Obama on education: higher standards

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, went to Kettering University, in Michigan, Monday to deliver what he billed as a major speech on U.S. competitiveness and his focus was very much on education at all levels. In his talk, Obama said that changes in the world economy require national leadership on the scale of earlier leaders’ decisions to create land-grant universities, to build the Hoover Dam, and to launch the space programs. Most of the education and research proposals he outlined were among those he has made before, but not always linked together as he did Monday. Among the ideas he discussed: the need for higher standards in elementary and secondary education so more high school graduates are prepared for college, recruiting new teachers, “updating” schools of education, adding student aid and tax breaks for college education, and greatly expanding education benefits for veterans. He also called for major infusions of federal research funds, with an emphasis on research that promotes the environment and improves U.S. energy policy. Aides to Sen. John McCain, Obama’s Republican opponent, held a briefing for reporters Monday to respond to the speech and they accused Obama of not believing the United States can compete with the rest of the world, and of favoring high taxes.

Also in this morning's Inside Higher Ed:

• BASIC SKILLS: It turns out that one of the problems with remedial instruction in California community college instruction is the failure to include the expense of counseling in the 50% Law—which requires that at least half of expenditures (at a cc district) be on “instruction.” As you know, our own district (SOCCCD) is now struggling with that law owing to the failure of the Chancellor, Raghu P. Mathur, to pay any attention to it.

Remediation Plan for Remedial Ed:

.....Paul Steenhausen recalls when his brother, a California high school teacher, asked a failing student what, precisely, he planned to do with his life. “And the kid said, ‘Oh I’ll go to Crafton Hills,’ ” the local community college.
.....“A lot of kids in high school don’t know that there are standards at a community college and they certainly don’t know how they match up,” says Steenhausen, a senior fiscal and policy analyst at the nonpartisan California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), which released a report Monday on improving remedial education in the 109-institution California Community College System.
.....“While they are all welcome to attend a community college — there are no admissions standards based on high school performance — they’re not going to go very far and they’re certainly not going to get a degree or transfer unless they address these basic skills deficiencies.”
.....The report addresses structural changes that could improve remedial, or “basic skills” education, throughout California’s community college system, finding, for instance, a need to better “signal” college readiness standards to high school students. The report comes amid lots of effort and millions in new funding for improving instruction in remedial math, English and English as a Second Language throughout California, with a focus, for instance, on trying innovative new teaching techniques.
.....The colleges face an uphill battle. The report finds that the community college system offered basic skills instruction to more than 600,000 students in 2006-7. The success rates are “generally low.” For instance, in terms of persistence, about half of students enrolled in credit-bearing basic skills math, English and ESL courses in the fall do not return to college the subsequent fall, the report finds.
.....The report also finds that only 60 percent of students enrolled in credit-bearing remedial English courses obtain a C or better (the success rates for math and ESL are 50 and 75 percent, respectively). And less than 10 percent of noncredit basic skills students ever complete one credit-bearing course applicable toward a degree (the report includes the caveat, however, that “an unknown number of noncredit students” – some ESL students, for instance — never aspired to that goal).
.....“What this report takes a look at are a lot of policies that colleges individually can’t change. The system as a whole and/or the legislature has to make those changes in order to untie their hands,” said Steenhausen, who wrote the LAO document. Among the report’s recommendations: change the state statute so that students who test into remedial math or English are required to take those courses in the first semester. (Currently, placement test results are, under state law, nonbinding. More than a third of students determined to be in need of basic skills courses choose not to enroll.)
.....The report also suggests developing a standard, statewide community college placement test, based on questions from existing California Standards Tests (used at the K-12 level)….
.....Lastly, as many basic skills students never receive mandated counseling services, the LAO recommends amending a state law requiring that districts spend at least 50 percent of their general operating budget on in-classroom instruction. Analysts recommend that counseling expenditures should be counted toward instructional costs, “to give community colleges fiscal flexibility to address the counseling needs of their students,” Steenhausen said….