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  3. What If A College Education Just Isn’t for Everyone? Long be

What If A College Education Just Isn’t for Everyone? Long be

游客2024-02-11  20
问题                 What If A College Education Just Isn’t for Everyone?
    Long before the president swore last year that America will "have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world" by 2020, the importance placed on going to college was firmly rooted in the American soul.
    The case is compelling: As good jobs increasingly require more education, college is widely seen as the ticket to personal economic security and to global competitiveness. And yet, there’s a potential trend of concern about a group of students—sometimes called "the forgotten half," —who, for whatever reason, do not think college is for them. It’s expressed by soul-searching parents such as Crave, whose son doesn’t thrive in the classroom. It’s also expressed increasingly by educators, economists and policy analysts, who question whether it’s realistic and responsible to push students into college even if the odds of academic success seem low.
    They’re swimming against a powerful tide. A small but growing number of states now require’ all high-schoolers to take a college entrance exam. Philadelphia’s mayor opened an office in City Hall last month to help residents get information about how to attain a college degree. Bill Gates, perhaps the world’s most famous college dropout, has poured more than $2 billion into programs and scholarships to help more students complete college.
    But what’s still getting lost, some argue, is that too many students are going to college not because they want to, but because they think they have to.
    "We’re force-feeding them" the idea that "you must go to college or you’ll be a second-class citizen," says Marty Nemko, a California career counselor.
Economic benefits, and more
    The debate over college is not new, but today’s economic climate has raised the stakes.
    "There’s beginning to be a lot of concern among the American public that... if you don’t get into that upper class, you’re going to struggle your whole life," says Public Agenda’s Jean Johnson.
    A four-year degree is no guarantee of wealth, of course. About 25% of those with bachelor’s degrees earn less than those with two-year degrees, studies by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce have found. But research consistently has shown that, on average, those at the top of higher education’s pecking order reap the most benefits, both economically and beyond.
    "This is a market for social position, which is why we spend so much on going to Harvard and one of the reasons it’s hard to get a student excited" about community college, says AnthonyCarnevale, director of the center.
    "Class is real, and it has consequences. The position you hold, where you work, really determines your status."
Falling through the cracks
    Economists continue to debate the slight differences of trend data for jobs and wages. But some argue that college dropout rates alone suggest many students are wasting their time—and money.
    Federal data show that fewer than 60% of new students graduate from four-year colleges in six years, and just one in three community college students earn a degree. "It’s fine for most kids to go to college, of course, but it is not obvious to me that that is the best option for the majority," says Mike Gould, founder of New Futures, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that provides scholarships for low-income students pursuing anything from a four-year degree to a massage-therapy certification. "Some education may be a good thing or it may just be a lot of debt."
    The problem, Gould and others say, is that many high schools focus so much on college that low-achieving students fall through the cracks. A Public Agenda report this month raises similar concerns about high school guidance counseling. It follows up on a December survey that concluded most young workers who don’t have a college degree "are in their jobs by chance, not by choice," and that guidance toward a career path "is hardly clear and purposeful."
The apprentice(学徒)model
    Apprenticeships have long been popular in Europe, but workforce-oriented high school training is not nearly as common in U.S. schools. One reason is that such programs sound dangerously similar to tracking—sorting students by ability level, a practice repeatedly rejected in U.S. culture, in which the dominant philosophy is that all students should have opportunity to meet their full potential.
    If high schools were to advise students that some education beyond high school is not necessary for everyone, "there’s a little bit of a concern that... we’re saying a lesser goal is OK for the populations of students who have been historically least well-served by higher education," says Jane Wellman, executive director of Delta Project, which studies higher education spending.
    In recent years, male college-going and completion rates have raised concerns. But those least well-served historically are low-income and underrepresented minority students, who are less likely than their peers to pursue two- and four-year degrees, and most at risk of not completing college if they do enroll.
    Some evidence suggests, though, that students already are being held to different standards. A recent national survey of high school teachers by ACT Inc., the educational testing company, found 71% agreed "completely" or "a great deal" that high school graduates need the same set of skills and knowledge whether they plan to go to college or enter the workforce, yet 42% said teachers reduce academic expectations for students they perceive as not being college-bound.
    Studies released in November by Deloitte, an international consulting firm, suggest another disconnect: A survey of 400 low-income parents found that 89% say it’s "extremely" or "very important" that their child goes to college, but just 9% of high school teachers viewed preparing students for college as their most important mission.
    Deloitte CEO Barry Salzberg, chairman of the College Summit, which seeks to increase college enrollment rates, says that’s misguided. "I think we should measure high schools on their college entrance rate and figure out a way to track performance of high school graduates in college and see how many go beyond one full year of college."
    But others say the enthusiasm to increase college-going rates ignores the reality that many students will be in over their heads once they start college.
    "College preparation for everyone is a very nice ideal, but we have a very high failure rate," says Northwestern University professor James Rosenbaum. "If we don’t start letting counselors be frank, we’re not going to fix this system."  [br] Some are worried that the high college failure rates will be ignored if we put too much emphasis on increasing ______ .
选项
答案 college-going rates／／college enrollment rates
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