GENERAL EDUCATION IN AN AGE
OF STUDENT MOBILITY
Define the Role of State Systems
by Martha Romero
At first glance, Bob Shoenberg's proposal appears straightforward
and simple: he would assign state systems of higher education the
task of creating educational standards in general education that
are common and consistent across institutions. However, the problem
is that elected officials are prone to making broad policy decisions
based on whatever unique cases attract their attention. For example,
a constituent might complain that a particular university refuses
to transfer credit for a specific English class... Single incidents
like this one have been known to provoke legislation that addresses
the transfer of credit for all English classes. And this violates
that which we consider fundamental in our business, the notion that
curricular coherence must come from the faculty (the experts), not
from the sort of political process that favors one interest group
today and another tomorrow.
Yet, many of us (faculty and administrators) resist engaging in
discussions of the common goals of general education-in striving
to define our own institutions as both unique and superior to the
competition, we have forgotten that the standards of our collective
enterprise are at stake. If we are to redeem ourselves, we must
give up our provincialism and territorialism and articulate the
common, desired outcomes of our general education programs.
If faculty cannot embrace this role, they may lose the opportunity
to influence the results. Several years ago I got a glimpse of this
outcome when I toured a number of British technical institutions.
The primary complaint of faculty was that they had lost the power
to teach; they had become state verification technicians for a common
set of testing procedures.
State higher education systems can play an important role if they
limit their involvement to their appropriate policy functions, such
as building local capacity to solve problems; or convening faculty
committees and charging them with the task of defining desired outcomes;
or creating incentives for faculty across institutions to define
and measure student achievement in congruent and coherent ways.
If led by competent and enlightened professionals who believe in
the power of good education, state systems can also serve as buffers
between the academy and the legislature. After all, they have the
political access and credibility to interpret institutional roles
and functions to other elected officials. They often also have credibility
within the educational system to interpret legislative priorities.
In short, they can be effective translators of the ethos and culture
of each enterprise. But in order to do so, state systems of higher
education must understand and uphold the roles of all stakeholders.
Only then will good policy evolve.
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