The Push to Graduate

California colleges, like all others nationally,  have been pushed to graduate students.  The first thought that most professors have is that not all students are ready for college.  The drop out rate often is the byproduct of our aggressive recruiting because of the pressure to get students into college - if they are ready or not.  Professors are always amazed at the students who come without better reasons than all of their friends are in college, their mother wants them in college and that they will be handed a high paid job the day after graduation.

Those students who are not realistically motivated or mature often do not make it beyond the Sophomore year, hence the large drop out rate happens within the first two years. This happens nationally.  There is little as professors that we can do to reach, or even identify, those students when they are sitting in a classroom of 150 or more students and not interested in seeking us out.

But what about the students who are motivated, mature and intent on graduating.  Not all of them leave college having failed.  Sometimes the system fails students as they try to play the game of getting all the classes they need lined up in a row.   Not getting perquisite classes early in their first years of college can cause them to add on an extra year or more.   Not being able to take upper level required courses for graduation puts them behind also.

To those who do not understand how colleges manage their finances,  it seems simple, just make sure there are lots of course offerings so that students can easily take those prerequisites and required upper level courses.  That would put colleges in the red.  It takes 14 to 18 students in a class for the college to squeak by to cover the cost.  Offering all required courses each semester would break the bank.  In addition, upper level courses most often require full time tenured or tenured track professors, expensive labs, complex assignments and more preparation time for faculty.  Professors that qualify to teach these courses often have a teaching load of one or two classes a semester.  Most universities are not staffed sufficiently to be able to offer all the courses students need each semester.

California legislators have come up with an interesting solution: give students credit  "for faculty-approved online courses".  These courses are Massive Open Online Courses MOOCs.  I think this could work.

The high drop out rate for MOOCs is attributed to students lack of motivation, self discipline and direction, which is the case for most online courses that do not have heavy involvement with faculty and other students.  Also it is thought that a large majority of the persons who enroll do so without the intent to complete the course.  Students who need a MOOC  to graduate and are replacing it with a course they need, will be motivated, have the self discipline and will have contact with their university professor, advisor and other students in the same situation.  Their intent will be to complete the course.

The university will not be losing money when students take the courses because students will be on track for graduation, stay with the university that gives them credit for the course and, frankly, as an employer  I would certainly hire a student who demonstrated that could manage the system of college wisely in a manner that showed motivation, self discipline and cleverness.   

One always hesitates to agree with legislation that legislators dream up, but this one might work.  Often we become so concentrated on the students that come to college without direction that we miss those students who are at risk for leaving because of our own system's lack of ability to provide a timely path to graduation.  In addition, now that Pell Grants have lowered the number of semesters from 18 to 12 the need to provide students with a sure fire path to a four year degree in four years is going to be a necessity unless we want to see more students drop out because of expired funding.