Issue 26(2)
College
Knowledge: What it Really Takes for Students to Succeed and What
We Can Do to Get Them Ready. (2005).
David T. Conley. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. 384 pp. ISBN # 0-7879-7397-1.
Review
by: Tim McCoy
Academic
Advising-Gateway
Center
Office
of Undergraduate Education
University
of Washington
, Seattle
To know
where our undergraduate students are "coming from" we must know
something of their educational history. David Conley provides
a fine example of how secondary education, specifically as it
pertains to postsecondary preparation, can become more coherent
and instill in students "habits of mind and ways of knowing" (p.39).
Conley
makes it clear that he is attempting to provide tools for making
this important transition more seamless for students. He notes
that the comprehensive high school is barely one hundred years
old and as late as the 1920s only 5% of high school graduates
went to college. The two educational systems were, and still are,
very different. The areas where better articulation may be achieved
are vestiges of the history of education in the United
States . Conley (p. xi) makes
a clear distinction between college eligibility and college readiness.
As
academic advisors we are witness to the rapid increase in students
arriving at our colleges and universities with AP or IB credit,
or having taken classes in a variety of dual enrollment programs
now in existence. While these programs undoubtedly affect the
level of preparation for students who take advantage of them,
Conley's book takes a hard look at how this preparation can be
measured and used to the students' advantage once they are in
college. Conley asserts that the IB program, which began in 1970,
is coherent in large part because of the integration and reflection
required of students (p. 57).
With
much of the data for his book generated by the Center for Educational
Policy Research at the University
of Oregon
, Conley often refers to work
being done at the Center and services that are available to secondary
teachers and administrators. One service offered by the Center
is the Alignment and Challenge audit. This is a process in which
data on various dimensions of courses offered by secondary schools
is entered into a database, and is then coded. The goal is to
inform educators of existing gaps (p. 64). The Center has also
developed a set of standards known as Knowledge and Skills for
University Success.
Knowing
our students' personal and academic backgrounds serves as part
of the foundation for a successful advisor-student relationship.
It is not uncommon for advisors to encounter students who unfortunately
are several terms into their studies and say things like "I did
really well in Chemistry in high school, why am I struggling so
much here?" Conley would argue that it is because most students
leave high school with a certain level of content knowledge, but
little understanding of how to apply this knowledge in novel situations.
Written for
a wide audience, College Knowledge can be a useful tool
for those who work with first and second year students. Perhaps
most useful for academic advisors is part II of this book, containing
great material on what happens to students during their first
year of college and what the students themselves, parents, faculty
and advisors can do to help the students succeed.
