University Daily Kansan / Friday, May 3, 1991
3B
Admissions criteria rethought
By Vanessa Fuhrmans
Qualified Admissions:
The Board of Regents proposal
Kansan staff writer
There was a time when high school counselor Peggy Craig advocated a qualified admissions program.
Admission standards that require students to take a certain number of college-preparatory courses before enrolling in a degree program seemed to make sense, she said.
The amendment: High school students must achieve one of the following criteria.
The qualified admissions proposal requires an amendment to a state statute which entitles Kansas high school graduates admission to the freshman class of any Regents institution.
- have completed the 15 units of the college preparatory curriculum with a grade point of 2.0 or
-have a composite ACT score of 23 or higher or
"Three or four years ago, I would have said yes," said the counselor from Oksaława High School. "Some students were leaving high school not prepared. When they got to those classrooms they would get swallowed up. This slot of money down the drain — from parents and from the state."
But now Craig is not so sure. The reason: While the qualified admissions proposal has remained the same since its introduction to the Legislature in 1867, the methods Kansas high schools use to assess the knowledge of graduating students soon may change.
The buzz word among high school educators today is outcomes-based education. This program, designed to evaluate students on individual skills rather than on the courses they have taken, will be implemented in every district by 1984, according to a state education department plan.
The idea behind outcomes-based education has been tossed among educators for several decades, said Sharon E. Dornan, associate director of the State Department of Education.
Other Kansas educators, like Craig, say the changes reshaping high school education may force colleges and the Board of Regents to rethink the way college-bound students should be evaluated.
"What impact will that have on qualified admissions?" Craig asked. "What will they do if high school changes its orientation to outcomes-based? At some point, I think higher education will have to restructure too."
"The idea is for students to come to college prepared and not just with a set number of courses," he said.
Authentic achievement
Both high schools and universities generally evaluate student education according to the number of courses a student has taken and the grade received for each course. Outcomes-based education, however, uses tests to assess the specific information and skills students learn.
Sharon Freden, assistant commissioner of educational services at the
department of education, said that the result would give a more exact measurement of education.
"One can look at a course like American History and not know if it means pre-Civil War or post-World War I," she said. "It has no common sense, but if you outcomes-based, you know exactly what the student has learned."
Starting in August, 50 Kansas school districts will establish pilot outcomes-based programs; 100 more will be implemented in 1992.
Although specific methods of evaluation have not been developed fully, the department's long-term goal is to use outcomes-based education as the sole means of accrediting high schools.
"That will be up to the school districts at this time." Freden said. "But we're looking at it down the road."
'Same game, different rules'
Meanwhile, educators say a discrepancy between high schools' and universities' assessment of college-bound students will emerge soon if they do not agree on what makes them do not agree on what makes prepared high school student.
"Simply dictating classes in high school won't be enough," Watson said. "There are going to be some changes with this program."
The Regents qualified admissions proposal would require Kansas residents seeking admission to a Regents university to have completed 15 units of college preparatory curriculum required by the Regents' standard of 2.0, have a minimum composite score of 23 on the ACT or rank in the top one-third of their high school
class after seven or eight semesters. Stanley Kopik, executive director of the Regents, said that outcomes-based education would not erase the need for the qualified admissions proposal in its present form.
Supporters of the proposal content that the lack of qualified admissions at Kansas universities does high school students a disservice by not forcing them to realize what is expected of them at the college level.
"Our research shows that students take these courses are more prepared than those who haven't," he said.
John Welsh, director of administrative services for the Regents, said, "They think they are getting freedom of choice. But what it really does is give them a false sense of security."
Mike Browning, director of student services at Lawrence High School, said, "It's the same game, but different rules."
But some educators maintain that the standards will be useless unless high schools and universities correlate methods of student evaluation
Regent Rick Harman said that the possibility for incorporating outcomes-based evaluation methods might exist in the future. But for now, the Regents qualified admissions proposal will remain the same.
If their concept is a reality, I would still think it's a little too early," he said. "If they want to perceive that as a solution and it gets results, that's great. The primary problem is the current system is broken. We are not turning out people who are capable of very basic skills."
Working together
Outcomes-based education already
is a reality, Freeden said. For it to be most effective, colleges and high schools will have to work on a consistent method of student evaluation,
"There has been some discussion, but certainly not as much as there will need to be," she said. "In other parts of the country, my understanding of the colleges are quite willing to work with outcomes-based education."
In the meantime, a group of School of Education faculty members at KU, in conjunction with the state, have begun examining how universities use outcomes-based criteria to prepare for college-bound students.
Doug Glasnapp, professor of educational psychology and a coordinator of the state assessment program, said he was particularly concerned with evaluating the level of students' mathematical skills because many high schools had indicated that math was their biggest problem area.
"School districts have chosen to evaluate math problems as areas they want to work on as outcomes-based," he said. "One of the results might be that students would have to perform at a certain level."
Harman said mathematics skills were also an important concern of the Regents. The qualified admissions proposal was designed primarily to number of students who take relevant math courses at Regents institutions.
"Twenty-four thousand students have been enrolled in remedial math in the last five years," he said. "Our job is to point out when there are problems in your math class, the State Board of Education that these problems can't go unsolved."
Glasgapp used the outcomes-based program not only would measure which skills a student learned but also to construct knowledge such as study habits.
"It may be the area that needs the most attention but is talked about the least." he said.
Educators agree that outcomes-based education will improve the preparation of college-bound students and improve their performance with university admission standards.
Martine Hammond-Paludan, director of academic affairs for the Regents, said that regardless of what method colleges and high schools use to teach students, a consensus had to be reached between the two levels of education.
"I'm certain we could work with them if outcomes-based is a better way," she said. "Our main goal is to see that students are prepared."
Survey says women are natural leaders
The Associated Press
Women, in fact, may be more natural leaders.
NEW YORK — The promoter, ceiling that women in leadership positions encounter isn't due to any inherent lack of skill, according to a survey commissioned by a New York executive recruiting firm.
The survey, commissioned by Russell Reynolds Associates Inc., looked at "leader-style" and "manager-style" attributes among upper level managers. The Manager-style executives tend to task-oriented, empathetic and stabilizing. Leader-style executives tend to be visionary, and charismatic.
The results indicated that women were more likely than men to be leader-style executives.
"We commissioned this study to give us a basis for advising our clients and helping them develop future leadership," said Malcolm McKay, the company's managing director. "The results of the study, however, surprised us in the way they contradicted our traditional views of the ways men and women act in corporations."
The study was conducted among 164 men and women in upper management at Fortune 500 companies of the United States. The questionnaire, along with questions about demographics, corporate culture advancement opportunities.
McKay said the profiles of male executives were about as expected. Manager-style executives usually are found in staff positions. Leader-style executives are most often found in line positions.
The surprise, he said, was that a majority of women in both line and staff positions were leader-style executives.
Regardless of sex, most leader-style executives considered their leadership skills to be the most important factor in their most recent promotions. Manager-style executives thought their promotions were
due to consistent good work
The survey also revealed differing perceptions about the access to top jobs. Two thirds of the women leadership executives thought their companies were hostile toward women. Only 2 percent of their male counterparts agreed with them. Three-quarter of leadership men think their companies actively encourage career development for women executives. But two-thirds of leadership women disagree.
"This study doesn't permit us to say whose view is right or wrong, but it certainly points out all area corporations need to explore." McKay said.
Telescopes in tandem may peer into past
The Associated Press
PASADENA, Calif. — Earth's largest telescope will be duplicated and then linked to its new twin, creating an observatory designed to see how the infant universe spawned the first stars and galaxies.
Caltech and the University of California will start building the $93.3 million Keck II Telescope next year, 13,600 feet up Hawaii's Mauna Kea island as finishing touches are completed on the neighboring $94.2 million Keck I.
The twin telescopes will answer many questions about the universe and will enrich all human beings, said Thomas Everhart, president of the California Institute of Technology.
telescope alone is designed to be the largest and most powerful optical or infrared telescope on Earth, able to capture galaxies 12 billion light-years away.
The W.M. Keck Foundation, established by the late founder of the Superior Oil Co., is paying about $144 for the cost of the two telescopes.
Each 10-meter-mirror Keck
When the telescopes are linked electronically after Keck II is finished in 1996, they will see objects 13 billion to 14 billion light-years away, said Edward Stone, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
year. big telescopes literally are time machines: When they observe galaxies 12 billion light.years away, they really are seeing light emitted by those galaxies 12 billion years ago.
One light-year equals 5.88 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a
Many scientists believe the universe was created 15 billion years ago in a tremendous explosion called the Big Bang. They think invisible dark matter, which is thought clumped to ignite stars and galaxies, 1 billion to 2 billion years later.
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