The level of work is astoundingly different, even though I teach a class that transfers straight across for the classes I used to teach at the 4 year school.
After my first test I took the results (40 Fs, 10 Ds, and 15 Cs) to my chair. She asked to see the test and said, "Well, here's your problem. You're asking them to do things they're not ready for yet."
"But this is stuff I'm pulling right from the textbook."
"Oh," she said. "They can't handle that yet. By the end of the semester they can usually get it. We have our own test bank, just for the college. I think you'll see your averages go up."
I used the test bank yesterday on the second test and was horrified at the grade 11 questions that filled it. Of course they'd pass this one. Sure enough, As and Bs mostly, with just a handful of Cs and Ds. The test bank questions don't even match what I'm teaching; they sure are easy, though.
I brought this up with someone I sat next to in the shared office suite and was told I'd just gone through the necessary "adjustment" phase that comes with teaching at a large community college.
But what am I doing? I'm telling them that they're doing passing work, when they're not. Anyone who transfers from here with credit in Dr. Dick's class is carrying a little note that says he/she is transfer worthy, and they are simply not.
Yet, I'd like to keep making the $3k a class. Am I just at a bad school, in a bad department, or do other teachers who've taught at 4 and 2 year schools understand this discrepancy?
Ugh your poor bugger. I did that job. Not at your institution, and not in your town, but I did that job.
ReplyDeleteI'd had a bunch of teaching experience from the university where I did my phd. Not being a TA, but being handed whole courses to run. I got a spread of grades, it formed a nice normal bell curve. I patted myself on the back.
Then I BRIEFLY took a teaching position at a shiddy place that had newly been jumped up from community college to 4yr university. Except that the students were still admitted community college style. I taught Intro to Hamster Fur Weaving (to use the common parlance) and it was a complete unmitigated fucking disaster, because Intro to Hamster Fur Weaving doesn't come so easily to people operating at a 9th grade level. I say 9th grade level because I'm just throwing a number out there and I'm probably being a bit of an asshole, I didn't test these kids, but they really had no literacy skills to get them through the most rudimentary text, no analytical skills that would allow them to solve the simplest problem, and to make matters worse, it being an "open admission" kind of place, I had special needs and behavioral matters to contend with, that quite often had me standing in front of the room, jaw on the floor, dumbstruck, wondering what the fuck I"m gonna do with this 5th percentile student who just got angry and started smashing things because I flipped slides too soon. (He passed, BTW, because I was told he should.)
Remind yourself, you came from a place where you could reasonably expect more, and fuck'em if they didn't hit the mark. Now you're at a place where it's your job to hold their hand, stroke their hair, and for fuck sake, generate tests that make them feel good about the work they do. And that's where you have to ask yourself--Can I do this, or do I need to quit, find a better academic spot, OR re-tool, and do something else.
I'm at the 4-year school down the road from you. My first impulse is to say stick to your guns, since the students you pass too easily become my problem.
ReplyDeleteOf course, what I'm supposed to say is that you're supposed to give these students a gentle introduction, commensurate with their needs, and then gradually, by the end of the semester, have them "ready" for doing college work. You know, just like the teacher in Stand and Deliver. And with larger classes every semester. And with more students requiring special, individualized attention all the time. And all for $24k/year and probably no benefits. Ask your Chair for a magic wand: she's apparently forgotten to issue you one.
P.S. More seriously, Peter Sachs describes a situation much like yours in "Generation X Goes to College." You may choose to go the easy route, the way he did, or you may choose to go the hard route and insist on meaningful standards, the way I did. My career very nearly did not survive the experience: the only reason it did was because of my ability to bring in external funding and to involve students in my research.
DeleteI wonder if the problem isn't on the other end of the equation. As in: Why are four-year universities admitting students without properly evaluating their transfer credits? When I was an undergrad, you couldn't just transfer credits from any old place willy-nilly; you had to submit a petition in writing and then hope and pray that the old-guard chair of the department felt your transfer credit qualified.
DeleteAt my previous grad institution (a flagship state school), few students were able to transfer their intro to basket weaving from the local community college or the local open-admissions state school. In order to transfer, you had to provide a syllabus and a basket you had woven previously, and then you had to prove that you could weave a basket right there with everyone watching. Predictably, this cut down on the number of incompetent students in upper-level classes.
Now I work at another four-year insitution that, despite having "high admissions standards" (this school fancies itself a public Ivy, lol), allows anyone to transfer every class they've taken elsewhere. Students who transfer in from the local CC are awarded junior status without having to take a single prerequisite at this university. And this isn't just a few students--this is half of my second-level basket weaving class. Half of them are juniors and seniors (and many of them majors) who are barely able to weave a placemat, let alone a basket.
Why are four-year universities admitting students without properly evaluating their transfer credits?
DeleteBecause we're all one big happy system, and facilitating our students' desire to get an R1 diploma at CC cost/quality, or move around the state without losing any 'progress' (because it's an incentive to stay in the state), is just something we have to do to keep those state dollars flowing.
Because we're all one big happy system, and facilitating our students' desire to get an R1 diploma at CC cost/quality, or move around the state without losing any 'progress' (because it's an incentive to stay in the state), is just something we have to do to keep those state dollars flowing
DeleteAre community college students really that likely to take their dollars out of state or to a private school? It seems to me that if you're at community college because a) you don't have a lot of money, and/or b) your grades aren't good enough for the four-year uni, then the last thing you're going to be able to do is gain admission to, and pay for, a private college or an out-of-state state university.
I hear you Frederick. I have students that wave transfer credits in my face for Advanced Fur Weaving where they make a C and expect to be able to hack it in the Theory of Fur Weaving and Theory of Hamster Breeding. They can barely tell a hamster from an elephant, but have transfer credits.
DeleteYours is a very common problem. And because of articulation agreements, your problem becomes my problem, when the shitty standards you enforce turn out students that get Bs when they should be getting Ds or failing.
ReplyDeleteThen, the fact that they are failing becomes my fault, because that "nice professor Denver Dick" gave them Bs. I have to clean up your mess.
I realize that you might be under some personal and departmental pressure to hand out candy grades, but that doesn't mean you can't nut up and do your job the way it's supposed to be done.
And you aren't just creating a problem for me. You're creating a problem for the student, who thinks they are "college material" and can get through a four-year degree when they probably can't, or can't without an enormous amount of work. So you raise them up, and then put me in the position of having to crush them, and put them in the position of getting crushed. In addition, they might be investing a lot of time and money in pursuing their degree, which your candy grades encouraged them to think they could complete with relative ease.
Quit it. Seriously, quit it. You're hurting them. You're making a big mess for me. And you're not making it easy to live with yourself, either.
Unfortunately, the advice to Denver Dick to stick to his guns means that next semester, Dick will have no job. I am a full-time (tenured, for the specific meaning of "tenure" that CCs have) faculty in the same system as Dick, and our focus now is on persistence and retention. Persistence is defined as number of A/B/C grades, with D/F/W grades counting against the professor's performance evaluation. As an adjunct, Dick will not be given a second semester's contract if his D/F/W percentages are too high.
ReplyDeleteIt's happening with us full-timers, too - D/F/W percentages are now considered as a part of our performance evaluation, so even though we are semi-protected now, I anticipate that protection fading in the future.
As much as I personally am still holding the line on academic standards, I am receiving more and more and more pressure to be more "helpful" and "flexible" and "student-centered" in terms of the grades I give. And as much as I like my four-year colleagues and want to participate in their goal of graduating capable students, I like not living under a bridge almost as much.
He can't just "nut up" and hold his students to higher standards. If he does, he'll lose his job and his CC will hire a more compliant adjunct. That's why the problem Stella describes is such an intractable structural issue. I'm not here with any magic solution, just some sympathy for Dick, who's a very expendable cog in a corrupt system that exploits both students and adjuncts.
ReplyDeleteOkay (deep breath).
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem at Cushy Military U online. They pay *so* well. But I feel like I'm contributing to this sense of entitlment, this false idea of "college" as though what they are learning (9th grade social studies, really) is somehow a real live grownup education.
But over time, I have struck a balance. I force them to write real work. I do not accept lazy work and I make them do those things over. But the tests, the tests are easy. What we end up with is a combination: not so hard that they all fail, but with a few assignments each term that FORCE them to work on their skills.
As a result, while none of them graduate as true academics, many of them do develop good research and writing skills along the way. Skills that could translate to successful elements at another future should they decide to continue their education.
Use the easy tests, but develop some weekly assignments that force them to develop skills. And then use a "real" test as your final.
If not for your students, then for your sanity and ultimately for the rest of us who receive transfer students.
I understand. One of my colleagues recently told me that our school is the local "safety" school and it does seem as if I am teaching high school history sometimes. I try to make my students write more, and I try to push them a little more with each test. The occasional actual star student helps me keep my self-respect and pushes me as a teacher. I also try to remember that most of the students will have learned something about hamster-weaving when they leave my class.
ReplyDeleteIn brief, try to find places where you can challenge and push them.
I'm not suggesting that Denver Dick operate in a vaccuum. It's up to every faculty member to defend Denver Dick's grading standards, and enforce those standards themselves. To fight the administration's edict that retention is everything, and that students are consumers. Tenured faculty members must push back and take the heat for those that are not protected. It's everyone's fight, not just Dick's.
ReplyDeleteBut people that find themselves in the position of being pressured into doing something unethical do not get a "pass". Yeah, Dick might lose his job. I understand that. But if he continues to dumb down the grading standards, he's complicit in cheating the students. Saying "some other adjunct will come along and will do what Denver Dick refused to" doesn't excuse Denver Dick himself.
I don't ask Dick to do anything I wouldn't do myself. Were there pressure from above to dumb down my grades, I wouldn't. I can tell you I wouldn't even if my tenure was at stake. I wouldn't even if my job was at stake. They'd have to fire me.
So far, my college seems to be a safe haven from this trend. I have about a 60% pass rate (counting d as passing) and have never had anyone say boo to me. Our math science are way cooler than that...the give the same tests and use the same books as the U of Ourstate does. Lots and lots and lots of Fs. But things are changing. We have been told that we are going to be evaluated and given funding as a college based upon our student success rates. Our president has told us that when that goes into effect, the way we are evaluated will change, too. I am working on finishing a masters in Something Different s ience. My plan to deal with is is to leave as soon as I can.
ReplyDeleteStella, it's nice that you'd stand up for your principles, but we all know the end result. In practice, nothing positive would be achieved.
ReplyDeleteDick, you could try to make the discrepancy clear to them as unsubtly as you think you could get away with. For example, how about extra or low credit (non grade breaking) assignments taken directly from your previous job, letting them know that's the source and stressing how important it is to get a grasp on that level of material if they plan to transfer?
Stew, what you're saying is that no one can really make a difference. That no matter what sort of shit is thrown our way, we can't change it. We might as well give in.
DeleteThat's really sad. And I don't think it's true. In academia or in anything else.
At least you have the option of dumbing down without the department looking at you funny. Some of us get told, when we're hired, that we're being brought in to "help raise standards" or "help hold the line" which sets up an immediate tension between us, the students, and the faculty who are apparently tossing out A's like peanuts.
ReplyDeletethe faculty who are apparently tossing out A's like peanuts
DeleteOne of my colleagues resembles that remark. It came up at her tenure review. She still got it.
Tenure, that is.
DeleteA number of students transfer every year from other universities to mine and ask that their Hamsters I be considered equivalent to our Hamsters I, allowing them to take Hamsters II.
ReplyDeleteThe chair approves giving them credit if they can pass an exam roughly equivalent to the Hamster I final exam. Most don't even bother to show up for the exam, and the rest can be assessed fairly.
No, I'm saying what you're proposing doesn't make a difference. What are you thinking your grand gesture will achieve?
ReplyDeleteBy myself, probably nothing. If my colleagues are craven, as often academics are, then probably nothing.
ReplyDeleteBut if academics act in unision for the good of their institution and for themselves and their students, quite a lot.
And at any rate even if I achieved nothing, I would not be complicit in the harm that is done. I would not be part of the problem.
At least if you're within the system there's *something* you can do to help out. You can communicate the problem to the students and organize your teaching and materials in such a way that those willing and able to put in the extra work can genuinely prepare themselves for further education. You can work on getting support from your coworkers to bring about real change, something that will be easier as you get to know and bond with them as opposed to hoping they'll risk their jobs siding with a stranger. You can try to increase awareness of the issue at both your current and former institution with much less likelihood of simply coming across as bitter at losing your job and being ignored. I'm sure that's not an exhaustive list.
DeleteI'd probably do the same as you and refuse to budge, but frankly it's an easy way out, only a little tougher than just accepting the situation and doing none of the above.
History is often not kind to collaborators. I think that every time I’m molested by a TSA screener at the airport.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, to keep your job until you get tenure, it probably will be necessary for you to make it easier for your students to get Cs. I’m ashamed to admit that I did this, but at least I made them work for their Cs. It was still a terrible fight.
Also, in order to keep what’s left of your integrity, I recommend you keep it just as hard as ever to get As. The handful of A students (real A students, not the much more common ones with too much self-esteem who only think they’re A students) who do inevitably turn up in your classes will appreciate it.
A problem I had as a new, youngish Accursed Visiting Assistant Professor, and again as a tenure-track assistant professor at the university where I am now, was a terrible feeling of isolation. Virtually none of my colleagues appeared to be having the same problem I was, with students constantly complaining about how my teaching was "too hard." What made it much worse were higher-ups who seemingly instantly agreed with the students, no matter how ridiculous their accusations, and who lost no time at yelling at me about it.
I realize now that the reason for this was that nearly all of my teaching colleagues had dumbed down standards. Now you know one reason the college degrees of today are worth less than the high-school diplomas of a generation ago. Some of my teaching colleagues had done so enthusiastically, having drunk the Kool-Aid peddled by the ed-school. Those who still had some pride, integrity, or shame wouldn't admit that they'd done it, but they'd done it. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t still have been teaching.
If you want to insist on high standards, it will help to have tenure, and quite a bit of seniority, too. It helps for me to be the only astronomer in my physics department: my colleagues rely on me to teach the big general-ed classes, in order to bring in the money that makes their smaller classes possible.
It helps a lot, too, to be in a department with other like-minded academics. We once had a horrible teacher who always let his students out early and gave out As like candy. He got great evaluations, but when we got his students later in our classes, they rarely knew much. We therefore no longer abuse anonymous student evaluations of teaching in the shameful way we used to, which is extremely common and described well in “Generation X Goes to College,” by Peter Sachs. Repeatedly, Sachs calls this system “corrupt,” and I don’t think it’s too strong of a word. You have a tough road ahead. I wish you the best!