Hand Washing

For those of you who showed up late at the opening session of Faculty Development Week, you may have wondered why Professor Franklin Reynolds admonished us to wash our hands before lunch.

Other than the sound hygienic advice, Professor Reynolds was playing off of Alvin Bisarya’s powerful call to action earlier in the session.

After taking us through a whirlwind tour of the data about CCC in the context of higher ed, our students, and our Reinvention efforts, as only Alvin can so masterfully deliver, he closed with the story of Ignatz Semmelweis. Dr. Semmelweis had the brilliant insight in the mid-19th century that doctors who washed their hands before assisting childbirth caused fewer infections and deaths than those docs who came directly from the gross anatomy dissection room before administering to the women in labor. He met steep resistance from the established elites in health care, but over time was proven correct.

Alvin asked us, “How many Ignatz Semmelweises are sitting here today among our faculty?” I have for the past two years admired Alvin’s relentless pursuit of what we can do to drive student success. He revels in data, borrows copiously from colleges with better outcomes, and continuously pushes others to tell him what their ideas are. Today, in as open and honest way possible, Alvin asked for faculty help. Reinvention has already been blessed with many faculty contributions (with a few HWC faculty making the trip across the Loop.) Yet maybe some gems out there remain uncovered or unheralded.

I join VC Bisarya in asking our faculty to let us know if there are things we should try at the College (and CCC). May the Ignatz be with you.

Is Algebra Necessary?

I finally caught up on my Sunday morning NYTimes reading and found this provocateur. Andrew Hacker, Professor Emeritus from Queens College, CUNY asks “Is Algebra Necessary?” He argues that we are spending inordinate resources (student time, financial aid, instructor time) trying to get students to pass algebra, a skill they will never use. Far better to teach them quantitative tools that will enrich their understanding of their role in a democracy, such as how to interpret the Consumer Price Index.

The aim would be to treat mathematics as a liberal art, making it as accessible and welcoming as sculpture or ballet. If we rethink how the discipline is conceived, word will get around and math enrollments are bound to rise. It can only help. Of the 1.7 million bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2010, only 15,396 — less than 1 percent — were in mathematics.

I wish Hacker were a math professor instead of the political scientist. It does seem a little like throwing stones from outside the discipline. Also, we have no assurance that we would increase pass rates if we re-thought the math curriculum yet kept the same core quantitative reasoning skills as a student learning outcome, an ostensible goal of his. Yet, I appreciate the different perspective. Alvin Bisarya let me know that Hacker’s reasoning is in line with efforts underway at the Carnegie Foundation with Statway and Quantway. If Reinvention is reading this stuff, can a set of recommendations be far behind?

Be Vewy Vewy Quiet. We’re Hunting Wabbits.

My father’s heart sank when he descended the basement stairs and found me, at 1 PM on a Saturday, still in my pajamas, watching cartoons. Only a father can understand the despondency of seeing his only son lazing about on a fine Saturday afternoon wasting his life away. Only with my easement into fatherhood did I understand the sense of failure, worry, and helplessness that swamps you when confronted with the spectre of a failed fatherhood. Today, forty years later, I know how much my father is proud of me and loves me. I also have a deep appreciation for the long road he traveled to get there.

Setting aside the otiosity that drove my father to despair, I took away from those many long hours a keen appreciation for the subtle lessons Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbara tried to impart in between thirty-second spells spent selling me sugary breakfast cereals. In contrast to the cartoons of the 40′s and 50′s, the 60′s cartoons introduced a self-awareness, an ironic appreciation that the kids weren’t as glassy-eyed as directors may have thought.

Every rabbit hunting season, Elmer Fudd donned that plaid two-peaked cap and carried his shotgun into the forrest. “What’s up, Doc?” wise-cracked the carrot-munching self-aware Bugs Bunny. “Sssshhhhh! Be vewy vewy quiet. We’re hunting wabbits,” Elmer Fudd replied. Bugs would then lean on Elmer, chomping away at the carrot, and say, “Rabbits, huh?”

We are in budget season. At our college, that means that departments are working to justify new projects and projects from the past they want to continue. I have pushed everyone to think bigger about what we can do for students. There is fear and opportunity, frustration and fecundity in the air. I spent the afternoon reviewing plans, both encouraged by many of the creative ideas making their way into our plans, and concerned that we were not thinking big enough.

If there is a theme to the plans, it is that we have a lot of good ideas that need analytical support to strengthen the case for implementation. We seemed constrained by our past. We have hopes of achieving great things, but are weighed down by the knowledge of past efforts.

The Reinvention team brings no such burdens to their efforts. Every issue  they take up demands rigorous data analysis. Out of this analysis springs new initiatives, unconstrained by the weight of past efforts attempted with middling success. Everything is a new shiny opportunity.

I straddle both worlds. I share the guilelessness of  Reinvention, bringing a hope that the answer lies within the data. If we study the problem enough, we will come up with a solution. I also have an appreciation for the hard work many in the College have put in to solve many of these same problems. Our College faculty and staff have confronted these same issues, sometimes for years, and have met with successes and failures.

As I reviewed the proposal for expanded activities for CAST (Committee for the Art and Science of Teaching), I was reminded of the Reinvention conversations in which we discovered that one key to improving academic outcomes was to improve the teaching and learning capabilities of faculty. The Reinvention team charged forward, deciding that a pilot program to implement Centers for Teaching and Learning at the colleges would tell us if this approach merited further investment. I agreed. I found out later, after a few months at Harold Washington, that we had a similar effort already underway in CAST, a subcommittee of Faculty Council dedicated to helping faculty improve their craft. The answer, I believe, is that they are both right, and both CAST and the new Center for Teaching and Learning have things to learn from each other.

I have a small worry, as we work through solutions to our many challenges, that we will be hunting for solutions when the answers are right there along side us. I know that many of these answers are incomplete, or not supported by the analytical rigor that will stand up to peer-reviewed academic journal scrutiny. I also appreciate that many of our staff and faculty have worked long and hard on initiatives that will deliver on the goals of Reinvention. My ask of faculty and staff, when I am hunting my own rabbits, that instead of leaning on me and saying, “Rabbits, huh?” that you instead grab me by the collar and show me the work of the past. I will listen. And together, marrying the two approaches, I am confident we will get to better answers.

 

Welcome to the Spotlight

Please engage in a thought experiment with me.

You are the Mayor of Chicago. You have an opportunity to talk to the Economic Club of Chicago (ECC). ECC members are the corporate elite of Chicago – CEOs, Chairmen, Directors, and Managing Partners and Directors of companies such as Walgreens, Aon, McDonalds, Accenture, JP Morgan Chase, Madison-Dearborn Partners, Deloitte, Rush University Medical Center, and Sara Lee. As Mayor, you may have two or three opportunities to address this group over each of your four-year terms. Over 1,200 people will gather to listen to your speech.

You have had a dynamic and energetic start as Mayor. You have taken on tough issues and scored early wins. You are wrestling with significant budget shortfalls in the context of the greatest recession the US has seen in over 70 years. You aspire to keep Chicago as a great, global city. You are committed to improving outcomes for students in K-12 education, putting more police officers on the street, and making Chicago’s environment friendlier to help entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

What do you talk about? What issue do you want to bring to this august gathering of business and civic leaders? What key message do you want to communicate, and in turn, what is the ask? What actions do you want this audience to take? What will you inspire them to do differently tomorrow?

Last night, Mayor Emanuel talked about the importance of City Colleges of Chicago to the future of Chicago. We were not one in a list of major initiatives and policy ideas – we were the whole enchilada. The Mayor talked about CCC as an essential centerpiece to his strategy to link qualified employees with the jobs that Chicago employers cannot fill, even in this recession. Time and again, he mentioned Olive-Harvey, Malcolm X, Harold Washington and our sister schools. He told of meeting a student at the 35th Street Red Line stop who, in the Mayor’s words, is “doing everything right.” This student is holding down a full-time job at a Target distribution warehouse and attending school at Harold Washington. He asked what we – meaning we in the room, the business community, and CCC – what we are doing to ensure this student receives the education he needs to put him on a path to success in Chicago.

I was sitting in the room. I was moved by the times the Mayor was interrupted by applause as he outlined his vision for CCC’s role in Chicago’s future. He then made the pitch, asking the leaders in the room to join CCC in achieving this future. Those leaders embraced the Mayor’s vision. My wife, no stranger to big effing deals, leaned over to me and said, “This is a really big deal.” It is. It is incredibly energizing to know that Mayor Emanuel supports our efforts to make CCC an economic engine of the city. I have already had business leaders reach out to me to ask how they can get involved at HWC.

With this charge comes responsibility. CCC and Harold Washington can no longer toil in the obscure backwaters of higher ed. Our actions will now come under scrutiny, and the business community, having been asked to help, will begin asking what we are doing to hold up our end of the bargain. I want to note that the Mayor did not ask us to walk away from our liberal arts responsibilities, but he did ask for us to re-focus and re-energize the industry-specific training we will offer.

I have already started talking to a small number of faculty about what Harold Washington might become in the months and years ahead. I have asked for ideas, supporting data, and plans. I look forward to additional discussions with faculty and staff on what we need to do to fulfill our role in the Mayor’s vision. I look forward to planning for our role in helping our students achieve their career goals. I look forward to making HWC a centerpiece in the CCC strategy.

Welcome to the Spotlight.

Credentials of Economic Value

My experience with many workforce efforts has led me to conclude that without the involvement of businesses, any efforts to educate people for jobs are fruitless. Just as we need better alignment of curriculum from high school to college in order to smooth the transition and better prepare students for college-level work, we need better program alignment with industry so that the training we offer aligns with the jobs our students hope to obtain. Otherwise, we are training in an echo chamber, talking to ourselves about what skills  students need after guessing what industry may want. If our industry-related programs seek to help our students get jobs, then that training needs to be relevant, rigorous and targeted. We only know that by talking to and engaging the companies who are actually hiring our students.

City Colleges took a big step in that direction today with the first of what I am sure will be many announcements regarding an alignment of programs with industry. As Chancellor Hyman says in today’s Sun-Times, “If we don’t partner with industries and other institutions to align our degrees and certifications with skills gaps, many of our students will miss what is increasingly their only chance to join the middle class.” Going after Goal #1 of the Reinvention agenda, City Colleges is now aggressively partnering with businesses in key industry sectors to better understand what training we need to develop to meet industry needs. As a start, AAR Corp is looking to fill 600 jobs in welding and aerospace mechanics, and Rush University Medical Center will now partner with Malcolm X on allied health careers.

I am encouraged that we are taking steps that academics such as James Rosenbaum and Anthony Carnevale have been advocating. Chicagoans are competing with people from around the world for meaningful, rewarding work. Our internet-connected globe sends work to those people best trained to perform it. Our current unemployment rate and the erosion of middle class jobs (Autor, see slide 4) are alarming. We can watch in despair, or we can take the steps necessary to prepare ourselves. In an article in today’s Financial Times (behind a paywall – see the Library for a copy), Edward Luce lays out the case for the US to regain our “most dynamic market mantle.” He points to lifelong education, in large measure as delivered by community colleges, as a key to America regaining its competitive edge: “Unfortunately, there is no precedent for the challenges America faces, and thus little consensus among economists or policymakers on the best remedies. However, almost everyone agrees on how to ensure the situation does not deteriorate. Top of the list is a better education system for all stages of life.”

In order for Chicagoans to compete in the global economy, we need to do a better job of educating our residents. Some of those residents want to pursue higher education, getting their B.S. or B.A. For those students, we need to continue our efforts in remediation and ensure that we are providing the best two-year liberal arts education available. I was at a Christmas party on Friday night where a colleague told me that a local four-year university considers students we send to them as well or better-prepared than ‘native’ students. We need to continue and improve that excellent result. For those students seeking direct entry into the workforce, we need to ensure that our career programs put our students on pathways to jobs. We do that first by ensuring our program and curricular offerings are in alignment with the skills employers are seeking. Today, CCC has announced our intent to ensure we are doing that. I look forward to future announcements.

 

Art for Art’s Sake?

Fast on the heels of the deafening response to my Reinvention Goals post, I found this gem from The Economist that set my poor excuse for a heart (I know, some of you believe economists have no hearts) beating a little faster. In an article entitled “Painting by Numbers,” the author asserts:

IN A recession the arts may seem a luxury. But they have proved a valuable way to rejuvenate industrial districts and boost communities that once relied on manufacturing. Studies show that in a labour market that prizes well-educated workers, the best way to lure them is often by attracting creative people first.

The article goes on to say that artists are a key driver of economic success. “Though they make up only 1.4% (2.1m) of America’s total labour market, they are highly entrepreneurial and twice as likely to have college degrees.” The kicker: “In general, artists’ median earnings are higher than those of the rest of the labour force: $43,000 compared with $39,000 in 2009.”

It sounds to me like HWC ought to look hard at promoting our Art & Architecture department as an important enabler of one of Reinvention’s goals. Fear not credentials of economic value, you defenders of the liberal arts. The truth lies within ourselves.

Disagreeing with Reinvention’s Four Goals

One of the reasons I wanted to work at City Colleges was I believed in the goals of Reinvention.(1) While I take no credit for crafting the goals, I was working with the District during the early days of their creation. I was excited to be working with a system that was so committed to student success. I also viewed the goals as incontestable. Who could argue against student success?

As a result, I am always surprised when someone tells me they don’t agree with the four goals. This past spring, we tied every line item in our operating and financial plan to one of the four performance goals or six performance health goals.(2) [The operational health goals are listed in the footnote below numbered 6 - 11 to follow the first four performance goals.] I could argue that we have already aligned our activities toward achieving one of our goals.

Yet, I still encounter doubt or resistance. A recent email exchange with a faculty member summarized many of the objections I hear. I asked the faculty member how a funding request aligned with one of the four goals of Reinvention. The faculty member responded with an objection that not everything we do aligns with one of the four goals; some activities have an intrinsic value. She then offered a wide-ranging critique of the four goals and District. She invited me to respond on the blog in the hopes to engage faculty and staff in a discussion.

I have taken the liberty of summarizing her arguments:

1. If remediation is a priority, the District should have a VC in charge of developmental education.
2. The four goals are limiting – they don’t take into account the reasons our students come here. As an example – people with degrees who are here just to get additional skills (in communication, for example.)
3. I don’t believe all of District’s spending is aligned with the four goals – the standard you are holding us to.
4. Who defines credentials of economic value?
5. The goals don’t address the intrinsic value of some education. For example, are the liberal arts of economic value?

Let me address each in turn. Warning – this is a long post.

1. If Remediation is a priority, the District should have a VC in charge of developmental education.

Response:

Since 94% of our incoming students are in need of some remediation, one could argue that our Provost already is in charge of our efforts. I haven’t asked him, but I know he would agree that he feels primary responsibility for our efforts here.

In addition, remediation and effective developmental education has been a top Reinvention priority since the beginning. From the Reinvention website:

The Remediation Task Force is working on the Accelerated Learning Program, which will place high-level remedial students in college-level math or English with concurrent enrollment in a paired remedial course to bring them up to speed. Plans call for seven to 10 sections to be piloted across the District this fall.

The Reinvention team has been consistent in making this a top priority. VC Bisarya presented on the Level Up program results from the summer cohort at the October board meeting. Results are encouraging. President Aybar presented his CASH to ROI results at the November board meeting. Our board and officers of the district have a constant focus on this goal.

2. The four goals are limiting – they don’t take into account the reasons our students come here. As an example – people with bachelors or masters degrees who are here just to get additional skills (in communication, for example.)

Response:

I believe, without a lot of data to support it, that the overwhelming number of students who come to us are served by one or more of the four goals. The small number (again, postulate without a lot of data) of students who come to us for other reasons should not distract us from the need to help the overwhelming number of students who do come to us in pursuit of achieving one of the four goals. This objection seems tangentially tied to the other issue I hear frequently regarding holding us accountable for graduation rates. The concern is that course-takers are skewing our graduation rates.

I do agree we need better data on intent from our students. In a recent survey, I saw that about 9% of our students classified themselves as what we call “course takers.” If true, the number of course takers does not explain our graduation and transfer rates. At the same time, I agree that we need better data.

The question also implies that people who already have degrees are coming here to advance their skills. That argues for figuring out how to include them in our first goal regarding credentials of economic value. If someone with a Master or PhD comes here to study Spanish, or Digital Multimedia Design, in order to advance in their career, that is consistent with our Reinvention goals. I bet the number of people here solely for the ‘intrinsic value’ of the education is a small per cent of the total.

3. I don’t believe all of District’s spending is aligned with the four goals – the standard you are holding us to.

Response:

All of District’s and the College’s spending is aligned to one of the four goals of Reinvention, or one of the additional operation health goals that support our Reinvention efforts.

People have offered up targets of District spending [insert your favorite here]. The standards I use to evaluate any spend are, 1. does the spend clearly align with one of the goals? 2. If not, does it clearly support the advancement of the institution? As an example, while one may struggle to justify our HR department under a strict reading of the goals, would anyone argue we could operate without good people? How many of us would work here if were not getting paid? As another example, how does our marketing spend support our Reinvention or operational health goals? Yet, if people don’t know about us, they won’t come to us. If they don’t know what we stand for, how will they know if we are right for them? As for the seemingly favorite target as to why we spent money on the logo, my branding experience in my previous corporate life makes me a staunch defender of having a clear, consistent visual signature in communicating who we are.  I like how you can immediately tell by looking at our logo (when in color) that we are Harold Washington College and that we are part of the City Colleges of Chicago. The old logos confused our potential students and the public. I used to get asked if Columbia College or Roosevelt University were part of City Colleges. The logo is one important way we answer that question.

In the case of the requested spend from the faculty member, if I were her I would have argued that her event helped advance our institution. We ultimately compromised on limited funding because I was not wholly convinced.

4. Who defines credentials of economic value? and 5. The goals don’t address the intrinsic value of some education. For example, are the liberal arts of economic value?

Response:

These questions beg a long response from me, but I will be brief here and can elaborate in a future post if there is interest.

An economist would answer that the market defines credentials of economic value. While I hope that students enrolled in our career programs want to pursue a certain occupation because they have a passion for the field, they also want to make a living. The market will determine if that credential is of value. We need to start measuring whether our students who come to us specifically in pursuit of credentials to advance professionally are better off for having achieved the credential. We are also adding a staff member (to be announced shortly) who will help the college connect with the business community so that we can get feedback on what employers are looking for in our students.

The question also addresses an underlying anxiety that we (the believers in Reinvention) don’t see the value in education for education’s sake. As a liberal arts graduate, I can argue both for the economic value of the liberal arts and their intrinsic value. My undergrad major was “Politics, Economics, Rhetoric and Law.” In University of Chicago’s heady taxonomy, this program of study was classified as “Liberal Arts of the Practical.” My parents feared the truth of the assertion. They saw little practical application coming out of my education.

In my final interview at Arthur Andersen (later Accenture), the partner looked at me and said, “You seem like a good guy, but I don’t know about this Rhetoric. I think we will have to drum that out of you.” And I, in my naive fury, felt compelled to defend the value of rhetoric, which I loved for the way it helped me understand the world around me and the ways in which we communicate. I responded, “Rhetoric was the most valuable thing I learned at UChicago. It is the art of persuasion. It seems to me that Arthur Andersen would want consultants who are able to persuade clients to do the right thing.” I got the job.

We need to equip all of our students with the tools and ability to tell their story in a compelling way. “Why did you attend Harold Washington College” and “Why did you pick that major” ought to elicit passionate, compelling stories from our students during college interviews and job interviews.

The second goal does not mention economics. Many seem to conflate goal 2 with goal 1, perhaps reflecting a fear of me “running this place like a business (an early concern I heard after my appointment).” Kathy Nash reminded me that I told her in our one-on-one that she needed to be prepared to defend her discipline. Yet I did not mean this only for Theater, and I am not putting a strictly economic lens on defenses. We all need to be prepared to defend our disciplines. Intrinsic value is nice but vague. All of our disciplines, as far as I can tell, can put up vigorous defenses in terms of how a discipline helps students contribute to a civil society, advance their understanding of the world, transfer to four-year colleges, and yes, get jobs. We should not fear the scrutiny. We should welcome it. The scrutiny will cause us to question why we do what we do, and in attempting to answer the question, we will enrich our understanding of our own value. I am willing to help with those defenses.

I am also advocating strongly that we align our actions with the goals of Reinvention. I welcome feedback, and am willing to engage in discussions (even better in person) about our achievement of the goals. I know this post won’t answer the many objections to Reinvention, but it gives my colleagues a better sense of where I stand.

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(1) The four goals are crafted to reinforce our commitment to create an institution that ensures both student access and success:

1. Increase the number of students earning college credentials of economic value.
2. Increase the rate of transfer to bachelor’s degree programs following CCC graduation.
3. Drastically improve outcomes for students requiring remediation.
4. Increase the number and share of Adult Basic Education (ABE), high school equivalency degree (GED), and English as a Second Language (ESL) students who advance to and succeed in college-level courses.

(2) The operational health goals are:

Goal 5: Excellence in teaching and learning
Goal 6: Much greater degree of customer satisfaction
Goal 7: Excellent financial management at every level of the organization
Goal 8: Operational discipline with focus on clear behavioral and performance standards
Goal 9: Create excellent strategic clarity and alignment
Goal 10: Targeted innovation
Goal 11: Provide a safe environment for all members of the CCC community