Saturday, February 19, 2011
Journalism Majors Beware: New Tests Hold Schools Accountable for Students' Practical Skills
Fast Company: "Many college graduates are devoid of practical skills, according to new evidence from the provocative book, Academically Adrift. Fed up with the disconnect between employers and schools, two new tests aim to measure how schools prepare students for the real world: Britain may publish how economically successful a school’s students are after graduation, and the Collegiate Learning Assessment determines whether university graduates have any workplace communication skills.
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2 comments:
I think this is a great idea that still needs a lot of fine tuning. It is definitely a great idea to have exams that measure real life skills, rather than the SATs and ACTs which only measure academic skills. It is unfortunate that there is so little emphasis on practical skills in the school system, and it is great that there is finally an exam that can measure these incredibly important skills that have been given such little importance in the past. I do agree, though, that the criticisms of this approach should be considered. Much of the student's success outside of the school is outside of their teachers' control, so to give ratings based on this could be unnecessarily negative on the schools.
It's somewhat funny that the article's headline is JOURNALISM STUDENTS BEWARE, when their education is all about gathering and analyzing facts and synthesizing them into writing. I think Sophia's hit it on the head by saying that examination of practical skills is crucial since so little emphasis is given, but so much of this practical training comes in from internship and work experience, especially in this test format of writing an analytic letter to a boss. I think the most beneficial thing the installation of this test will do is spur more majors to incorporate business practices and professional relationship training into their curricula, and that's beneficial for everyone - students to get jobs, and schools to get both their exam scores and alumni placement numbers up.
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