The Gender Gap:Noel-Levitz Studies Attitudes and Motivations of First-Year Students

Parents Forum
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<p>Survey by Noel-Levitz - the consulting firm specializing in higher education market research, student recruitment and retention - examines the broad motivational characteristics that students hold when they begin college. Prime motivation for this written survey of incoming students is an attempt to find out more about the marked gender differences in attitude between male and female college freshmen and retention rates since mounting research indicates that "nearly half of all students who enroll as freshmen do not complete college and most students who drop out do so before their second year… " and that “Male students…graduate from college at lower rates than their female counterparts” according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. </p>

<p>The N-L report points out a marked trend in their survey data that indicates male students often start out the freshman experience exhibiting greater confidence in their academic abilities and prospects- particularly in math and science - while women describe themselves as having study habits that are conducive to academic success. In any case, across the board, “fewer than 40 percent of all students said that they enjoy the challenge of trying to solve complex math problems…”</p>

<p>Among the findings:</p>

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<p><a href=“https://www.noellevitz.com/About+Us/In+the+News/News+Item/Freshman+Attitudes+Release.htm[/url]”>https://www.noellevitz.com/About+Us/In+the+News/News+Item/Freshman+Attitudes+Release.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/15/freshmen[/url]”>http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/15/freshmen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Quite apart from the gender issue under the microscope in the above cited survey-study, it is important to think just how the statistics on retention and market forces influence curriculum changes especially for public higher ed. institutions.</p>

<p>"For colleges and universities, getting students in the door is one thing, but keeping them in the classroom until they complete their degree is a completely different task.</p>

<p>It’s becoming a more important task as schools try not only to serve the students’ needs but to keep state funding. There are growing talks, including in Arkansas, of tying state funding to such statistics as retention rates. </p>

<p>Northwest Arkansas Community College worked with several other colleges statewide to learn how to improve its retention rates during an all-day seminar held Thursday at the college’s Shewmaker Center for Workforce Technologies.</p>

<p>The keynote speaker, Vincent Tinto, is a nationally known distinguished professor in the School of Education at Syracuse University in New York. He is an expert on student retention issues.</p>

<p>Tinto told the gathered crowd of people from about 10 colleges in the state that colleges need to focus more on what students are learning than on what is being taught. He shared the various conditions that promote student success and what steps community colleges are already taking to promote success. </p>

<p>" Only 16. 7 percent of Arkansans have a baccalaureate degree, " he said. " We’re already doing a better job of getting students from high school into college. Now we need to keep them there until they get enough education to get a better job. We need to make sure they are getting a relevant education."</p>

<p>NWACC President Becky Paneitz and Franklin agreed that one complicating factor is that retention rates don’t reflect what many community colleges consider success. Retention rates only look at students who came in as first-time freshmen and finished a degree.</p>

<p>Many community college students, however, are not traditional in that they are returning to school later in life. Many also are attending the colleges as a stepping stone to a larger university, where they will get a four-year degree.</p>

<p>One way to solve the problem, Paneitz said, is to create a system that allows for mini goals, such as completing a certificate, which would signify that the student completed what he or she intended to at the college. "</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/49087/[/url]”>http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/49087/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thinking about the higher ed gender gap, notions of college success, and curricula, brought to mind this NYTimes article about the Montfort Academy in Katonah , opened in 2002, "with the goal of offering what it calls a classical education and, as it says on its Web site, “Forming Men for All Seasons.” Henceforth, its goal will be to form men and women of all seasons:</p>

<p>"in September, the school ? which last year graduated its first full class of boys ? will start a similar, but separate, program for girls. The girls’ program will start the way the boys?'did, with a ninth-grade class and adding a ninth grade each year as the other classes move up.</p>

<p>“We talk about men of excellence and virtue, I think what we want to talk about with girls is women of wisdom and virtue,” said David Petrillo, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who was headmaster of the school until becoming president on Jan. 1. “Women tend to shape our culture, and they do it through a certain kind of wisdom.”</p>

<p>The educational philosophy for the girls will be the same as it is for the boys, he said. At Montfort, teaching is rooted in the development of Western civilization, with the writings of Plato and Aristotle serving as a starting point. Grammar, logic and rhetoric are stressed as tools for developing ideas and the skills of debate…</p>

<p>Mr. Meyer, the president of Shariah Capital, in New Canaan, Conn., which specializes in investments based on Islamic law, declined to discuss how much money he was giving to the school, beyond saying he had offered to be a key supporting member.</p>

<p>"I’m willing to do what it takes to get the girls’ school up and running for September,“Mr. Meyer said. “How can you know the present if you don?t know the past? I love the idea they start with the best books, the best sellers of really the beginning of civilization, and move forward from there. What a firm foundation for the future.””</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/14weacademy.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/14weacademy.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That final phrase : “what a firm foundation for the future” certainly resonates with me - wouldn’t it be interesting to follow through on the “if and how” the gender gap affects critical thinking skills, attitudes, motivations - and college performance - of students coming out of this type of academic setting?</p>

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<p>Another study concluding the obvious. Many young men are immature jerks. And don’t blast me because I am male too.</p>

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<p>originaloog</p>

<p>Ha, ha. Sometimes it does seem that way. But a lot of guys, at every age, learn best with an active, hands-on approach and that’s not how we tend to deliver education. My son is an exception to this. LOVES to read and kick around abstract philosophical concepts, so he’s doing great educationally, but doesn’t have many like-minded peers.</p>