Good Money After Bad - The Plight of the Community College System II

The role of a solid education is to show its student his true ignorance; that beyond the common truths of adolescence lays a world which, no matter how much one tries, can never be fully realized or understood. The hope is maintained that this will instill a new curiosity, an ability to look at both sides of an issue and still realize that there remain countless more. Less important are the details; the facts one memorizes, the midterms, cramming, and GPA’s. These take a far distant second to the value one truly receives from a solid secondary education.

This is precisely the reason college professors need to be held to a higher standard. College cannot be a mere extension of high school, it must go much further. One’s own brilliance alone cannot qualify one as a professor, as a mere recitation of facts is a gross inadequacy. Sure there are exceptions, brilliant minds lecture at many universities, yet the professors that remain with the student throughout their lifetime are not the headliners, but the unknown geniuses, those that have developed and finely honed the skill of connecting with their pupils, viewing those before them as more than a simple number and SAT score, but as a wandering mind looking for, and expecting, direction. To those ascribed this responsibility, we need to expect more.

Community college is quite different than a privately funded one. Not only is it state supported, but a large percentage of the student depend on federal and state financial aid as well. Therefore, these are almost entirely taxpayer funded, which presents another lurking danger; the potential to become the mindless cash pit that is the DMV or other service oriented state run agencies. These agencies face one significant issue – how to adequately measure output. You may not like the service you receive at the DMV, but you have little alternative. Similarly, no matter the quality of a state or community college one may attend, more than likely the cost of a private institution is prohibitive, thus leaving few options.

Therefore, all opportunity to look at the output must be taken advantage of. One way to do this is to look at grades distributed by the professors as compared to others that have taught the same or similar classes. In an attempt to do this, I recently requested the grades given out over the past 3 semesters from Gateway Community College in New Haven, CT. The class selected was Composition 200, for two reasons – 1. I had taken it, and knew what it involved, and 2. That it is a crucial class for students looking to transfer their college credits to a 4 year school. Initially, this request was denied by every level of the administration, but thanks to a phone call from the Freedom of Information Bureau in Connecticut, it was finally released.

The results supported my initial hunch; that there would be a drastic disparity in grades, despite their being for the same class and the supposed similarity of the requirements for the class. One professor, Kerin Kelsey, distributed an average grade of 92, while another, Martha Hayes, over multiple classes gave an average of 73.3; despite that both were teaching the same class, Composition 200. Kelsey distributed no grades lower than a B-, while Hayes gave out no A’s, and 8 F’s, out of 37 students. Thus, in classes taught by Martha Hayes, over 20% of the students failed. It is important to remember that students, when selecting a class, base it almost solely on the schedule, and not who may be teaching the class. Most don't know the professors beforehand, and therefore have little if any idea that, despite the class having the same title, they can be drastically different in both difficulty and quality.

This discrepancy, however, cannot be blamed on the teachers; rather, one must take a closer look at those that allowed this to happen. In any business, this disparity would be a loud and very clear warning that something is off. Academic freedom may allow the methods used to differ, but not the overall information taught. So, in this case, either one of the professors’ methods are ineffective, or they are teaching something completely different from each other. So how does this go unnoticed?

When I was finally given this information, I was informed by the director of research that this was the first time anyone had even requested it. That those responsible for reviewing the performance of these professors had never asked for the grades distributed was a shock, however, this was soon tempered when the review process for tenured professors was explained.

Tenured professors are reviewed by department heads every 5 years. Quick, name another industry where this is the case. Drive-through workers at McDonalds are reviewed every 6 months, but those entrusted the education of the next generation have 60 months between assessments. More surprising is the review method, divided into 4 parts: self assessment, class observation by superior, the professors “professional plan”, and the supervisor’s assessment. Each of these can be discussed in more detail, but the fact is that the evaluation comes down to the opinion of the professor being reviewed and their immediate superior, who is often a personal friend and coworker, teaching the same or similar classes. That this is a joke needs not be said.

However, the greatest issue with this evaluation method is that it is completely devoid of any impartial parties, and even more significantly, the end user. In any service oriented situation, customer reviews are crucial, and greatly impactful, with good reason. An employee that contributes to unsatisfied customers will cost the business profit, and those that contribute well to client satisfaction will provide a boost to the bottom line. That a state school does not exist for profit does not mean the standard should be lower; that it is supported by tax dollars should make the demands even more stringent. That any university can offer a class where the grade received is based, not on ability and effort, but the professor teaching it, needs to take a closer look at its’ methods. But lacking any program that does look at these statistics, and lacks the desire to do so, it is difficult to see how this will ever change.

I am not suggesting that any of the professors mentioned here lose their position, but rather that the evidence available be analyzed as it would in any business, and that the tax dollars of the public be regarded as more valuable than they are currently being viewed, thus resulting in a better and more consistent education. I am in the unique position of having taken both of these professors, and know firsthand of their strengths and weaknesses in the classroom, or at least in the ones I happened to be in. Additionally, for a living, I am a management consultant, and spend my days analyzing the effectiveness of the message of the companies I consult with. I know that Professor Kelsey runs a class that is extremely enjoyed and looked forward to, and that she works especially well with the weaker students. However, one could hand in their math homework as a research paper and still get a B. Professor Hayes, on the other hand, desires greatly to push her student to higher levels, but lacks the ability to connect with her classroom and stay on a consistent message. Can both of these be improved? Absolutely. But if those entrusted with the responsibility to review the performance of these professors fail to do so adequately and willfully ignore the information and statistics so readily available to them, expecting positive results is a reach. Accountability in public academia is non-existent, and the dine-and-dash continues, the rather hefty price left to be paid for by the next generation.