Single Parents Getting a Second Chance in Higher Education

This article from Inside Higher Ed titled, For Arkansas Single Parents, A Scholarship that Helps Pay for Living Expenses, explains Hilary Clinton’s dedication to helping single parents in college. Hilary helped get the scholarship program, “Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund,” off the ground and was board president for 3 years. This program provides discretionary aid to low-income single parents in attending college, preventing the rise of dropouts. I had no idea that such programs existed. Generally single parents have less financial access to higher education because of childcare and transportation. Before single mother, Amanda Condon, knew she could go back to college she stated, “There was no way I was going to be able to go to school, and provide for my kids, and maintain my grade average.” After being helped by this scholarship, she will be graduating [debt-free] with an associate’s degree in emergency management.  Inspired by the success of this scholarship program, Clinton proposed to expand this initiative worldwide and call it “Student Parents in America Raising Kids, or SPARK,” where up to million student parents single parents would be granted as much as $1,500 per year for expenses like child care and other implications. This nationwide effort to help single parents could be extremely beneficial in improving the future of both higher education and the economy. Ruthanne Hill, executive director of the Arkansas fund, states that this program could boost state economies. If more people graduate from college, they will be “earning higher salaries, paying taxes and putting more money into the economy.”

The potential benefits that SPARK has to offer to both our economy and higher education system really resonated with me. Everyone deserves equal opportunity in getting an education and the fact that the costs of a babysitter or gas for a car have been preventing this concept really upsets me. I really hope this program becomes fully implemented, so that parents don’t have to give up on their education and can pursue the careers they’re most passionate about. Arkansas has been doing it right with the “Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund”; and I hope America follows in their footsteps soon with “SPARK.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/13/allowing-devices-classroom-hurts-academic-performance-study-finds

I found this article and found it interesting. It explains how a West Point study found that slowing technology in the classroom is detrimental to a student’s learning ability. The reasons why are unclear, according to the study, but they feel it can either be that students are distracted, or typing notes isn’t as effective as writing them down.

I feel that a combo of both are true. Having a laptop in class presents the opportunity to go on Facebook and other sites (not with Brooklyn college wifi but in other colleges this remains true). However, I do feel whenever I type out my notes I don’t remember them as well as when I write them in a notebook. So I want to ask you guys, which do you think is the cause of the adverse effects of having technology in the classeoom?

My Hypothetical One World Schoolhouse

I decided to take Chris up on his idea to post about our colleges on the blog. I just finished my paper and I would like to provide a gist of how my college looks like. Basically, the idea I had is to make a college where I would be able to provide a good education to good people who are good at taking college courses while still in high school. I borrow the term “One World Schoolhouse” from Salman Khan and his book “The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined” that I read a few years ago.

My admissions system uses recommendations, college courses from my college whose finals people can take for credit (the more you take and pass with at least a B, the higher chance you can get in), and uses grades for a general sense of who a person is (placing more emphasis on the trend of the grades than the actual grades itself).

The main reason why my college is different is that I choose to livestream all lectures online for everyone to watch. Think of it as like a YouTube partner program where professors garner the profits of how many people tune in to watch his or her course. These lectures are also used for analytical purposes to improve instruction. My college also has time-restricted credit requirements (you have four years to complete all 120 credits and you can complete any number of courses beyond the 120 credit requirement so long as it is within four years), proportionally allocated funding based on grades (you get merit aid based on your GPA, so 4.0 = full tuition covered; a description of which is provided on one of my other blog posts located here) in conjunction with need-based aid, and other interesting tidbits. I chose the aid system primarily to appeal to international students trying to get an education in the U.S. without getting into crushing debt. People from around the world are admitted based on their academic qualifications and character and though international students may not qualify for need-based aid, they still get merit aid based on their performance in terms of GPA. To supplement the GPA, I use the LSAC system of grading where an A+ acts as a buffer for the grade so that it refunds a portion of the tuition based on your GPA. Get enough A+ grades and you can actually profit off your education! I also have college-wide extra credit opportunities where students can participate in an internship, volunteer, or do other off-campus things to get their grades for a course augmented and have a portion of their tuition refunded. There are some innovative aspects here and I like where my college has been going so far so if you guys have any questions about additional things, feel free to ask and point out any problems I might have. This post is mainly to showcase my idea for a college and I look forward to any feedback I get.

Have a good summer guys!

Fighting Freedom with Freedom?

A topic that comes up a lot on campuses a lot is this idea of protesting events that may be offensive or unfavorable to some groups of people under the guise of freedom of speech. The controversy comes in when one asks the question “Aren’t the protesters violating the others’ freedom of speech?” This apparent paradox is the center of a lot of dispute in many colleges throughout the country.

Recently, in DePaul University, protesters obstructed a speech given by a rather controversial figure. They stormed the stage and started blowing whistles and drowning out the speaker because of his offensive and usual “troll-like” comments. The speaker is known for his controversial remarks, yet he was asked to speak at the school. As the article (posted at the bottom) says, the school should’ve been prepared for a protest or something of this caliber to occur. Honestly, in today’s society with such a controversial speaker, wouldn’t you have to expect there to be a riot or some public display?

Something similar happened at UC Irvine. There was a screening of Beneath the Helmets about 5 Israeli soldiers. In the middle of the movie, protesters barged in and started screaming. They wouldn’t let anyone in or out. Eventually, the woman in charge, and a scared student outside the room who wasn’t allowed to reenter, called the police who came and allowed the students to finish watching the movie. The vice chancellor of student affairs for UC Irvine released a statement that I strongly agree with: “We do not approve of free speech that seeks to shut down anyone else’s right to free speech.”

These stories raise two points that I’d like to discuss. The first is that colleges and any higher education institutions (as well as anywhere but that’s not what I’m focusing on) should be able to predict when a speaker they are hosting is controversial and brings with him/her the possibility of protest. Preventative measures should be taken against protests or acts of violence or something similar. Now I’m not saying that controversial speakers shouldn’t brought in. But if there is a known controversy surrounding a certain person, the college should step up security and make sure that everyone is safe throughout the whole event. I actually believe more controversial speakers should be brought in so that we can hear all viewpoints and broaden our horizons. But in order to do this, we must ensure that the speaker has the ability to present his or her ideas. We can’t have protesters claiming freedom of speech stopping others from invoking their right to free speech. Therefore, colleges should recognize the ramifications bringing in a certain speaker may have and plan accordingly.

I actually touched upon the second point I was trying to make, too. It was that freedom of speech shouldn’t be used to stop freedom of speech. If we are going to continue fighting for equal rights, people can’t stop others from speaking. Otherwise, we will become what we are fighting against: we will become our own enemies. I’m not trying to be profound; I’m simply pointing out that our society is changing quickly and becoming ultra-liberal (don’t mind my wording I’m the least political person you’ve ever met, I just don’t know how to describe the sentiment), and fighting freedom with freedom is not the way we should be going about things.

Let me know what you guys think!

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/26/two-colleges-what-happens-when-protesters-obstruct-free-speech

Using the College Scorecard

The College Scorecard is a college-finding system created by the White House which allows students to find colleges that are best suited towards their interests. However, differently from other college-finding systems, the College Scorecard uses three main metrics in order to define the colleges: graduation rate, average annual cost, and salary after attending. This system puts a huge emphasis on annual cost for need-based students, showing the low prices need-based students can pay for even the most expensive and upper-tiered schools. Clearly, one can assume that need-based students are the main target audience for the College Scorecard. They can use this system in order to find schools that will give them the best bang for their buck, and can even show them almost unknown schools that can give them exactly what they’re looking for.  However, many studies show that this useful tool isn’t reaching the students that it is intended for. Advantaged students are using this tool for schools that they feel will best fit their needs and wants, and showing them schools that are very low-profile is a great advantage. However, the disadvantaged students that the tool is targeted towards aren’t really using it.

I feel that the College Scoreboard is a great tool for students to find colleges that will best fit them, even showing them schools that they probably have never heard of before. The financial aid tools given are also a great advantage. However, I don’t think it is fair to claim that the College Scoreboard is mainly targeted towards need-based students. It should be targeted for all students. However, if you want to reach out to more need-based students, a better marketing strategy is needed.

“K-12 Challenge”

With the on coming shortage of teachers, there has come a need to change the way we prepare our educators. SUNY’s Nancy Zimpher talks about how with this coming shortage, we have to prepare by giving supplies that our schools need and to make sure that the quality of these teachers are up to par. She says that the reason SUNY is interested in this issue is because SUNY prepares almost 5,000 teachers a year. There is an increasingly large number of students who come out of high school not ready for college. So instead of focusing on the quality of the students, she suggests we focus on the quality of the teachers, who can help these students whether their ready for college or not, hence the “K-12 challenge.” Zimpher believes that if we improve the quality of the teachers, then it will lead to students being ready for college once they graduate from high school. She also believes in diversifying the population of teachers in the education system, so that it can improve the quality of education for the student. With the notion that the student is at the center of this institution, her argument seems plausible, because it is in the benefit of the student. I believe that there is a correlation between the improvement of a teacher’s quality and the improvement of a student’s education.

 

http://chronicle.com/article/Video-Owning-the-K-12/236400

Internships and College Credit

I found this article touched on some really interesting topics concerning internships. The article pretty much highlights the debate around paying for internships during the summer if students want course credit. Some people argue against the idea that students should be paying more money to the school, only during the summer (which by the way, is when most people want to intern), if they want to intern and get college credit; this is due to the fact that it is not only out of their own will they choose to intern, but it’s a requirement for their degree. So what’s the issue? Its like taking a class and paying for it, right? Some may argue, its not so simple. There are other factors such as the expenses that go along with interning. Some factors that the article brought up were traveling, weather that be buying a car and paying for gas, or constantly paying for metro cards during the summer. But this can of course extend to other realms such as supplies one may need in order to fulfill certain tasks within their internship. Also, people gotta eat, am I right? Nonetheless, in addition to paying the school for the intern credit, they must dish out money for the expense that go a long with it, some expenses that students simply cannot offered. Furthermore, those against this notion will raise the question of whether an internship is really a “class” or a “job.” Non-paid internships for school as a “class” seems just like work with no pay and some experience for college credit. The distinction between a class and a job really highlights the issue of whether or not internships are a part of Higher Eds. Turf.

On the other hand, according to the article, some people in favor of this pay to Intern College credit dilemma simply say that if you are getting credit from the college, you pay them for the credits as you would any other classes, end of story. Of course they would be ignoring some of the factors we discussed above, but regardless the premise stands and is a simple but very powerful one. It just seems like they should be getting paid, or not have to pay the colleges, because we think of class not really as work, but perhaps it is, just a different kind of work. And when someone “works” they get paid; you don’t get paid to go to school. Its not the kind of work that the word “job” has connotations too, but nonetheless, its work, just a different type.

I really enjoyed this article due to the content and the debate that it discussed. It seems that this would have a real impact on the lower and lower-middle class students looking to make connections. But I really like the approach the author used to introduce the topic by using a personal account of a student. I find this technique to be very powerful and persuasive. Either way, enjoys the article, and I’d love to hear what you guys think! I tend to lean towards against having to pay for these internships.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/17/when-students-pay-tuition-work-unpaid-internships

More Service Learning Involvement

I found this article to be very interesting because it tackles the notion of the importance of a student-centered institution. In this article, Wexler mentions points from Randy Stoecker’s Liberating Service Learning and the Rest of Higher Education Civic Engagement, such as what classrooms really do, as in their real purpose, and how charity is seen as disrespectful. He makes the analogy between firefighters and service learning programs by saying “the firefighters would fight fires only for set hours. If your fire lasted longer, you would just have to try to put out the rest of it yourself.” He says this because he wants to show how service-learning programs have become something so decreasingly available, and that that is not how it’s supposed to be. He believes that more students should be involved in service learning programs, and should not be solely focused on school. He says, “Classrooms are for students to make mistakes. Communities are not places to make mistakes.” This is what he means by “what the classrooms really do.” He then talks about charity at the end of his book and how it’s seen as disrespectful because it categorizes people as needy rather than people who are suffering from an unjust system. He believes that this is why colleges focus on uncontroversial causes and why they don’t do activist work. Again, this is why he argues for students to be more involved in service learning programs, because they help their community and become involved in activist work that will help them learn to encounter opposition. I believe Stoecker is right to a degree. From this article, I’m convinced that students should have some involvement in service learning programs to help their communities, but I also believe that school should still be the center of a student’s life. They can help their community, but they also should focus on their education.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/16/new-book-argues-service-learning-doesn%E2%80%99t-prioritize-students

“When Service Learning Doesn’t Really Serve”

I found this article to be particularly interesting as my opinion on the status on service learning has been accurately articulated. Critics of service learning are of the view that the educators are doing a disservice the general public and to the students by allowing the academic setting of service learning to be one similar to a classroom setting. An excerpt from the article reads “When the focus is on learning, students and professors operate as if they’re in a traditional learning environment — namely, one that allows for failure, experimentation and mistakes. Experimentation and room for failure in a community does not benefit the students nor the community as the results of the students performance deliver real results that may have negative externalities. Priority needs to be given to the results of the students performance students rather than the work that they accomplished. I am of the view that the issue within service learning lies in the fact that faculty do not prioritize the effectiveness of students work but rather focus on students completion of their work. Do you think that service learning should have room for failure or should their be modifications to the system to properly accommodate performance shortcomings by students?

 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/16/new-book-argues-service-learning-doesn%E2%80%99t-prioritize-students

More Than Brains

I saw this commercial for the University of Phoenix a few times and I really like it. The first time I saw it, I had no idea what it was for until the end. Now when I watch it, I see it with a totally different perspective. It is showing that students today are not free to just be students. They have other responsibilities that need to be taken care of. It reminded me of what we said in class that a lot of students are full time students and also work one or two jobs. It really sends a message out that the university understands what a current student’s life could be like. Plus, I really like the accompanying song (a remake/rendition of the Wizard of Oz song).

Oh, and the caption for this video on their YouTube channel is this: “University of Phoenix students come with more than just brains.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2IkZZmd6RA