Rick Adams wrote:
> The trouble is, Louis, change IS being interpreted as "dumbing down"
> by many administrators who view the risk of "offending" someone who
> might sue as a result as being FAR more important than the risk of
> graduating students who don't know anything about the subjects they
studied.
I think the additional point made was that this problem is not caused by
the ADA, but by more general processes. There's a couple of empirical
questions here:
- Has there been a decline in the extent to which having a degree in some
field indicates having some knowledge about that field?
- Has there been a decline in the extent to which having a degree in some
field indicates having some skills in that field?
- Has there been a decline in the extent to which having a degree at all
indicates having some general knowledge?
- Has there been a decline in the extent to which having a degree at all
indicates having some general skills (reading, writing, library research,
math, science, reasoning, etc.)?
The latter two questions "scale down", as they can also be asked about
what a high school diploma indicates, and what grade school graduation
indicates.
I don't mean to imply that we already know that the answer is "yes" to
these questions. I can imagine a few alternative explanations for what looks
like an obvious decline in each of these areas (the main alternative
explanation I see is selection bias: that we compare all of our students to
ourselves and our college faculty peers, rather than to all of our college
peers - surely a very unfair comparison).
The problem certainly does not reduce in a simple way to a question
about denying access to college to groups that traditionally have not
attended college. If you sit in a course in engineering or computer science
at a large university, you'll quickly find that non-traditional students
dominate some of the most demanding majors.
I also do not think that the problem can be completely passed off on
adminstrators - I'll bet I'm not the only one on this list who is right now
looking at student work wondering "is this really the quality of performance
I want from graduates from my program?", and will give in and accept it. I
have worked out a few hundred rationalizations for doing so, but I doubt
that anyone wants to waste time arguing about them.
It's simply silly and insulting to attempt to pass the problem off as
faculty non-acceptance of difference, or dislike of being "inconvenienced".
Faculty concern about this is very obviously inspired by their integrity:
their concern about the value of a degree from their programs. In fact,
obviously the "convenient" thing to do is to make the accommodations without
worrying about the integrity of a program.
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
