Business Ethics Workshop, Summer 1999
Note: This is not about a business issue in the true sense; it is, however, a serious problem in education.
Vocational Technical Education in particular seems to have greater problems maintaining or acquiring a sufficient head count. I will, therefore, confine this study to Vocational Education.
Problem: It is necessary (or so we are told) to maintain a minimum head count in a vocational class in order to justify its existence. As an instructor strives to maintain quality a instruction and academic rigor, many students drop out causing low enrollment. The temptation for the vocational educator is to lighten up on the student workload and academic requirements in order to retain some of the ppor performing students.
School administrators tell instructors that this is the teachers' problem; teachers need to work harder to help the struggling students. Increased effort on the part of the teachers seems to work only to a point. There are often a number of students who seem unreachable or unwilling to increase any effort on their part.
- Do we as vocational educators simply ignore poor performance in order to maintain numbers, or do we cut our own throats and drop the poor performers?
- What about other issues if poor performers are kept and indeed eventually graduate?
