen also reported "frequently" feeling bored in class, the survey found.

College students may be dissatisfied with instruction, but, despite that, do they learn? A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below "proficient" levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers. Almost 20 percent of seniors had only basic quantitative skills. The students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station.

Unbelievably, according to the Spellings Report, which was released in 2006 by a federal commission that examined the future of American higher education, things are getting even worse: "Over the past decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined. … According to the most recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, for instance, the percentage of college graduates deemed proficient in prose literacy has actually declined from 40 to 31 percent in the past decade. … Employers report repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today's workplaces."

What must be done to improve undergraduate education?

Colleges should be held at least as accountable as tire companies are. When some Firestone tires were believed to be defective, government investigations, combined with news-media scrutiny, led to higher tire-safety standards. Yet year after year, colleges and universities turn out millions of defective products: students who drop out or graduate with far too little benefit for the time and money spent. Not only do colleges escape punishment, but they are rewarded with taxpayer-financed student grants and loans, which allow them to raise their tuitions even more.

I ask colleges to do no more than tire manufacturers are required to do. To be government-approved, all tires must have — prominently molded into the sidewall — some crucial information, including ratings of tread life, temperature resistance, and traction compared with national benchmarks.

Going significantly beyond the recommendations in the Spellings report, I believe that colleges should be required to prominently report the following data on their Web sites and in recruitment materials:

  • Value added. A national test, which could be developed by the major testing companies, should measure skills important for responsible citizenship and career success. Some of the test should be in career contexts: the ability to draft a persuasive memo, analyze an employer's financial report, or use online research tools to develop content for a report.

  • Just as the No Child Left Behind Act mandates strict accountability of elementary and secondary schools, all colleges should be required to administer the value-added test I propose to all entering freshmen and to students about to graduate, and to report the mean value added, broken out by precollege SAT scores, race, and gender. That would strongly encourage institutions to improve their undergraduate education and to admit only students likely to derive enough benefit to justify the time, tuition, and opportunity costs. Societal bonus: Employers could request that job applicants submit the test results, leading to more-valid hiring decisions.

  • The average cash, loan, and work-study financial aid for varying levels of family income and assets, broken out by race and gender. And because some colleges use the drug-dealer scam — give the first dose cheap and then jack up the price — they should be required to provide the average not just for the first year, but for each year.

  • Retention data: the percentage of students returning for a second year, broken out by SAT score, race, and gender.

  • Safety data: the percentage of an institution's students who have been robbed or assaulted on or near the campus.

  • The four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates, broken out by SAT score, race, and gender. That would allow institutions to better document such trends as the plummeting percentage of male graduates in recent years.

  • Employment data for graduates: the percentage of graduates who, within six months of graduation, are in graduate school, unemployed, or employed in a job requiring college-level skills, along with salary data.

  • Results of the most recent student-satisfaction survey, to be conducted by the institutions themselves.

  • The most recent accreditation report. The college could include the executive summary only in its printed recruitment material, but it would have to post the full report on its Web site.

Being required to conspicuously provide this information to prospective students and parents would exert long-overdue pressure on colleges to improve the quality of undergraduate education. What should parents and guardians of prospective students do?

  • If your child's high-school grades and test scores are in the bottom half for his class, resist the attempts of four-year colleges to woo him. Colleges make money whether or not a student learns, whether or not she graduates, and whether or not he finds good employment. Let the buyer beware. Consider an associate-degree program at a community college, or such nondegree options as apprenticeship programs (see http://www.khake.com), shorter career-preparation programs at community colleges, the military, and on-the-job training, especially at the elbow of a successful small-business owner.

  • If your student is in the top half of her high-school class and is motivated to attend college for reasons other than going to parties and being able to say she went to college, have her apply to perhaps a dozen colleges. Colleges vary less than you might think (at least on factors you can readily discern in the absence of the accountability requirements I advocate above), yet financial-aid awards can vary wildly. It's often wise to choose the college that requires you to pay the least cash and take out the smallest loan. College is among the few products that don't necessarily give you what you pay for — price does not indicate quality.

  • If your child is one of the rare breed who knows what he wants to do and isn't unduly attracted to academics or to the Animal House environment that characterizes many college-living arrangements, then take solace in the fact that countless other people have successfully taken the noncollege road less traveled. Some examples: Maya Angelou, David Ben-Gurion, Richard Branson, Coco Chanel, Walter Cronkite, Michael Dell, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Alex Haley, Ernest Hemingway, Wolfgang Puck, John D. Rockefeller Sr., Ted Turner, Frank Lloyd Wright, and nine U.S. presidents, from Washington to Truman.

College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it. It's crucial that they evenhandedly weigh the pros and cons of college versus the aforementioned alternatives. The quality of their lives may depend on that choice.

Marty Nemko is a career counselor based in Oakland, Calif., and has been an education consultant to 15 college presidents. He is author of four books, including The All-in-One College Guide: A Consumer Activist's Guide to Choosing a College (Barron's, 2004).

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

School system gets messier


All the talk about revamps and revitalising our education system is, yes, all talk. It looks like the ministry is run by incompetent persons with grand titles and greater delusions of grandeur. Meanwhile, taxpayer's funds and a lot of time are wasted. I am sorry for the teachers and the ridiculous load they have to shoulder. And our children? They deserve better, certainly.  If you can, get your kids out of the system.

Here's the painful Malaysiakini letter that's enough to make anyone weep:


Last year it was called Sistem Pentaksiran Pendidikan Kebangsaan (SPPK). My school was one of the pioneers of the project. The Ministry of Education thought that exam oriented approach to teaching was not fair to all the students. The argument was that six years of primary education should not be concluded in 50 minutes of multiple choice questions. The intention was good. It still is.

Now with Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) comes Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah. You may have heard of it. The Minister of Education refers to this as PBS and it was meant to ensure that no pupil will be left behind due to unfortunate circumstances. It being school based means that the teacher knows best when to assess the pupil. 

This school based assessment is a yearly assessment and it contributes 40 percent towards the UPSR final grade. At the beginning of the year we were told that only five subjects were involved namely Bahasa, English, Mathematics, Science and Physical, Sports, Cocurriculum Activity Education.
The school was to prepare files aplenty. The most notable one would be the 'Showcase' file in which we store the pupil's best piece of work throughout 6 years as evidence. It sounded O.K. But that was the beginning of the year. 

And so we opened all the necessary files. The bigger the school population, the more files needed. Each of the teacher in charge of assessment was provided with a Performance Standard Document as a guideline. It was published by the Malaysian Examination Syndicate. Bear in mind that this was last year's edition - the one used by the pioneer schools.
 

One thing that was wrong with it was that the documents for mathematics and science were still written in English. This raised questions but the teachers being jacks of all trade did not complain at this point. Where there is a will there is a way. School based assessment was up and running by late January.
 

In April, we were told to halt the school based assessment pending for the arrival of new Performance Standard Documents by the Malaysian Examination Syndicate. All assessments done up until this point was deemed invalid. School based assessment was put to a halt at this point.
 

In May, we were informed that the school based assessment now involves every subject in KSSR including Information and Communication Technology Element which is not even a subject taught by any specific teacher. Even the newly minted Bahasa Arab for KSSR was not spared.
 

Each subject has its own Performance Standard Document. So we bought thicker files and put dividers for each subject. It got a little frustrating at this point. We needed to redo the in-house training for the additional subjects. By the way, even until now nobody mentioned that UPSR 2016 will involve every KSSR subject.
 

The sample worksheets (instrument for assessment) per se is ridiculous. For example Band 1 assessment for Bahasa is fairly fundamental knowledge such as mimicking sounds, naming them, reading word segments, and tracing alphabets.
But when you look at the Bands 1 and 2 assessment for Moral Education it's like a mini literature. It assumed Year 1 pupils read fluently and write smoothly. Even Year 4 pupils could not do Year 1's Band 2 Moral Education worksheet. 

In June, the Examination Syndicate uploaded an online application called Sistem Pengurusan Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (SPPBS) to do what it was supposed to do hence the name.
The school secretary of examinations was given the task to create user accounts for every local assessor. We attended the in-house training which was done by our secretary himself. School based assessment was up and running again by end of June. 

Surprise, surprise. The Examination Syndicate's circular regarding the compulsory implementation of school based assessment only came out on July 5. Every school has a copy but for unknown reasons you will not find this circular online.
I've searched the official website and I've Googled for traces of it elsewhere. I suspect it is due to the delay of the letter (supposed to have been distributed in January) and that certain quarters might dispute the validity of assessments done prior to its release.

The most ridiculous part was this. I was about the record the qualifiers for Bands 2 and 3 for the subjects that I assessed on Friday, September 3. What I saw was truly horrifying. The entire database was erased by the system administrator! We were prompted to get our new passwords from the State Education Department.
 

And upon navigation no news of passwords whatsoever can be found. This is September for crying out loud - less than two months before the end of the school calendar. Do you mean that we need to go back to square one? We have many other errands to run in school, you know.
 

The director of the Malaysian Examination Syndicate, Sufaat bin Tumin has a lot of explaining to do. Perhaps it is wise to stick with the original plan and put on hold any improvisations.

Murphy's Law states that if something can go wrong, it will. This whole episode will repeat itself next year, don't you agree, Mr Director?