From Weeder to Leader

By Jessica Higgins. Several years ago, I received a call from a student whose voice betrayed his sense of frustration and defeat. Despite studying for days, he had just failed the final exam in an introductory computer-programming course, along with the majority of the class. For the first time in my experience as an educator and administrator, I paused to wonder why we don’t question the failure rate in these classes. We’ve all met professors who point to a low pass rate as documentation of their ability to create a worthy college course. But in the world of continuing education—where we dedicate ourselves to healing those students who have been undermined by the pedagogy of elimination—we have a responsibility to challenge the philosophy behind a course whose primary role is to limit the number of students who pursue that field of study. More...