Serendipity35

Only half of high school graduates leave school prepared to succeed in college. For those who do enroll in postsecondary education, a little over half of them will actually earn a degree.

At many community colleges like mine, we expect a large percentage of students to enter as "developmental" or ESL. It may be several years before they take their first college course.

But, positions requiring postsecondary education or training will make up 64 percent of all job openings by 2018. Today it is virtually impossible to reach the middle class, and stay there, with only a high school diploma.

By age 30, fewer than half of all Americans have earned a college degree.

President Obama and plenty of other leaders say that our society and our economy depend on improving college readiness and completion.

EDUCAUSE, not surprisingly, sees technology as the key for making this happening. Technology can make learning more flexible, engaging, and affordable.

EDUCAUSE will lead a new effort funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called the Next Gen Learning Challenges.

It is an effort to identify and scale technology-enabled approaches that dramatically improve college readiness and completion, particularly for low-income young adults.

EDUCAUSE will focus on the college end of this equation, but the high school end might be a more important place for intervention.

The program will provide grants, build evidence, and develop an active community committed to addressing these persistent educational challenges.

They are asking educators to share their knowledge and to comment on key questions before the program is finalized.

The first four challenges NGLC will solicit grant proposals for are:

- Deploying open core courseware
- Deepening learner engagement through interactive, online technologies
- Scaling blended learning
- Mobilizing learning analytics


Of those four, blended learning is the one that is worth exploring and encouraging in high schools. Not many people would put forward the notion that online or face-to-face learning models alone will improve student success.

But many students from low-income families who need to work while they are students can often benefit from blended learning programs. However, making these programs widely available on a cost-effective basis with a high level of consistency remains an obstacle. Additionally, aligning the finances to facilitate the implementation of effective blended learning may require new thinking about course scheduling, faculty compensation, institutional budgeting and revenue-sharing.

MORE ON NGLC

Visit the Next Gen Learning Challenges website to learn about college readiness and completion in the United States
Contribute research, resources, and perspectives on the four challenges
Engage in discussion forums targeting key questions