Obama's State of the Union and Information Schools

In his 2011 state of the union speech, President Barack Obama said, "Maintaining our leadership in research and technology is crucial to America’s success. But if we want to win the future -– if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas -– then we also have to win the race to educate our kids."

Many of the information schools have run their degree programs with these goals in mind for a whole generation now. That's one of the reasons that undergraduates from information schools such as Syracuse, Washington, and Penn State often have such high starting salaries: the education that iSchool students receive prepares them for high value, high demand jobs in U.S. organizations.

The typically glacial pace of change in higher education represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the iSchools. Higher education must adapt more rapidly to a changing world, and iSchools stand poised to be a leader in adaptability and innovation. Note that "Information Nation" explains how the information professions fit into the world economy, and describes how students in the information field can recession-proof their jobs and careers upon graduation. They key, as President Obama suggested in his speech, lies in building a core of relevant and valuable skills along with an attitude of adaptability and a love for lifelong learning - all values that most information schools try to promote.

ASVAB, Income Inequality, and Libraries

Following up on a hunch from a comment, I dug out a state-by-state ranking on income inequality from PBS's NOW documentary program (based on data going back to 2008). The income inequality rankings look at the income gap between rich and poor, the gap between the middle class and the rich, and differential rates of income growth. For example, New York state had the worst income inequality in the nation with the most wealthy 20% of families making 8.7 times as much as the poorest 20% of families. New York also had the greatest growth in disparity over a ten year period.

As one might expect, there was a substantial negative correlation between income disparity and pass rates on the ASVAB (r=-.54). States with the least well-prepared youth (in terms of achievement n the ASVAB) also generally had the worst income disparities.

But here's the very interesting thing: The public libraries connection discussed in the previous post was almost completely independent of this issue. A regression analysis pitting income inequality and library visits against each other as predictors of ASVAB showed that both had powerful effects in the same analysis. In other words, whatever is going on with the connection of income disparity to ASVAB pass rates, it is independent of the mechanism that causes a relation between public library visits and ASVAB.

So what is going on here? It is easy to speculate that in states with great income inequality there is probably also a substantial disparity in the quality of public education between poor school districts and well-off districts, so the connection to preparedness (again remembering that the ASVAB tests basic literacy and numeracy skills) is not unexpected there. But apparently the urge to visit the library or the availability of opportunities to do so is still an independent animal. Still open to ideas here... Anybody? Will go fetch the data if someone can think of another variable to put into the mix...

ASVAB and Libraries

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a standardized aptitude test administered to all individuals who apply to the U.S. armed forces. ASVAB provides an essential overview of a variety of key skills related to literacy and numeracy such as word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, arithmetic reasoning, mathematics knowledge, and general science.

A report was recently released by The Education Trust documenting results, state by state, for armed forces recruits on the ASVAB. The results are predictably depressing, showing that a quarter of students nationwide are unable to reach even the minimal passing score needed to enter the Army. Results vary considerably state by state, with Hawaii the worst and Wyoming the best.

So here's the interesting part: I extracted some state by state education statistics from StateMaster.com. I examined per pupil expenditures in elementary and secondary education and found that there was essentially no correlation at all between ASVAB pass rates and per pupil expenditures.

In contrast, however, I also examined the number of public library visits per capita for each state. Drum roll please! The correlation between library visits and ASVAB pass rates was a substantial r=.43. In other words, the more the citizens of a state visited public libraries, the more likely they were to have capable young people with the job aptitudes required to succeed in the armed forces (or for that matter, in most civilian jobs).

What you you think it means?

Online Learning - Some Thoughts That Never Made it into Information Nation

The following material is an edited excerpt of some of the writing that the authors were not able to fit into the final version of Information Nation.

What do employers think about online degrees?

You don’t want to put effort and money into something that does not have the respect of future employers in your field. How are online degrees judged in terms of quality? Hiring committees may frown on applicants from purely online schools, with the assumption that either the quality is inferior to tradition programs or there is a likelihood of cheating. The reputation question can be an important factor for determining where you want to go. Some employers are still afraid that they are “degree mills” willing to deliver a degree for pay, without much work required on the part of the payer.  With such a large-scale endeavor, it is inevitable that some programs and some students can slip between the cracks. Note, however, that if you get a degree from one of an online program of a traditional "brick and mortar" university, your degree will show up as being from that university and the method of instruction would not necessarily even be known to an employer.

The advantages of this educational route can be substantial. It is hard to imagine something more convenient than never having to set foot on campus. People who work at home often rave about how great it is to make conference calls in their pajamas.  Online programs may range as low as $250 per credit hour, considerably lower than most traditional programs. Sometimes the admission requirements for online programs are looser, and programs allow students to take some courses with non-matriculated status, and then are admitted if they do well.

Programs range in their use of technological tools and media. Most programs use online tools for sharing media, viewing instructor-produced content, and encouraging student collaboration. Some instructors transform their face-to-face courses completely for online offerings, even to point of rejecting the use of printed textbooks. Online faculty members often come from a wide geographic area, and this can be a huge plus for instruction.  Programs are able to recruit high-quality teachers from all over the world. Personnel with equivalent credentials and experience would be very difficult to find, particularly in rural areas.

All of these points argue for very careful research prior to enrolling in an online degree program. Check with employers to see how they value the degrees from different institutions. Find out the credentials of the instructors. Ask how the classes are offered and whether they require a “synchronous” component (i.e., everyone meeting and talking at the same time) or are totally asynchronous. Residencies, while expensive from a travel perspective are a great opportunity to meet and talk to instructors and fellow students. Given all of the factors above, cost should be only one of the factors considered in a decision to go online and not the only factor.