How College Leaders and Faculty See the Key Issues Facing Higher Education

ATTITUDES ON...

How College Leaders and Faculty See the Key Issues Facing Higher Education

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Full Report available at: http://www.cnm.edu/depts/marketing/academe/attitudes-on-innovation

Executive Summary:

Innovation in higher education has been a much discussed topic on and off college campuses this past year, as college leaders, trustees, faculty, policymakers, and the media debated the role technology and online learning will play in an evolving financial model for institutions. 

Because of strained relations between administrators and faculty members on many campuses, it is often assumed that the two sides don’t see eye to eye on many of the key issues facing higher education. But an extensive survey of campus leaders and professors conducted by The Chronicle 
of Higher Education in July 2013, found that the two groups actually agree on some of the most contentious issues, even though they see higher education moving in different 
directions. 

The survey, completed by nearly 1,200 faculty members and a sample of some 80 presidents of four-year colleges, focused on innovations in higher education, including the role various constituencies play in advancing ideas, as well as their opinions on online learning, hybrid courses, and competency-based degrees. 

Among the highlights from the 2013 survey:

DIRECTION Faculty members are generally pessimistic about the direction of higher education in the United States, while presidents are generally optimistic. Both professors and presidents believe that the rank of the U.S. higher-education system

in the world is likely to decline in the next ten years. But presidents see this as a slight decline from a very strong position while faculty members see it as a more severe decline from a moderately strong position.

INNOVATION Both faculty members and presidents feel that the faculty should be drivers of change, but presidents don’t see professors in this role currently. This raises the question of how to successfully engage faculty in driving innovation. Both presidents and professors believe politicians and business leaders currently have too much say in driving innovation.

NEW IDEAS Faculty members and presidents alike see blended learning, adaptive learning, and interactive technology as the most promising aspects of innovation, and are suspicious of ideas that threaten the status-quo or the business model of higher education, such as competency-based degrees, prior learning assessments, open education resources, and massive open online courses.

VALUE More than half of presidents believe that American higher education provides very good or excellent value for the money spent while only one-third of faculty believe the same.

FOCUS Both professors and presidents are in agreement that the focus of discussions on innovation should be around changes to the teaching and learning model, but cur- rent discussions are instead focused on technology and cost cutting.

VALIDITY Almost 40 percent of faculty members say they have taught a blended or hybrid course and one-fifth have taken a course in this format. Both professors and presidents agree that hybrid learning is better than online-only courses, but they disagree on whether hybrid learning provides equal educational value compared to the traditional classroom. Faculty members are more inclined to think the value is not equal while presidents are more inclined to agree that the value is equal.

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Community-College Freshmen Get More Direction

Is less choice a better option? 

Do you think limiting a student's ability to assemble their own course schedule is an acceptable tool to increase completion rates?

I wonder how many of the 20 "extra" credit hours that "don't count" are related to developmental coursework and/or changes of major?

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Community-College Freshmen Get More Direction

Two-Year Schools Limit Course Choices to Create Clearer Paths to Degrees, Careers

By Caroline Porter

Dec. 13, 2013 7:27 p.m. ET

Source: The Wall Street Journal Online http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303330204579248441748612968-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwNDExNDQyWj

A growing number of community colleges are steering students away from the freshman sampler: the smattering of unrelated courses taken by those figuring out what they want to study.

Instead, the schools are hoping to boost dismal completion rates by limiting students' choices to certain scripted paths to a degree—and even rewarding them along the way with certificates that have value on their own.

"Students are just radically confused by all the options," said Davis Jenkins, a senior research associate with the Community College Research Center at Columbia University. "There's more attention to making the path through education to careers clearer, because people cannot afford to spend time earning unnecessary credits."

Jordan Mitchell, a student at one of the City Colleges of Chicago who said he has wanted to be in law enforcement since seventh grade, expects to earn an associate degree in criminal justice in the spring of 2014. But after 15 credit hours toward his degree at Kennedy-King College, he can qualify for a basic certificate in criminal justice that would enable him to apply for some police-department jobs. "It's probably just a good thing to have," the 21-year-old said.

Under pressure from business leaders and the Obama administration to boost graduation rates and job readiness, many community colleges across the country are narrowing their focus and students are being asked to declare an area of interest at the outset.

Long plagued with low graduation rates, City Colleges of Chicago in 2011 began to realign its curriculum to focus on getting students ready for careers, with each of its campuses designated as hubs for particular industries. The graduation rate climbed to 12% in the 2012-2013 school year, up from 7% in 2008-2009.

Now, the school is mapping out sequences of courses for all 115,000 of its students enrolled on seven campuses and six satellite sites.

City Colleges wants to build all of its programming around distinct course sequences that earn students certificates along the way to an associate degree. "People can still make the same choices they want. We just want them to make informed choices," said Rasmus Lynnerup, the vice chancellor of strategy at City Colleges.

Backers of the programs say the new focus will eliminate waste in an education system where only about one in three students graduate from community college in three years. Students earn on average about 20 excess credits in their pursuit of associate degrees, according to an analysis last year of 34 states by Complete College America, a nonprofit focused on college graduation. Instead of the 60 credits expected, degree holders ended up with nearly 80 credits.

One potential downside is that students who complete a certificate without going on to an associate's or bachelor's degree could be cutting off their long-term earning potential. U.S. workers over the age of 25 earned median annual wages of about $41,000 with an associate degree, while those with some college but no degree earned about $38,000 in 2012, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.

"A large number of people are just doing certificates and not coming back for higher degrees after they leave," said Tina Bloomer, who researches the community and technical college system in Washington state. The jobs that require only a certificate do not always pay as well, she says.

School officials say that earning any type of credential is better than allowing students to start college and leave empty-handed. Completion can be particularly difficult for community-college students, who are more likely to be working or face other distractions than students at four-year schools.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, about 53% of students who started at two-year public schools and attended full-time graduated in six years, while only 18% who attended part-time graduated in six years.

In the North Carolina Community College System, which recently narrowed its offerings to 32 curriculum standards from 77, most credentials can be "stacked" on the way to a higher degree.
"This allows them to have a leg up in the workforce but to still have a connection back to college to pursue their higher potential," said Scott Ralls, the president of the system.

Robert Smith, 46, a carpenter in Chicago, is hoping for a leg up by earning a certificate in carpentry at the Dawson Technical Institute by mid-December.

"I've been doing carpentry since I was 12 or 13 years old, but I didn't have any credentials," said Mr. Smith, who has four children. Depending on what type of financial aid he receives, he will move on to an associate degree in construction management. "My idea is, if you get the degree, nothing else can stop you," he said.

Write to Caroline Porter at caroline.porter@wsj.com

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