WILL JACUZZI HIGH BE NEXT?

Survey: High school fails to engage students. Read it and weep.

A majority of high school students in the USA spend three hours or less a week preparing for classes yet still manage to get good grades, according to a study being released today by researchers who surveyed more than 90,000 high school students in 26 states.

Remember this? Keep that as context for what follows in the article.

The team at Indiana University in Bloomington calls the findings "troubling." The first large study to explore how engaged high school students are in their work, it adds to a growing body of evidence that many students are not challenged in the classroom.
Just 56% of students surveyed said they put a great deal of effort into schoolwork; only 43% said they work harder than they expected to. The study says 55% of students devote no more than three hours a week to class preparation, but 65% of these report getting A's or B's.

Hmm, learning the new college lack-of-try in high school.

Surprisingly, 18% of college-track seniors did not take a math course during their last year in high school. That could help explain why studies show that 22% of college students require remediation in math.

The Indiana study also found that 82% of students said they planned to enroll in some form of post-secondary education, and most said they expected to earn at least a bachelor's degree. But the study says "a substantial gap exists" between what students do in high school and what they will be expected to do in college.

Martha McCarthy, a senior professor at Indiana University who directs the research project, says the results should serve as "a wake-up call. There is a need for students to work harder and do more rigorous coursework" if they are going to be ready for college. Research has found that one-quarter of students in four-year colleges require substantial remedial work.

Yes, and it is not unknown for the universities to find virtue in adversity. I offer for your consideration a promotional poster from my own increasingly expense-preference-ridden university.

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(This is an offering from the College of Education's Department of Literacy Education, and not a single intensifier has been sacrificed in the transcription.) Why bother the high schools with college preparation if the colleges will offer COLLEGE CREDIT FOR COLLEGE PREPARATION? As Dave Barry would put it, I don't have to make this stuff up.

The article goes on to note that conditions get easier the further one gets into high school. (To an extent this is true of universities as well.)

The study found that as students advance through high school, they are less likely to feel challenged to do their best work. Researchers also found that a higher proportion of students are likely to spend four or more hours a week doing personal reading online than doing assigned reading for their classes.

McCarthy says students' positive attitudes toward school were highly correlated with coming to class prepared, participating in discussions and getting prompt feedback from teachers. But 56% of students said they never or only sometimes get prompt feedback.

Students do notice, colleagues, whether they get their assignments and examinations returned quickly or not, and it does affect their performance. To the folks more interested in measuring output and costs, however, careful and prompt grading and preparation are less important than lower costs per credit hour. Here's how the Northern Star covers that side of the story.

Instructors cost half as much as professors and are four times more cost effective, said John Dickerman, instructor in biological sciences and grievance officer for the instructors’ union.

A full professor makes about $76,912, while an associate professor makes about $58,768 and an assistant professor makes about $51,641. An instructor makes about $32,768 a year, according to NIU’s 2003-2004 Data Book. This is the reason for the increase in instructors and decrease in professors, Dickerman said.

A full-time instructor teaches eight classes per year, while professors teach about four to five classes per year because they are involved with research and publications, he said.

People assume professors are better teachers, Dickerman said, but instructors are more focused on teaching and spend more time in the classroom.

Dickerman does not see the increase in instructors as necessarily a bad thing for students."Instructors are not treated as professionals and colleagues here, there is a prejudice against instructors." he said. "Instructors are full-time teachers, that’s what we do."

The article neglects to note that many of the instructors are active in their own research programs, despite a general neglect by the university of that part of their professional development. It also neglects to note the many committees that can distract faculty members, and the many forms that have to be filled in in order to measure the easily observed.

Sophomore accountancy major Silvia Delcarpio, said instructors get better with time. Some tenured professors are not doing a good job, but because they have tenure, nothing can be done to change them, she said.

From the administration ... to repeat, words are plentiful, deeds are precious.

Due to state budget cuts, NIU has suffered a great deal in the last four years, withstanding a $40 million cut from the budget, said Ivan Legg, executive vice president and provost. This created a hiring freeze on tenure and tenure-track faculty.

[Human Resources vice-president Steve] Cunningham said he does not believe the decrease in state funds and faculty is all negative without.

"NIU has very lean numbers of staff and faculty to cover the scope of the university," Cunningham said. "That’s a good thing, that’s the model that we seek to achieve- leanness and efficiency."

However, he cautions this affects faculty and students because of the strain it may put on the faculty teaching too many classes and students who should be getting the best possible education.The problem of decreasing tenure and tenure-track faculty needs to be dealt with quickly, he said.

Right, by confining the social science departments to the broom closet and hiring additional advisors to find those open sections of Study Strategies.