2008 Woodie Awards
GUEST COLUMN: College: It's the new high school
Matthew Porter
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Opinions
By the time a teenager reaches high school, he or she invariably has become indoctrinated by the most American of maxims: "Education is the key to success," and the hackneyed social slogans of "Education is the future" and "No child left behind."
Fifty years ago, a high school education was enough to separate you from the rest of the workforce. Today, in a society where a college education is nearly mandatory, it takes an M.B.A., a J.D., an M.S. or even a Ph.D. to land a promising career.
Why has society augmented its educational criteria? Because college is the new high school.
The signs are all around us. Cheating has become such a problem in higher education that we are taught morality like it was an academic subject - as if some poor, na've student suddenly will reach an epiphany and proclaim, "Oh my God, you mean cheating is wrong?" But academic integrity is a two-way street. Professors inflate grades by allocating absurd grading curves to their exams and increasing the grading weight of easily copied homework assignments. More and more teachers accept late work (something my high school history teacher assured me I would never get away with in college) and extend deadlines when students complain. Students, not teachers, seem to have the upper hand, and all too often, hardworking professors succumb to the demands of the academically apathetic.
I have seen this problem manifest with increasing regularity. Just today in my introductory corporate finance class, I was informed that because of complaints from students and their parents (really who calls their parents?) regarding the excessive difficulty of our first test, we would be given a new exam next class. To think that a professor, with the support of the entire Department of Finance, would toss an exam with a B class average. Personally, and with the concurrence of classmates, I thought the exam was easy - and we had a 28-point curve. If you ask officials from the finance department why the exam had to be thrown out, they will tell you certain students complained about witnessing cheating on the exam, bringing into question the integrity of every student's grade (I would like to see the exam scores of the students who made these accusations).
Fifty years ago, a high school education was enough to separate you from the rest of the workforce. Today, in a society where a college education is nearly mandatory, it takes an M.B.A., a J.D., an M.S. or even a Ph.D. to land a promising career.
Why has society augmented its educational criteria? Because college is the new high school.
The signs are all around us. Cheating has become such a problem in higher education that we are taught morality like it was an academic subject - as if some poor, na've student suddenly will reach an epiphany and proclaim, "Oh my God, you mean cheating is wrong?" But academic integrity is a two-way street. Professors inflate grades by allocating absurd grading curves to their exams and increasing the grading weight of easily copied homework assignments. More and more teachers accept late work (something my high school history teacher assured me I would never get away with in college) and extend deadlines when students complain. Students, not teachers, seem to have the upper hand, and all too often, hardworking professors succumb to the demands of the academically apathetic.
I have seen this problem manifest with increasing regularity. Just today in my introductory corporate finance class, I was informed that because of complaints from students and their parents (really who calls their parents?) regarding the excessive difficulty of our first test, we would be given a new exam next class. To think that a professor, with the support of the entire Department of Finance, would toss an exam with a B class average. Personally, and with the concurrence of classmates, I thought the exam was easy - and we had a 28-point curve. If you ask officials from the finance department why the exam had to be thrown out, they will tell you certain students complained about witnessing cheating on the exam, bringing into question the integrity of every student's grade (I would like to see the exam scores of the students who made these accusations).
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Viewing Comments 1 - 9 of 9
jamie cargal
posted 9/25/07 @ 10:52 PM CST
If you're talking about how college is becoming just like high school, maybe you should mention the lack of spelling standards. You've misspelled "column" as "collumn" in the TITLE OF YOUR ARTICLE. (Continued…)
Tyler
posted 9/25/07 @ 11:55 PM CST
Most people in the engineering key would cry tears of joy over a test with a B class average...
Total Agreement
posted 9/26/07 @ 12:22 AM CST
Thank you for your thought provoking comments and suggestions. I applaud the way you not only approached the subject by using such words as "integrity" and that students should EARN the grade. (Continued…)
Total Agreement
posted 9/26/07 @ 12:23 AM CST
Thank you for your thought provoking comments and suggestions. I applaud the way you not only approached the subject by using such words as "integrity" and that students should EARN the grade. (Continued…)
Derek
posted 9/26/07 @ 8:35 AM CST
The phenomenon is know as "credential inflation"' and it is real. Similarly, a Master's degree today is worth about what a Bachelor's degree was 30 or 40 years ago. (Continued…)
Chris
posted 9/26/07 @ 9:52 AM CST
Thank you for the great article, I am one of the students in that class that did not cheat, did not complain and was perfectly fine with the grade that I made. (Continued…)
Beth Worrell
posted 9/26/07 @ 10:12 AM CST
As a graduate from Texas Tech with both a business management and a law degree (1991), I am deeply saddened to see that cheating is so prevelant at the undergraduate level. (Continued…)
mark.williamson
Mark Williamson
posted 9/26/07 @ 10:25 AM CST
I wouldn't say this kind of thing can't be a problem. But I actually disagree with many of the things mentioned being problems. Since we're comparing college to high school, I'll being with one of the big differences. (Continued…)
Agreed
posted 9/26/07 @ 10:43 PM CST
I am one of the students in the class. In this situation, the illprepared students and the students who (supposedly, since there is no proof and no one was charged) cheated were the ones rewarded. (Continued…)
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