Sian Leah Beilock, president of Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League research university located in Hanover, N.H., presented a bold assessment of higher education in this country in an opinion article she wrote for the Jan. 26 edition of the Wall Street Journal.
No doubt the bold assessment presented by Beilock was not received kindly by many educators across America. Therefore, Beilock’s views should be a starting point for in-depth discussion and debate even in places where most people seem satisfied with their higher education resources and the opportunities they offer.
But perhaps there are more viewpoints “out there” like Beilock’s, or bordering on it, that never have been discussed in detail here and deserve to be aired, not only for the benefit of students but for the educational facilities themselves.
Perhaps some of the ideas would merit discussion — and perhaps even eventual implementation — even on the region’s secondary schools level.
The bottom line, though, is that such an assessment, even if it were to produce no new ideas or approaches, would be a healthy exercise worthy of the time, talent, brainstorming and outside input devoted to it.
A similarly healthy exercise is what Beilock advocates for higher education based on her belief that American higher education has a trust problem.
The headline over Beilock’s article asks the following question: “Is a four-year degree worth it?”
“Student debt has soared,” she wrote. “Recent graduates are struggling in a rapidly changing job market. Colleges can also be too ideological: On many campuses, students are exposed to a limited range of perspectives, signaling to them what, rather than how, to think.
“American higher education has a trust problem. We shouldn’t pretend otherwise, and it won’t solve itself.”
She wrote that she’d like to see colleges and universities across America take steps to restore trust. She indicated five areas within which she feels that a building back of trust would be possible.
“We must demonstrate to students and families — and to the broader public — that we’ve heard their criticisms and will address them,” she wrote.
In brief, the areas of possibility that she put forth in her article are as follows:
• Make college affordable. She said every leading university needs to demonstrate a measurable commitment to affordability — that if the public no longer believes it is a good investment, that’s a problem.
• Hold institutions accountable for student outcomes. The return on investment matters. “Are our graduates getting jobs, pursuing meaningful work and contributing to their communities?” she asked.
• Re-center higher education on learning rather than political posturing. She said too often, colleges and universities have participated in the culture wars, and the result has been an environment in which students and faculty feel they must toe an ideological line rather than explore ideas that fall outside prevailing norms.
• Don’t emphasize equal outcomes; emphasize equal opportunity. “One quiet way we’re undermining trust is by erasing meaningful performance distinctions,” she wrote.
• Beef up emphasis on testing’s importance. She said Dartmouth faculty conducted a study that confirmed that tests are a valuable tool for identifying high-performing students who might otherwise be overlooked.
Beilock began her article with the sentence “families across the U.S. are questioning whether a four-year degree is worth it.”
That observation demands deep soul-searching that people here can help to decide.