A Shift in Accountability
Friday, September 15, 2006
Really good NY Times article came out today about the ridiculously low college graduation rates of 2 and 4-year public universities (i.e. under 20% of students graduate in 6 years). One question asked was, "If you're accepting a child into your institution, don't you have the responsibility to make sure they graduate?"
Interesting question... Traditionally, college students have been taught that they are "on their own" and have to take responsibility for their actions, i.e going to class, passing, and even graduating. While colleges provide advising and freshman orientation, they certainly treat persistence as something that is up to the individual. In addition, the fiscal responsibilites of higher education make discussing rates of persistence complex and murky.
What I find most interesting about this article, is how it sounds eerily familiar. This same conversation about "shifting" responsibility from the student to the institution is what drove the accountability movement and ultimately, No Child Left Behind in the K-12 arena. Before NCLB, the responsibilty for success was up to the student, not the school. Now, it is the institutions job to make sure all their children all successful, regardless of the socio-economic and external conditions of the student.
Could this be a sign of NCLB accountability shifting the status quo in higher ed?
