The Ideology of College

 

The second part of the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, focusing on student achievement, is out, and it’s a compelling read. Most notably for me, the survey digs into how students and educators view post-secondary education.

 

I’ve jumped into the ideology of college for all. It’s a high and important aim to set early. Jared Bernstein, chief economist of Vice President Biden, pushed me over the edge. Mr. Bernstein visited my students earlier this year and distributed a simple bar graph titled “Learn More, Earn More.” The stark numbers on how education pays were eye-opening to many of the juniors and seniors. Here are the average American salaries based on levels on education:

 

$20,246 – High school dropout

 

$27,963 – High school graduate

 

$48, 097 – College graduate

 

$58,522 – Masters Degree

 

$87,775 – Professional Degree

 

This was news to students at my college-prep DC charter school. If they don’t know about the concrete financial rewards of education, then their counterparts around the country in less college-prep-intensive environments surely don’t.

 

They need to. As the Survey points out, “An estimated 85% of current jobs and nearly 90% of fast growing and well paying jobs depend on some form of postsecondary education.”

 

College is crucial. It’s a jolt to read in the Survey related that only 50% of teachers expect that their students will attend a two- or four-year college. If this is still the case in ten years, that will be very sad. We need to put in place the structures (early reading initiatives, intimate learning environments, personal connections to positive role models, substantive college counseling…) to place young people on what Harlem Children’s Zone founder Geoffrey Canada calls “a conveyor belt” to college. Students can’t afford not to go. The disparity in wages between a high school grad and a college grad over a forty-year career approaches a million dollars. That million dollar boost from a college degree represents the chasm between a middle-class life and a life that is often one misstep away from catastrophe.

 

It’s also alarming that while only half of teachers expect their students to attend college, 79% of students say they plan to go. (Sixty-nine percent have a four-year college program in their sights.) Why the disconnection between teachers’ expectations and students’ hopes? It’s easy for critics to leap on teachers for a “soft bigotry of low expectations,” as George W. Bush put it. Brash rhetoric, though, doesn’t change the reality that not all students today demonstrate the basic tools (time-management, fundamental reading/writing skills, self-advocacy, personal responsibility, etc.) to succeed in college.

 

However, students’ tools are not immutable. For example, a tenth-grader who rarely submits assignments and mouths off in ugly ways to her teachers may, by graduation, pull together the skills and motivation needed to go after the right carrot. I have massive reservations about some of my students’ abilities to handle the academic rigor and independence of college life. However, I try to press forward with my school community with the goal that we can right the ship and minimize the collateral damage of lost time. Metamorphoses can occur. I expect 90% or more of my 11th and 12th-grade students to go to college. I expect almost all of them to finish. Are my expectations legitimate or fantasy? The Washington Post tells me that only 9% of D.C. high school freshman graduate from college.

 

College graduation rates may be the strongest indicator for America’s economic future, and I think White House economist Jared Bernstein agrees. It’s time to make college readiness a centerpiece in all of our country’s schools. As the Survey points out, gaps between students’ plans and teachers’ expectations may be perpetuating an underachieving cycle that needs breaking.

Comments

[Anthony Cody]

Dan,
Thanks for your thoughts on the importance of college. But I have some questions that I have not figured out the answers to.

1. We are seeking to educate more students for college but I am not sure the middle class jobs being promised are actually there for them now, or will be in the future when our current students graduate. Recent college graduates seem to be very hard hit in our current downturn, and we seem to be looking at a "jobless recovery." How will the job prospects for college graduates change if we increase their numbers even further?

2. Why are college graduation rates an indicator of our economic future? i have read that some parts of India have many thousands of college graduates, but jobs have not materialized there for them. I see a number of other economic indicators that seem much more powerful than our ability to fill jobs with college graduates.

3. Current public policies are starving our school systems of funding. This is making colleges significantly more expensive and harder to get into. Is college even a realistic option for students without family money to pay for it? And could colleges absorb any more students assuming we were successful at preparing more of our students?

My fear is that this might become an exercise in frustration for teachers and students, because if the avenues to success are not actually viable, we may be goading people onto a path that will only permit a small number to succeed, and leave many disappointed.

[DanBrownTeacher]

Anthony,

I appreciate your thoughtful comment. Here are my thoughts:

1. The idea that there aren't enough good jobs to go around sits uncomfortably with me. A nationwide postsecondary-ed prep initiative would truly pay off in a generation. If America is going to remain a global leader, it needs to open up new sectors of white-collar (or green-collar) jobs. We need to grow the work force and grow the pool of qualified people to accomodate that growth. Is America really tapped out of good jobs--- no more need apply?

2. Maybe college grad rates aren't the #1 indicator. But how can we be competitive/innovative if our population isn't increasing its most competitive/innovative/educated ranks?

3. You're right that paying for college right now can be oppressive and unfair. To me, that indicates a need to push for reforms of student lending practices, more public money available, and reasonable caps on tuition. I don't think it means we should shy away from encouraging students to get that education. My daughter is going to college and there are no two ways about it.

[Anthony Cody]

Dan,
Thanks for your response. On one level I agree with you that as teachers, we should do our best to prepare our students to excel. But when we look at the bigger picture, I still wonder if we are deluding ourselves when we proclaim the goal of sending all to college, as if the schools alone can achieve this -- and are to blame if it is not achieved.

I hear this emphasis being used as another justification for beating up on "failing schools." I think there are real reasons people perceive that education is not going to fulfill its promise, and we need to address those problems in our economy rather than continue to blame the schools.

It is indeed possible that America is "tapped out," if we continue the intense concentration of wealth currently underway. And my fear is that if we continue to ignore these underlying patterns and instead pin our hopes on preparing people for a middle class future that is vanishing, we may wind up in big trouble, and our students may take on debt to prepare for an future that is an illusion.