Hello colleagues, Check out how San Jose State is tackling their poor graduation rate by contacting students who dropped out. You can find the NPREd story by Gabrielle Emanuel here. What would you say are some lessons learned from this story that may apply in an adult literacy context?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Assessment CoP
Comments
This article strikes a little too close to home. It took me 23 years to complete my undergraduate degree. At one point, I dropped out to work on a farm, “to work in the fields.” And that was OK*. Timely completion of a degree would have been less OK. People have lives, families, relationships, demographics outside of institutions, and these external factors have more of an impact educational completion rates than the internal support systems.
As much as we’d like to deny it, there is a relatively strong class system in the United States, somewhat akin to those described in 19th century British literature (I recently reread “Silas Marner”). From my own experience, people from different economic/cultural strata face enormous pressures to remain within their stratum of origin. To some extent, moving from one stratum to another means you do not belong to either, which is more of a socialogical issue than an educational system one.
Attempts at objective research have their irreplaceable value, but when dealing with human beings, you have to view matters both from within and without the Petri dish. The subjective is just as important as the objective. And exit interviews must not only be conducted at the time of leaving, but also 10, 20, 30, etc. years later, after the individuals have had time to reflect on their decisions.
Any thoughts on this?
*There is nothing wrong with getting “dirt under your nails,” Except for the UV damage to my skin and eyes, my “underachiever” jobs have been valuable life experiences for me. If I were able to do it all again, I would not give them up (except for not using eye protection and sunscreen).
Hello Robert, Your point is well taken. I, too, took many years to finally graduate from college, 19 years to be exact. Similar to your situation, there were a lot of good reasons.
I appreciate the article about San Jose State because they tracked down students who had dropped out --or perhaps I should say "stopped out" the way you and I did -- to find out what their reasons were. The college is taking into account what they learned from talking to students to devise strategies to address some of the issues identified by these former students: i.e., offering more classes, providing more advisors, and looking for ways to offer more financial support. They also have been thoughtful about creating a sense of community by inviting students to join together to talk and study while also enjoying a meal together.
As to how these strategies may be relevant to our context in adult literacy education, a few things stood out to me. It was important to these students to feel they were part of a community. Having adequate advising support as well as academic support was also critical. As we forge ahead with a focus on transitioning to college and career, these three areas seem particularly important aspects of adult literacy education programming, too.
It would be great to hear from members about how they are structuring programs to address these common needs.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Assessment CoP