Donna Carney

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Article Review
Summary
Extensive changes need to be made in public institutions of higher education. Costs at
public institutions have risen drastically over the years and revenue has not kept up with the
costs. It is very expensive to provide the programs required to educate students in our global
economy. We may remain at the current state of our economy for years. The educational system
in the United States has not kept up in academics with other higher educational institutions of the
world. Major changes will need to be made in how we conduct everyday business in our
colleges and universities. Many in higher education will question the efficacy of another reform
crusade, preferring to attend to the business at hand of educating students (Dennison, 2010, p.
77). Additional resources will be needed to attain our goal. We will have to make wiser use of
our current resources. In addition, I submit that no institution other than higher education has
the capacity or the intellectual capital for such an undertaking; but those involved must move
with dispatch and new thinking or find themselves left at the starting gate, irrelevant and
unsupported (Dennison, 2010, p. 76). Dennison (2010) believes the following areas need to be
reformed: involving the K-12 educational system, revamping undergraduate education,
partnering for social and economic change, and modeling our best practices for efficiency and
effectiveness (p. 76).
Critical Reaction
I agree with Mr. Dennison that considerable work needs to be done as a partnership
between higher education and the K-12 educational system. Many students graduating from high
school are not prepared for the rigors of college. Students drop out of high school and later
return to get their General Equivalency Diplomas. Upon receiving the GED diplomas, many

Donna Carney

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Article Review
students choose to enter a technical college. If their college entrance scores are low then they
begin the process of remediation. The remedial classes are quite large with students who
should have been able to enter directly into college core classes.
College students build relationships with the community through clinical training and
extracurricular activities in the community. These relationships may assist the student in
acquiring full-time employment after graduation. We must be efficient with our monetary
resources in our higher education system. The solution is missing from Mr. Dennisons article. I
think we all have a really good idea about what is wrong in our colleges and universities. The
main problem we face is how to solve the problems.
Implications
The article reinforces my beliefs that we need to address some major issues between the
K-12 educational systems and the post-secondary educational systems. If changes need to be
made in the K-12 system, we need to address the changes, set the changes in place, and move
forward. Many of the remedial students at my institution end up repeating remedial classes
several times until they are able to increase their COMPASS test scores. Perhaps if sufficient
changes were made in both educational systems we would spend less time and money on
remediation and free up much needed financial resources for other purposes.

Courses and

programs may have to be revised to achieve the goals of the higher education system. Students,
educators, and administrators will all play a part in revamping the educational process.
Dennison, G. (2010). Reform and Re-invention in Public Higher Education. Innovative Higher
Education, 35, 75-78. doi: 10.1007/s10755-009-9131-2