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Regents making a difference in Tennessee
One of the key findings of WhatWillTheyLearn.com is that a famous name and a high tuition do not guarantee a commitment to a solid core curriculum. Another is that trustees can make a difference in ensuring a good curriculum at the schools they oversee. Both of those facts are on display in Tennessee.
Vanderbilt is the state's big-name, big-money institution, enjoying a stellar reputation and attracting outstanding students from across the country. Alas, those students can avoid many important subjects once they arrive on campus: They don't have to take a math class if they don't want to; they aren't expected to take any foreign language beyond what they had in high school; and staples of higher education such as history or literature surveys are replaced by "distribution requirements" that allow students to select any class they like from a very long list. Thus, students may take "American Art 1865 to 1945" as their sole history class, and in place of a broad survey of literature they may choose "Almost Human: Robots and Cyborgs in German Fiction and Film."
However, less than two miles away from Vanderbilt -- literally on the other side of the train tracks -- lies Tennessee State University. TSU is an unheralded, historically black state school, whose students' SAT scores are well below those at Vanderbilt. Yet it is Tennessee State, not Vanderbilt, that requires their students to study a foreign language beyond the elementary level. It is Tennessee State, not Vanderbilt, that requires a college-level math class of all students, as well as survey classes in literature and US history. Thus, it is Tennessee State, not Vanderbilt, that gets an "A" grade in our report.
Credit for that "A" goes to the Tennessee State faculty and administration for holding their students to high standards. A big assist, though, goes to the State's Board of Regents. The Board created core curriculum standards that apply to all of the schools they govern. The result: the five Board of Regents schools (East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, Memphis and Austin Peay are the others) earn two "A"s and three "B"s. Of the seven requirements ACTA looked for in the study, the Tennessee Board of Regents schools required an average of 5.4, compared to 3.3 at Tennessee's other institutions.
Furthermore, since the Board of Regents requires a similar general education core at the thirteen community colleges it oversees, they have streamlined transfers between the system's two- and-four year schools. Effective, efficient core curricula improve educational quality while lowering cost of instruction. The basic general education core that every student needs can be delivered much more cost effectively than the array of boutique courses so often offered in lieu of a well-defined core.
As Charles Manning, Chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents System, explained to us: "I have worked hard, along with my colleagues, to ensure every graduate of our universities receives a solid general education. A strong core curriculum has been important in every generation, but in today's environment of global competition, it has never been more vital."
We couldn't agree more.
Posted by Eric Markley on August 18, 2010 at August 18, 2010 11:25 AM
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