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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

Turning the Tide: Can admissions reforms redefine achievement?

Julie Renee Posselt, University of Michigan

Individualism makes America unhealthy and unequal, and college admissions offices have the power to do something about it. So argues a short but important report, Turning the Tide, released last week by the Making Caring Common (MCC) Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

College admissions offices send messages to students about what society values. To change the message that individual achievement matters most, the report recommends admissions practices that balance intellectual and ethical engagement. It advises strategies for assessing community service and diversity experiences. Ultimately, it wants to redefine achievement to reduce pressure on students and improve access for low-income students.

Is this report part of a sea change in higher education?

As a professor whose research examines merit and diversity in academic gatekeeping, I think the answer to this question is a clear yes.

The question is, will their recommendations work?

The report is on the right track

For years, guidance and college counselors have prodded students to apply to colleges with the right fit, not just the best ranking. And educators have pushed to align preferences in admissions offices with higher education’s public mission.

In 2003, Harvard law professor Lani Guinier proposed that admissions consider both academic and democratic merit. She argued that if colleges’ mission includes preparing leaders for an increasingly diverse democracy, then admissions should reward potential for such leadership.

How to recognize and measure that leadership potential, like other so-called noncognitive factors, is still up for debate. But MCC’s call to consider “authentic” experiences with diversity and “ethical engagement” fits with a more democratic notion of merit.

Admissions officers strive for holistic review. But does it work?
COD Newsroom, CC BY

Around the country, educators are huddling to develop, test and refine models of holistic review that honor students’ diverse strengths. Administrators and faculty are hungry for strategies that will help their student bodies reflect the country’s demographic diversity.

There’s a spirit of experimentation in admissions today that the strategies in Turning the Tide can support.

Here are my concerns

I applaud MCC’s initiative and support their goals in principle. However, I have at least three concerns with their recommendations:

First, it’s not clear that they align with evaluation practices in admissions offices.

MCC wants to deemphasize AP courses, for example, but this won’t be a powerful lever for change. The 2014 State of College Admissions report of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) documents that since 2002, no more than 10 percent of college admissions offices treat AP/IB scores as a major factor in their decisions.

Second, the strategies it will take to enroll more low-income students in selective colleges are not the same ones needed to reduce achievement pressure.

Everyone worries about the lack of transparency in college admissions, but concerns about pressure are largely coming out of upper-middle-class and wealthy families.

In many low-income high schools, where the real college access problem is, the concern is obtaining access to rigorous coursework and college preparation generally.

Third, even in systems that tend toward greater equity, the wealthy usually find ways to protect their privilege.

One way they do so, sociologists have shown, is by investing their resources in keeping up with the changing terms of access to high-status social institutions, including educational ones.

Participation in focused test preparation is one example, although scholars debate its benefits.

Or take my college-frenzied city of Ann Arbor: Less than three months after 80 selective colleges announced they would develop a shared online application with a digital portfolio, the city’s community education provider started offering US$49 workshops titled “How to Apply to Elite Universities.”

It is telling that they marketed the workshops to parents, not teens.

The fact is that “ethical engagement” could easily become the next dimension of merit through which privileged families preserve their competitive advantage.

Redefining ‘good colleges’

The final recommendation of Turning the Tide – broadening students’ ideas about what makes a good college – is perhaps the most important and difficult one.

Parents, employers, and graduate programs also need to take a broader view on college pedigree if they want to persuade students to do so.

Parents need to know how mixed the research record is (see here, here and here) on the link between selective college attendance and later earnings. They need to know that going to a selective college doesn’t necessarily lead to greater life and job satisfaction, even if colleges market themselves that way.

Looking to how graduate programs judge what makes a good college, my own research has revealed how faculty in top-ranked graduate programs think about college affiliations when admitting Ph.D. students. I interviewed 68 professors across 10 programs and observed admissions meetings in six of them.

Often faculty have a hard time trusting grad school applicants from institutions without strong reputations.
University of Pennsylvania Libraries, CC BY-NC-ND

Faculty routinely assessed college GPA based on the perceived quality of the institution where grades had been earned. They felt this enabled them to distinguish among the many applicants with high grades.

Across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, professors in every program described being “impressed,” “excited” and “dazzled” by affiliations with the Ivy League, as one might expect.

Beyond a belief in the superiority of their training, professors admitted being drawn into the cultural mystique surrounding elite higher education. A few noted that students from elite institutions were “presocialized” or “confident enough” for programs like their own.

One waxed eloquent about the brilliance of his own undergraduate peers at Yale, while others assumed that students who had survived the gauntlet of elite undergraduate admissions must truly be “better.”

They also looked favorably on less prestigious institutions with respected undergraduate programs in their discipline. They admitted to me or revealed in committee that they had a hard time trusting applicants from unfamiliar institutions and ones with mediocre reputations.

Like the messages that parents send their children, how professors read college affiliations in graduate admissions sends messages to young people about what makes a good college.

MCC is right that updating admissions is a great strategy for cultural change. Admissions priorities subtly coerce adolescent behavior. A growing number of families organize their children’s time and very lives to put them on a trajectory that (they think) will land them in college.

But to really alter the messages about achievement that students hear, change shouldn’t be limited to the admissions office. Parents, employers and those of us who work in education also need to lead by example.

University of Michigan doctoral student Kristen Glasener contributed to this article.

The Conversation

Julie Renee Posselt, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, University of Michigan

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Read all of our posts about HBCUs by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education, Matthew Lynch

4 Ways Our College Football Obsession Sends the Wrong Message about Higher Education

During college football season on any given weekend, it seems that every social media newsfeed is full of people cheering on their alma maters or sending shout outs to their favorite college mascots. The football season on the professional level and every tier below it has become an iconic fall tradition of American culture. This glorification of a sport, particularly in the case of college athletes, put priorities in the wrong spot, though.

Does collective obsession with college football and other collegiate sports give K-12 kids the wrong idea about the purpose of higher education? Yes—and here’s why:

  1. The brutal truth about athleticism: Let’s face it—it’s at least partially genetic.

People love to mention the story of Michael Jordan being cut from his high school basketball team as an example of motivation for anyone who faces adversity. No disrespect to Mike, but his raw athletic ability had to be apparent during his high school years. The fact that he was cut from the varsity team was likely more a result of relying on that talent and not putting in the effort to hone it. Once he realized what a lot of practice and persistence, paired with unmatched talent, could mean in his life, he was able to excel at what he was already good at doing.

Call me cynical, but not every kid who is cut from a sports team has the ability to be like Mike by just putting his nose to the grindstone.

  1. The pedestal athletes are placed on: This applies to college athletes as well as the pros. Peers, coaches, and parents think of them and treat them as budding celebrities.

I won’t deny it: the feats of the human body are admirable. However, what’s the impact on academics when a young adult with athletic ability is treated better by an institution of higher learning than one whose strengths are in engineering or the life sciences?

The promise of fame and fortune (achieved after a college career if NCAA rules are followed) make a “career” as a college athlete look glamorous. But, again, what is lost from an academic standpoint?

  1. The money schools throw at athletic programs: Colleges and universities do not elevate athletes in principle, of course. There is no bylaw that mandates the best athletes be given advantages or treated better than everyone else on campus. But money talks. The highest grossing college football program is at the University of Texas, and it brings in an astonishing $90 million annually to the school. You can add the Ohio State University, the University of Florida, and the University of Notre Dame to the short list of college football programs that consistently bring in revenue in the tens of millions to their schools.

The direct financial impact is not the only way football, and other popular athletic programs, aid in a school’s bottom line. A strong athletic program brings in more future students and rallies boosters under a common cause. To call college football a cash cow is an understatement; these programs are more like the blue whales of university revenue outside of actual tuition.

  1. The less-than-appropriate behavior we tolerate from student athletes. So student athletes like Aaron Hernandez are allowed to act suspiciously, getting into violent bar fights, as long as they are part of an epic college team headlined by Tim Tebow. Years later when Hernandez is accused of involvement in multiple murders, and no longer a college football player, people claim that there was always something “odd” about him. So why did he get a pass?

Of course, most college athletes walk the line. They hone their athletic abilities while showing respect to academics and the reputation of their schools. They should be applauded for their accomplishments, but not to the point that academics take on a role of secondary importance on campus.

It’s not the athletes’ fault. Most of them are just young adults. The blame falls on the school officials and supporters that send the message from grade school that sports culture is greater than academics.

What do you say? Does the cultural obsession with college sports send younger students the wrong message about the purpose of higher education? Leave a comment below.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

How to turn lecturers into good university teachers

Lynn Quinn, Rhodes University and Jo-Anne Vorster, Rhodes University

Traditionally, it has been assumed that, once an academic holds a Master’s degree or PhD in their discipline, they can share their knowledge and teach students effectively. Most, though, don’t have a teaching qualification, nor have they been offered any opportunities to develop as teachers while studying towards their advanced degree.

This means that many lecturers feel like they have been thrown into the deep end at the start of their teaching careers. There has been some work in this field and many universities now offer formal and informal academic staff development opportunities.

But there is far more to good university teaching than just being able to project your voice, prepare a good PowerPoint presentation or keep your students interested. Academics’ deeply held views about their students must be challenged. They need to question seriously how issues of identity, belonging, privilege, diversity, racism and sexism can be addressed explicitly in the classroom.

Who is best placed to shape university teachers who are more than just technically proficient? This work is done by academic developers in teaching and learning centres in most universities. However, we believe that to do this work well, academic developers themselves need to engage deeply with questions of teaching, curriculum design and transformation.

How academic development has changed

The field of academic development first emerged in South African higher education in the mid-1980s. Its initial purpose was to support the small numbers of black students who had been admitted to historically white, English-speaking universities earlier that decade.

This approach to academic development was in line with the view that students lacked some of the requisite skills and knowledge to learn successfully in their new contexts.

By the early 1990s it became clear that not only were students under-prepared for the university context, but that academics were ill-equipped to teach a rapidly growing and increasingly diverse student body to learn successfully. Academic development then also started to concern itself with curriculum and staff development.

Many academics have common sense views about student learning. They tend to believe, for instance, that if a student is failing a particular course this is a reflection only on the individual student’s abilities.

These and other normative views about teaching and learning need to be challenged. Those who have been in the field of academic development for a few decades have developed more nuanced conceptions of teaching and learning and have been instrumental in helping to build the now extensive knowledge base of the field.

Developing the developers

In South Africa, there are ongoing and urgent calls from a number of quarters for the transformation of higher education.

This discussion is happening alongside debates worldwide about how best to professionalise academic staff. Each country brings a particular set of challenges or circumstances in its own higher education landscape to the table.

Rhodes University’s Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning offers a postgraduate diploma in higher education. There has been, in recent years, an increasing demand for the centre to organise academic staff development courses for a number of institutions in South Africa and on the continent.

We felt it would be more beneficial for the field if the centre worked with academic developers rather than directly with academic staff. This equips academic developers with the knowledge and skills they need to offer staff development courses to the lecturing staff in their own institutions.

Why this approach works

The resulting postgraduate diploma for academic developers is, as far as we are aware, the first of its kind in the world. The programme this year welcomed its third cohort of academic developers from universities around South Africa. The country’s Department of Higher Education and Training funds bursaries for course participants, demonstrating the government’s commitment to improving higher education.

The diploma offers spaces for academic developers to have serious, intellectual conversations. Some of these are about the nitty-gritty of teaching. Other debates deal with the broader context referred to earlier. The course participants consider, for instance, how institutions, teachers, curricula and teaching need to change to contribute to enabling all students to access the “goods” of the university.

Once this work is done, academic developers can return to their own institutions armed with knowledge and skills that can be shared.

The Conversation

Lynn Quinn, Associate Professor of Higher Education Studies. Head of Department of the Centre for Higher Education, Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes University and Jo-Anne Vorster, Course Co-ordinator, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education News, Equity, HBCU's, Higher Education, Secondary Education

Three Ways Louisiana Is Getting Students Career-Ready

By requiring industry-based credentials for CTE students and encouraging all students to interact with industry professionals, Louisiana’s Jump Start program is revolutionizing career education

In Louisiana, only 19 percent of high school students go on to receive a four-year college degree. There are plenty of high-paying jobs available for the other 81 percent, but matching students with these opportunities and making sure they have the right credentials—like a two-year degree or industry certification—has always been a challenge.

For years, Louisiana students have been able to earn a Career Diploma as an alternative to a traditional academic diploma. But the program was seldom used, and students working toward a Career Diploma weren’t being adequately prepared for jobs in high-demand fields.

In short, there was little or no connection between Louisiana’s career education strategy and its workforce needs. State leaders knew they needed a better approach.

Read the rest of this article on the Huffington Post.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

Want free college? Then these two states may be good for you

The cost of college seems to be on the tips of tongues everywhere now. From members of the United States Senate to conversation overheard in church pews, tuition for entrance into an institution of higher education is now officially a hot button topic. Expect to see it discussed pretty heatedly in the upcoming Presidential election with all sorts of ideas on the docket.

Until then, there are some states making waves with their own plans to improve the cost of college for residents. To combat the rising cost of college, and maybe to appear more progressive, two states will offer free tuition to community college. Tennessee began to offer free tuition to community colleges last year and Oregon recently passed a bill that will do the same for students who reside in the state.

“This past week Oregon joined Tennessee when its Senate passed Senate Bill 81, also known as the Oregon Promise, to offer a free education at community college to eligible in-state students,” according to fool.com.

By the way, fool.com is short for The Motley Fool, an investment website.

Anyway, this comes behind President Obama’s proposal to offer free tuition to community college for any American citizen that may have interest. Of course that comes with limitations and rules but you get the idea.

So maybe Oregon and Tennessee were in front of Obama’s idea.

At any rate, hopefully more states will follow Oregon and Tennessee’s lead. Community college is a great way for any student to start a college “career,” and it’s also cost effective. Bravo to these states for setting a good example on both coasts.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

HBCU Students: How to brand yourselves in a global market

**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 William Jackson, Edward Waters College – Jacksonville, Florida

“Where you’ll be tomorrow is a result of the choices that you make today.” Lolita Harrison

The goal to be successful must start with a quality education at a HBCU, collaborated with planned networking opportunities that build relationships, and a vision for the path which you want to take not just while attending an HBCU, after graduation too. This process must start years before graduation, and certainly no later than the junior year of a student’s higher education academic career.

The influences of educational success, goal orientation, personal dreams and ambition play a role in the journey to success to graduation. The commencement services from higher education are not the end all and be all, the continuation of growth after graduation is important. An HBCU student’s mindset of education must be diligent in continuing their education and increased skill attainment.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that education, “is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.“

The undergraduate years are the foundation for the start of a career, networking is key for employment opportunities. Gaining new skill sets that make a person marketable in the real world. Creating relationships in the desired fields of study are valuable and necessary in a competitive world. We live in a global economy so the first step into a career may not even begin in the person’s native land. Making the proper connections, being qualified and certified in your discipline and having a passion for that area are important.

”Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Exposure is key to understand the skill sets needed to be successful, effective and promoting change. A person cannot be selfish in their desire to grow, because each of us stands on the shoulders of others to achieve our goals and aspirations. If you do not believe this statement look at the person(s) who are supporting you; parents, siblings, your church or those who even are praying for your success, no one is alone in their growth and development.

In the case of HBCUs there is a historical, cultural and even spiritual connection with the elders that have passed through the doorways, hallways, classrooms, lecture halls and even cafeterias that are on HBCU campuses. It goes without saying if you want to be a doctor learn from and hang with doctors, if you want to be an engineer learn from and hang with engineers; each has its personal costs and personal sacrifices. Chose well who you associate yourself with even in an online environment.

“If you don’t put anything in, you won’t get anything out.” William Jackson

This is what I tell my Educational Technology class about career choices and working to success. Each discipline requires effort in studying, research, application, growth and development. You cannot wait to be offered a chance to start a career, you have to go after what you want and sometimes take it. Greg Squires, a professor of sociology and public policy at George Washington University, said, “I think there is justification for Black schools to remain the way they were built, as vehicles for expanding opportunity for Black people and strengthening cultural pride and achievement.” HBCU students must understand that global implications of gaining and sharpening global skills that open doors to international applications to study and work abroad. Internationally HBCUs are already known due to the success of past graduates on a global scale. Black and Hispanic students that make up the majority of students at HBCUs must know they are just as important, valuable and relevant as their white counterparts.

HBCU students must be able to diversify their skill sets to meet and match the demands of a changing world and changing global structures and economics. HBCU students need to understand the dynamics of Branding and Marketing themselves, the building of Human Capital. Marketing has to be strategic and aligned with the Branding in the discipline you are in. Make sure you handle the roots of your Marketing by managing your Brand that develops the fruits of your labor and your Social Media content.

HBCU students need to be adaptable and flexible when opportunities arise they can apply for careers that have future implications in new areas of technology. There is a His-story, a Her-story, a We-story and a Us-story at HBCU institutions. Each student should be able to work to add Their-story to all the success stories.

Read all of our posts about HBCUs by clicking here.

____

 

William Jackson graduated from South Carolina State University earning a Bachelor’s degree in Education. He furthered his education earning a Master of Arts in Teaching from Webster University with a focus on Educational Technology. William is also a Social Media Consultant and a presenter on Bullying and Cyberbullying, STEAM/STEM, Internet Safety and his passion — Social Media SWAG. Visit his personal blogs: My Quest To Teach, Social Media and the Church of Christ, and on the Orlando Sentinel blog network HypeOrlando.  Follow him on Twitter @Wmjackson or contact him via email: [email protected].

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

3 Reasons Standardized Testing for Colleges is a Bad Idea

IiStandardized testing in K-12 education is a perennial hot button issue. Proponents feel that measuring knowledge in these rigid ways helps lift the entire educational system. Critics say the measurements do nothing but encourage “teach to the test” methods and narrow the scope of what instructors are able to teach if they want to have acceptable test results. These arguments are nothing new, but they are now seeing a new audience.

What if the same principles of K-12 standardized testing were applied to colleges and universities? Americans spend over $460 billion on higher educational pursuits every year, yet there is no official worldwide system in place to determine whether students are learning what they should, compared to other schools. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development unveiled research on whether a global testing system for college students is possible. The group will continue to review its findings and decide if it wants to push for implementation of the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes test, abbreviated as AHELO.

Right now the comparison system for colleges and universities lies in the many rankings that are released each year by sources like U.S. News & World Report and hundreds of bloggers who weigh in on the topic. The AHELO would be a “direct evaluation of student performance at the global level…across diverse cultures, languages and different types of institutions.” It would provide institutions feedback meant to help them “foster improvement in student learning outcomes.” In a nutshell, the test would not actually measure student achievements as much as shine the light on instructors that need some improvement.

To K-12 students, this sounds familiar. To college faculty, the idea is fraught with landmines. Why? Likely, it’s because of the following factors:

  1. How can one test take into account so many variables in higher education across the globe? Would instructors be punished by the institution, or even worse held to some misguided accountability scale by peers, if students did not rank highly enough on an AHELO, or some other test? If college is a time for fostering critical thinking skills, would a standardized test take away some of that freedom?
  2. College instructors and administrators are right to have doubts, and particularly before any testing mandates go into effect. Take the classic college entrance exams – the SAT and the ACT. Though research has found little correlation between results on these tests and actual knowledge or intelligence, they are a standard part of college admissions. It is more difficult to reverse a testing mandate than to fight it off at the outset.
  3. It is easy to see why colleges and universities are leery of standardized testing in colleges, but K-12 instructors should be too. Presently, K-12 instructors guide students through the formative education years, dealing with standardized tests and other demands of contemporary teaching. Success with those students is ultimately determined by two other numbers: graduation rate and college placement. At that point, a K-12 teacher’s job is done, at least in theory. Adding another layer of teacher testing (cleverly disguised as core knowledge testing) at the college level could have an impact on K-12 instructors too.If the AHELO is designed to “foster improvement” in the higher education schools that are tested, who is to say that those ideals of improvement will not then be extended to the K-12 schools that came beforehand? A student who demonstrates below-college-level proficiency in language or math would in theory not be the product of college that failed him or her – that student’s incompetency would be a result of a previous school, or schools. Could a global test for college actually negatively impact the K-12 schools that preceded it?

As with any measurement of teaching and learning, the AHELO and other similar initiatives need close scrutiny before becoming global law. I am not sure of the necessity of such a system and it will take some hard arguing by the other side to convince me otherwise.

Are you in favor of standardized testing in colleges and universities? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

A dean’s plea: let students discover knowledge without pressure to impress

Joann McKenna, Bentley University

Is today’s competitive environment making high school students pursue a polished resume and not their passion?

As a university vice president and an admissions dean, we’ve just finished contacting students whom we did admit, did not admit and would have liked to admit, but simply couldn’t.

Regardless of outcome, each group had in its midst students who have been caught up in the growing phenomenon of credentialism, a practice of relying on formal qualifications, that too often undermines what should be four wonderful years of self-discovery in high school.

More than a numbers game

Whether it’s taking an Advance Placement course that really doesn’t interest them, holding office in an organization because it will “look good,” on their resume or playing a sport that they really don’t enjoy, students are too often trying to impress, instead of trying to discover, enjoy and grow.

Every student seeking admission to college wants to present a “strong case.”

But what’s becoming increasingly clear to admission officers like me and to guidance counselors who advise high school students, is that “credentialism” is being practiced more and more by students, high schools and institutions of higher learning.

To some degree we have ourselves to blame.

College rankings rely heavily on metrics and lets face it, people love being on the “A” list. In some cases, the metrics are about the school; in others, about the students who apply and are admitted.

We begin, despite our best intentions, to question not whether a student is a good match for our institution but how admitting the student will affect our “profile.”

Too often I worry that colleges feel obligated to play the “numbers” game and admit students solely on the basis of board scores, grade scores, number of AP courses, number of extracurricular activities, number of recommendations and so on.

Students are not pursuing their passion

As a result, many students – urged on by their parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and, yes, colleges and universities – conduct their lives as though the only purpose is to build a resume to get into the “best” school they can.

So what’s wrong with that?

For colleges and universities,that means we assess students on professed interest and performance that don’t always reflect what the student is really all about and capable of doing. And that’s not good for the student or the institution.

It subverts our desire not just to recruit and admit a class but to create a class, one whose members will thrive synergistically, often energized more by their differences than by their similarities.

Students end up chasing the right courses to get into the right colleges.
Student image via www.shutterstock.com

For students, it turns their high school careers into a grab bag of experiences, many of which were pursued to impress others rather than for self-discovery and the pursuit of interests and excellence for their own sake.

Don’t get me wrong.

Many students are truly driven by the best motivations to understand their interests, abilities, and aspirations.

But too many are told they need to go to the right schools, study the right courses, participate in the right activities, have the right friends, volunteer for the right programs, plan for the right careers…and on and on.

What often results is an early and unwelcome appreciation for Thoreau’s observation that, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Too many students fail to understand that they are quintessentially “a work in progress,” always in the process of becoming, never finished. (Most adults aren’t much different.)

And in our rush to help them prepare for the rest of their lives, we prevent them from taking full advantage of what’s going on right now in their lives.

Students deserve better, from everybody who is pressuring them to display success to impress rather than for its inherent self-worth.

Colleges need to restore love for learning

Can colleges and universities help?

We can proclaim that we seek more than numbers, more than honors, more than achievement for its promotional value. And we can demonstrate our commitment by accepting students whose accomplishments are rooted in exploration, passion, self-discovery and even plain old fun.

We tell students that college is a launching pad for successful careers and lives. And that’s what it should be.

Both high schools and colleges may do students a grave disservice if we suggest that resume-building trumps exploration in pursuit of self-awareness and fulfillment.

So what should we be telling our young people as they undertake their journey to what we pray will be successful lives and careers?

Here are some things that I suggest to help guide that journey:

  • Establish what really matters to you so you’ll have a compass.
  • Invest in yourself. You have gifts that need to be developed.
  • Do the best with what you have. It’s OK if you aren’t good at some things.
  • Take risks. But be smart about it.
  • Own it – it’s your life. Take responsibility for it.
  • Build integrity; above all else, this is what matters.
  • Find mentors who inspire you.

This isn’t meant to be a “feel good” list.

And it isn’t just a list meant for the students. We must remain committed to a holistic evaluation.

As educators, we need to restore equity, perspective and a reverence for excellence for its own sake.

We need to connect our kids with the wisdom – from family, friends and trusted institutions – that previously helped each generation blossom, for their individual and collective benefit.

If we can’t come together to change the system, then shame on us.

The Conversation

Joann McKenna, Vice President for Enrollment Management, Bentley University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

Why commencement still matters

Ben Keppel, University of Oklahoma

We have entered one of the most pleasant rites of spring and summer – commencement season.

As a teacher at the University of Oklahoma for more than 20 years, I attend our ceremonies once every three years as part of my faculty responsibilities. Though my attendance is a service obligation of my department and my university, I inevitably end the evening vividly remembering the excellence in performance and character that I have witnessed over the past year.

I attend commencement – now without complaint – because I recognize that I need its ritual and ceremony as much as students and their families do. Even when the commencement speakers occasionally seem to be offering no more than another heaping helping of slow-roasted banalities, the totality of the experience – especially visiting with the families of my students – returns me, without fail, to the optimistic and idealistic frame of mind that led me to be a teaching scholar in the first place.

If ever I find myself unable to return to that emotional place, it will be a sure sign to me that it is time for me to move on.

So, what should we be thinking about at commencement – in addition to how far we have traveled on a difficult individual mission? To what other great works should we commit ourselves?

Money, dreams, debts and decisions

All the daydreams from which one’s future plans originate are idealized images that experience must and will “bring down to earth.” I used to wonder what my professors did with what I believed was the vast wasteland of time that existed between their class meetings with me and my colleagues.

I imagined them in their offices, relaxed and contemplating important problems from a safe distance. This vision, I now realize, conveys more about my own need for peace, reassurance and stability back in my teens and twenties than it did about what university faculty did or should do.

Of course, it did not occur to me to ask my professors what they did. I did not know that universities expect more of professors than teaching and research. I did not fully appreciate then that the same stress that I felt while striving to get an assignment “right” and done on deadline might also be integral to whatever career I would choose for myself.

I must note an additional difference between my life as a student and the student experience today: college cost far less when I attended 30 years ago than it does now.

Today, students graduate with a heavy burden of loans.
Hat image via www.shutterstock.com

I was able to save for two years (while living at home) so I could devote my junior and senior years entirely to my academic work. Boy, was I fortunate! I did not begin to incur any student debt until I was halfway through graduate school.

As college costs go up and as loans become an increasing part of a student’s load, the path that I followed between 1979 and 1984 is simply no longer open to many students whose economic situations resemble mine 30 years ago.

When we commit ourselves at commencement to renewing the highest values of our society, let us see what we can do to change this. If we do not, we run the risk of having students choose majors based solely on the always shaky promise that they will earn enough in this or that career to pay for school.

The teacher’s workplace has pressures

It is to the everlasting credit of my undergraduate mentors that I never learned that the academy is like any other workplace: people, possessed by vanity and anxiety, feud and compete over the stupidest things and sometimes act out of the worst of motives.

I have since learned that “hostile work environments” are not restricted to the corporate boardroom, the temporary cubicle office of the often equally temporary white collar worker, or those who toil at the modern versions of the assembly line.
I have had much to learn about this particular world of work. I am a fortunate one. To an extent that was not true in my student days, universities rely more and more on temporary and at-will employees to do the bulk of undergraduate teaching.

These highly trained faculty are far more vulnerable to all kinds of pressures –- including those from entitled students and their entitled parents when their “star pupil” is shown to be a cheater.

In addition to these kinds of pressures, of course, they are often not paid a living wage. As we observe the pageantry of commencement and as we recommit ourselves to doing good and doing better, we need to end these practices before they devalue the experience of learning for all concerned.

There is value in commencement

The University of Oklahoma canceled commencement this year because of a severe tornado threat. As difficult as this was for students, parents and faculty, it only changed the scene, not the substance, of that day.

Those who missed the chance to “walk” for their degree have the satisfaction of knowing that they were all part of a historic moment created by nature — and endured without loss of life or serious injury.

Because the value of struggling to improve one’s self and one’s world remains vibrantly alive among students and teachers the world over, commencement still matters, even when the ritual itself must occasionally be canceled to make way for stormy weather.

The Conversation

Ben Keppel, Associate Professor of History, University of Oklahoma

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

Is it OK to spank a misbehaving child once in a while?

Ronald W. Pies, SUNY Upstate Medical University

Spanking, or, as it’s formally known, “corporal punishment,” has been much in the news of late.

Out on the presidential campaign trail there was Senator Ted Cruz’s revelation that

If my daughter Catherine, the five-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking.

And recently, in Canada, following a call by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to prohibit spanking, the Liberal government has promised to abolish a parent’s right to physically discipline children. Along similar legal lines, in June 2015, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that the state was justified in denying foster parenting privileges to a couple who practiced corporal punishment and supported spanking or paddling children. The couple in the case had argued, unsuccessfully, that physical discipline was an integral aspect of their Christian faith.

According to a recent Washington Post article,

America is slowly growing less supportive of spanking children. But a majority of Americans still support it.

So, is it okay to spank a misbehaving child, every once in a while?

By way of personal disclosure, my wife and I don’t have children, and I try not to sit in lofty judgment of couples whose kids present very difficult behavioral problems. But as a psychiatrist, I can’t ignore the overwhelming evidence that corporal punishment, including spanking (which is usually defined as hitting a child with an open hand without causing physical injury), takes a serious toll on the mental health of children.

Why parents spank children

In a review of corporal punishment in the United States, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toledo Michelle Knox noted a striking irony in the American attitude toward corporal punishment.

In the United States, it is against the law to hit prisoners, criminals or other adults. Ironically, the only humans it is still legal to hit are the most vulnerable members of our society – those we are charged to protect – children.

What makes parents spank kids?
Lauren, CC BY-NC-ND

Knox, like many mental health professionals, cites a strong correlation between corporal punishment and child abuse, noting that “…spanking is often the first step in the cycle of child abuse.”

What may begin as the parent’s well-intentioned wish to discipline a child often ends with the parent’s mounting anger and worsening blows.

It isn’t that the parent is “evil” by nature or is a “child abuser.” Often, the parent has been stressed to breaking point, and is not aware of alternative methods of discipline – for example, the use of “time-outs,” removal of privileges and positive reinforcement of the child’s appropriate behaviors.

Impact of spanking on children

The psychological toll on children subjected to corporal punishment is well-documented.

In 2011, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNA) issued a statement noting that,

Corporal punishment (CP) is an important risk factor for children developing a pattern of impulsive and antisocial behavior…[and] children who experience frequent CP… are more likely to engage in violent behaviors in adulthood.

Similarly, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, in a 2012 statement, concluded that,

…although corporal punishment may have a high rate of immediate behavior modification, it is ineffective over time, and is associated with increased aggression and decreased moral internalization of appropriate behavior.

In short, spanking a child may seem helpful in the short term, but is ineffective and probably harmful in the long term. The child who is often spanked learns that physical force is an acceptable method of problem solving.

Parents vs. researchers

But wait: aren’t there exceptions to these general findings? Aren’t there times when a light rap on the backside can do a misbehaving child some good – or at least, not cause any significant harm?

Many parents think so, but most specialists would say there is little evidence to support such claims. That said, Dr Marjorie Gunnoe, a professor of psychology at Calvin College, and her colleague, Carrie Lea Mariner published a study in 1997 that concluded that, “for most children, claims that spanking teaches aggression seem unfounded.”

Gunnoe and Mariner argued that the effects of spanking may depend on the “meaning” children ascribe to it. For example, spanking perceived by the child as parental aggression (as opposed to nonaggressive limit setting) may be associated with subsequent aggressive behavior by the child.

Spanking can lead to child aggression.
Greg westfall, CC BY

And, to be sure, some parents have argued that it is the misbehavior of children that leads to spanking – not the reverse.

Nevertheless, there is a strong consensus in the mental health community that any form of corporal punishment can cause harm.

Dr Catherine A Taylor (of Tulane University) and colleagues concluded in a 2010 review that

…even minor forms of corporal punishment, such as spanking, increase risk for increased child aggressive behavior.

Furthermore, clinical studies have shown that reducing parents’ use of corporal punishment can reduce children’s subsequent aggression.

Parents who believe they have no alternative except to spank their misbehaving children do not need finger-wagging lectures from clinicians.

But they do need professional support and education, aimed at reducing their level of stress and increasing their use of alternatives to corporal punishment.

The Conversation

Ronald W. Pies, Professor of Psychiatry, Lecturer on Bioethics & Humanities, SUNY Upstate Medical University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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