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Complete College America National Report        

Dr. Gary Low is Professor Emeritus of Education at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK).  In addition to teaching education and counseling courses for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, Gary also served as the assistant dean in the college of education and chair of the doctoral program for educational leadership.  Throughout his long career in higher education he worked with his professional colleague and life-long friend, Dr. Darwin Nelson, to create, research, and teach a skills-based approach to accessing health, academic achievement, and success.  Below, Gary provides a summary of, and an EI-centric response to, the recent national report that was critical of colleges, universities, and students.    

Summary 

I have tried to stay true to the summary findings of the report, and most of this first part comes directly from the Complete College America Report (September, 2011).  The second part, Response to the Report, is a personal response based on what I think we have learned from experience and long-term research with students, educators, and institutions.  My response is from our EI-centric, person-centered teaching and learning scholarship, and transformative learning models of emotional intelligence (Nelson and Low, 1977-2011).

Complete College America is a new and historic report on the health of higher education in the U.S.  And, the results are not flattering, rather the opposite.  The report includes a large study of data provided by states that show the completion rate of students in certificate, associate, and baccalaureate degree programs.  The study is impressive and important in several ways and especially in that previous studies did not count the growing new majority of students entering higher education.  The new majority are the growing numbers of part-time and non-traditional students who try to improve their careers and lives by going to college.  However, the facts of the report indicate that the path is not smooth or successful when measured by program completion standards.   The data measuring program completion are provided by participating states.  The report is presented as a historic, 'must read' document, and guide to change and modify what colleges and universities need (must) do to improve not so good performance.      

The Report identifies a major finding - TIME IS THE ENEMY - noting that the longer it takes to complete a degree, the less likely it will be successfully completed.  This new report provides the quantitative data, analysis of the data, and specific recommendations to improve the rather dismal performance of  higher education institutions offering certificate programs, associate degrees, and baccalaureate degrees.  In terms of program completion, the report provides a good service in that every student counts and that all students should be counted in any accountability effort focused on college success and student performance improvement.

Complete College America Report makes sound recommendations from an external compilation of data supplied by participating states, analyses the data, and cites a few featured programs that seem to work.  Among the significant findings of the report, the commission discovered that:

Finding 2:  Too few students graduate.  For part-timers, results are tragic - even when they have twice as much time. 

Finding 3:  Graduate odds are especially low for students who are African American, Hispanic, older, or poor. 

Finding 4:  Students are wasting time on excess credits . . . and taking too much time to earn a degree. 

Finding 5:  Remediation.  Too many students need it and too few succeed when they get it.  Remedial students are much less likely to graduate. 

Among the recommendations are that today's students need new, shorter, and faster pathways to degrees and certificates of value.  For example, solutions include block scheduling for better planning; allowing students to proceed toward degrees or certificates at a faster pace with shorter terms and year-round scheduling; simplify registrations process with coherent program terms; reducing the amount of time students must be in class - move toward demonstrated competency; forming peer support and learning networks; embedding remediation into regular curriculum, and providing better information on all relevant items for better advisement and decision making at the very beginning.  The report suggests that what is needed is to reinvent higher education to smooth paths to completion through aggressive state- and campus-level action plans.

RESPONSE TO THE REPORT  

The findings of the report are important and admirable.  The programs and recommended directions mentioned in the report represent sound directions aimed at improving college performance as measured by student performance (program completion). The recommendations ring true as they are based on data provided by agencies and states.  External data make for wonderful reporting and charts.  The reporting data are essential and helpful for a state's educational communities to make decisions to change for the better with more documented accountability. 

I believe the report to be important and will be read and studied by decision makers, agencies, institutions of higher learning, and the general public.  However, the report (as do many major national reports) misses a key and perhaps "the key" to improving education from the perspective of the student - the learner - the consumer of higher education.  Indeed, the student frame of reference is secondary if not missing altogether in education at all levels.  Almost all of education and its remedies seem constructed on the notion that cognitive knowledge, information, and decision making are all that is really needed by students, faculty, and programs.  In simple terns, it goes something like this . . .   

If only students really knew that it would take so much time and so much money, then they would make better decisions.  If only colleges and universities knew that their students were different from years past, then they would be able to make better decisions about advising - making programs more convenient and organized in block formats, etc.  If only the states, governing boards, and academic administrators knew what was really happening and knew that only a relatively small number of students achieved program or college success . . . program completion (however you measure it), then improvement would spring into action because that only makes better sense . . . and better decisions would naturally follow . . . which would naturally lead to better program accountability and performance. 

What is missing is the central piece of the puzzle and what the report aims to impact and improve.  Life does not just get in the way of education creating the notion that TIME IS THE ENEMY.  Quite the opposite.  Time cannot be the enemy as we have all the time that we will have for whatever purpose we choose.  Time or rather Time Management or more accurately Self Management is an essential part of the solution equation.  Life is education, and students have all the time they have - no more and no less than anyone else.  Experiences in life and experiential learning often trump formal coursework in many aspects of life and work.  What has been missing and what continues to be missing are the skill sets and specific skills that students must have to make better decisions.  

Students require a skill tool set that helps them adapt to the very real challenges of the college curricula and to successfully navigate the certificate and degree programs they dream about to improve their lives.

What is this skill set so essential to success in college and life?  

Our research and experience point to the need for students to learn (and schools and colleges to teach) the key skill sets and skills essential to college and life success.  The solution is as simple as two minds are better than one.  The one mind cognitive solution has brought us to this point in time.  Students need to learn the adaptability skills and transition skills to guide them in their education, work, and life.  Emotional knowledge and skills are needed to balance and enhance cognitive knowledge and skills.  A transformative learning tool kit with emotional intelligence provides the skill sets and skills required for success in college, career, work, and life.  This tool kit needs to be taught and learned at the very beginning of the college program.  Our ESAP® (Emotional Skills Assessment Process) model provides a structure for course(s) to improve achievement and program completion.  Students need to learn the lessons of 4 Skill Sets and related skills:  

Interpersonal - Communication - Relationships       Assertion

                                                                          Anger Management

                                                                          Anxiety Management

Leadership - Influence for Self and Others              Empathy

                                                                          Comfort (Social Awareness)

                                                                          Decision Making

                                                                          Leadership (Positive Influence)

                                                                         

Self Management - Responsibility -                        Time Management

      Intelligent Self-Direction                                 Drive Strength (Goal Achievement)

                                                                          Commitment Ethic (Personal Resp.)

                                                                          Positive Change

Intrapersonal Knowledge - Resilience -                   Self Esteem 

      Building Quality From Within                           Stress Management  

Teaching/Learning Structure and Process: The Emotional Learning System  

1.    EXPLORE - Positive Self Assessment of the Skills Sets and Skills of Transformative

       Emotional Intelligence - ESAP®
2.    IDENTIFY - Current skills to develop, strengthen, or enhance (Setting Personal Goals

       for College Success) - ESAP® Profile or Map to Intelligent Self Direction
3.    UNDERSTAND - Skill strengths and counter-productive tendencies (weaknesses to

       change with skill development) - Impact of emotional intelligence in relationships,

       leadership, self management, and intrapersonal growth
4.    LEARN/DEVELOP - Skills important to college, life, career, work - Complete lessons

       in context of academic and work responsibilities
5.    APPLY/MODEL - Skills, behaviors, attitudes,strategies on an everyday basis.

       Modeling the skill sets and skills are key to excellence in learning and teaching.

Research is time consuming and often difficult.  We have tried to maintain a clear and enduring focus on research with personal and emotional skills since 1977.  To date, some 55 dissertations have been completed with several others in progress.  Additionally, colleague research, other graduate level studies,  institutional research, and experience have confirmed for us the value and rather essential nature of the skill sets and skills of emotional intelligence for college and life success.  

To reinvent education, we believe that a two mind solution (cognitive and experiential) and EI skill sets and skills are essential if our goal is to improve student performance and program completion.  Intelligent Self-Direction comes from building quality from within each student and from learning that is relevant to the frame of reference of the student.  Learning to learn and learning how to make personal change positive are keys to academic achievement, health, and productive work.

A missing and central element in education is emotional learning that balances cognitive learning and leads to healthy and wise decisions.  Meaningful change is not possible without including those we wish most to change, and personally meaningful change must be person-centered and self-identified.  As many schools and colleges have learned and are relearning, learning to change, adapt, and navigate education, work, and life requires what we refer to as transformative emotional intelligence.      

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New EI Learning Systems Website!  

• Welcome page with information about our vision and mission.
• Resources page with sub-pages for EI Assessments, Learning Materials, and Services.
• Each of the pages under the three resources sub-pages contain more sub-pages for specific assessments, learning materials, and services, respectively.
• Schedule tab with sub-pages for future and past events.
• Bibliography of articles, books, and research related to the education/transformative model of EI.
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Contact Us form 
• ESAP® Login Page

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Changes To The Online ESAP®   

The online ESAP® is undergoing program modifications.  The changes are necessary both  to correct a bug and add new features.  The main issue being corrected is the inability to recall unused ESAP® assessments back into the PM bank after project completion.  Until the new system is announced as operational, Program Managers (PM) should refrain from using the Retrieve Unused ESAP function.  Also, code is being streamlined and new features will be added.  For example, a new function will allow users to reset their own password.  

Work is expected to be completed very soon.  Until then, please let your users know they will need to visit URL <http://eilearningsys.com/login.php> to access their assessments.  If they visit the home page <http://www.eilearningsys.com> they will be taken to the new EI Learning Systems website.  A link to the online ESAP® login page is included as the right-most tab of the navigation bar on the new website.

Again, if you are a PM using the education version of the online ESAP®, please do not attempt to retrieve unused assessments back into your bank until the transition is made to the new system is complete.  The changes announced here affect the education version of the online ESAP® only (online ESAP-C® and SCALE® are functioning as normal).   

If you have any questions, please contact Rick Hammett at 888-680-7983 (Office).