The Declining Work Ethic of the American Engineering Student S
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The Declining Work Ethic of the American Engineering Student S. Michael Wells 1 Abstract – The work ethic of our American engineering freshmen has been declining consistently for decades. The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) survey and other sources document the many negative trends in our students—trends that set habits and continue into the students’ college experience. The survey shows that High School grade inflation is steadily on the rise and students are studying less. Adding to the problem is the practice of social promotion in our public school systems, and the unconstructive interference from parents. Because our nation’s high schools are requiring less of students, incoming engineering freshmen are ill prepared to perform well at our universities, working to the detriment of the students and putting the future of our nation at risk. Keywords: declining, work, ethic, grade, inflation EVIDENCE THERE IS A PROBLEM Many of us who have been engineering educators for many years have observed the decline in the quality and attitude of students. The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) survey, generally regarded as the most authoritative source on the state of the American college student, has been gathering information on college freshmen since the 1960s. One of the findings is that from 1987 to 2003, the percent of students saying they had studied six or more hours per week in high school fell from 47% to 34.9% [1]. That trend is even more disturbing when it is considered that in 2003, 44.1% of the students stated they had had an “A” average in high school—up from 17.6% in 1968. Is it likely our youth have so improved in their mental abilities in the last few decades that they can genuinely earn more than two and half times as many “A’s” as their predecessors who studied nearly half again as much? SAT verbal and math scores over the same period suggest not . Figure 1 illustrates that from 1972 to 2003 math scores have remained nearly level, and verbal scores have actually declined. At Tennessee Tech University a survey was given to 68 students the first semester of their freshmen year, in which their written opinions were solicited regarding the above statistics. With the exception of two students, all agreed there was a problem, and many expressed disappointment or anger that high school had not better prepared them for college. One of the two students who felt she had not been shortchanged in her high school experience had gone to a costly private school since the age of three. The other student felt young people of today are mentally superior to young people of decades past, and he also felt much of education is a waste of time. Nearly all the students stated that they had rarely been challenged in high school; many wrote they had “A” averages without ever having studied outside of class. As a result, in the eyes of many of those in hiring and higher education, a high school diploma is little more than a certificate of attendance [2]. Many educators are aware of the problem. According to the CIRP survey, only half of American faculty today expresses satisfaction with the quality of their students, and just 36% felt most of their students could be described as well prepared academically. Yet the 2004 CIRP Freshman Survey found that 70% of today’s entering college students rate themselves as “above average” or “highest 10%” academically. There are, however, variations among 1 Tennessee Tech University, Box 5002 TTU, Cookeville, TN, 38505, [email protected] 2006 ASEE Southeast Section Conference faculty at different types of colleges and universities. In general, faculty at two and four-year colleges are the least inclined to view their students as academically well prepared. Private university faculties, by contrast, at a Comparison of Verbal and Math SAT Scores 530 520 510 500 490 480 470 Score 460 450 440 430 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 Year Verbal_Total Math_Total Figure 1 rate of 67% consider their students well prepared academically [3]. This is perhaps more related to the background of students who attend private universities than to the perceptions of the faculty at those institutions. More highly educated and affluent parents can more easily afford to send their children to a private university as opposed to a local two-year or four-year college. One of the incentives for parents to send their children to a local public two or four-year school is the savings in cost in both tuition and housing. Another incentive is that two and four-year community colleges are known to be more accommodating to students needing remedial courses. Therefore, lower income parents, and parents with children less prepared academically, are more likely to send their children to local community colleges. Figures 2 and 3 resulted from a survey given to 68 freshmen engineering students at Tennessee Tech University regarding their attitudes toward what is important to succeed in college and how they spend their time. Although the students indicate work ethic to be the most important element for success, they do not set aside a large number of hours for study. When polled informally, the students overwhelmingly respond that reading the text and homework are not the primary means by which they do most of their learning. Instead, listening in class, which is probably how most of them learned in high school, is how they pass their courses. FACTORS CAUSING THE DECLINE OF OUR STUDENTS ’ WORK ETHIC It is only when students enter our universities as freshmen that they gain primary control of the direction of their lives for the first time. Until that day, most have been under the direct control of their parents and limited to the mandatory academic experience of their elementary, middle, and high schools. In some instances, the parents chose, or allowed their children to choose, to attend a private school. Other families have opted for the home-school experience. But the majority of students experience the public schools shaped by political and cultural forces in our society. Here will be discussed negative influences on the American public school system, and how those influences have worked to instill poor work habits in our youth and thereby undermine their chances to do well at a university. 2006 ASEE Southeast Section Conference Percent of Students Rating a Specific Factor as Being Most Essential to Succeeding in College 45 40 35 30 25 20 Percentage 15 10 5 0 Work Ethic Intelligence Quality of High School Other Instructors Background Figure 2 Average Hours per Week Students Spend on a Given Activity 18 16 14 12 10 8 Hours / Week 6 4 2 0 English job Graphics Duties Course Intro to Chemistry Scholarship w-Family Engineering Humanitites Physical Ed. Mathematics Working at a Other Studies Programming Spending time Figure 3 2006 ASEE Southeast Section Conference Grade Inflation Before College Just twenty or thirty years ago, the American public school system was the envy of the world. Now the lowering of standards, resulting in grade inflation, has eroded its quality. There are several reasons why this is happening. First, there is no short-term disadvantage to the school systems promoting students to the next higher grade and inflating the students’ grades: the students are happy, the parents are happy, and there is no one left to complain. On the other hand, teachers holding their students to high standards become unpopular, may risk not getting tenure if they get too many complaints, and could even be faced with a lawsuit from disgruntled parents. Up until the 1960s, teachers were granted considerable respect from both students and parents. Often students, who did poorly in class or misbehaved, would incur further discipline from their parents when word reached home. In more recent decades, that has changed. Now a teacher not giving an “A” grade is just as likely to be accused by the child’s parents of being unfair or unreasonable. The very real threat of lawsuits has school administrators running scared. It is far easier for them to encourage teachers to be overly generous in their grading, and lax in their discipline, than to risk a costly lawsuit. As a result, many high schools no longer have just one Valedictorian, but several. In discussions with Tennessee Tech students on this subject, one student stated that in her graduating class of 190 students, there were ten Valedictorians; another student stated that his class of about the same size had nine; and another student from a class of approximately 90 students stated there were four Valedictorians. In the last case, the school administrators had initially chosen only one Valedictorian, whose academic achievements were clearly superior to the next three students tied for second place below him. But one of those three students had a mother who was a teacher at the same school, and she threatened to sue unless her child was also declared Valedictorian. Taking the path of least resistance, the administrators granted the demand and therefore also had to grant Valedictorian status to the other two with tying grade point averages. Thus, the student who had clearly deserved the honor above the other three was denied that distinction, as all four students were declared Valedictorian. Sadly, that outcome of such a conflict results in a degrading of the otherwise prestigious title of Valedictorian. Likewise, it is a similar policy of appeasement that leads to grade inflation, poor work ethic, and a devaluing of high school diplomas. Social promotion is another trend gaining in acceptance in recent years, and also works against rewarding students for a good work ethic.