As the price tag of a college education soars and families continue to adapt their lifestyles to the recession, students approaching college might be considering putting off college or looking for cheaper alternatives.
Could getting students out of high school earlier be beneficial to higher education and to the students themselves? More and more states think the answer is yes. An increasing number of states are encouraging students to take college courses or graduate early in hopes to bypass the senior slump, save families college tuition money, and curb the school districts’ instructional costs, according the the article “Some States Prodding Students to Graduate Early.“
Dropping out of high school doesn’t only effect the individual. While students who drop out of high school will personally have less chances of employment, make lower incomes, and are most likely just a piece in the poverty cycle, they also represent a huge drain on our economic potential. On a larger scale, high school graduates and dropouts shape our economy, define the abilities of our workforce, and set the stage for our leaders of the future in business, industry, and government.
Advances in technology have always come at the price of taking jobs, and we can expect them to continue taking even more. “As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars,” writes Thomas Friedman in his article “Average Is Over.”
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A new report shows unemployment rates are lower for recent college graduates than those with less education, according to a recent article by The Chronicle. The study also found, generally, the careers with the highest employment rates are going to graduates with an industry-oriented degree and those pursuing technical fields.
Schools are seeing a rise in the number of students registering with their disability offices due to psychological problems, according to the Wall Street Journal article “A Serious Illness or an Excuse?” It’s still not understood what the reasoning is behind the rising numbers, but there are a few theories. The rise may be in part to the fact that there is more access to and more effective medication for students to manage psychological disorders allowing more students to attend school. Another reason could be that some schools are successfully reducing the stigma attached to mental illnesses and therefore bringing more students forward to get help.
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In a recent Education Week article, writer Sarah D. Sparks brings attention to a change in curriculum from academic to nonacademic skills. An average of two out of five traditional college students and more than half of nontraditional students take at least one remedial class. Higher education administrators report incoming students are often ill-equipped cognitively, socially and emotionally upon entering college. The Obama administration is responding to the these problematic numbers by relieving subject-matter classes as the main predictor of college success and placing an emphasis on college and career readiness curriculums and setting national education-based goals, like having the most college-educated adults in the world by 2020.
“The problem is college eligibility was what we focused on previously, not readiness; we haven’t really defined what ‘readiness’ means,” said Elena Silva, a senior policy analyst with Education Sector. “We focused on whether they have the course credits, the time spent … and that’s important, but we haven’t figured out if they have what they need to be really college-ready.” Research found the cognitive and social-emotional skills students need to advance in college and career can be taught in a classroom setting like academic subjects. Yet, creating readiness programs from scratch often taxes school resources, schedules and budgets
Turnkey curricula that teach and assess these cognitive and non-cognitive skills are available through LifeBound’s portfolio of transition and college and career readiness programs. With specific skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, self-understanding and management as well as perseverance, students learn to create a vision for themselves utilizing the qualities commonly identified in successful students.
Researchers at Michigan State University in East Lansing, along with similar studies, found the greatest predictor of a student’s success is conscientiousness, which is defined by having traits like dependability, perseverance in tasks, and work ethic. Also, agreeableness was another sign of success, which included teamwork, emotional stability, and an openness to new experiences. LifeBound’s publications, MAKING THE MOST OF HIGH SCHOOL and MAJORING IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE address these issues and give educators the resources to teach these behaviors and skills to high schoolers while offering student guidance for exploring and strengthening these skills independently.
With the winter break approaching its end and second semester and graduation imminent, the application of non-cognitive skills will greatly assist with these transitions. Click here to learn more about LifeBound’s entire library, or here to sign up for our newsletter for the latest news and book offers.
- Source: Read today’s referenced article, “Experts begin to identify nonacademic skills keys to success,” at edweek.org
Funding for college and low-graduation rates have been hot topics as 2010 comes to an end and we prepare for the political and economic changes of 2011. But what about those students who made it to graduation day in 2010? These grads face a 9.8% national unemployment rate. The National Association of Colleges and Education reported only 24.4% of graduates in 2010 who applied for a job had one waiting for them.
The recent New York Times article, “No Jobs? Young Graduates Make Their Own,” shows us the growing world of online businesses led by young entrepreneurs. These recent graduates didn’t have the corporate jobs available to them that they had dreamt about, but instead of applying for unemployment, they took their skills to the digital world where they already ruled as experts. These new leaders are showing their ingenuity in creating niche businesses like HerCampus: a Collegiettes Guide to Life and SizzleIt a company that produces creative, short reels for advertising, websites, proposals, etc. These entrepreneurs started out in their parent’s basement, coffee shops or apartments with little knowledge of the business world but tech savvy enough to teach themselves how to design a website, hire a virtual team, and network. Also, they have the critical thinking to negotiate any challenges they might face.
In these difficult times, many of us will be forced to be creative. Those grads who can see possibilities to be creative, follow a vision, and tap into the expansive thought process will be highly valuable working for themselves or someone else. In many ways, this time period can be compared to post World War II America when men and women had very little, but created something out of nothing, used their ingenuity, launched businesses, and in the end, prospered despite the initial challenges and setbacks. Today we still have many major corporations that started in the aftermath of this significant time in history as well as examples of men and women who started in the mail rooms and rose to run major companies.
- Read the New York Times article “No Jobs? Young Graduates Make Their Own at nytimes.com
A new Congress is taking over in January that has college students worrying over a possible 15% cut to their Pell Grant awards. The amount a student receives from the Pell Grant Program is determined by their status as a full- or part-time student, their financial needs, and the costs to attend their school. Grants make it possible for low-income or unemployed students to earn a degree when they otherwise could not financially commit.
Technology is deeply embedded in a student’s personal and academic life. For most students in middle school through graduate school, it’s not a question of whether or not technology will be used but rather what kind and how much. You would be hard pressed to find yourself in a college course that didn’t require your assignment be typed before handing it in for a grade. Or one that didn’t require all cell phones be silenced and threaten a grade deduction for texting, Googling, or gaming under the desk. A recent study performed at Ball State University found 99.8% of their student population owned a cell phone, of which the majority were smartphones.
Some make the assumption that because this “online generation” is comfortable with technology that they are also technologically savvy. A study by the Nielson Norman Group found college-aged students spend as little time as possible on a site and leave quickly when they are confronted with a new interface style. They also found teenagers and college-aged students preferred sites that were image heavy over text heavy. Students resorted to the search engine as a tool to get them out of a foreign design, but if one wasn’t available on the site they weren’t willing to sacrifice their time by learning how to navigate or read through the content to find their way. The older generations are correct in believing the “online generation” is comfortable with technology. But they are comfortable creatures of habit who prefer to keep their navigation to clean and familiar sites and are not to be confused with computer engineers.
Just because this generation has spent more time with their fingertips against a keyboard doesn’t mean they have learned the skills to navigate efficiently, understand how their chosen search engine uses search engine optimization (SEO), or how to decipher who is a credible and reliable source and what is an advertisement, scam or opinion. Even more, in the 18-24 age range that was used for this study, 40% will have literacy skills too low to read a website that uses anything more than basic sentence structure. Maybe we should support this generation to become the technology gurus we believe them to be and provide them with the skills to use the internet as a resource as well as an entertainment machine. How are some ways classes can use technology besides typing a paper or using a PowerPoint? Teaching students to navigate in unfamiliar territory will promote their critical thinking skills to find credible sources, and to turn on their brains and turn off auto-correct and predictive technology. It will also help them to understand when it is best to tune out the technology and connect interpersonally.
Read the study “College Students on the Web” at useit.com
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