I posted this thought on the following article.
The Jobless Rate for Community-College Graduates Is Also Low – NYTimes.com.
Mr. Leonhardt is confronted with a big problem in trying to understand higher education in America just from data and then concluding that college is contributing to the economy in an overwhelming way.
The problem is essentially a data over space and time issue. Yesterday’s column mentions two studies. The one by David Card was published in 1993 and used longitudinal data that followed students from 1966, when students studied 25 hours a week, to 1981.
But, in the 2000’s students study only 13 hours a week and seem to be graduating high school with less preparation than in the 60’s. (Even AP courses are not the prepartion they purport to be.)
My point here is that one can’t just rely on collecting and analyzing data from a distance.
One could do what the sociologist Michael Burawoy advocates in the field of sociology: look in detail at instances of college – then add that information to the collected data to come up with an understanding of what is happening. Both of these things can be done scientificallly.
The New York Times could make a gigantic effort to interview professors that have been around for a long time, ask if things have changed, how they have changed, etc… It would take time, resources and lots of fact checking, but I don’t doubt that the New York Times could do it. You could start by looking at my blog if you want. But no matter where you start, I hope the Times will do this service for us. Thanks.
I taught high school. Real high school, not a bunch of AP kids.
Most kids are working weekdays now and that legitimately impinges on study. Yes they have nice cell phones but that is a cheap replacement for cars, which they don’t have.
But you have to look deeper. The US is basically a CYA culture at this point. And learning requires something deeper than getting through testing season. Something like the cultivation of intrinsic motivation.
Schools now are about the appearance of caring and learning. As is the society at large. We are a phoney society with a lot of exclamation points in our emails and gushings about ‘passion’ in our letters of introduction. Concern with ‘the children’ and the highest incarceration rate in the world.
In education, each year is worse than the next. It’s not one factor but many all acting in a type of synchronization. But the rot is very deep.
Thank you for your comment. It’s really helpful to get the insightful comments of a high school teacher’s perspective.