Thursday, May 27, 2010
Education Degree of Graduates
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Thu, May 27, 2010 at 8:45 AM
For this week's print edition — the one with the dice on the cover — I wrote about Leadership Memphis' college attainment initiative.
Based on research done by Joe Cortright for CEOs for Cities — which said that a one percent increase in college attainment could equal a $1 billion talent dividend for the local economy — Leadership Memphis wants to increase college attainment to almost 25 percent over the next five years.
A college degree doesn't necessarily guarantee economic prosperity but, along with children born out of wedlock, it is a strong indicator of whether or not a person will fall below the poverty line.
One of the initiative's early focuses is on those people who started college but, for whatever reason, never finished, and how to remove the obstacles to get them back in school. I put out a call for those people last week and heard some very interesting responses about their experiences.
Some found jobs within their chosen fields during college and never looked back.
David Lindsey says he was the victim of his own success in the restaurant business. As the GM of Sekisui Pacific Rim, he was making enough money to support his family, and given the choice between a good job or staying in school, he chose to drop out.
"The fact that most of my wait staff at the time had bachelors degrees didn't really motivate me to stay in school, either," he says.
Others say they left for a variety of reasons and just never made it back. Deaths in the family figured prominently in several instances, as did the sheer time and expense involved in going back to school.
Wendi Sumner-Winter has seen the problem from both sides. After high school, she waited a year before going to college. Once she enrolled at 19, however, she says she "slipped through the cracks."
"No one seemed to know I was there," she says. "It's hard to commit to it when there doesn't seem to be any way to become part of the college culture."
Within one semester, she went from being an A student to failing a class, an F that still haunts her transcripts. Because, at 30, after years of being a chef, she enrolled at CBU. Then, after she graduated, she enrolled in the MFA program in creative writing at the U of M.
“I’m kind of amazed, now, as a teacher myself, that no one noticed the nose-dive, especially in a freshman,” she says of her experience. "I think it's that way for any student who doesn't go straight from high school to college. I see this with my students, freshman mostly, all the time.
"The non-traditional students, while often doing fairly well in the courses, have a much harder time entering the culture of college, and with managing their lives as as student, plus being parents, working full time, having less-than-stellar study skills. ... No provision is made to help them get back int the game successfully."
Sumner-Winter thinks that counseling and study skills classes could help non-traditional students, if at the very least, to put them together with a core group of people who are facing similar challenges and experiences.
"Another issue is that non-traditional students do not have as many financial options. Often they have a household income that disqualifies them for grants, and so they have to take loans," she says. "Scholarships are almost exclusively geared toward kids matriculating from high school."
Comments (9)
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Yes, I fall into the I supposedly make too much money & not young enough for grants. Wonderful catch 22.
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There is a growing belief among prominent educators, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05…, sociologists and economists http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405…; http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,…; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte… that, especially given the high number (40%) of students who don't get a degree in six years (much less four), not everyone needs to (or even should) attend college, and that with the cost of a college education increasing at a rate that far outstrips the rate of inflation, and the paucity of jobs for college graduates even if/when they graduate, it's a lousy investment as well.
Leadership Memphis which, if nothing else, has outlived its usefulness (if it ever really had any, other than as window dressing, or to salve the guilty consciences of local corporations for their abysmal records on diversity), is, once again, way behind the curve.
JUst as "every child, college bound" is a complete farce for MCS. What would be wrong with actually teaching students technical skills in high school that could prepare, along with basic academic abilities such as reading and doing math at a H.S. level, a student for an actual job upon graduation from MCS?
"which said that a one percent increase in college attainment could equal a $1 billion talent dividend for the local economy "
Does this quote come from a college grad or a pamphlet selling something?
Research has consistently shown that increases in college grads leads to increases in research about the social economic implications of such rates and the rates in which articles appear that take complex mathematical assumptions and convert them into single sentences.
Good grief! I've been saying this for years and have even posted it on here numerous times... not everyone is cut out for, wants to go go, or gives a shit about college. MCS should be investing in the Vo tech programs that have gone by the wayside over the years. No matter how many people get college degrees there is still going to be a need for electricians, mechanics, HVAC, plumbers, carpenters, and the list goes on and on. Besides that, if a kid can graduate HS and go directly into the work force as an apprentice they will be paying taxes as opposed to living on mom and pop's dime or government loans, grants, and social programs. I guess that since I don't have a PhD in Education that this is just all speculation.
Another perspective: bargain vs. prestige http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05…
This hits close to home: I told my kids Penn State was plenty good (which it is, judging by US News' ratings), but no, it had to be Columbia and Brown. I think the value of the "prestige" schools isn't so much in any difference in educational quality as in the "old boy" network they create and the doors they open.
So let me get this straight...you want to live in a city (metro area) that has fewer than one in four citizens age 25 and older without a college degree? Knowing that education is the antidote for poverty, crime and many of the social ills that challenge a community - and cripple Memphis? Knowing that 68% of the new jobs developed between now and 2018 will require a degree? Knowing that a high school degree doesn't get you very far in today's economy? Knowing that the number of college educated individuals living in our city decreases instead of increases every day. You are happy with the status quo, or further deterioration of the city - doing nothing to improve the community? Leadership Memphis hasn't announced plans to get everyone in Memphis a degree. We want a one percentage point increase - or 8002 degrees - over the next five years. And we recognize and have involved every institution that provides any sort of post-secondary education within the Memphis metro area - because every year of additional education makes someone that much more employable. And companies that consider moving to Memphis often walk away because the workforce isn't educated enough, just as companies locally often decline to expand here because the workforce isn't educated enough. Is the existing higher education system perfect? No. Much can and is being done to improve completion rates. Is every child who graduates from high school ready for college? No. Much can and is being done to address this, as well. Should everyone who started but didn't finish college - go back to college now? No. But some could and should. The point being made with the Memphis Talent Dividend initiative is that if YOU are not in college, you ought to be helping someone who is (be successful in their college experience), or help someone who ought to be in college (get into and be successful in college). If that is a graduate degree, bachelors, associates, certificate, whatever - it all helps. If someone truly (and I mean truly) doesn't belong in college - okay - "Why waste the resources?" But if someone truly (and I mean truly) does belong in college - and isn't - then the same question applies - "Why waste the resources?"
"The world needs ditch-diggers, too." - Judge Smails
It doesn't help when the college requirements for a job increase without any actual need for more college-based education. My father's last job was training college graduates, even though he didn't have the degree and couldn't have been hired to do the jobs he was training them to do.
Or my friend, who was a contractor, applied for his own job when the company decided to make it a staff position, and was turned down because he didn't have the required masters degree. But they kept him on the payroll for another month, so he could train the person they hired to do the job he wasn't educated enough to perform.
There are better ways to prepare people for a life of gainful employment than our 1,000 year system of training monks to copy books. But nothing can be done about changing that system as long as employers require advanced degrees for jobs that could be done by well-trained technical college graduates.
Me, I blame the Baby Boomers, who protected their jobs by constantly increasing the educational requirements for their replacements. And I blame the corporations who, seeking any excuse to not pay people what they're worth, required their employees to increase their worth by obtaining pointlessly advanced degrees.
My coworker is still paying off his student loan - 10 years down the road. The cost of college is rising so fast that before long, only the very rich, the very poor, and the athletically gifted will be able to afford to go.
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