Veenstra’s Views

Today’s Chronicle in Higher Education  lead article, “Admissions Competition Heats Up but Does Pressure Help Students?” indicates that at 40 highly rated colleges and universities, the composite percent of admitted students dropped by 25%.  The article, “Playing the Admissions Game: Student Reactions to Increasing College Competition” by John Bound, Brad Hershbein and Bridget Long suggests that this increased competition may have impacted what and how students learn. With increased competition, comes increased anxiety and sometimes  a decreased ability to concentrate on learning.  So the authors’ point is well-taken.

Unfortunately this competition does not stop at admissions. The competitive nature continues in the freshman college year studies and undergraduate programs because of a philosophy that competition is good. A highly ranked university has admitted the best students with their increased competitive admissions; it should stop there and the university should adopt an attitude of collaboration that mentors ALL students for student success!   This will lead to better student learning outcomes,  more learning, and a  higher college student retention. Instead, the system of grading on the curve continues, and with it the attitude of continuous competition instead of continuous improvement in learning.

 I learned this early in my career when I studied Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s quality philosophy.   He said that   grading on the curve discouraged students and we should eliminate grades.  I would not go that far, but I do see too much grading on the curve, which hampers true learning .   Dr. Deming’s  philosophy included  collaboration and teamwork over competition and professors learning from their students.  I recommend Dr. Deming’s two books, The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education and University(MIT,1994) and Out of Crisis (MIT, 1986).

Cindy