2.  Another how to deal with troubled students
 A gripe session about the resources we’ve
lost
 Hopefully a leave with nothing workshop
 A negative experience
 A sad awakening

3.  Explanation of “the neglected majority”
 Some sad statistics
 Some interesting quotes by interesting
people
 Some ideas for dealing with the AVERAGE
student
 Some ideas for “making winners out of
ordinary students” in 2012

4.  To challenge you to work with me
 To challenge you to work with each other
 To challenge you to work with others
 To challenge you to work FOR your students
 To challenge you to NOT be (stay) frustrated
 To challenge you to see the GOOD students
 To challenge you to HELP the average
students
 To challenge you to challenge you!

5. DALE PARNELL DARLENE CROSS
 School teacher  Country girl
 Principal  City girl
 School superintendent of  Worker
public instruction  Soldier
 College professor  Student
 President of 3 community  Software engineer
colleges  College professor
 President & ceo of the  YOUR colleague
american asociation of
community & jr. colleges

6. EXAMINES ISSUES RELATED
TO: EXAMINES:
 student success  dilemmas faced by
 Learning continuity educators in defining
 Individual differences excellence
 Lack of community college  The effects of
involvement in secondary technological, educational,
education & socio-economic tensions
on educational excellence

7. Barriers to excellence:
 Unfocused learning
 Loss of continuity in learning
 Failure to accommodate individual
differences
 Unfounded images about learning

8.  Careers education
 Learner centered
 Bridge between subject-matter disciplines &
competencies required by modern life
 A policy statement for the associate degree
 Cooperation & coordination between the
high school & the community college
 A 2+2 tech-prep/associate degree program

9.  >= 75% of high school graduates (the neglected
majority) did not earn a baccalaureate degree.
 This middle quartile of students deserve & need
an excellent education.
 In many cases they require a better education than
they were (ARE) receiving
 WE MUST ensure that all our students,
regardless of their differing abilities, receive the
education that they deserve & America needs.

10.  More than ½ of entering freshmen in ALL institutions
of higher learning began their college careers in
community, technical, or jr. colleges.
 About 80% of the adult population in the US did not
hold college bachelor’s degrees
 More & more young people emerged from high school
ready neither for college nor for work.
 Almost half the Hispanic high-school students in the
country drop out before graduating from high school.
 40% of the Hispanic drop-outs never complete the
10th grade.
(sound familiar?)

11.  “A nation that draws too broad a difference
between its scholars & its warriors will have
its thinking being done by cowards & its
fighting by fools.” – Thucydides
 “More & more young people emerge from
high school ready neither for college nor for
work.” – National Commission on Excellence
in Education in A Nation at Risk, The
Imperative for Educational Reform

12.  “Meeting the educational needs of the
neglected majority is central to the future of
America.” – Thomas A Shannon
 “Excellence & elitism are not synonymous.” –
National Science Board Commission on Pre-
College Education in Mathematics, Science &
Technology

13.  American education is undergoing constant
reform. If reports & studies alone could improve
schools & colleges, we would have achieved
excellence in education a long time ago.
 Now is the time to move toward educational
quality –opportunity with excellence.
 There is relentless pressure to improve the
quality of life, with education as the centerpiece
of that process.
 It is hoped that this report will trigger hundreds
of high-school/college roundtable discussions.

14.  The tough problem is not in identifying
winners, it is in making winners out of ordinary
people. That, after all, is the overwhelming
purpose of education.
 Historically, in most of the periods emphasizing
excellence, education has reverted to selecting
winners rather than creating them.
 The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate
ordinary people to unusual effort.
 We tend to live somewhere between our hopes
& our fears.

15.  Unrealistic/artificial images of excellence
 From television, movies, etc.
 Causes frustration of the ordinary student
 Great debate really a monologue of 1-sided
opinions of well meaning individuals & groups
who have little contact with non-baccalaureate-
degree America.
 The majority of our population will never earn a
baccalaureate degree.
 What about the ordinary student?
 There is surprisingly little attention given to the
“ordinary people” in the school reform reports.

16.  Technological
 Our society grows technically more
sophisticated, yet continues to produce an
increasing number of individuals who are
uneducated, unskilled, & unable to cope with
these technological changes.
 A single inoculation of education for the young is
no longer sufficient for a lifetime.

17.  Educational
 Can we have quality & equality in education?
▪ A democratic society must have both!
 Academic or vocational educational track fragmentation
▪ Students who don’t fit get unfocused general education track
leading to nowhere
 American education system is derived from an elitist
philosophy
 Liberal, fine, & practical arts (& sciences!) must move
closer together
 We continue to prepare individuals for specific jobs rather
than for careers

18.  Socio-economic
 There is a continuing & widening gap between the
“haves” & the “have-nots” in our society.
 Groups can be granted the full range of
opportunities, but only individuals can take advantage
of them.
 Rather than view the poor as untapped human
resources, we tend to view them as problems.
 It is time to value our human resources as much as, if
not more than, we value our natural resources of oil &
gas & metals.

19.  Helping individuals develop the
competencies to be effective life-long
learners should be the top priority of any
educational institution.

20.  The academic & vocational desert of American
education is the high-school general-education
program.
 Unfocused learning remains one of the prime
barriers to achieving excellence for a host of
students.
 Having a goal, meeting a challenge, & being pushed
to one’s limit are what build self-esteem.
 63.5% of the high-school drop-outs indicated they
were in the general-education track at the time they
left high school.

21.  The present system of pot luck in the
schoolhouse, where students take a little of this
& a little of that, provides young people with:
 Too many loopholes
 Too little reality therapy
 Too many excuses for failing to learn
 The student who sees no future for herself will
also not make much progress in education.
 Goal development & goal setting have never
been driving forces in the educational
enterprise.

22.  One of the important lessons yet to be learned
by many educators is that the “why” of learning
is more important than the “how”.
 “He who has a why to live for can bear with
almost any how.” – Nietzsche
 Students who see no connectedness, no aim, no
purpose to their education, also often see no
point in continuing in school.
 We live best by living on our hopes rather than
our fears, by looking to the future.

23.  Educators have a heavy responsibility to help
students see meaning in their educational
programs.
 Clear goals for the curricular course or
program & clear goals for the individual
student are absolutely essential to achieving
excellence in education.
 We all shoot better when we can see the
target.

24.  If students are to be motivated to learn, they
must know:
 why they are learning,
 How this learning connects with other learning, &
 Where this learning relates to real life.
 “Whatever you teach, make the children
understand why they are studying it. Don’t tell
them ‘You’ll need it later.’ Later doesn’t exist.” -
Hechinger
 Instead of permitting half our students to slip
through the “general education” crack we must
cultivate a goal-oriented educational program.

25.  “An excellent plumber is infinitely more
admirable than an incompetent philosopher.
The society which scorns excellence in
plumbing because plumbing is a humble
activity& tolerates shoddiness in philosophy
because it is an exalted activity will have
neither good plumbing nor good philosophy.
Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold
water.” - Gardner

26.  The greatest single challenge facing
instructors in comprehensive community
colleges:
 How to meet the great range of individual
differences in every classroom.
 In desperation schools have labeled students:
 Advanced
 Terminal
 Remedial
& are still missing the mark.

27.  Research suggests that given adequate time
for learning, & favorable learning
conditions, 95% of students can achieve
mastery of any basic skill.
 The notion of excellence must be extended to
every course & each student.
 Of necessity, education will lifelong.

28.  We must purge ourselves of academic
snobbery.
 “If only the beautiful birds sang, the forests
would be quiet indeed.” – 1973 National
Teacher of the Year
(how many of you were gifted or troubled?)

29.  The student sees no purpose, no meaning in
his academic program
 The student sees no relationship between
what he needs to meet the challenges of real
life & his schooling experiences.
(the ONLY slide re: behavior; I promise!)

30.  If we believe it should be the primary purpose
of education to help each student become a
fully competent, self-motivating, self-
fulfilling member of our society, then it is
time to dust off the literature & to redirect
the old career education discussion toward a
careers-education orientation.

31.  Children acquire so much information from television
(& the ‘net) that many suffer from too much data.
 They are not emotionally equipped to assimilate or
interpret all they see & hear without the personal
experience that provides realistic perspective
 They see brutal scenes of wartime combat before their
eyes before they have suffered the loss of a pet dog.
 When they enter the classroom they are confronted with
even more information, often as ambiguous as & generally
less interesting than that on television (& the ‘net).

32.  Young people of today (1985 & 2012) &
tomorrow need an information-
rich, experience-rich education.
 When schooling focuses on the real-life
career roles of individuals & the
competencies required to cope with those
careers & roles, we will see a positive
educational change for the neglected
majority of our students.

33.  That delivery system which helps students
develop the competencies required to
function in the real-life roles of learner, wage
earner, citizen, consumer, family
member, leisure-time pursuer, & individual.

34.  Learner role should:
1. Read
2. Write
3. Compute
4. Memorize
5. Analyze/interpret
6. Converse/listen
7. Identify/assimilate

35.  Consumer role should:
1. evaluate quantity & quality of goods
2. Use consumer assistance agencies
3. Understand buying with credit
4. Understand provisions of standard insurance
policies
5. Compute interest rates
6. Understand basic legal documents
(e.g., contracts, warranties, bills of sale)

36.  Wage earners role should:
1. Analyze employment trends
2. Plan for career/vocation
3. Understand the processes of production &
consumption
4. Prepare job application forms
5. Develop effective interviewing techniques
6. Understand the meaning “inflation” & “wage”
7. Understand payroll deductions
8. Develop some saleable skills

37.  Leisure-time role should:
1. Develop avocational skills (nonsport hobbies)
2. Create something
3. Enhance aesthetic appreciation
4. Develop recreational skills (sports)

38.  Citizenship role should:
1. Explain the judicial system
2. Explain local government operation
3. Locate community resources
4. Cope with bureaucracies
5. Identify with community, state, & national
issues
6. Understand basic principles of economic &
governmental operations

39.  Family role should:
1. Understand legal & social responsibilities of
parenting
2. Plan for long-range economic security
3. Learn to deal with family crises (e.g., divorce,
illness, death, etc.)
4. Develop family activities
5. Understand family planning

40.  Individual role should:
1. Understand physical health principles
2. Understand mental health principles
3. Develop principles for making moral choices
4. Develop interpersonal & intergroup relationship
skills

41.  Is a learner-centered bridge between the time-honored
subject-matter disciplines & the competencies required of
an individual to cope with modern life.
 Is an information-rich & experience-rich education based
upon life-role proficiencies.
 Student competence is defined as demonstrated ability to
apply knowledge, understanding, or skills assumed to
contribute to success in life.
 Does not turn its back on traditional subject matter or on
time-honored instructional techniques, it only insists that
the instructional program be based, at least in part, on
real-life needs & that students demonstrate the
applicability of what they have learned.

42.  Beginning with the 11th grade, students would choose
1 of 3 curricular majors:
1. A college-prep/a baccalaureate-degree major
2. A 2 + 2 tech-prep/associate-degree major
3. A vocational cluster major
 All 3 majors would focus on preparation for the next
step for the student.
 All 3 majors would also include a common core of
learning, including communication skills, social
sciences, physical educational.
 Mathematics & the physical, biological sciences would
be tailored for each major.

43.  “The greatest American educational invention of
the 20th century is the 2-year community
college.” – John Gardner, No Easy Victories
 Community colleges have said:
 there is dignity & worth in all honest labor.
 I may resemble or behave like someone else, but I
have my own personality & my own definition of
excellence.
 Opportunity is the very soul of the community
college

44.  The 5 most debilitating words in the English language
are “it won’t make a difference.”
 Community colleges are making a difference!
 The roots of the community college grow deep in the
high schools that feed students into the college.
 Community colleges are the low cost institutions in
higher education.
 There is a tremendously diverse population in the
community college, & providing a caring environment
for that diversity may be its greatest strength.
 Community college faculty ranked the highest on the
faculty-satisfaction scale.

45.  The real competition for jobs will be (IS) between the
well-educated & the not-so-well-educated.
 Community colleges are taking on the task of helping
to supply America with a skilled & knowledgeable
work force.
 Increasingly, strong academic students are choosing
the community college for their 1st college experience.
 Community colleges have their sleeves rolled up & are
heavily involved in the task of helping the socio-
economically disadvantaged remove their educational
barriers & move into the economic mainstream of
American life.

46.  High school students entering college have
little or no idea of what to expect once they
are enrolled.
 most colleges are not doing a very good job
of helping high school students develop a
realistic idea of what it takes to succeed in a
college program.

47.  Of 18,000 incoming college freshmen in 1982
& 1983
 98% said they expected to earn a B average or
better in college.
 61% estimated they would study fewer than 20
hours per week.
 > 80% said they knew little or nothing about their
choice of major.
 ~ 50% listed “no one” as their main influence in
choosing their major.

48.  It is obvious that few high school students know how much work
or what levels of proficiency will be required to complete a college
program.
 They know about entry standards, but few know about college exit
requirements.
 Some high school students seem to interpret the phrase “open-
door college” as an invitation to expend a minimum amount of
effort in high school, one need not prepare for the next step at all!
 The feeling seems to be, “I can always get into a community
college.”
 So much attention has been given to college admissions that
college exit requirements have been overlooked & shortchanged.

49.  Do open door colleges have a responsibility to
state clearly to high school students the exit
requirements for each & every community
college program including the requirements to
earn an associate degree?
 YES!
 The concentration of cooperative effort between
high schools & community colleges must
emphasize what it takes to successfully
complete a program rather than just emphasize
entry requirements.

50.  >70% of all high school graduates will
eventually attend a postsecondary institution
of one kind or another for one or more years.
 55% of all entering college freshmen are
beginning their college careers in a 2-year
college.
 This fact alone should be enough to motivate
program coordination between the high schools &
the community colleges.

51.  “There is surprisingly little attention given to
‘ordinary people’ in the school reform reports.” –
K. Patricia Cross
 The associate degree is not only central to the
mission of the community college, but it is also a
quality-control issue.
 The liberal arts & the practical arts absolutely
need each other.
 Students work better with goals, indeed so do
we all.

52.  ~ $30 billion is spent annually by U.S. public &
private employers for employee education &
training programs.
 This figure does not include costs for training
in the military.
 DOD estimates that some $50 billion is spent
on education & training per year when all
DOD education & training costs are included.

53.  How about establishing a new 4-year tech-
prep/associate-degree program of cooperation
between high schools & community colleges?
 In case study after case study students report
they experienced the best teaching of their
college careers in the community college.
 The curriculum of the future must so integrate
the instructional program that students can
easily connect what they are learning with real-
life issues.

54.  Ordinary students can experience excellence
in learning as long as they are taught by those
who understand 1 important concept:
 Education has 2 roles.
▪ 1st: to prepare our young to be productive members of
society.
▪ 2nd: to prepare young people –regardless of their
eventual career choices- to understand the society in
which they live.

55.  Excellence in education will not be achieved
by pursuit of excellence.
 Excellence in education cannot be caught. It
can only be cultivated, challenged, &
celebrated.
 Are YOU chasing excellence or cultivating
excellence?
 Quantity is no substitute for quality.

56.  Unfocused learning simply will not produce
excellence.
 How much unfocused learning is going on in YOUR
classes?
 Open admissions & open doors cannot be interpreted
to mean that preparation is unimportant.
 Much greater attention must be given the exit
requirements of colleges in communicating with high
school students.
 How much program coordination is going on between
YOUR high schools & YOUR community college?
 How much do YOUR students know about associate
degrees?

57.  If we do not know how to seek the best in all
our citizens & to fully utilize our human
resources, we become a wasteful society
regardless of what we do elsewhere.