My apologies for the dual posting of this.
 

Thursday, November 2, 2006
At Symposium, Researchers Share Strategies for Promoting 'Student Success'
By ERIC HOOVER <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Washington 
At a time when computers, iPods, and other distractions are pulling students
away from their studies, colleges and universities are not doing enough to
keep them plugged into learning, said Derek C. Bok, interim president of
Harvard University, at a gathering of education researchers, administrators,
and policy makers here on Wednesday. In a keynote speech at the National
Symposium on Postsecondary Student Success, Mr. Bok warned that many college
graduates were not developing critical-thinking, reasoning, and writing
skills, and lacked sufficient knowledge of foreign languages. Despite
widespread increases in spending and services in academe, Mr. Bok said,
"there is no real evidence that students are learning more ... than they
were several decades ago."

Mr. Bok cited numerous factors that tend to stifle students' success in
college, including the predominance of lecture-based classes and tests that
do not measure higher-level thinking skills; a lack of interaction among
students and professors; insufficient training of graduate instructors; and
inattention to moral development and citizenship among students.

"We need more engaged and involved citizens," Mr. Bok said. "But that's not
what the undergraduate experience is providing."

Mr. Bok proposed three ways institutions could better educate their
students: by emphasizing teaching skills among doctoral students; by
intensifying internal efforts to develop measures of institutional progress;
and by committing to a "continuous process of self-scrutiny and improvement"
among administrators and faculty members. He also warned of a "clear and
growing conflict" between the interests of faculty members and academic
leaders. He cited as an example the emphasis on scholarly publishing, and
not on the quality of teaching, in promoting instructors.

Unless colleges do more to assess such issues, they will continue to face
growing scrutiny from state and federal officials, he added. "The best way
to avoid things being mandated," Mr. Bok said, "is to show enough initiative
on our own campuses."

The growing national interest in accountability dominated discussions on the
first day of the three-day conference, which was sponsored by the National
Postsecondary Education Cooperative, a partnership of colleges,
associations, government agencies, and other organizations. Another hot
topic was the very definition of student success, which, several prominent
researchers agreed, encompassed far more than graduation rates.

John M. Braxton, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University,
described eight distinct ways of measuring student success, including
academic attainment, acquisition of a general education, the development of
cognitive skills, preparation for adulthood, and personal accomplishments.
In a paper commissioned by the cooperative, Mr. Braxton wrote that the
choices faculty members make -- including how they organize courses and
assess their students -- can significantly influence each of those aspects
of success. Those choices, Mr. Braxton concluded, are shaped by their
college's expectations, culture, and the actions of its leaders.

Mr. Braxton's paper was one of five submitted for the symposium. Drafts of
each of the papers are available on the Web site <http://nces.ed.gov/npec/>
of the National Center for Education Statistics, which finances the
cooperative. The center is a branch of the U.S. Department of Education.

While some researchers noted the importance of broad understandings of
students success, others urged their colleagues to expand their definition
of "students," given the growing diversity of Americans who seek
postsecondary degrees. Mark Schneider, commissioner of the
education-statistics center, noted that the 18-year-old who graduates from
high school in June, starts college that fall, and graduates four years
later is the icon of the American college student. "But as with so many
icons," he said, "it's wrong."

Because a majority of college students do not fit that description and may
attend two or more institutions on the path to a degree, it is more crucial
than ever to develop data that track the progress of individual students as
they make their way through higher education, Mr. Schneider said.

During a session titled "What Matters to Student Success?" George D. Kuh, a
professor of higher education at Indiana University at Bloomington, noted
that $1-billion to $2-billion a year is spent nationally on postsecondary
remedial education, and that 50 percent of community-college students do not
return for a second year.

Members of that panel also identified common barriers that prevent some
students from obtaining a college degree, including working 30 hours a week
or more, being a first-generation college student, and raising children. An
important factor in academic success, the presenters said, is a student's
level of engagement in extracurricular activities and campus life.

In another session, Vincent Tinto, a professor of education at Syracuse
University, urged attendees to resist what he described as the "add-on
culture," in which colleges design new initiatives, like first-year
seminars, without integrating them into the "fabric" of the university. He
presented findings from a paper he co-wrote with Brian Pusser, an assistant
professor of education at the University of Virginia, "Moving From Theory to
Action: Building a Model for Student Success," which emphasizes the
importance of supportive academic environments, starting at the classroom
level. 

"We might talk about the freshman year and the sophomore year and the junior
year ... when most students think about one class at a time," Mr. Tinto
said. "Institutional success is defined by classroom success."

Annie Shuppy contributed to this report.


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of Higher Education <http://chronicle.com/>



 


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