1) Not everyone should go to college. The current trend, since the 1970s, is open access and encouraging everyone to go. However, not everyone is suited to college (some are happier with technical training programs and their interest lies that way). What this means is, larger class sizes, which often out-strip the speed at which schools can make capital improvements (facilities) and increase faculty lines. Arkansas has launched an overhaul of it's "Academic Challenge" scholarship, using lottery money. A 19 ACT and 2.75 HS GPA gets you a scholarship. Our basic entry for the university here is a 20 and a 3.0. However, we can provisionally admit students and I expect a lot of that will happen, resulting in students with remedial needs we may not have class sizes to meet.
2) A consumerist driven attitude. Higher Education is being viewed less as a life long learning experience that teaches creativity, free thinking, and the exchange of ideas, and more as a means to an end (degree = good job). This leads to demands for students to be able to graduate more quickly, and for many of them, they want majors that just focus on employ-ability without the traditional liberal arts background. Consequently, you end up with more students, in bigger lecture sections, being pushed through factory style.
3) Few states have a system for HIED and P-12 to talk to each other. Additionally, the curriculum needed for student to successfully pass HS tests like the Iowa or other benchmarking tests, bares little or no resemblance to a good collegiate and ACT/SAT prep curriculum. However, since benchmarking tests determine funding in many cases (and are a major part of the No Child Left Behind quagmire), they become the focus.
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branchandroot
Thoughts... (Some heretical, considering I have a Higher Ed Masters)
Date: 2010-06-03 03:52 am (UTC)2) A consumerist driven attitude. Higher Education is being viewed less as a life long learning experience that teaches creativity, free thinking, and the exchange of ideas, and more as a means to an end (degree = good job). This leads to demands for students to be able to graduate more quickly, and for many of them, they want majors that just focus on employ-ability without the traditional liberal arts background. Consequently, you end up with more students, in bigger lecture sections, being pushed through factory style.
3) Few states have a system for HIED and P-12 to talk to each other. Additionally, the curriculum needed for student to successfully pass HS tests like the Iowa or other benchmarking tests, bares little or no resemblance to a good collegiate and ACT/SAT prep curriculum. However, since benchmarking tests determine funding in many cases (and are a major part of the No Child Left Behind quagmire), they become the focus.