Beware The Readiness Gap- Why Students Are Dropping-Out!
Recently I observed a Q and A session for High-Schools students who were applying to Universities. A panel of current University students was present to respond to questions. The questions were mainly technical; the answers mainly straightforward and correct. Unfortunately, the questions did not reveal any knowledge of the profound ‘readiness gap’ that separates schools and universities. The questioners asked many questions about how to succeed in gaining admission to their chosen universities, but no-one asked about the success rates in those universities. A pity, for they need to know!
The statistics tell a scary tale. Of the students who succeed in High School and enter University, vast numbers will fail to graduate within six years. Very few of these ‘failures’ reach the final exam and fail it; most have dropped out long before. Why? Because they were not ready to succeed. Why not? Because no-one told them there was a ‘readiness gap’, let alone why or how to bridge it.
On one side of the gap reside school and home. On the other, University.
School regulates behaviour, tells students what to study, how and when to study it, what mark the required task deserves and, often, how much effort they believe was expended in completing it. If students falter and need help, teachers provide it, often accompanied by encouraging words. The volume of reading required is usually minimal, as is the amount of writing -especially expository writing. Taking six to eight subjects simultaneously leaves no time for deep dives into any of them, so each teacher is condemned to ‘teach to the tests’, which, in their various forms, leads to the marks that the universities consider for admission. Students have little agency in this process, a process that neither teaches them how to learn effectively nor prepares them for university studies.
Home provides safe shelter, regular meals, necessary clothing, help with any problems, mandated bedtimes and ready forgiveness for any misdemeanours. Home increasingly hovers over school, too, protesting about ‘unfair’ marks, incompetent teaching, too much homework, too little homework and so on. Indeed, helicopter or other forms of ‘squeaky-wheel’ parents do have an effect -often in the form of inflated marks, over-generous recommendations, and such like.
In short, there is little independence for school students. Their lives are controlled, their time is taken by others, their responsibilities are few, the help of adults is close at hand. Between this stage of life -school- and the next -university -the gap is far greater than imagined.
In University, students are sailing on a very different sea. They quickly find that what their Professors expect them to know and what their schools required of them are not a smooth continuum. It is as though those who design University courses and those who determine school curricula inhabit very different islands. And not only the content differs, so does the learning process. The classes grow, some as high as 400-500; the workload increase exponentially, for now, there are extensive reading requirements, while frequently written submissions need to be accurate, detailed, and accompanied by citations. Exams, too, differ, for now they are more intensive and much longer, requiring written responses often, rather than the multiple choice ‘select and hope’ method favoured in schools.
Many first-year students are shocked by the workload. Many are equally shocked by the time and energy it takes to shop, do laundry, cook, hold down a part-time job, and all the other things that living at home used to provide or enable. Students (too few) whose schools and homes have taught responsibility, resilience, life-skills, the importance of effort, grit, and the value of challenges while sometimes failing, are prepared to deal with this new reality immediately. Others, less fortunate in preparation but effortful, courageous and determined in character, soon enough learn to cope with it.
Too many, though, are overwhelmed and defeated. Take, for example, students who are accustomed to excellent grades and universal praise who are suddenly receiving C’s. This is a severe blow to their confidence, one that it is difficult to talk about because to do that is to reveal the grade! It may not have been so bad in school, where they had friends of many years’ standing, but now the world is full of strangers, so they seek refuge -some in isolation, some in drinking too much, eating too little, missing lectures, falling into depression and requiring urgent medical attention. It is extraordinary, but true, that in recent years, most Universities have dramatically increased the counselling and psychological services available to students. Despite this, many students drop-out, unable to cope with the pressures they feel. A scarcely believable number suffer severe mental illness. And far too many are so ill that they end their lives.
Of course, not all students who drop-out are ill. Some recognize too late that they have no interest in the course they have chosen. Some enjoy their new freedom too much to spend time studying and are required to leave. Some leave for financial reasons. And yes, some very few leave to pursue other compelling passions, but rare are the Jobs and Gates of the world!
It certainly seems that many students are not ready for university.
According to Maclean’s magazine, this is the graduation percentage of the entry class of 2007 that graduated within six years. So the lowest drop-out rate was 10.5% and the highest 55.8%.
So, Westsiders, be smart, work hard, challenge yourselves, read widely, write often, manage your time well and be ready.