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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