mtc,
Here are the kinds of things I am proud of at Carolina:
Two colleges where diversity works
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.; AND TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — Kelly Hogan was stunned. The biology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) saw statistics generated by the university that showed something sobering about her Biology 101 class: More than 70 percent of the African-American students and more than 40 percent of Latinos were failing. First-generation students – the first in their families to attend college – were also struggling.
Faced with teaching 400-plus students, Ms. Hogan had resorted to a traditional lecture model. Now, she realized, “nothing I’m doing here is really in line with how learning works.” If she wanted to offer all her students the same chance to learn, she had to change the way she taught.
So she decided to introduce new material through assignments and start classes with a question. She often told students to consult with their neighbors, effectively turning endless tiers of passive teenagers into a buzzing hive. Hogan tried a host of other techniques as well – polling students electronically, for instance, to find out how much they knew about a subject.
Just three semesters later, the results were dramatic. The failure rate among African-Americans fell by half. The percentage who achieved C’s tripled, and more than 10 percent scored A’s and B’s. Latinos and first-generation students improved, too, as did white and Asian students. Today, building on some of the experimentation Hogan began implementing in 2009, UNC is channeling $1.8 million into transforming the way introductory science courses are taught.
This revamping is one small part of UNC’s attempt to improve the racial environment on campus. Across the United States, colleges and universities are launching new initiatives in response to jarring student protests over racism. Students are demanding more than just an increase in the number of minorities in classrooms. They are searching for a sense of belonging that often goes beyond what the civil rights movement fought for a generation ago.
There is a lot more on UNC and a bunch about the program at FSU but you get the idea....................
We all want our schools to be beacons of light and give our children the best chance at a brighter future. Sometimes we get so caught up in the competetion on the field we forget what the real reason our universities exist.