Survey
to quicken students’ education
By
Jeff Laban
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Scams, “free iPods” and potential viruses: these might be expected
connections with surveys sent to students’ e-mails.
However, if they checked out or took Cal State Long Beach’s Western Association
of Schools & Colleges survey, also know as the “CSULB Enrolment Satisfaction
Survey,” they may be wondering what it was about.
According to the database, 2,856 students accessed the survey, while only 1,853
students participated. While the preview statement might have offered future-promise
for responding, stating “Your feedback will be used to improve Enrollment
Services and better serve the needs of all CSULB students,” it nonetheless
left many students in the dark.
WASC is in charge of accreditation at Cal State Long Beach, a process that
takes place about every 10 years since the first accreditation in 1949.
The survey will help determine an institutional proposal to guide the accreditation
review process. The proposal, shaped by the survey, will be submitted in October.
In April 2007, the proposal may be approved. In 2009, a preparatory review
will take place, and the following year an education-effectiveness review.
“
There are students who say ‘I studied for that test,’ and teachers
who say ‘I taught that class,’ although they didn’t do well,”
Accreditation Liaison Officer David Hood said. “We want to find out what
the students think and what they learn.”
The survey’s goal was to determine what students think should be surveyed.
While that might sound like a paradox, it is quite simple.
“
We don’t want to get rid of you, but we want to get you out of here faster,” Hood
said.
He said the school would like to get students out on schedule, such as finishing
a 120-unit course in four years instead of five or six. The WASC survey strives
to improve education at CSULB by asking the students where flaws are.
Once the results are tallied, the survey should show areas in which the general
population at CSULB thinks can be improved.
When this is determined, a more in-depth study will take place in those areas.
The success and failure rate of CSULB students is measured by graduation rates.
According to the measure, success of students improved markedly over the past
decade and appears to be continuing to improve.
Nonetheless, fewer than half of entering freshmen complete degrees within six
years, the current graduation rate is only average compared to similar institutions
and troubling gender and ethnic disparities exist. These are statistics WASC
aims to change for the better.
The education effectiveness review takes about seven years to accomplish but
once it is finished the cycle will repeat itself in 2017.
“
We want to make sure we don’t miss things and reflect students’ priority,” Hood
said.
|
