Higher Education Woes

We need an education make-over. This is a conclusion that I have come to after quite a bit of reflection, observation, and discussion about student performance and opportunities for higher education. I don't know what the education in other states is like, but in California there is definitely room for improvement.

Students aren't what they used to be. Perhaps this observation is skewed by my naive outlook on life and the academic achievers that I was encouraged to associate with when I was younger, but it seems like students as a whole don't seem to care as much about reaching academic goals. Sure, everyone wants to do well in life and be in a successful career, but I'm beginning to wonder if students have mentally disconnected the line between academic success and career success and don't feel that the latter is dependent on the former. Could it be that in their view good grades do not equal a good job anymore? Considering that we are limping out of a recession, that's not such a surprising conclusion for students to have made, especially if they or others close to them were experiencing unwanted unemployment and had a degree. If college is not seen as a valuable investment (as many of us have been told all our lives), then students are not going to clamor to get in. They will choose other paths, perhaps career training schools that advertise preparing individuals for entry-level positions and promise to assist students with finding jobs (not all of them deliver, and I have other issues with career school, but that is for another time and place). Perhaps it's not that the students have changed, but getting the bang for your buck in college has. Well, maybe so, but I don't think that's the whole story.

Education isn't what it used to be. Students in K-12 are not being as prepared for college and higher education as they could be (used to be?). Believe me, I do not blame the teachers. I was a teacher once, so I lived the challenges that they face in the classroom everyday. It's hard to make your students college-ready when your classroom is over-populated and daily lessons are completely taken over by pacing guides and district-mandated subject schedules that define how long teachers are allowed to spend on one area--and if students don't get it, too bad you have to move on. I know that seems unbelievable, but that was the situation I dealt with when I taught in a district in Northern California. So knowing that, it's not hard to accept that students are not being prepared. Not every teacher or even every district deals with like situations, but they exist. So by the time students get to high school, many of them are struggling because they didn't understand everything they should have in their K-8 classes. They enter high school already behind. They may graduate high school but they are not college-ready when they leave because they've missed important concepts or opportunities that help to build their critical thinking and reasoning skills, among other academic abilities. They are not by any means stupid or dumb...just absurdly unprepared. I see it everyday working with the students I do. I see students that are unable to think through a problem, even one that I would deem relatively simple; students that are very computer illiterate (what happened to giving them the chance in K-12 to familiarize themselves with the computer?); and students that don't know how to take notes or even write coherently. Writing skills, computer skills, critical thinking skills...all of these skill areas are supposed to be a part of every student's K-12 education. And perhaps for the majority of students it is happening, but I feel as though too many students are falling through the cracks. Education isn't what it used to be in California. Years ago, California ranked high among all the states (I want to say in the top ten, but I can't find the data) in terms of K-12 education; now, it ranks 33rd and performs poorly in several key areas.

One more piece of the puzzle still needs to be acknowledged. Let's face it: the cost of higher education isn't what it used to be. Every year, tuition for higher education rises, even for the state-run colleges and universities that are supposed to be "affordable" for students. The current cost of tuition and fees for California residents at UC Davis, a university I attended for two years before transferring to another, is $13,902. It's almost three times that much for out-of-state or international students to attend. When I attended the campus, tuition was only a fraction of that (my parents wrote the checks, so I don't have the receipts for the exact amount). That figure, as shown on the page I linked to, doesn't even include the other costs for school: health insurance (if you don't have proof of insurance through a parent), books, room and board, and other expenses. It adds up very quickly and means that students from low-income families have to take on substantial debt in order to attend school. What compounds the problem is that many students are finishing in 4 1/2 or 5 years, rather than 4. So that $33,073-per-year price tag noted on that same page I linked to just went from $132,292 for four years (as long as tuition doesn't continue to increase) to $148, 828 for 4 1/2 years or $165,363 for five years. You can buy a nice house in some parts of the country for that kind of money. For many students, taking on that much debt isn't an option. It's an insurmountable price tag for education, something that all students attending public school didn't have to pay for until knocking at the gate of California's public colleges and universities. This goes back to the idea of value I touched on above. What is the education one gets at the public colleges and universities worth? Is it worth the all-expenses-included-$33,073-a-year price tag? Is it worth more? Less? I think that more people are starting to say "less" and choosing other options. Could we start to see more growth in career training schools or other alternatives that focus on career opportunities rather than education? I don't know. Even many of these options come with a stiff price tag that could discourage people; a 15-month program at the school where I work is priced at about $30,000 and there's no way for the school to guarantee that every student will get a job in their field, even if there is staff to assist students with finding positions (and they do maintain a certain percentage of placements for accreditation purposes). Education costs are a gamble, and students have no way to be assured they will get a job after graduation, although job prospects have improved over the last couple of years.

I know I'm writing a lot of doom and gloom here, but there is a silver lining, a light for hope. Can you guess what it is?

The heroes of higher education are community colleges and libraries. Community colleges especially are not given enough credit for what it is they do. They take in all students that want to walk through their doors and get an education. If a student isn't college-ready, they have remedial courses and other services to help prepare students to transfer to a four-year college or university if that is really what they want to do. And if a student decides that a four-year college is not where they want to go and they want to concentrate on preparing for a career, well community colleges do that too. I didn't really appreciate the significance of this role until recently. And community colleges manage to perform at a cost that would be a dream come true at a UC or CSU campus. This local community college charges a mere $46 per unit. A student attending full-time and taking 12 units a semester is only spending $1,104 for the whole year in tuition, $1,166 if we include the other fees. Community colleges are giving students the ability to prepare for pursing higher education at four-year institutions or prepare for a career and doing so at a much more affordable cost. And let's not forget about libraries. Academic libraries, and yes even public libraries, are helping patrons of every age to pursue life-long learning and education. Remember my mention of students that are computer illiterate? My local public library system offers computer literacy classes. Academic libraries, particularly those at community colleges, offer instruction that builds critical thinking skills and helps students to be more prepared at being students (like being able to research for a class assignment). And they work with every skill level. Academic libraries do often offer for-credit courses as well; public libraries don't, but their workshops and other resources are often helpful when someone wants to concentrate on a specific skill set. And let's not forget the price tag for using the library: $0. Even academic libraries (excepting for-credit courses) offer their services for free, and sometimes people in the community are able to take advantage of what the library offers even if they aren't students.

So today, I salute all libraries and community colleges for what they do to help people with their life goals. Our education system is in trouble, but I think there's still hope. As long as these two entities exist to help address the needs of those that have career rather than academic aspirations, or need more preparation for college, or can't afford high tuition, then things are not broken beyond repair.

But they will eventually have to be fixed.

Italian Fruit Tart

I haven't made anything new for awhile, but this recipe is one that I keep forgetting to share here. I started making fruit tarts some years ago and am definitely overdue for my next one. I much prefer a cake-y base for a tart, rather than the harder pastry crust I've found in some store-bought tarts. The key to making this dessert both yummy and beautiful is to use fruits of different colors. I tend to use kiwis, tangerines and strawberries for the bright colors they have, and will add small berries, bananas, or other fruits that are in season. With the abundance of fruit available in the summer, this is an excellent warm-weather dessert.

What you'll need:
3 Tbs. finely-ground hazelnuts or almonds
3 Tbs. finely-ground vanilla cookie crumbs
1/4c. brown sugar
3 1/2 Tbs. butter or margarine, divided
2 eggs
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. flour
2 Tbs. rum
1/2 c. milk
4-5 kinds of fruit, peeled and divided into pieces as necessary
3/4 c. apple jelly

What you'll need to do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together the ground nuts, the cookie crumbs, brown sugar, and 2 1/2 Tbs of the butter with your fingers. Butter and dust an 11- to 11 1/2-inch tart pan. Sprinkle the nut mixture on the flat part of the pan and gently press down.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs with an electric mixer until foamy. Add the sugar and mix together at high speed until thick. Stir in the flour and the rum.
4. In a small pan, bring the milk and the remaining 1 Tbs. of butter to simmering. Immediately mix into the batter.
5. Pour the batter into the tart pan and bake on the lowest rack in the oven for about 25 minutes. Cake will be golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the deepest part of the cake should come out clean.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Flip the pan over and ease the cake out of the pan. The nut mixture may stick. If this happens, scrape it off of the pan and gently spread it back onto the cake with a knife. Let the cake cool completely.
7. While the cake is cooling, strain the apple jelly (to thin it out so the consistency remains even) and add it to a small pan. Heat over medium-low heat until runny.
8. Arrange the fruit on the tart. Glaze with the warm apple jelly and let cool.

Now sit back and enjoy the ooos and ahhs when you serve your picture-worthy dessert. You can have it with whipped cream or all by itself. Enjoy!

Working With the Green

The hills are green, and the grassy turf is sprinkled with color from the spring wildflowers decorating the fields. The flowers have come in early this year, many in February because the lack of rain and the warmer weather have tricked them into thinking it's well into Spring. I see splashes of orange from California poppies and purple blushes in the fields from some tiny flower I don't have the name of every morning and evening as I drive to and from work. I feel like a flower myself, ready to pop out of my winter shell and bask in the sunshine and the spring breezes.

Even so, I never feel like it's truly Spring until I can get my garden going. The last couple of years, I've missed out on this because there wasn't enough time and space to really branch out (pardon the pun). This year, I have the opportunity to literally get my hands dirty and get a modest garden up and running. Poor Scooter has had to listen to me prattle on about vegetables and roses and bulb plants and bird feeders and outdoor furniture since Fall. Come hell or high water, I was going to have a garden this year. I am an unstoppable force that really needs my green. I'm almost embarrassed to say that a recent trip to OSH nearly had me spending on gardening stuff what other women spend on shoes. But in the end I had to be sensible; we're not able to do as much as we did three years ago. Part of it is because the backyard of our current place is cemented over, so everything has to be in pots or planter boxes (but I'll take what I can get). Part of it is because while I do have more time, life is still busy and I don't want to take on more than I can handle. And part of it is because the area is in a drought and it doesn't make any kind of sense to have a large garden that needs a lot of water. But all those garden goodies were very hard to resist.

So, we're starting small: some strawberries, some tomatoes, basil (other herbs to come), and one zucchini. The tomatoes and zucchini don't need tons of water (and actually zucchini--we found out--is susceptible to fungus if over-watered). The strawberries and basil are my two concessions that will probably need water every other day or every day, depending on how hot it gets. I also chose some flowering plants that don't seem to need a lot of water (every 2-3 days until established, then less after that). The few pictures below show our progress at the end of day 1.

We planted sequoia strawberries, the variety that Scooter likes.

A basil plant for pasta and to eat with tomato--an Italian must!

Scooter found this container at a swap meet. It's a perfect match for the red tomato.

The herb bed is ready and waiting. I just have to buy the herbs.

The zucchini bed before we lined and filled it. Scooter also added support on the sides to make sure it lasts the whole season.

Some of the pretty flowers we got to adorn the garden and not need tons of water.

We added another wine barrel with two tomatoes on day 2 (thank you K and Z for the donation of wine barrels!). We also added protection in the form of chicken wire for the strawberries and the zucchini; with cats in the area, the dirt would of course seem like a convenient litter box and I don't need that kind of surprise when I'm digging around. I hope to add thyme, oregano, and sage to the herb bed by May (there's a rosemary hedge out front, so we're good there); now that I'm cooking more again, I need my Italian herbs! And I have plans for adding bird feeders--high out of the reach of cats--and comfortable chairs to enjoy my new green space. Spring is just too much fun!

Information Literacy

This topic has been on my mind lately because of both my e-portfolio and a job posting I saw. On my way to work this morning (which is a time when I think about a lot of things), I began to wonder what challenges information literacy a few decades ago would have faced compared to today. This page provided by ACRL on information literacy implies that the concept wasn't even around then. I find that worthy of exploring further because of how I envision information literacy and teaching individuals information literacy skills. The main concepts could have been applied to one's search and use of information ten, twenty, or even fifty years ago. Perhaps back then these ideas were simply called research skills.

I see information literacy as teaching proficiency in three areas: how to search for information, how to analyze information, and how to use information. Obviously, the techniques for searching for information have been refined with the adoption of online and digital resources. However, the search for information still takes places within physical materials--skills that were relevant long before the Internet and that still are helpful to know now. The techniques used for analyzing information I don't see as having changed too much. The purpose of analyzing information is to be sure that the information is accurate and comes from an authoritative source (when doing publication-worthy research, authoritative sources are important). With digital resources, such as websites or webpages, finding the identifying information that one normally uses to determine this can be somewhat elusive; but the things we look for (author, author's bio, date of publication, etc.) haven't changed terribly much. How we use the information we find also is relatively the same. Sources still need to be properly cited and plagiarism is still considered the grave sin of writing. Citation styles have been updated to include the variety of materials one can find online or in digital formats, but again, the concepts of how to use others' works is still consistent with how it was done before we could "find everything online."

So what is the big challenge with information literacy today? Why would we need to coin a phrase for a process that is basically researching with a bigger pool of information? The "bigger pool of information" is the key here. Information literacy, in addition to teaching research concepts with more types of materials that one can use, is also teaching how to navigate the ocean of information that exists. It's about quantity. There is so much information out there that it's often hard for the information "newbies" to even complete the first task of searching for information. It would be like sending a sea captain out on a boat without any navigational tools and tell him to sail across the Pacific and land on a specific island out of the more than 7,000 that make up the Philippines. Setting a fresh-faced student in front of a computer and giving her a topic to research without any preparation is like what the sea captain would be up against. The student probably has some basic knowledge that she can draw from to start searching (as the sea captain would have to head in the right direction), but she's probably not able to find and use the resources that would be perfect for her needs (just as the sea captain would not be able to find that single tiny island without some navigational help). It also doesn't help that anyone can put any information on the Internet they want, as long as they have a site and host server--which means our student may think she found the information she needs when actually it's completely inaccurate.

This is where librarians come in. We have the skills to pay the bills, and we are willing and able to teach our patrons information literacy skills. In libraries that serve post-secondary student populations, this exchange is already happening; I suspect that it's also occurring in K-12 school libraries and media centers with a dedicated librarian or other individual that fills that role (but it's not always the case that the school has such a person on staff). The reality is that information literacy instruction isn't always reaching the students because (1) school or campus libraries may not provide it or (2) the instruction may not be compulsory so students choose not to participate (which is often the case at post-secondary institutions). Information literacy skills use critical thinking skills and Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive skills, so teaching information literacy not only serves to improve ones skills in finding and using information but also builds competence in these other areas. I guess my point here is that information literacy skills should be a required component of the classroom and library instruction in all school districts and at all levels of education up to and including undergraduate (and instruction should be compulsory). This can be done either by having instruction in the library that students would attend, or coordination between librarian and faculty that would allow the librarian to provide instruction in the classroom that would tie in to the course. It's not an impossible feat, and I'm sure it would be easily accomplished if everyone supported the idea and was willing to help make it happen.

I'll step down from my soapbox now. I get worked up about this because I want students to leave school with all the skills that will make them successful, and too often I see the product of an incomplete education. I don't by any means blame the teachers (believe me, I KNOW how hard you all work to teach kids, teens, and adults), but I think there is a way that we can do better by our students and make them competitive in all industries.