As president of a local community college I can't help but
notice that the latest "quick fix" for California's underfunded
public colleges and universities is being heralded in news stories touting a
golden age of "digital learning."
These articles propose online classes as the solution to the
ongoing crisis in funding for all of California public education; a crisis that
persists even with the much-needed passage of Proposition 30.
Call it "The Wizard of Oz" effect: someone posing
as the Wizard dazzles us with terms like "digital access,"
"MOOCs," and "virtual colleges" from behind the think-tank
curtain.
These ideas then proliferate in media, touting the
cost-saving virtues of online education as a cure for what ails our public
systems of higher education. The governor appears sold on this concept,
recently proposing that the first two years of university could be completed by
many students online.
In an age in which online media has exploded in importance,
why not an "app" for your entire college degree!
As president of a college that has excelled in the
development of rigorous online class offerings I support the role of online
education. But here is the harsh reality: while online classes have an
important role, they are not for every student, and will never replace the
access to quality education provided by a teacher in a classroom.
This is especially true for the underprepared students who
make up the majority of those entering community colleges.
The attrition -- read: dropout rate -- from online classes
is high, as even their most fervent supporters acknowledge.
Here are some facts largely unexamined by the corporate and
political promoters of the online panacea: of the approximately 2.5 million
students served by the California community colleges, including returning
veterans, the vast majority come unprepared for college-level work. With
retention rates of 10 percent in many digital classes statewide, online classes
will never serve every student, especially the ones needing face-to-face
support and basic skills education.
At my college, 96 percent entering full-time freshmen lack
college readiness. Research shows that it is these very students who do not
thrive in the online environment. They benefit from the classroom setting, the
skill of expert teachers and counselors, and the modeling of habits of mind in
a real, not virtual, community of learners. Despite the hyperbole about digital
classrooms, they will not increase access for those most in need. On the
contrary, as corporate think tanks and politicians push the new digital agenda,
the large gap between the "haves and the have-nots" in our state will
only increase.
Those with tuition money and preparation will enter elite
private universities in which they have the full attention of professors and
classmates in face-to-face freshman seminars.
Here they are known as "whole" human beings, not
just digital presences, advantages that translate into lifetime opportunities.
Meanwhile, many underserved students from poor and working-class communities
will need to vie for time at library computers (do not assume all students have
access to computers at home) to enter a "virtual college class" in
which, evidence suggests, they are likely to fail.
California's personal income, already in decline, will
decline by 11 percent further by the year 2020 unless the state increases the
number of first generation college students successfully completing their
degrees and credentials.
The big push to turn the first two years of college for the
least prepared into a virtual "make it online or drop out" system
distracts from the reality of the real reform we need in California -- a state
that is largely failing its youth in public education.
Currently, a minority rules our ability to offer quality
public education. The ability to block school funding by a minority vote has
turned our state public system, from preschool through university, into among
the poorest in the nation.
One good start would be to urge the passage of current
legislation allowing a 55 percent majority to vote for parcel taxes in support
of their local schools. This would be in the spirit of American democracy and
the right to equal access of all California youth to quality public education.
Susan Sperling, Ph.D., is president of Chabot College.
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