Spring Break
Editorial: Low expectations
Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: Editorial/Opinion
02/20/09 - According to a study done by the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, the average SAT score has gone down 35 points since 1972, while the national average has gone down 19.
But despite a drop in scores, college enrollments are on the rise. In that same time frame, national enrollment has risen from six million to 13 million, according the U.S. Department of Education statistics for 2007.
The acceptance of students that settle for mediocre test scores is helping enrollment numbers, but not much else.
In today's world of online learning, it has proven difficult to go above and beyond required readings and forced discussion topics without a face-to-face connection. While professors are working on helping these new digital age classes, where is the work in real classrooms?
Without a passion for what a student is learning, there will be little retained after grades come out. If a student is reading, "just to read," and the test merely regurgitates what is being done in the reading, what has that student honestly learned?
Yet even though students are skating by in classes, their expectations for an A or B is far less than what some might consider deserving.
According to a recent New York Times article, a third of students surveyed at a Californian school said they had expectations for a B grade just by attending lectures, while another 40 percent said a B was deserved if they did the required reading.
While effort should be taken into consideration, it can only help a student to a point. If the student is truly spending all the time he or she says on homework, the professor should be able to see improvement in discussion, in tests and a vested interest in the classroom.
The article also stated a common thought in the minds of college students. "Attributing the outcome of a failure to someone else is a common problem."
There are good professors, there are great professor and yes, there are bad professors, but at the end of the day, it is up to the student to take an interest in what he or she is learning and apply it to their day-to-day lives.
Students today have become too accustomed to taking what is given to them, memorizing it, then casting it aside. How can we expect to teach others what we haven't taught ourselves?
With low expectations of what it takes to achieve even a B, higher education will be hard-pressed to find an exceptional A-student that can make a difference after he or she leaves the esteemed university.
But despite a drop in scores, college enrollments are on the rise. In that same time frame, national enrollment has risen from six million to 13 million, according the U.S. Department of Education statistics for 2007.
The acceptance of students that settle for mediocre test scores is helping enrollment numbers, but not much else.
In today's world of online learning, it has proven difficult to go above and beyond required readings and forced discussion topics without a face-to-face connection. While professors are working on helping these new digital age classes, where is the work in real classrooms?
Without a passion for what a student is learning, there will be little retained after grades come out. If a student is reading, "just to read," and the test merely regurgitates what is being done in the reading, what has that student honestly learned?
Yet even though students are skating by in classes, their expectations for an A or B is far less than what some might consider deserving.
According to a recent New York Times article, a third of students surveyed at a Californian school said they had expectations for a B grade just by attending lectures, while another 40 percent said a B was deserved if they did the required reading.
While effort should be taken into consideration, it can only help a student to a point. If the student is truly spending all the time he or she says on homework, the professor should be able to see improvement in discussion, in tests and a vested interest in the classroom.
The article also stated a common thought in the minds of college students. "Attributing the outcome of a failure to someone else is a common problem."
There are good professors, there are great professor and yes, there are bad professors, but at the end of the day, it is up to the student to take an interest in what he or she is learning and apply it to their day-to-day lives.
Students today have become too accustomed to taking what is given to them, memorizing it, then casting it aside. How can we expect to teach others what we haven't taught ourselves?
With low expectations of what it takes to achieve even a B, higher education will be hard-pressed to find an exceptional A-student that can make a difference after he or she leaves the esteemed university.
