Terri Manning, Ed.D.

1
Our Higher Education Reality

• Terri Manning, Ed.D.
• Center for Applied Research
• Central Piedmont Community College

2
This Session

• Combine yesterdays sessions the millennial
  generation and improving gatekeeper courses
• Not so easy when you are already brain dead.
• Started thinking about our challenges.
• Community college faculty and staff are driven by
  their own internal mission..like herding cats.
• We have many challenges ahead of us.
• Many things we need to take into account in
  preparing courses.

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Changes in Higher Education

• We have moved from
• a culture of unexamined assumptions
• a culture of implicit, individually held hopes,
  preferences and beliefs
• a model of higher education as primarily a
  quantitative, additive process

• To
• a culture of assessment and evidence
• a culture of explicit broadly shared goals,
  criteria and standards
• a model that is fundamentally qualitative and
  transformative

Source National Center for Higher Education
Management
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Changes in Higher Education

• We have moved from
• a culture that tends to ignore costs
• a teaching culture which has, in the past,
  ignored what is known about human learning
• a culture that emphasizes and privileges
  individual struggle for private advantage

• To
• a culture that attempts to realistically account
  for direct, deferred and opportunity costs
• one which applies relevant knowledge to improve
  practice
• one which encourages collaboration for the common
  good and individual advancement

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Achieving the Dream

• Achieving the Dream colleges will maintain a high
  degree of access for historically
  underrepresented groups while working to increase
  the percentage of students who accomplish the
  following
• successfully complete the courses they take
• advance from remedial to credit-bearing courses
• enroll in and successfully complete gatekeeper
  courses
• enroll from one semester to the next
• earn degrees and/or certificates. 

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Some our greatest challenges..

• Higher education is on the verge of a major
  shift.
• The culture is changing and transforming.
• We will probably find more of an environment that
  allows for individualization of learning.
• Will look more like an industry, skills-based
  model.
• Students will learn, assess skills, prove mastery
  and then move forward but in small bites not
  entire courses.
• We will modularize certain skills.
• Traditional courses may not exist but related
  skills areas.

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Our Stakeholders

• Want something different.
• Students expect something different
• Employers want something different
• Your classroom today doesnt look anything like
  college classrooms 40 years ago
• Students arrive with a lot of baggage and issues.
• Lets look at a few.

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The Challenges that Face Us Today

• Are greater than they have ever been.
• The economy
• Students are needier and not prepared.

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Students are More Needy

• Need for remedial courses goes up Fall 2009

Of the Top 25 Highest Enrolled Courses Eight were Developmental Of the Top 25 Highest Enrolled Courses Eight were Developmental Of the Top 25 Highest Enrolled Courses Eight were Developmental Of the Top 25 Highest Enrolled Courses Eight were Developmental Of the Top 25 Highest Enrolled Courses Eight were Developmental Of the Top 25 Highest Enrolled Courses Eight were Developmental
Course Sections Seats Capacity Available Sold
MAT070 43 1118 1092 -26 102.4
RED090 39 978 975 -3 100.3
MAT080 37 947 936 -11 101.2
ENG090 36 910 900 -10 101.1
ENG090A 36 909 900 -9 101.0
MAT050 33 830 829 -1 100.1
MAT060 31 767 764 -3 100.4
ENG080 27 701 729 28 96.2
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NC Unemployment and NC CC Curriculum Headcount
???
Source State ESC and NCCCS Websites
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Who Are The Unemployed?
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With Poor Economic Conditions, the Students are
More Needy

• Displaced workers are different than the more
  traditional community college students
• A greater need for student services
• Need for financial aid goes up
• Number with zero family contribution (family
  cannot help them at all) rose from 2,891 in 2008
  to 4,681 in 2009 (increase of 62 at CPCC).
• Different brain must be turned back on

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Major Challenges

• Students are more diverse than ever
• Race
• Gender
• Language
• Academic background
• Age and generation
• Expectations from students, families, our
  accrediting agencies and society

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Boys Issues in K-12
For Every 100 Girls Who. Number of Boys
Enroll in Kindergarten 116
Enroll in Ninth Grade 101
Enroll in Twelfth Grade 98
Are Suspended from K-12 250
Are Expelled from K-12 335
Diagnosed with Learning Disability 276
Enroll in the gifted and talented program 94
The Boys Project. http//www.boysproject.net/stati
stics.html
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Boys and Their Educational Choices
For Every 100 Girls Who. Number of Boys
Graduate from High School 96
Enroll in College 77
Earn an Associates Degree 67
Earn a Bachelors Degree 73
Earn a Masters Degree 62
Earn a Doctorate 92
The Boys Project. http//www.boysproject.net/stati
stics.html
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First Time Freshman Enrollments by Gender 50
Years (numbers in thousands)
(54.8)
(45.2)
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College Graduation Projections (numbers in
thousands) (61 of degrees will go to women)
(62.6)
(37.4)
(60)
(40)
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How Generational Births Impact Enrollments
(Millennials)
(Boomers)
(Xers)
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Things Began to Change for This Generation

• Abortion rates peaked in 1980 - slowly declined.
• Poverty rate for children peaked in 1983 and
  began a slow decline (Medicaid began).
• US divorce rate peaked in 1981 -
  began a decline.
• Homicide rate against children
  peaked in
  1982 and began a decline.
• They were born into a better world,
  a more
  optimistic world than the
  generation before them.
• Born in infertility era, parents really wanted
  them.

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Unique Characteristics

• Born 1982 2002, a civic generation of 81
  million
• Most diverse generation ever
• Raised with technology and casual communication
• Raised by better educated older parents
• Always told why when they asked
• Know lots about lots of things

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Unique Characteristics

• Taught that questioning authority was a good
  thing
• Function from the position of negotiation and
  will try to move you as much as possible
• Have lived in an outcome-based world and always
  want to know whats in it for me?
• Want services and access 24/7.
• Expect to get what they paid for.

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Unique Characteristics

• Major influencing factors
• Helicopter parents
• Focus on their self-esteem
• Customer service that makes them think that
  everyone cares if they are satisfied (not true in
  higher education)
• Gaming and technology
• Casual community and social networking

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Unique Characteristics

• They will dramatically impact how education is
  done before they are through (last enter college
  2020)
• Have re-established the haves and have nots
  with the digital divide
• Class is rearing its ugly head and their
  competition is fierce (30-50 have low skills)
• We are supposed to be preparing them for a future
  that is uncharted, for jobs that havent been
  invented yet

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Unique Characteristics

• They live in a 24/7, small international world
  where all possible content is on the internet
• What they need to learn are the following (cant
  be learned from the internet)
• Application of knowledge to practice
• Process skills such as critical thinking and
  analysis
• How to collect and organize data and information
• Information and technology literacy

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But How are They Coming to Us?

• The majority of the country probably feels
• The K-12 system is doing well for children whose
  parents get involved, take advantage of the
  choices they have, guide and direct their
  children through the system in a rather savvy
  way
• And it is failing all the rest

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In Yesterdays Gatekeeper Session

• The participants and I had a collegial,
  self-reflective dialogue about the continuous
  improvement of student learning in gatekeeper
  courses (WASC language).
• We created a list of our expectations of the
  learning outcomes for the gatekeeper classes. We
  stood back and looked at the list.and
• We decided that the issues we have with students
  successfully completing gatekeeper classes was
  not about their ability to grasp or master the
  content.

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What are the issues?

• Lets look at the list
• The key to success is finding a way to address
  the bottom list while helping student master the
  outcomes for the courses.
• So how do we do that?

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Must Address Strategies for Both

• Retention and Academic Success
• (two different animals

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What Some Others Have Done

• Support activities
• Offer supplemental instruction, service learning
  opportunities, tutoring, and study groups.
• Create a series of success workshops (offered
  through the tutoring center, library or student
  success center) and require students attend a set
  number of them as part of their grade
• Create learning communities or linked classes.
• Implement an Early Alert System to ensure that
  struggling students get help.

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Others, cont.

• Curriculum and pedagogy
• Make instruction in gatekeeper courses more
  related to real life experiences. 
• Use techniques such as active/collaborative
  learning, mini learning communities in the class,
  and computer-assisted labs.
• Establish learning competencies and share them
  with students.
• Allow retesting in courses with sequential
  content so students can master it.

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Others, cont.

• Institute class conferencing in classes
  instructors meet with students individually on a
  regular basis.
• Used grading rubrics for all assignments and give
  students a copy beforehand.
• Faculty development
• Offer professional development for faculty who
  teach gatekeeper courses.
• Let the faculty with great success teach these
  workshops.
• Focus on retention techniques, improving academic
  skills and student engagement

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Others, cont.

• Next Steps
• Work with faculty across disciplines to increase
  the basic skills.
• How do the paralegal faculty teach students to
  become better writers?
• How do the culinary faculty improve computational
  skills?
• How do the Nursing faculty improve critical
  thinking skills in students

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Gatekeeper faculty teach students the basic
skills based on the content of the
course.Program faculty should say thank you
very much, well take it from here. Then
continuously and in every course, reinforce those
skills.
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Major Issues

• A large percentage of students begin and end
  their college career in remedial or developmental
  courses never make it to the gatekeeper
  classes.
• Another large percentage of students never make
  it through the gatekeeper courses and drop out
  before they complete the entire set of classes.
• They never get to the majors.

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Gatekeeper Faculty

• Are the most critical and important faculty at
  the institution. Why?
• Greatest opportunity to improve skills and
  promote success.
• Greatest opportunity for engagement and
  retention.
• Can help students make the decision Do I belong
  here, can I do it?

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The Challenge

• Seeing these courses for the opportunity they
  represent.
• Program faculty and gatekeeper faculty should
  come together and make some decisions
• What student skills do we want them to have when
  they leave the gatekeeper (pre-major) courses?
• How can we teach/facilitate those skills?
• By the time students complete gen ed, we have
  inoculated them 10 times.

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Caution

• The Insanity Principle
• Doing what we have always done but expecting
  different results.

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To Contact Me

• Terri Manning
• terri.manning_at_cpcc.edu
• [phone]