Debate about American Higher Education - Essay Example

An overview of the debate about American higher education, including references to at least three outside sources The big success that US has achieved in creating unprecedented wealth and prosperity for its people and the larger world through innovation and higher learning throughout the twentieth century culminated in the information technology revolution and coming of a new knowledge-based economy where human beings were its biggest capital.  But though its highly developed educational system has a fair role to play in this success story; alongside has run various faults which are parallel and do not help realize its full potential.     Today, in addition to long-standing problems such as racial inequity in education, new challenges like economic recession and falling value of dollar have only made the problem worse to such an extent that it is feared that US needs urgently to reform its higher education system or it will lose its unique position of strength and competitiveness.  (Blue Ribbon Commission) The Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher education further observes: “Out of every ten 9th graders nationally, only three will obtain an associate’s or bachelor’s degree on time. These results simply are not good enough. We need more people attending and finishing college with a certificate or degree in order to keep up and move up in the global economy.” (Blue Ribbon Commission)   In order to maintain its global competitiveness, the US society should not afford to underestimate the importance of its human resource.  This is even more so important in this new knowledge-based economy where knowledge is its main capital.  Proportion of public funding on higher education has declined over the years in many states.  For example, the state of Connecticut in 1989 received 6.6 percent of the state’s budget.  It declined to 3.9 percent in 1997 and then rose slowly to a peak of 4.5 percent in 2001.  It is again estimated to be 3.9 percent for 2010 budget, matching 1997 low of 3.9 percent.  The trend of reduction in proportional funding within the higher education over the period of 1990s was typical for many states.  This led to the rise in tuition fees for several students.  (Connecticut Public Higher Education)  Such rising costs did not serve the cause of already reeling Blacks and other economically disadvantaged class.  (Johnson)  In the meantime, US has been reduced to only two nations where young population (25-34 years old) is less educated than its older population (35-44 years old)  (Blue Ribbon Commission). This reflects how terrific the situation is, when it comes to higher education.  Over the years, it tried to compensate its higher demand and lower supply of trained labor through its liberal immigration policy.  The strategy worked well, but now under economic recession and the highest unemployment rate that US has since 1983, such immigrants are taking the jobs from US citizens  (US jobless rate raises to over 10%). Many researchers claim so.   There is intense disagreement on SAT and other standardized tests, which are accused by critics of not fair representative of candidate’s potential. (Steinberg) When it comes to capacity building in learning organizations, it is said that multicultural candidates face discrimination because of their not so much exposure in English and American culture.  It is reported that California has a barrier of entry into their educational field by CBEST test.  In this test, a prospective teacher has to write an essay in English in less than 30 minutes.  In many occasions, it has been found that a complete application form with excellent grades, excellent recommendations, and excellent disposition has to be turned off because the candidate could not clear the CBEST or CSET exams.  These tests are mandated by state and prevent many qualified multicultural applicants from entering the field.    It is argued that US should evolve a testing method, which is not unfairly biased with just measuring IQ  (intelligence quotient).  Management thinkers like Gladwell suggests that other parameters such as timely submission of home assignments should be included. (Gladwell)   Moreover, appropriateness of grading of students into homogenous groups right from young age of 6 or 7 years is repeatedly questioned.   The plan to reform educational system through No Child Left Behind policy, signed by President Bush Jr. in 2002, is believed to be for the most part a failure.  (Dooher).  Thus, ongoing discussions and debate on exploring other options are as heated as it was ever in this tough time of economic recession and challenges faced in terms of maintaining global competitiveness.  The target for higher education reform in specific terms is to increase the number of graduates and high-skilled professionals to maintain its global competitiveness.  (Blue Ribbon Commission)  The future of higher education: How technology will shape learning - analysis The editorial team of The Economist Intelligence Unit reported on the role of technology in the future of higher education and the way technology will direct the process of learning. It goes without saying that the role of technology in our present learning system is indispensable.  It is a catalyst, which increases our capability many times at all stages.  The report stresses on cost reduction and distance education facilities via online learning approach. Using devices, which facilitate networking, sharing of ideas, and personal expression, todays learners have high expectations.  How to make it happen through judicious use of resources such as, Web 2.0 is one of the many tasks of today’s administrator in the learning organization.  It is not just learning to access the information but to teach our students what to access and what not to access.  As we know, there is no dearth of information available today in the form of Internet and other modern technologies.  The challenge that teachers face today is how to skillfully produce their educational gadgets which can address the direct needs of students and how to motivate students, imbibe a sense of interest among them, so that students can feel an urge to carry their learning by themselves further.  Thus, giving the basics, guiding, motivating are important, so that our learners can develop interest.    Now that our learners can keep in touch through network at sites like MySpace, and share their idea with the world with Twitter, and create media with the help of YouTube and Jumpcut, it is unlikely that they are going to be content sitting through a three-hour lecture delivered in traditional fashion.  The passive information gathered from televisions has given way to a new generation of learners where they have the choice to actively seek what they are looking for.  The rapid advancement in information technology has changed the way of learning and learning experience once and for all. As per the findings of the editorial team higher education with the help of technology is now reacting towards and popularizing globalization. Web 2.0 is a fresh innovation in the World Wide Web that offers a new channel of fast interactive networking to web visitors. These latest features have led to the amazing growth of web-based communities.  Web 2.0 is an umbrella term for advanced form of the World Wide Web. While visitors could only retrieve information from Web 1.0, Web 2.0 is more interactive with features that allow the users to write features and opinions at free will.  Many believe, as part of a learning organization, we are about to have the biggest discussion on education: How do we learn?  Though, no child can learn alphabets and basics without the active help of a teacher or parents, the role of teacher in modern world is no more giving information, which is already available in ample in internets and other form of technology. It is believed that the focus of teachers now should be on producing quality educational gadgets and making our learners understand the basics, and helping them where they falter or cannot make headway.  This will be an interesting shift.  However as rightly noted by the participants form universities, “a lack of adequate instructional design staff and other technological support issues can also impede the adoption of new technologies” (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2008). Thus, the popularity of technology and online education in the sphere of higher education rests on the right handling of resources and appropriate teaching by the staffs. Problems of funds in higher education Today, many of our schools and universities receive funding from various foundations, which is so crucial for them. It is generally believed that foundations, while making a grant, should not impose their own personal likings on how they want to achieve the goal in specific.  Administration works best when grantees have the flexibility to take their own decisions and little or no interference from their foundations.  The aspirations of foundations and grantee are often good and noble, but may still look each other with suspicion.  Many a times, it has elements of personal interest.  As noted by Heifetz, this old view of leadership has been replaced in recent years by a much more systemic and dynamic view of social change in which people and institutions that lead are not expected to know the answer and bear the responsibility for problem solving, but rather to create and sustain the conditions through which stakeholders take the necessary responsibility themselves for tackling tough problems and derive answers more adaptive to the politics, culture, and history of their situation. This is far more realistic and takes into account various dynamics, which the administrators in institutions such as schools and universities have to face while bringing a change or reform.  (Heifetz, Kania, & Kramer)  One of the cases, studied by Heifetz, Kania, & Kramer involving donor and grantee relationship in educational system is of three Pittsburgh foundations, who on July 10, 2002, indefinitely suspended all funding to the Pittsburgh public schools.  They had awarded $11.7 MM to the district over the last 5 years.  The foundations made their decision of suspending fund, known through a joint news conference, a shift from their usual behavior of working behind the scenes.  The foundations referred their action as the result of complete loss of confidence in the fiscal discipline of the public schools.  The school board reacted angrily and accused the foundations of using money as a threat.  The incident got huge media attention, as intended by foundations.  It caught the attention of many stakeholders, parents, voters, taxpayers, who were not at all happy with the way things were going in these schools.  $11.7 MM was only a minuscule sum to the total money that Pittsburgh school had used, and the future commitment of these foundations was not too significant, and if not disclosed to the media, it would have gone unnoticed. But, such was the public outcry that within a month, a Mayor’s Commission on Public Education was formed, which conducted the first comprehensive analysis of the state of affair in these schools, including recommendations for change. It included 38 members from diverse fields, involving cross section of business, civic, religious and educational leaders.  The report released one year later was scaring and many of the problems were traced to dysfunctional school board, paralyzed by internal acrimony.  The report got widespread media coverage, and at the next voting in early 2004, the president and most of the members were voted out of the office.  It is a case where the motive of foundation was to change the way money was used to deliver the system.  It was not happy with its grantees.  So, it used its power of money and the attention it could attract to realize its objective.  (Heifetz, Kania & Kramer).        Works Cited 1.  “American Higher Education In Urgent Need of Reform, State Legislators Say.”  NCSL NEWS.  National Conference of State Legislatures.  27  November, 2006.  Retrieved on 11  November, 2009 from http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Education/NCSLPressReleaseAmericanHigherEducationMust/tabid/12835/Default.aspx   2.  Connecticut Public Higher Education.  2009 System Trends. Report.  2009.  Retrieved on 11 November, 2009 from http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:RClWtP3QdjMJ:www.ctdhe.org/info/pdfs/2009/SystemTrends2009.pdf+the+state+of+Connecticut,+higher+education+received+6.6+percent+of+the+state%E2%80%99s+budget.+It+declined+to+3.9+percent+in+1997,+after+rising+slowly+to+a+peak+of+4.5+percent+in+2001&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in  3.  Dooher, Tom.  “Enough, already, of the current No Child Left Behind law.”  MPR News.  Minnesota Online News Source.  1 September, 2009.  Retrieved on 12 September, 2009 from http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/09/01/dooher/  4  Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. LITTLE BROWN & CO. 2008  5.  Heifetz, Ronald A, Kania,  John V,  and Kramer, Mark R., “The Dilemma of Foundation Leadership”  Retrieved on 11 November, 2009 from: http://www.cambridge-leadership.com/downloads/articles/FoundationLeadership.pdf  6.  Johnson, Todd.  “SAT scores still low for African-American youth.” The Grio. 28 Aug. 2009. Retrieved on 12 November, 2009 from http://www.thegrio.com/2009/08/sat-scores-still-low-for-african-american-youth.php  7.  National Conference of State Legislatures.  Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education.  Retrieved on 11 November, 2009 from http://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/documents/educ/NCSLBroFnlPFR.pdf  8. Steinberg, Jacques.  “Blue Books Closed, Students Protest State Tests.” 13 April, 2000.  New York Times.  Retrieved on 12 November, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/13/us/blue-books-closed-students-protest-state-tests.html?pagewanted=all  9. The Economist Intelligence Unit , The future of higher education: How technology will shape learning, 2008, retrieved on November 14, 2009 from: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Future-of-Higher-Ed-(NMC).pdf 9.  US Census Bureau.  Facts for Features.  Black (African-American) History  Month: February 2009.  Retrieved on 11 November, 2009 from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/013007.html  10.    “US jobless rate rises to over 10%.”  BBC World. 6 November, 2009.  Retrieved on 12 November, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8346936.stm      Read More