At the start of a new school year, we might remember that much was made of a 2006 Consortium on Chicago School Research report that fewer than 2 of every 10 students who enroll at Northeastern and Chicago State will graduate in six years. For example, this report led to a legislative hearing at Northeastern by the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus, which announced its intention to return this fall.
While concerning, these conditions are more complicated than they might seem. As the past President of Northeastern has indicated, this report ignores transfer and part-time students, who obviously need more time to complete their degrees.
It also ignores the perspectives of students. “Pushing students to graduate quickly becomes unfair,” says Miriel Martínez, an elementary education major. She will graduate in less than five years, she explains, only if she takes classes in the summer and forgoes opportunities, such as study abroad.
Another possible explanation is that students might need more time because they have much to learn. According to a 2006 survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, more than 8 of every 10 college instructors nationwide believe that high school students are unprepared or only somewhat well prepared for college. In particular, these believe that students cannot write competently or understand adequately and do not study consistently or productively, as well as lack sufficient motivation.
While such perceptions might be dismissed as professorial arrogance, they are nonetheless substantiated by reports from high school seniors across the country. According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress survey, fewer than 3 of every 10 read more than 15 pages each day in school or for homework or write analytic or interpretive essays more than twice a month.
Outside school, the situation is almost the same: only slightly more than 4 of every 10 read for fun and 2 of every 10 write in a diary or journal–fewer for stories and poems–more than once or twice a month.
If their limited experience is surprising, their attitudes are perhaps more so. While almost 7 of every 10 high school seniors across the country believe that reading helps them learn much and that writing helps them share ideas, fewer than 4 of every 10 report that reading or writing is one of their favorite activities.
In terms of preparation, Northeastern students resemble their national peers. According to a 2006 survey by the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), fewer than 5 of every 10 Northeastern faculty believe that at least half of the students in their lower level courses are reasonably proficient in reading, writing, or speaking.
At the same time, Northeastern students must confront challenges that their national peers do not. According to the CTL Director, Northeastern students are more likely than average four-year public college students to use a language other than English at home, work at least 20 hours each week, and care for dependents with whom they live.
These challenges characterize Miriel’s experiences. She explains that until she was six, she spoke Spanish and English at home with her mother, and she works two jobs while pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a teacher, like her mother and other women in her family. Also, she has had to confront conventional Latino expectations about cooking, cleaning, and caring for younger children although she acknowledges that as the youngest of three, her experiences have been easier than some of her friends, especially since she started college.
Miriel’s experiences and those of other Northeastern students highlight the complexity of their situations. By focusing only on the time they need to complete their degrees, the problem seems limited to universities that, at least in the case of Northeastern, enroll a large number of transfer and part-time students whose typical lack of preparation is compounded by language, employment, and family obligations. These issues alone should raise serious questions about access and equality.
If, however, the focus is not how long students need to earn their degrees but how much they are learning, then the problem involves a different set of questions, including traditional expectations for a college education, with its escape from the world for four (or five or six) years to contemplate human existence and other abstractions.
As for graduation rates, the easiest answer is to lower standards, to expect less, to pass students without certifying their abilities to read critically and write analytically. If, however, these should be a part of a college education regardless of the major, then we must teach the students who are in our classrooms, not the ones whom we want them to be. Such a response might amount to asking students to stay longer at the university, which would be easier if it were seen not as an extension of time but as a commitment to learning.