Good Professors Train Good Students

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article about a study from Penn State that indicates students are more likely to return if they have professors who teach well:

Good teaching and exposure to students from diverse backgrounds are some of the strongest predictors of whether freshmen return for a second year of college and improve their critical-thinking skills, say two prominent researchers.

Patrick T. Terenzini, a professor of higher education at Pennsylvania State University, and Ernest T. Pascarella, a co-director of the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education at the University of Iowa, spoke to an audience of chief academic and fund-raising officers convened by the Council of Independent Colleges here on Sunday.

The two men are co-authors of a highly influential book, How College Affects Students, and they sought on Sunday to synthesize what recent research says about student learning, while also weighing in on recent controversies in higher-education research.

Mr. Pascarella based his observations on the findings from the first year of the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, which followed thousands of students at 19 liberal-arts colleges. It recorded the background information of entering freshmen, asked them about their experiences, recorded their outcomes after their first year, and collected the same information again after their fourth year.

Good teaching was not defined by test results. Instead, its attributes were identified on a nine-item scale, which included student appraisals of how well the teacher organized material, used class time, explained directions, and reviewed the subject matter. [emphasis mine]

The likelihood that freshmen returned to college for their sophomore year increased 30 percent when students observed those teaching practices in the classroom. And it held true even after controlling for their backgrounds and grades. "These are learnable skills that faculty can pick up," Mr. Pascarella said.

You Have To Pay It Somehow...

This does not surprise me:

Saddled with piles of student debt and a job-scarce, lackluster economy, current college students and recent graduates are selling themselves to pursue a diploma or pay down their loans. An increasing number, according to the the owners of websites that broker such hook-ups, have taken to the web in search of online suitors or wealthy benefactors who, in exchange for sex, companionship, or both, might help with the bills.

The past few years have taken an especially brutal toll on the plans and expectations of 20-somethings. As unemployment rates tick steadily higher, starting salaries have plummeted. Meanwhile, according to Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a professor of psychology at Clark University, about 85 percent of the class of 2011 will likely move back in with their parents during some period of their post-college years, compared with 40 percent a decade ago.

Besides moving back home, many 20-somethings are beginning their adult lives shouldering substantial amounts of student loan debt.  According to Mark Kantrowitz, who publishes the financial aid websites Fastweb.com and Finaid.org, while the average 2011 graduate finished school with about $27,200 in debt, many are straining to pay off significantly greater loans.

Student Loans Will Own My Soul Part 2

Because what this country needs is more student debt:

As part of the savings to trim the deficits, Congress would scrap a special kind of federal loan for graduate students. So-called subsidized student loans don't charge students any interest on the principal of student loans until six months after students graduated. 

A graduate student who borrows the maximum of $65,500 in subsidized loans would owe $207 a month in interest payments over the course of 10 years. But with a subsidized loan, the government pays that $207 each month the student attends school until six months after graduation...

A graduate student who borrows the maximum of $65,500 in subsidized loans would owe $207 a month in interest payments over the course of 10 years. But with a subsidized loan, the government pays that $207 each month the student attends school until six months after graduation. 

This change would shift some $125 billion in loan volume over to unsubsidized loans and would cost students $18.1 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

At least most of the money saved through the cuts to subsidized student loans will go towards funding Pell Grants, but the cuts will still leave the Pell Grant program short some $1.3 billion dollars.  

Student Loans Will Own My Soul

Among the other statistics in the article, The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that graduate students in master's programs in particular are relying more on student loans to finance their education.  

It is a problem that is likely to grow with budget cuts, especially for us in the humanities.  As a soon-to-be second year MA student, by the this time next year I will owe the government nearly $30,000 in student loans.  And if I am unable to secure funding for the year after next through either a fellowship or as a TA or PA, that number will grow.  Especially the Wisconsin state government is has slashed $125 million in funding from the UW system and has raised tuition 5.5% this upcoming school year alone, with other rises in tuition in the coming years likely.  

I am not alone.  Of the other people I know who are in school for graduate degrees, many of them have had to take out some sort of student loan to pay for tuition or to make ends meet financially.  Luckily, I was able to avoid taking out any student loans while I was an undergrad, and have avoided the situation of two of my friends who both owe over $100,000 in loans.  Most of those come from unsubsidized loans, which accrue interest even when you are in school.  

More than the weak housing market, the national debt ceiling, or credit card debt, student loans are the elephant in the room that could easily ruin the economic future for my generation.  Thankfully I own a tent and a hiking backpack, so I am at least prepared for life in the Hoovervilles.