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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

6 graduate degrees with a quick payoff

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Rachelle Wilber

Tuition for graduate school costs significantly more than undergraduate tuition. When you want to pursue a graduate degree that will allow you to pay off your loans and still live well, you can do so by considering any of these six graduate programs.

Petroleum Engineering

With the world’s dependency on petroleum at an all-time high, petroleum engineers are in high demand right now. If you pursue this degree, you can expect to enter the industry with an introductory average salary of $187,000 per year. You could easily pay off your student loans in a few years and have plenty of money left over to live on and support your family.

Nurse Anesthesia

Nursing is a lucrative career. However, if you want to earn the one of the highest salaries possible in this field, you can do so with a nurse anesthesia graduate degree. As noted at http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/majors-that-pay-you-back/masters, someone who majors in this degree field can earn an average salary of $162,800 per year. This career is also in demand as the need for specialized healthcare workers continues to rise throughout the country.

Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineers are needed to keep the country’s infrastructure operational and secure. With a graduate degree in electrical engineering, you can expect to earn on average $124,000 per year. This career field is expected to grow by four percent by the year 2022.

Behavioral Analysis

Made popular by a variety of crime TV shows, behavioral analysis is a graduate degree that you can pursue online and can pay itself off in a matter of years. This degree opens the door to working for police departments, the FBI, social service agencies, and therapists. The average salary for a behavioral analyst stands at $60,000 per year and increases as you gain experience. The University of Cincinnati offers a masters of applied behavior analysis online for the individual that can study on their own time.

Supply Chain Management

Businesses rely on supply chain managers to ensure their daily operations and overall customer satisfaction. A master’s degree in supply chain management can help you earn a salary of $108,000 per year. This degree can easily pay itself off in a matter of years after you graduate.

International Business

As more companies go global, they need employees who can meet and negotiate with customers from around the world. A graduate degree in international business also gives you the background to start your own global company. This degree brings with it an average salary of $101,000 per year.

Graduate school can be very expensive and take years to pay off. These six graduate degrees are a few of the smart choices in degrees that can pay themselves off in a shorter amount of time. Before jumping into one of these programs, plan out a career path for you to follow along the way to help keep you on track to landing that career you desire.

_________________

Rachelle Wilber is a freelance writer living in the San Diego, California area. She graduated from San Diego State University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Media Studies. She tries to find an interest in all topics and themes, which prompts her writing. When she isn’t on her porch writing in the sun, you can find her shopping, at the beach, or at the gym. Follow her on twitter: @RachelleWilber

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

Texting, Tweeting and Terrible Grammar in K-12 Schools

Internet and cell phone cultures have brought a whole new meaning to American slang. Not only are kids these days speaking informally, but now those relaxed rules of grammar are sneaking into written words too.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life project asked middle and high school educators about their thoughts on digital tools and the impact on student writing. Over two-thirds of the respondents said that writing platforms provided through Internet and cell phone use have improved student creativity. Students also have more outlets for collaboration which encourages improvement and “putting it out there” in terms of writing that may have been closeted to notebooks or diaries in pre-Internet generations.

The biggest problem with these digital avenues of composition, according to surveyed teachers, is the blurring of lines between formal and informal writing. Abbreviations are common, particularly on platforms like Twitter that have a 140-character limit. Most smartphones now have no limits on texting characters, but students that owned phones with the 160-character limits of just a few years ago have already formed short, abbreviated habits. In the digital realm, short and sweet is the key – even if a grammar, punctuation and writing formalities fall by the wayside. The same is not true of educational writing pursuits though, as K-12 writing instructors must prepare students for the demands of strong, professional writing in college and the workplace.

A report released by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills found that over 26 percent of college graduates have deficient writing skills. These findings were not based on graduation assessment exams, but compiled by interviewing actual employers. These employers said that many college-educated employees could not even accomplish the basic writing tasks of the job proficiently. How are these students earning college degrees if their writing is not up to par though? With the average U.S. student accruing $35,200 in college debt, it would seem learning the basics of writing, at least above a “deficient” level, would be a given takeaway.

The deficiency is not the fault of the colleges and universities though, at least not totally. Students are showing up for college without the skills needed to write well and with schools assuming they already know the basics. The 2011 book Academically Adrift found that less than half college students felt their writing had improved at all in college. Less than half also said they were never required to write a paper longer than 20 pages. In a nutshell, the writing proficiency that half of these students exhibited as seniors in high school was the same four years later, despite the so-called rigors and high cost associated with a college education.

While colleges could certainly take a hint from these numbers, the work of remedial writing education is not the responsibility of colleges. It falls on the teachers that come long before the adult years. These teachers face an uphill battle though, especially in an age where formal writing is often confused with everyday communication. The tools for creativity in the writing process may be better than ever, but the constraints of digital communication are hurting students’ composition and their attention spans too.

How can students who have essentially made a lifestyle of short, segmented, slang-ridden writing conform to the formal communication still expected in the real world? It starts with teachers who set high standards and do not waver. In the long run, the fear of losing a student’s interest by insisting on high writing standards is a small one compared to the implications of college graduates viewed as writing-deficient by the people who sign their paychecks.

How can K-12 teachers win out against the negative impact of digital communication on formal writing?

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

Who’s On Your Campus? Have You Checked The Sex-Offender List Lately?

Note: The following guest post was written by Suzanne Bogdan, regional managing partner at the law firm of Fisher & Phillips in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, office. She chairs the firm’s Education Practice Group, providing counsel to private institutions. She also works with accrediting agencies, including the National Association of Independent Schools.

While school administrators monitor their employee and job applicant rolls for sex offenders, they face another challenge: discovering and restricting sex offenders who are employee relatives, volunteers, contractors, even individuals authorized to bring students to and from campus.

As a practical matter, many schools do not conduct criminal-background checks on these people. Nor do they compare names and photo IDs of visitors with information on a sexual-offender/predator website.

Does a school have a duty to notify parents and employees that an individual with access to campus is a sex offender? Should administrators suggest to parents that they not send their children to someone’s house or a non-school event because there’s a likelihood that a predator will attend?

The answers are not simple. The school could inform its community by posting the offender’s photo on campus, but that individual may have legal rights that prevent him or her from being publicly identified.

Identifying sex offenders

There are numerous and fairly straightforward processes for school administrators to identify and restrict sex offenders who are not employees but have access to the school’s campus and its students:

  1. Subject all non-employees visiting or performing work at the school to a search on an established sex-offender database, such as the one run by the Department of Justice. The FBI also has a list of state registries. If the school has the resources, it can swipe driver licenses and run them against an offender database. To be effective, the school must restrict access to one or two campus entrances so that no one slips by.
  2. Alternately, assign an employee sworn to confidentiality or hire an outside company to check names that the school collects against those databases. This once-a-year review is not as effective, but it is less expensive. The success of this approach depends on having complete records of employee spouses, partners and relatives and of people authorized to drop off or pick up a student.
  3. Compare the names of coaches, volunteers and others who are likely to have unsupervised access to children to a sex-offender list. That includes employees of any firm that operates a program on campus. The best practice is to require individuals to submit to a criminal background check as a condition of engaging in school-sponsored activity, such as a sport.

School administrators often wonder how wide to cast a net to find people with unsupervised access. The best advice is to investigate any individual who can interact with or encounter children on campus without having a cleared adult present. That includes a parent who volunteers for the school play, an adult who leaves his or her parked car to drop off or pick up a child, and a contractor’s employee who uses a children’s restroom.

Lines of defense

Administration efforts to uncover sexual predators will likely produce a disquieting number of individuals. Some may be relatives of school employees, even their spouses. How can this happen? Employees may keep their spouse or partner’s secret because they thought the conviction was in error.

That reasoning absolves no one. As a matter of school policy, each current and prospective employee should be required to report to an administrator any information about a potential campus visitor who is a sex offender or is facing criminal or civil action alleging inappropriate sexual activity with a minor. Employees who fail to follow that rule should be terminated.

Once administrators identify a sex offender with a connection to its school, they must take action to remove or restrict that individual from the campus and school-related activities. This is where the lawyers come in.

The process starts with a scripted conversation with the sex offender, followed by a letter that legal counsel has reviewed. The letter specifies restrictions on that person’s access to campus and school activities.

Some parents will object. They may say that they rely on this person to transport their child to and from school. They may want the individual to see their child playing a sport or appearing in a performance. Graduation brings families together, and parents will complain when the school tries to prevent a cherished relative from attending.

Address each situation as it arises while maintaining a uniform policy. An attorney can be of great value here in crafting a response to each challenge to school rules. For example, a family member may be granted access, but only if the individual registers with an administrator upon arrival, agrees to supervision and restrictions on movement around campus, and agrees to leave when asked.

Protecting students from sexual offenders/predators is not a closed-door process. Parents must be informed of school policy regarding employees, relatives and visitors.

The best approach: Explain the school’s procedures such as criminal-background checks on employees in a school manual. That section should include a disclaimer that while the school makes every effort to keep predators off campus, it cannot say whether it’s safe for children to associate with parents and other adults away from school. The manual should direct parents to reputable websites such as the federal government’s Child Welfare Information Gateway page on sexual abuse where they can learn about sex offenders and how to protect their children from them.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

How digital gives literacy a boost

By way of the United States Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, nearly 15 percent of the U.S. population cannot read.

That is an astonishing number.

Delving deeper into the metrics, just 29 percent of adults read at a basic level and nearly 20 percent of high school graduates cannot read.

It’s why we celebrate and encourage reading in schools and observe International Literacy Day in September. From the echos of hearing “reading is fundamental” to understanding the basic nature of being able to read street signs or contracts, reading is a basic need of life.

That’s why companies like myON are so important. A business unit of Capstone, myON “created a personalized digital literacy environment that transforms learning…and expands the classroom for teachers and students by providing unlimited access to the largest collection of more than 10,000 enhanced digital books…”

myON recently expanded its offerings by redesigning “its award-winning personalized literacy environment for PreK-12.”

The company’s new redesign also includes a new writing tool, the myON Literacy Toolkit, advancements in content recommendations based upon individual student interests, and much more.

In an effort to help improve the literacy rate, companies like myON are important to the future of education as they are on the cutting edge of technology and have their fingers on the pulse of what teachers and students need. By combining what is familiar to today’s students (digital learning options) with the fundamentals of reading, we can fight against illiteracy in ways that were not possible just a generation ago. I look forward to hearing the progress with these digital reading tools, and seeing a more literate public as a result.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform, Testing

Top 6 Reasons Most Americans Have No Faith in the Education System

By now, just about every American parent has seen the reports that American schools rank well below schools in countries such as China and Japan. Or maybe they’ve heard President Obama declare a “dropout crisis.”

The abundance of news reports and discouraging case studies has created panic among education stakeholders, who want to know why American school systems are failing. Many Americans believe that only a small percentage of leaders understand the complexities of the school system, and that those who do understand use their knowledge to justify the mediocre performance of our teachers and students.

It’s not hard to see why this is the typical opinion. Maybe it’s because:

1. The American school system is the best-financed system in the world, but is one of the lowest performing in the developed world.

2. The American school system as a whole has an appalling performance record. For children living in urban environments, the story is even more alarming. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are often educated in dilapidated schools where the too many educators lack the credentials and skills necessary to perform their duties adequately.

3. High student-to-teacher ratios are found in most urban schools, and these schools often lack the resources to deal with the diverse challenges they face, including unruly student behavior.

Education has been called the great equalizer, but for students living in poverty-stricken urban areas it is little more than a babysitting service and a place to get a hot meal.

4. No Child Left Behind was a giant mess. Many people question whether the No Child Left Behind Act has contributed to achieving academic success. Although NCLB was well intentioned, it has not lived up to the hopes of government or schools. In the eyes of some, NCLB has actually contributed to subpar academics becoming even worse. If American educators and school personnel do not make a concerted effort to develop effective measures to hold schools accountable for the education of all of our children, then the education crisis will continue.

There is an exception to every rule: some urban school systems are providing a quality education. Unfortunately, however, only a small number of school systems meet the state and federal government student performance requirements.

5. For underperforming urban school systems, a lot of the “plans for change” are full of hot air. At least, they often seem to be.

The problem usually lies with the inability to sustain existing reform efforts and initiatives. Mayors and school superintendents in these areas often concoct grandiose reform plans that are merely political devices meant to woo voters into believing they genuinely care about educational reform.

It is sad and sobering to realize that often, politicians create school reform to gain popularity and votes. It is discouraging to realize that our children’s futures might be used as a political device to win elections.

6. Finally, people are too busy trying to play the blame game. Politicians are not the only people at fault for the shoddy education American children are receiving, but no one will take responsibility for subpar educational environments. If administrators were asked who was at fault, they might point to a lack of parental involvement and too few quality teachers.

If teachers were asked who was at fault they might also cite a lack of parental involvement and ineffective administration.

If parents were asked who was at fault they might blame teachers and school administrators.

Society in general seems to conclude that the lack of quality teachers, effective administration, and parental involvement are all factors contributing to educational failure.

Whatever the reason, Americans have become the laughing stock of the free world when it comes to K-12 education. The solution, of course, is for the country to unite and work together to carry the responsibility of enriching and continuing America’s future via educational excellence without playing the “blame game.” But, realistically, where does that begin?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

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Matthew Lynch published in Bullying

What should students do when the teacher or coach is the bully?

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Jennifer Fraser

Our sixteen year old son was competing at the 2012 Provincial Basketball Championships in British Columbia when one of the boys on the team texted his parents to say he “couldn’t take it anymore.” The coaches were calling the team “a bunch of pussies”, “hopeless” and “retarded.”

For my husband and me, that was the point of no return.

When we heard those words, we knew we had to get our son away from those coaches. No matter what it took, we could not let our son be spoken to like that. This wasn’t the first time we’d seen or heard there was something wrong on the team with how the coaches were “motivating” the players, but this time, there was no going back. We could no longer excuse or forgive. The basketball court, that our son loved so much, was becoming a place he dreaded and hated. We didn’t want him to join the statistics discussed by Professor Mark Hymen: 70% of children drop out of sports by the age of thirteen.

This coaching crisis happened a year before the Mike Rice scandal erupted and there were still those who thought it reasonable for a coach to scream obscenities at student athletes. There were still those who believed that this kind of humiliation was in fact “motivation”. Post Mike Rice, in many parts of America that changed.

The logic is that these coaches give athletes the worst in order to get the best out of them. But at what cost? People excuse — or even celebrate — such behavior as a passion. But, let’s call it by its real name: abuse.

– Charles M. Blow, New York Times, April 2013

But in many parts of world, including my son’s high-school, it hasn’t changed and I don’t think it will until bullying—by adults in power over children—namely emotional or verbal abuse joins sexual and physical abuse in the Criminal Code.

At the school where our son played basketball, at the request of the Headmaster, fourteen students gave detailed testimonies about how the coaches were treating them. The police said that there was a “definite pattern in the complaints, all pointing to verbal and emotional abuse.” However, the police could not intervene, as emotional abuse is not in the Criminal Code. And so, over the course of three years, along with a dedicated group of parents, we appealed to school administrators, the Inspector of Independent Schools, BC School Sports, the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, the Ministry of Education, and the Ombudsperson. To date, no one has done anything to hold the teachers to account for bullying conduct.

Decades of psychological, psychiatric, and sports abuse research has been done that reveals that bullying contributes significantly to a whole host of suffering: low self esteem, dropping out of sports and school, failure to reach potential, addiction, suicide and so on. However, in the last ten or so years, there have also been important neurological studies that illustrate the damage done to the brain of a bully victim whether at school or in the workplace. And in the last few years, there have also been further neurological studies that reveal that the adolescent brain is as fragile as that of the infant to toddler aged brain. It is in full development and therefore at great risk.[1]

Despite substantial research, emotional abuse from teacher to child, or coach to student-athlete continues to be minimized and dismissed as less serious than physical or sexual abuse. This dismissal is impossible to understand considering the neuroscience that chronicles the scars emotional abuse leaves on the brain. Dr. David Walsh, one of the world’s leading authorities on children and teens, stresses the way in which “Brain science lends even more urgency to confronting the scourge of bullying” exactly because there are “studies suggesting that the brain changes are long-term and therefore can create emotional scars that last for a lifetime”.[2] I doubt that when parents insist that “old-style coaching” is okay because it gets results and toughens kids up, they are informed about what is being done to their child’s developing brain. Parents may not know, but it is the job of teachers, school administrators and educational authorities to know.

Endless studies of peer to peer bullying are conducted while at the same time we wring our hands about how bullying is on the rise. We lament the fact that suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescent populations. But, we do not take a hard look at bullying done by teachers or coaches. It seems to be a taboo subject even among researchers. Yes, there are many wonderful teachers and coaches out there, but that does not mean that bullying from those who have power over children doesn’t happen.

The research Dr. Martin Teicher, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School conducted in 2002 found that “verbal abuse by parents was as psychologically damaging as physical abuse.” More surprising, his research has shown that “kids suffered more depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders when bullied by peers than by parents.”[3] If bullying in the school setting causes more harm than the home setting, and verbal abuse is just as damaging as physical abuse, what happens when it’s teachers or coaches who are doing the bullying at school?

If a child finds it hard to report on peer bullying, or not be a by-stander when he or she witnesses peer bullying, that challenge becomes exponential when it is a teacher who has power over the child. Besides, it becomes much more difficult to recognize. Teachers are invested with the professional credentials to assess students and therefore if a teacher says a child is a “retard” or that a child is “not trying” then those words are stamped with official force in a child’s mind. Children don’t want to tell their parents that the teacher is disgusted with them or has rejected them. That’s like having to show a bad report card. On a profound level, the child may believe that the teacher’s humiliating “assessment” is true.

In a recent ground-breaking study by Duke University, that followed almost two thousand students into adulthood, researcher William E. Copeland, Professor of Psychiatry concluded: “If the results of this study are dismaying because they indicate that bullying is permanently scarring, the findings also strengthen the argument for prevention. Copeland underscores this idea. ‘Consider me a reluctant convert, but I’m starting to view bullying the same way I do abuse in the home,’ he said. ‘I honestly think the effects we’re observing here are just as potent.’”[4] The focus of the Duke study is peer bullying which raises the concerning question: how permanently scarring is it when the bullying is done by a teacher to a student or a coach to a student-athlete?

Do we really want to keep saying that when coaches scream obscenities at kids it’s to help them develop as athletes? When a kid calls another kid a “retard” on the playground, we don’t say it helps the child learn. We say that we have zero tolerance for children who bully, but we appear to have vast tolerance for adults who bully.

Until there are consequences, until teachers and coaches are held accountable, until emotional abuse is in the Criminal Code, it’s going to continue to be on the rise and suicide will continue to be the second leading cause of death in adolescent populations. It’s time to make a change and protect children from all forms of abuse. These concerns form the basis for Teaching Bullies: Zero Tolerance on the Court and in the Classroom. The book is a call to action.

[1] Laurence Steinberg, Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence, Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2014. Frances E. Jensen with Amy Ellis Nutt, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults, Toronto: Harper Collins, 2015.

[2] David Walsh with Erin Walsh, Why do They Act that Way?: A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen, 2nd edition, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014 (254).

[3] See Amy Anthes, “Inside the Bullied Brain: the Alarming Neuroscience of Taunting,” The Boston Globe, November 28, 2010: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/11/28/inside_the_bullied_brain/?page=2

[4] http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/02/20/new_duke_study_on_bullying_childhood_victims_bullies_and_bully_victims_all.html

________________

Jennifer Fraser has a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto and is a published writer. She is presently teaching creative writing and International Baccalaureate literature classes at an independent school in British Columbia.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

Who Can Lead in Constructivism?

Leadership represents a possible set of actions for everyone in the school community, and anyone can lead. Constructivism calls for “participantship” because it is through full participation that acts of leadership are done. Intervention and re-intervention help in the building of realities, especially when staff-members emerge into the leadership arena. It is essential that the participation processes form the basis of creating meaning and understanding to gain commitment from followers.

While it may not be fitting that students, teachers, parents, and administrators are leaders according to the old adage “too many cooks spoil the broth,” new paradigms of leadership are making a different “broth.” This is because the patterns of relationships in this new “broth” breed synergy, creating rich possibilities that exist outside traditional lines of authority, roles, norms, rules, and policies. In summary, constructivist leadership provides a system of meaning making for leadership actions.

While the kinds of educational communities described above are quite rare, the knowledge, understandings, and practices suggested are not unique. This is because many learning centers, networks, projects, and partnerships already function on notions of give-and-take, community, and purpose. Schools are beginning to focus more on student outcomes and cooperation. However, some researchers have questioned constructivist leadership and have dismissed it as “community work,” restructuring, or re-culturing.

The case for constructivist leadership is that these noble conceptions are isolated and fragmented. While these processes are happening, there is something missing that can act as glue, integration, or unity of spirit. Constructivist leadership entails interactive processes that enable participants in the school to build meanings that lead toward a common purpose of schooling.

The Case for a Constructivist Approach

The question remains as to what roles leaders, teachers, and researchers should play in translating reform policies into the reality of best practices within school cultures. A constructivist approach to teacher leadership argues that teachers need to be allowed to develop their ability to use reciprocity in problem-solving through collaborative inquiry. The approach promotes the development of teachers’ use of reciprocity in thinking, solving problems, and engaging in action research in their schools.

The purpose of this approach is to track the thinking of teachers about collaboration and inquiry as they participate in inquiry-based learning. This kind of learning describes a wide range of curricular, philosophical, and educational approaches to teaching. Its most profound requirement is that learning should be based around student questions. Collaborative learning is another term under constructivist leadership in education that involves joint intellectual effort among students and their teachers. It also refers to the methods and environments in which learners engage in common tasks and dialogue within a sustained community of inquirers, and the way they impact reciprocity in teachers’ thinking.

Current policies guiding educational reform on a national level reflect the tendency to oversimplify the change process by emphasizing large-scale uniform mandates instead of supporting ongoing and locally responsive research that encourages professional teacher development and teacher-driven inquiry. Leaders have to realize that change is not a linear top-down process; instead they need a more realistic understanding of change as a complex process.

Constructivism teaches that change occurs by creating the right conditions for stakeholders to engage in talk and collaborative inquiry, and allowing them to develop the capacity to use their own ideas to create locally transformative solutions to problems. In the reform process in education, school leaders need to move beyond top-down, quick-fix, or one-size-fits-all models of reform. If meaningful reforms are to happen, specific questions by teacher leaders need to be engaged in the complex process of developing effective teaching practices to bring about change.

If challenging the system is to become part of school culture, a theoretical approach that embraces constructivist premises needs to be applied to teacher leadership , to offer a promising framework for the development of school communities where dialogue and questioning thrive. This will transform the thinking among individuals to form a collective school culture. Engaging teachers in ongoing professional development involving a shared vision, dialogue, collaboration, specific questions, and shared learning for a common goal, develops the capacity and passion for the growth of sustainable change.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Higher Education, Matthew Lynch

Diverse Conversations: Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders

Colleges and universities all over the United States play an integral role in shaping tomorrow’s leaders. At Saint Leo University they take this charge to heart, infusing visionary leadership into the curriculum. I recently sat down with, Arthur F. Kirk, Jr., president of Saint Leo University to discuss his approach to leadership preparation.

Q: Saint Leo is known for its commitment to developing leaders. Would you tell us about your university’s approach to developing future leaders?

A: The notion that leaders are born and not made was once widely accepted. However, this belief is fading, as research suggests that much can be done to help grow leaders to their fullest potential. That certainly has been my experience as a university president for nearly 30 years.

When students arrive on our campus, they quickly realize that much will be expected of them. The days of sitting in the back row of a classroom and going through the motions as a college student are no more. That type of attitude is unacceptable to potential employers, and eliminating it while on campus is the first step to cultivating future leaders.

For this reason, our classes are intentionally small (our student-teacher ratio is 15:1) and students do not get lost in a crowd or back row, rather we engage them assuring greater opportunities to develop their skills and prepare for leadership roles.

At Saint Leo, all first-year students must take SLU 100, a foundational course upon which freshmen can build their leadership skills throughout their education, and long after. The course focuses on understanding and applying the university’s core values of excellence, community, respect, personal development, responsible stewardship, and integrity. The only way to cultivate leadership qualities among our students to ensure each of these values is thoroughly explored as principles of leadership—and followership.

Q: How does the curriculum at Saint Leo prepare students for future leadership?

A: One thing we know for certain is that the 21st century manager will need to know more about leadership than the 20th century manager. The world is changing at an ever-increasing rate, so we knew Saint Leo’s approach to leadership development would need to keep pace with and anticipate those changes.

Saint Leo’s new liberal arts general education program (the core of all our undergraduate degree programs), University Explorations, is designed with an emphasis on topics of special interest to the 21st-century student. The curriculum takes a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching students to think critically; to read, write, and communicate effectively; to act ethically; to appreciate beauty and exercise creativity; to develop a capacity for reflection; and to work in teams. Using a problem-based learning approach, students develop the skills they will need to be thoughtful citizens of the world and responsible leaders in their communities.

Additionally, woven throughout all our classes is Saint Leo’s Quality Enhancement Plan, A Model for a Challenging World: Critical Thinking + Core Values = Effective Decision Making, which requires students to apply critical thinking and our university core values to solve problems. Saint Leo University also offers a 12-credit Certificate in Leadership as well as an 18-credit Leadership minor that includes a capstone course in leadership, as well as an internship. Additionally, 17 sophomore student athletes picked by their coaches, representing each of our intercollegiate athletic teams, take a year-long leadership course.

Q: What are the needs of the nation and how should higher education address them?

A: There is no shortage of problems in our country at the moment. Challenges abound in all sectors—economic, political, environmental, militaristic, etc., because current “leaders” don’t lead responsibly and pass from generation to generation, problems that grow worse over time.

But the pass-the-buck mentality is not sustainable, and our nation’s young people will be faced with grave challenges to keep our country great. It is our responsibility to ensure that the future generation of leaders is equipped with the tools to confront in ethical and courageous ways.

Q: How does Saint Leo respond to this need?

A: I hear from many employers that our students are not only qualified with the practical skills necessary to hit the ground running in an entry-level position, but that they also have the ethics, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision-making skills to take on more responsibility within their first year on the job and move quickly through the ranks; they tell me that recent graduates from other institutions, in effect, start slower or hit a brick wall. Our students go on to become leaders in their fields and in their communities.

As an example, after Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast a recent alumnus in Florida reached out to fellow alumni—both those in need and those who might offer assistance or resources—to figure out how he could help. Within days, he coordinated the donation and delivery of more than 20 pallets of supplies and was soon helping to distribute those items in Staten Island and New Jersey with other alumni. So, again, I believe instilling values and challenging students to think critically to solve problems ethically is essential to educating the people we want to become our future leaders.

Another way Saint Leo responds to this need is to understand that one particular source of future leaders too often goes untapped. Our active duty-military members and veterans return from their service to our country having already received leadership training. And yet too often they are not given the support necessary to translate that experience into the civilian workforce or their communities.

Military members are resilient. They know how to be a team member. They have a clear understanding of the mission and how to achieve objectives, and many times over have demonstrated courage and skill under high-pressure situations.

These are all skill sets that will make them effective in the workplace, especially when partnered with a degree in their field. Putting that package together in the workplace and in the community is a powerful dynamic. They have already made a tremendous contribution to our society through their military service, but their potential for greatness at home too often goes unrecognized.

Q: What does the future hold for Saint Leo University?

A: While we already offer our students many opportunities to study leadership and leaders and to practice leadership skills in classes, clubs, and athletic teams, we are engaging more students in the study and practice. Leadership seminars, retreats, and non-credit short courses for fraternity and sorority leaders, student government representatives, and club leaders will soon be offered. Virtually all of our classes in our school of business require students to solve problems in teams. Many other disciplines are also emphasizing team approaches. There is so much more we can do.

I would like to thank Dr. Kirk for consenting to this interview and for all that he does to develop America’s future leaders.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Policy & Reform, Teachers

When teachers sexually abuse students

Editor’s Note: Sexual abuse is a difficult topic but an important one for educators to understand when it comes to the students they teach. As a warning, the following guest post may cause distress for those who have suffered similar abuse. You can read more about the Quest program sexual abuse controversy referenced in this post by clicking here. 

A guest post by Jennifer Fraser

I was halfway up the rock face when I suddenly couldn’t find any hold for my hand or my foot. I looked down and it was a long way. Of course I was roped in. This was a school-sponsored outing and at the top of the climb were my teachers who were holding the ropes. I was wearing a helmet. I was completely protected, but I couldn’t go up and I couldn’t go down and started to panic. My legs started to shake uncontrollably. Above, the students and teachers could see I was in trouble. And one teacher yelled down at me:

“If you give me a blow job, I’ll help you up.”

I was fifteen and didn’t know what a “blow job” was. I knew it was something sexual and was embarrassed that I didn’t know what it meant. It made me feel ashamed and ignorant at the same time

Now the interesting question is: why did I not tell this story to my parents?

There are many reasons and hopefully in shedding light on this dark part of my life, I can empower parents to watch for telltale signs of abuse and I can encourage students to speak up.

The problem with reporting on the men that sexually abused me, and so many students in the Quest program at Prince of Wales School in Vancouver, was that they were so popular. They had cult-like status at the school. They were charming and extremely funny. They were also leaders in terms of health and nutrition. They were anti-drinking and drugs and therefore greatly respected by parents and quite likely their colleagues. They were counter-culture at a time when kids were questioning their parents’ values. These teachers seemed incredibly cool to us. They were early environmentalists and we worked hard as teens to save the wilderness alongside them.

It’s important for all those who want to protect kids from abuse to know that oftentimes abusers are very popular; they are so good; they are so sought-after. They’re attractive. That’s how they get away with years of abuse. It’s this disguise they are highly adept at wearing that lets them unleash years of soul-destroying abuse on children in their power. They hold the ropes and the child believes they want to keep them safe; the child believes that they care. Abusers convince everyone, probably even themselves, that they act out of “love.” They never ask themselves why the love they offer causes so many kids profound suffering or why it’s against the law.

If adults can’t recognize abusers, children are even less likely to realize that what’s happening is abuse and that it is doing damage of a kind they can’t see.

If I had fallen from that rock face and broken my arm, I would have been rushed to hospital and cared for. But what happened on that rock face that day broke something in my mind and in my spirit. The pain far outweighed a snapped bone, but there was no cast to envelop the break and allow it to heal.

On a bus ride back from one of the wilderness trips, one of the teachers, Tom Ellison, held me down for a stretch of time and he licked my ear in a provocative sexual way in front of all the kids. It revolted me and made me afraid. He was twice my size and strong. It’s the only time in my life a man has held me down and forced himself upon me. The news stories and the court case about this teacher are packed full of such incidents and most of them far, far worse.

While I was scarred by my experience in Quest, I did not end up having sex with these teachers and am profoundly thankful for that. I’ve often wondered how I escaped.

I think there were a couple of reasons. The first one was that I was extremely naïve. As a fifteen year old girl, it never occurred to me that middle-aged men would have any sexual interest in kids. It literally did not cross my mind and so when advances were made, I just felt completely confused.

From the age of four on, children have it hammered into them that teachers deserve trust and respect. To suddenly go against those repeated lessons, is like telling a child raised in a religion that the God they have always worshipped is in fact evil. The mind cannot fathom it.

As a teenager, I was working hard not to look like a loser in front of my peers who all seemed to love these teachers. I was interested in boys my own age and thrilled at the notion that some of the grade 12 boys were interested in me. They were two years older and seemed to belong to a whole other category of sophistication. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that a man who was married and had three children and was middle-aged actually wanted to have sexual relations with me or any other teenage girl. It did not make sense.

Dean Hull approached me at the first Quest dance when a slow song came on. I couldn’t even imagine dancing closely with him and held him at bay as it was just so strange and awkward. He proceeded to humiliate me in front of the other kids saying that I was “frigid” and laughing at how I was trying not to dance right up against him. I was deeply embarrassed and finally slow danced with him. Just writing this makes me feel physically sick.

Adults have enormous power over children.

Their knowledge and experience makes them able to influence those who have so few years on the planet and are just learning. It’s counter-intuitive, but watch out for teachers who are devoted to their students, the ones who appear to be so passionate that the majority of their time—even holidays—is dedicated to students. Adults who don’t spend much time in adult relationships and say that it’s because they’re so intensely passionate about their wilderness program or their theatre production or their sports team should concern parents and administrators and be watched carefully. Of course there are dedicated teachers out there who simply do care about their students and devote their time because education is a calling for them. It’s just that abusers are smart and so they imitate educational goodness to cover up for their real motivations.

After the traumatizing, embarrassing dance with Dean Hull, I didn’t say anything to my parents. If anything, I walked away from that dance feeling like a failure. I had displeased my teacher. I had done something wrong. I had not acted appropriately. Why would I share that with my parents?

I was forced to slow dance with Dean Hull, but I wasn’t forced into having sex with him and for that I am deeply thankful and I feel extremely sad for the teenage girls in my grade who ended up having sex with Dean Hull, Stan Callegari and Tom Ellison. I know how much these men have messed up my brain and I can only imagine what they’ve done to others who suffered far more than I did.

I think there’s another reason I escaped the worst from these abusers and it was because of my parents. They knew something was wrong. And I encourage parents: trust your instincts, talk to your kids, ask them questions, watch for signs of mental illness like eating disorder, cutting, depression. I suffered from all three of those conditions. I was voted “worst dressed girl” in grade 12, but I did not explain to anyone—even myself—that I was wearing sweat pants everyday and baggy shirts so that the teachers would leave me alone and not notice me.

In the summer of grade 11, before I went on a month long trip to the Yukon with these abusers, my mom met with them. She told them my dad was a lawyer and if anything happened to me on this trip, they would do everything in their power to ensure the teachers were held accountable. I suffered terribly on that trip, but I was not the girl who shared a tent or a bed with these teachers. That fate was reserved for two other teenage girls and I thank my parents for making those teachers afraid of what would happen if they abused me.

Schools are so careful to supply students with helmets and ropes, to keep them physically safe.

But they need to work harder on protecting children from abuse that plays on children’s emotions and uses them as a way to gain entry into a child’s body and mind. Schools must teach children what abuse from a teacher looks like, what it sounds like, what it does to the brain and heart and soul.

Kids need to know that if a teacher or coach abuses them, it does very serious, long-lasting damage.

No one told me that when I was a child.

—

Jennifer Fraser has a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto and is a published writer. She is presently teaching creative writing and International Baccalaureate literature classes at an independent school in British Columbia.

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Policy & Reform

How to Improve the School Climate for LGBT Students

While the social climate of any school is complex enough, Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender, or LGBT, students have additional barriers to overcome. Dealing with discrimination toward LGBT students is a very real concern for teachers and though students have come a long way, they can still be cruel to those that they perceive as different. Peers of LGBT students frequently single them out for bullying and physical and verbal abuse. The levels of harassment targeting LGBT students sometimes lead to absenteeism, and even to dropping out of school completely and never obtaining that very important high school diploma.

LGBT students of color are three times more likely to skip school because they do not view schools as safe places, adding to the achievement gap between the races that educational policymakers are so desperately trying to narrow.

So, how can we make our K-12 classrooms safe havens for LGBT students where they can learn and flourish alongside their peers? Here are just a few starting points:

  1. Disallow discrimination based on sexual orientation. The National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development have all passed resolutions asking their members and all school districts to step forward to improve the educational experiences of LGBT students. These resolutions call for providing a safe environment, support groups, and counseling options for LGBT students and by employing anti-harassment rules and practices.  In nine states, the state government has instituted legislation prohibiting the harassment and discrimination of LGBT students. We need to continue this trend until every state has these rules in place, in every district and school – no exceptions.
  2. Expand “inclusion” policies.  There are some schools in which LGBT students are accepted and accommodated.   Same-sex couples are invited to school dances and there are unisex washrooms for transgender students.  School districts in some states include LGBT students in non-discrimination policies with the goal of making schools safe places for all students, parents, faculty and staff.  However, there are also states where it is illegal to even utter the word homosexual and in which the word homosexual (or lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) can only be portrayed in a negative light within the classroom.  This makes it difficult for teachers to teach about sexual orientation diversity or to make their classrooms and school environment safe and accepting of LGBT students.  Regardless of location, teachers can explain to students that they don’t have to agree it is okay to be gay or lesbian, but they do have to agree that it is not okay to discriminate against them.
  3. Promote LGBT student groups.  It is important that all students, regardless of who they are or their sexual orientation, have a safe environment in which to learn and grow as an individual.  Gay and lesbian organizations have been at the forefront of trying to create safe and accepting environments for LGBT students.  Students have also taken up the cause and student groups have begun springing up in schools all over the country.  There are currently approximately 4,000 Gay-Straight Alliance Groups registered with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).  These groups are alliances between straight and LGBT. They work together to support each other and promote education as a means for ending homophobia.

Biased and homophobic comments are rampant in many schools, with a staggering 90 percent of LGBT students experiencing verbal harassment related to their sexual orientation.  This is unacceptable.  By schools taking the reins on this issue, real change will eventually be realized.

What do you believe are some additional steps that can be taken to improve the school environment for LGBT students?

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Secondary Education, Teachers

How to successfully turn drop-outs into graduates

One school’s resilient Second Chance program helps students earn their diplomas and overcome stereotypes about credit recovery.

By Matthew Lynch

When you think about credit-recovery programs you likely think of truant or at-risk students. These students, who need a push to catch up after falling behind, are getting lost in the shuffle, leading to lower overall graduation rates in high schools across the country. With a well-structured academic support system combined with credit-recovery options, district leaders at Lawrence County Community Unit School District experienced a 9% increase in graduation rates. Administrators have also seen what cutting its Second Chance program did to the district and how it teaches at-risk students a lot more than the Common Core.

Here’s a typical story from Lawrence County CUSD. The only thing between Joe (a senior whose name has been changed) and his hard-earned high school diploma was one English final. Thinking he could breeze by, Joe failed the test, meaning that walking the stage to collect his diploma with the rest of his class was no longer a reality. After a series of meetings with the school’s guidance counselor and the principal, the team created a credit recovery plan. Joe was given three days to complete an entire semester’s work. Two all-night study sessions, three long days in the computer lab, and a passing grade got him a diploma—and the overwhelming feeling of success earned through determination.

Joe was lucky. He had a second chance, something many students don’t ever get. The reputation and perceived expense of credit-recovery and second-chance programs has caused schools across the country to quietly cut these programs, leaving students to find their own options. The truth is, not every student who could benefit from credit recovery or alternative options is an at-risk student. Many are special ed, are working to get ahead of the curve, or graduate on time with the rest of their class.

Lawrence County CUSD started its Second Chance Program about 13 years ago to help the group of nonconforming, at-risk students gain diploma status. Students would leave the traditional classroom setting to receive extra time and help from a specialized teacher. Within eight years, the school’s graduation rates increased dramatically.

In 2012, funding for Lawrence County’s Second Chance Program was cut, leaving at-risk students to struggle through courses in the traditional classroom setting. Graduation rates quickly dropped to less than 70%. Two years later, the Second Chance Program was revived with a new look, a new name, and a new online component allowing for even more flexibility. Since its resurgence, graduation rates have increased from 70% to 79%. This school year, administrators at Lawrence County CUSD hope to reach their goal of an 85% graduation rate.

Welcome to the LHS School Within A School Classroom

At Lawrence County CUSD, teacher Barbara Fabyan has her own school within a school classroom at the high school where students needing extra academic support can come during the school day. It’s an environment that removes students from their regular classrooms, so they’re able to concentrate on their schoolwork without distraction. At any given time, she may have a 9th-grade student with an IEP needing special assistance on a project or another student who is at risk of dropping out and without determination may miss the deadline to graduate with the rest of his or her class.

While dozens of students come into her class strictly to recover failed credits, “Odysseyware, the customizable online curriculum program and credit recovery software we use, allows me to restructure entire courses or individual topics and assessments to best fit the student’s needs,” Fabyan said.

Fabyan’s classroom also serves as an alternative for students wishing to work at a faster pace. For example, one of her students had knee surgery and couldn’t participate in gym class. Instead, she worked through an online curriculum provider to earn a year’s worth of history credits in one semester.

Online options give students the freedom to work at their own pace while sticking with Illinois State Standards. Lawrence County offers a blended learning option which, based on the increase in graduation rates, has proven successful for students so far.

A Wake-up Call for Students

Fabyan uses a  “tough love” approach to teaching in the credit-recovery classroom. “Making mistakes is part of learning,” she said. “When students come in, they know it’s their last chance to complete the work and make it to graduation. Some students have dug themselves a deep hole with truancy and behavioral issues, and they know my classroom is the only place they can go to dig themselves out. It’s a wake-up call.”

When students enter Fabyan’s classroom, they often have negative thoughts about specific classes, teachers, and school in general—prejudices that hold them back from success. Her mission is to break down the walls of what “school” is and show students success is possible, but it won’t come easy. With the support from her fellow teachers and administration, Fayban and her students are constantly empowered to beat the odds and push through adversity. It’s the encouragement that keeps the program alive, allows students to reach their goals using whatever means it takes.

Rising to the Challenge

According to the Center for Public Education, 47% of high school dropouts cite “uninteresting classes” as the major reason for leaving, and 35% say “failing in school” was a major factor in dropping out. With the virtual labs, videos, audio, and games that they get from an online curriculum, students are pleasantly surprised, then challenged and engaged.

“My students realize the traditional courses they were taking may have been easier compared to Odysseyware,” said Fabyan. “Students that used to be failing are excelling with more difficult content. They realize they really have to work hard to pass. It’s more challenging, but in a way they are more engaged in the content and actually learning.”

She notes many students saying, “I really feel like I’m learning something,” and, “If I had this online option for more of my courses I would know more, and wouldn’t have fallen behind in the first place.”

That sort of realization makes students sprint to the end and get their diplomas. By the time at-risk students have their certificate in hand, they’ve learned a lot more than the Common Core. They’ve mastered the art of overcoming challenges and are part of changing the reputation of students using credit recovery. And now, because of the great success of the Second Chance Program, classroom teachers all over Lawrence County CUSD are using Odysseyware to better align their lessons with CCSS and engage students in a typical classroom setting.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

Report: Marijuana use rising on college campuses

A new survey released by the University of Michigan shows that marijuana use with college students is on the rise.

For the first time since 1980, more college students are getting high on a daily basis.

“Daily or near-daily marijuana use was reported by 5.9 percent of college students in 2014 — the highest rate since 1980, the first year that complete data was available in the study. This rate of use is up from 3.5 percent in 2007.”

Even for students who only use it socially or just occasionally, there has been an uptick in the numbers.

“The percent of students using marijuana once or more in the prior 30 days rose from 17 percent in 2006 to 21 percent in 2014.”

Without the study actually saying it, I’d guess this rise in use is an indicator that marijuana is no longer viewed so negatively and as a dangerous drug.

But if one views this is as bad news, there is a silver lining attached. College students no longer smoke as many cigarettes as they used to. Just 13 percent of college students said that they smoked a cigarette in the last thirty days.

While this information is certainly good to know, it is not necessarily an indicator of bad behavior with college students, if you put the use aside.

If cities continue to decriminalize the use of marijuana, use of the drug is likely to continue to increase on college campuses. How we view and measure the drug’s impact on academia would certainly serve as a fascinating follow-up study down the road.

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