Higher Education Moving Forward: Some Questions for the Future
Part 5 of a 5-part Series
Co-authored by Adam Wouk, Jake Weld, and Joanna Lilley
This series of articles has addressed a variety of factors which apply directly to diverse learners and those with learning disabilities of all kinds. We have proposed a new paradigm for evaluating college readiness, explored the intricacies of federal law as it applies to IDEA and ADA, discussed some of the hidden curriculum of college, and discussed some of the details of accommodations and a holistic view of college success. Each of these articles is designed to help students and families understand the current landscape of post-secondary education, as well as provide both a theoretical framework for interfacing with the unique bureaucratic system that is a college campus and also provide some nuts-and-bolts tips that can lead to student success.
In our final article we are going to take the next step into the evolution of post-secondary education. While it may be true that brighter minds are busy addressing these issues, doing so through the lens of working with students with disabilities and diverse learners may provide students, parents, and educators with some food for thought as we launch into the next decade of higher education. We do not profess to have all of the answers, but do hope that by noting some of the areas of opportunity we can generate thought, discussion, and meaningful solutions for students and parents. Please note, some of this will inevitably be topical, due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, while other elements are intended to be much more far-reaching.
Access to Information and the Relevance of College: As we referenced in our previous article, the history of the university goes back to 1088 in Italy, when these institutions were generally glorified labor guild apprentice shops combined with medieval libraries. The university was where education was to be found, and one had to go there to get it. Not so anymore. We each hold in our pocket a tool with truly staggering access to information - a smartphone with internet capabilities. No longer is the same value attributed to knowing the periodic table’s symbol for iron (Fe, if you are curious), we simply look it up wherever we are, whenever we need it. Colleges have not yet found all the ways they need to respond in order to be relevant in a world where all of the world’s known knowledge is already in your pocket. Critical thinking still matters, as does source evaluation, and those that learn how to process, deconstruct, and reconstruct information and ideas in new and compelling ways will always lead. Colleges will be well-advised to tackle this challenge head on, including re-thinking how they assess college readiness, how they (de)compartmentalize academic departments, the construction of required course threads, and all other areas of the college machine. Reorganizing the critical components will keep it relevant, but access to “secret knowledge” needs to be replaced with meaningful student-centered solutions.
Online Options, Decentralized Learning, and Accommodations: While it is a trend that has been steadily gaining steam for 20 years, COVID-19 forced every college professor in the country to go online, overnight. Some did it gracefully, some grudgingly, some with success and some with abject failures. Colleges thought they had another 10 years to ease into online as a revenue stream, as a content delivery model, as a modus operandi, as an option. Then it was swim or sink for everyone, and all at once. The skills, approaches, and techniques of online teaching are not universally distributed and as we have mentioned in almost every one of our articles, most college professors are masters of content, not pedagogy. The shift to online highlights that fact tenfold. Colleges and college professors will have to learn how to operate in our brave new world, where even education is a form of “content.”
Students, too, were not fully prepared for this switch, and the move into online learning has been a major challenge for students with learning disabilities of all kinds. Accommodations which took generations to fight for in the classroom are not yet second nature online. Using a computer (a tool for entertainment) as the singular tool for education has been a hard shift for many students. Does this lead us to having a distinct school/work laptop as well as having one for media/social time/ gaming? Maybe. Where does the smartphone and Smart TV and the tablet fit into that array? Who will take on teaching professors how to teach, how to teach online, and how to teach diverse learners? Will colleges who make the shift emerge as winners, while those who cannot slowly fall by the wayside? If access to education is the great equalizer will it drag us all toward a least common denominator or will it be the rising tide that lifts all ships?
Education as a Right, a Privilege, a Valuable Product, and as Customer Service: This is a double-edged sword, a Catch-22 conundrum which has been vexing Deans and Provosts for generations. This generation’s challenge is no different, but it is ours, and it needs attention.
Colleges and universities are barreling toward an existential crisis in which the value proposition is inverted to the point of preposterous proportions (and disproportions). The number of students who will willingly choose to accrue $250,000 in college loan debt in order to qualify as an hourly-wage barista manager and an unpaid intern in a start-up tech firm that has cool t-shirts and a break room with Foosball will continue to go down, and even faster if the pandemic of 2020 results in a widespread and long-lasting economic recession, or worse.
Meanwhile, the number of colleges who will posture and pose and claim unimpeachable standards and rankings will continue to go up while they shovel acceptance letters out the front door at unprecedented rates in order to attract new students; largely to fill the holes left by their atrocious freshman retention rates that are streaming out the back door. A portion of the country will clamor for some version of affordable or free college. Some states already offer it. College students (and worse, their parents), will continue to feel entitled to whatever it is they want, however it is they want it, because... “do you know how much I am paying for this class!?” That process threatens to suck the joy from teaching and erodes any collegiate culture of academic rigor or institutional prestige. Meanwhile, colleges who do not realize that they are, in fact businesses, with a product and customers and a bottom line, are going to cease to exist. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic is already accelerating this trend across the country.
Moving Forward: At first blush, all of these elements may seem to be equal yet opposing forces which threaten to keep the entire system locked into a self-defeating stasis, but we are convinced creative solutions will emerge. Better funding, public-private partnerships, a focus on employ-ability, education as applied innovation, more-not-less liberal arts, and more-not-less integration of technical skills may all play a part. Colleges can begin to take back the streets by providing quality service and meaningful education at an affordable price, which will give them the institutional standing to redefine their role with students and families. Likewise, colleges will undoubtedly find creative ways to meet the needs of diverse learners, as well as those with social, emotional, or other needs.
Great education has always been defined by the ability of a teacher or institution to meet a student where they are, not where they want them to be, and then move them forward. Colleges and universities have this ability. By embracing diversity of all kinds, promoting scholarship, and rewarding creativity, colleges have the ability to respond to the needs of today while providing the answers for tomorrow. The solutions exist, and we are excited to see the future emerge from the present.
For questions or comments contact:
Adam Wouk via email.
Jake Weld via email.
