The school year kicked off this month and it seems that things are not getting better. Strong American Schools issued a new report entitled Diploma to Nowhere, a study which highlights the fact that many college freshmen need to take remedial classes to relearn skills they should have been taught before graduation. Ultimately, American schools are simply not competitive when compared with other countries. Check out the report for details, but here are some highlights:
- More than 80 percent of students in Oklahoma's community college system are enrolled in a remedial course.
- Of the 40,000 freshmen admitted each year into California State University- the largest university system in the country-more than 60 percent need help in English, math, or both.
- Nearly four out of five remedial students had a high school grade point average of 3.0 or higher.
Call for Proposals
The 2nd annual SoTL Commons Conference: An International Conference for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (in higher/tertiary education) will be held on March 11-13, 2009 at Georgia Southern University (Statesboro, Georgia, USA): http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference/2009/index.htm. Early registration is now open and the online submission of proposals period ends October 15, 2008.
Keynote speakers will be Randy Bass (Georgetown University), Kathy Takayama (Brown University), and Laurie Richlin (Charles Drew University of Medicine and Health Science).
Alan Altany, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching
Editor, International Journal for SoTL
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, Georgia, USA 30460-8143
Email: aaltany@georgiasouthern.edu
CET: http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/cet/
IJ-SoTL: http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/
SoTL Commons Conference: http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference/
