How to get to college with sixty credit hours earned in high school.

Earning RRISD College Credits

The Round Rock ISD offers multiple paths to earn college credits in high school. Three specific programs provided my two kids with very different paths to 60 credit hours. This blog will outline how the credits were earned, what it meant when going to Texas State, and a couple of tips for any parent trying to follow the same path. 

Traditional High School 

My daughter went to Cedar Ridge High School and finished at the 25th percentile of her class. Her program included Dual Credit classes at Austin Community College, UT Austin On-Ramps classes, and the traditional AP Classes and Exams. She completed high school with 58 transferable units. 

Matriculation at Texas State 

She won a Presidential Scholarship due to her SAT scores and started as a freshman - until her transcripts could be evaluated. After the Fall semester she was upgraded from Freshman to Junior. One Semester later she would become a Senior. She is double majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Path number 2 - Early College High School 

My son was not interested in Cedar Ridge due to the class size. He did not expect to participate in UIL activities (no band, sports, etc.) so ECHS was a good pick. In May he graduated with his diploma and an Associate of Arts Degree from Austin Community College. 

Matriculation at Texas State

Unlike his sister, my son was immediately ranked a Junior. They had both completed ~60 hours of college classwork, but his program was tailored to get the AA degree. He is planning to follow an Engineering track. 

Important Tips

1. Texas State has very well-defined class requirements for their degree programs. Pre-requisites and co-requisites are clearly identified in their catalog. Both kids will take three (3) years to graduate because of the BA program structures. My daughter's double major added almost 12 units of additional classwork. My son has to take basic computer science classes (not offered at ECHS) and Engineering has a rigorous pre-requisite structure. 
2. AP Classes and Testing can be a bummer if you work hard in the classroom and fail the test. Dual credit classes, classes at ACC and UT On Ramps offer a more secure risk/reward. 
3. My daughter enrolled at ACC and completed an Algebra class right after middle school. This gave her confidence on the SAT math exam that propelled her scholarship. 
4. ECHS has a very small class size. My son's program started with just over one hundred students in his grade with attrition taking the class down to about 60 at graduation. Parents and students self-select into ECHS, so motivation is high, and poor performers tend to leave. This leaves smart motivated students in the program - which is a handicap for scholarships. UT Austin has automatic acceptance for the top 3% of a class - or the top two (2) students from ECHS. Cedar Ridge, with ~675 students in the senior class, would garner ten times the automatic acceptance seats.

The Financial Bottom Line

• Both tracks were very economical - minor costs for books and fees.
• Both delivered about 60 transferrable units from Round Rock ISD to Texas State University.
• We will save on tuition for both kids, but will not avoid room, board, books, and fees - which can still be expensive. (Start your estimates at $1500 per month for an apartment for both kids to include: food, utilities, and the misc. fees.)
• Neither kid will graduate in two years - but they can build a class schedule with more flexibility and 12–15-unit course loads (vs 15-18 units) and graduate in three years. 

The Parental Bottom Line

We listened to our kids in middle school to help them make choices of high school, which classes to take, and which programs to prioritize (example: dual credit over AP Exams).  

Recommendation: Attend an Early College High School presentation. Get familiar with the RRISD course catalog and the "decoder-ring" of classes that may fill a pre-requisite for their target college. Leverage ACC summer classes - aimed at pre-requisites. Then (most importantly) - support your kids. 

Grade the Bot! 

Dave Burgess (Twitter: @dbc_inc) and his team have a great idea for Educators to leverage ChatGPT in the classroom. Grade the bot! 

The Good

ChatGPT has successfully answered many of my semi-technical questions. YouTube has many videos of particularly challenging questions, and the ability to drill-down into ChatGPT answers. The grammar, syntax and readability of the responses have been very satisfactory (a little editing is to be expected). If this project gains access to larger, more current data, the results will be amazing. 

The Bad

The exiting (limited) dataset can be exposed by asking questions about current topics. Some topics associated with Social Security stumped ChatGPT. Responses to a tricky question "I'm 10 years older than my wife. What are suggestions for maximizing my social security check while protecting her income?" came back with a very generic answer and a suggestion to "check with a social security expert". When the question was reworded, the answers were very much the same. Similar "weak" responses for COVID related questions were noted. 

The Ugly 

The inability to understand Government programs like social security - at least for this version of ChatGPT, is an interesting blind spot. While many have pointed out that the data sources are unknown, the current narrative is that ChatGPT will skew liberal to reflect existing online content. 

The addition of moderators will introduce a new collection of bias. Moderators will have the challenge of being fair, without polarizing the question response sets. One person's conspiracy theory is another person's truth (and vice-versa). 

The Bottom Line

A fantastic classroom assignment would have the class challenge ChatGPT with a narrow set of questions about a specific topic, have the students collect the responses, then critique the responses, providing evidence for their positions. The range of observations may prove exciting!

If students select the topic, examine the results, and apply critical thinking to evaluate the response, the lesson will go a long way towards understanding the use, limits, and pitfalls of AI chat solutions. 

Tot1

(No ChatGPT content was used to generate this post). 

(Weird disclaimer, right?)

 ChatGPT and Blog Posts.

For several years I have followed a workflow to track miscellaneous receipts and paper documents. My process was difficult at first - finally becoming simple last year. 

The Bad - The Old Process

1. 
   Collect a stack of paper to scan.
2. Confirm the HP scanner is properly connected.
   
3. Place full size paper items into the sheet feeder and select scan.
4. Wait for the page to scan (300dpi limit on documents process in the sheet feeder).
5. Go to the scan and fax application and rename, then move documents to the proper folders.
6. Take small items and place them (one at a time) on the flatbed, select preview scan.
7. Crop the preview to match the size of the receipt, or ID card, to save file size, select scan. (Repeat. Repeat many times). 
8. Rename and move to the proper folders.

The Good - The New Process

 

Business Opportunity?

Is there a market for developing technical talent hubs in secondary markets? 

Concept: Can the Dollar General strategy of targeting smaller cities provide an opportunity for "technology micro-hubs"? This would extend opportunities to develop talent in smaller demographic locations, where tech activity is not as developed. 

Graphic Source: Visual Capitalist

Aditya Shastri from IIDE gives a concise summary of the Dollar General strategy. IIDE Link: In-depth Marketing Strategy of Dollar General - 2023 | IIDE

"When they open a store, they choose localities... frequently focusing on cities with populations of less than 20,000 people. Dollar General maintains its position as a consumer-driven distributor of basic consumables. They fulfil their objective of assisting people by emphasizing value and convenience in their business strategy."

While the sub-20,000 location size may be too small for a technology micro-hub, this strategy allows Dollar General to avoid large competitors like Wal-Mart, Target, and even large grocery chains.

South Carolina provides a good talking-point. They have a good college and university pipeline, and more employers are relocating to the state. Could a business model be created to support the pipeline and provide profit and repeatability? 

OnlineFail

100% Online Class – 300% Fail

It was sexy, so enticing. Take the Stanford Advanced Program Management course (SAPM) online and save 50% over the on-campus, in-person cost. The online course featured the same professors, same lectures, the same class materials – all online, all accessible at any time. Take the classes at your leisure, complete the test at the end of each class, six classes, and voila a SAPM Certificate.

Is it possible to digitize college content, drive out costs, deliver terrific content and create prodigious prodigy? 

College Classes as Digital Content

I consider myself a smart guy. Not brilliant, but certainly capable of completing an online program. I did hesitate when my company refused to pay for the program – which means that I’m on the hook for the $9000 tuition. Academic capacity (check), economic capacity (conditional check), execution (big red ink "Fail"). 

The first copy of Digital Content is expensive to make. The second copy is not. Consider the obvious examples of music, books, and software. How many hours, weeks, months, years, does it take to create a book, or produce an album, or write a program? How long does it take to produce a movie? Once it is in digital format, what is the cost of the second copy?

Blind

Blind to the Real Investment

AEI asks, "Have we stopped investing in poor people?" and outlines these comments from the President. "The president spoke at length about his belief that, as a country, we need to invest in those who have not had opportunities. He said (emphasis by AEI):

"A free market is perfectly compatible with us making investment in good public schools, public universities; investments in public parks; investments in a whole bunch — public infrastructure that grows our economy and spreads it around. But that’s, in part, what’s been under attack for the last 30 years. And so, in some ways, rather than soften the edges of the market, we’ve turbocharged it. And we have not been willing, I think, to make some of those common investments so that everybody can play a part in getting opportunity."

Later, the president went further in suggesting that our country’s investments in poor people have declined:

"And right now, they [poor kids] don’t have those things [mentors, social networks, decent books and computers and so forth], and those things have been stripped away. You look at state budgets, you look at city budgets, and you look at federal budgets, and we don’t make those same common investments that we used to. And it’s had an impact. And we shouldn’t pretend that somehow we have been making those same investments. We haven’t been. And there’s been a very specific ideological push not to make those investments. That’s where the argument comes in."

What Is Really Missing

What is really missing is the family - most glaringly... Dad. 

Returning to my meeting with the vice-principal and counselor, (Digital Native or Digital Naive). We discussed a recent field trip where 90 of 460 kids could not go. The reason: poor grades, or a high number of absences. The ISD threshold is 18 days missed in one semester - or nearly 20% of the school year. Our daughter had made off-handed comments that "half" of her class was failing school. We were reassured that it was "much less than half".

So, let's be clear... we live in a neighborhood that should not have students missing 18 days of school in a five-month semester. How can students that miss a day a week of school keep up?  The vice-principal and counselor make daily calls to try to keep students in the process... this is the 6th GRADE! I am having a hard time imagining how "poor" schools can function. 

Speaking a Bit of Truth

This is not an issue of "common investments". Every kid in our school has the same facility, the same teachers, the same resources. What they don't have is all of the environmental support (read: family support) when school is out. Obama's "Ideological Push" might be considered another flavor of victimization. This speech is a lesson in learned helpless and victimhood. 

Bottom Line

Agenda and ideology are certainly to blame for political polarization. But the assignment of "investment" failure to a particular political ideology is no recipe for finding a solution. 

I will continue to exercise my "beige privilege" - my dad was Hispanic and mom Anglo. I will continue to push my kids to excellence - to turbo-charge their chance for success. Playing the race card, spewing ideological rhetoric, and ignoring the significant absence of family stability is bunk. 

~Tot1

Digital Native Digital Naive

From: clipartpanda.com

Digital Native or Digital Naive

Serendipity leads to many of my blog posts, and usually the trigger is something simple. My daughter could not find her photos on her cellphone. She was not aware that most camera applications store images in a folder called DCIM. I knew the folder name but had to look up the acronym: Digital Camera IMages.

As we continued the conversation, she mentioned that she is one of the few of her friends that is able to move files into folders or onto a USB stick. 

Odd, these kids know everything… right? These are the Digital Natives… right?

Several articles have hit my blog feed with the term "Digital Natives". A recurring theme is that the term might be used as code by recruiters to discriminate in favor of younger workers. Maybe discrimination runs even deeper than age? What skills are "signaled" by the moniker "Digital Native"? Is it even a clear signal?

Three Real Underlying Problems

Most work requires the ability to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and organize. The experiential knowledge and "Lifestyle Skills" of the millennials do not match up with competency knowledge and "Workplace Skills". Let's review three key problems. 

1. Education systems and employers assume Digital Natives are capable and competent 
2. Employment - skill set mismatch, weak skills overall, and very weak soft skills 
3. Discrimination beyond the age demographic - embedded gender and socioeconomic issues

What is a Digital Native?

Let’s start with a clear definition from the Oxford Dictionary: "A person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and therefore familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age".

Setting the “Age” Boundaries

If "Digital Natives" can be represented by an age group or demographic, let's consider this Deloitte grouping. Of course, experts will argue about the exact cut-offs, but consider this age-based framework.

• Matures (68+)
• Boomers (49-67)
• Gen-X (32-48)
• Leading Millennial (26-31)
• Trailing Millennial (14-25)

Hiring Discrimination Articles

• Workforce.com "Is Hiring for Digital Natives Age Discrimination"
• Ohio Employer Law Blog "Is Hiring for Digital Natives Age Discrimination"
• Fortune "This is the latest way employers mask age bias, lawyers say."

Signaling

Recruiters are looking for specific credentials when they ask for digital natives. Are recruiters looking for educational credentials, specific job skills – specifically computer literacy, or some other hidden, devious attribute? The argument for age discrimination, or at least strong signaling for age preference, seems to map towards the Leading Millennial demographic. That argument is simple and easy to understand but may mask a deeper agenda.

Digital Native Claimed Expertise:

• Browse and Search the web
• Download an app, music, and books
• Watch a Video
• Play games
• Hail a cab
• Make dinner reservations
• Take a photo
• Text Message
• Post/Check social media
• Multitasking

Digital Naive Hidden Weaknesses:

• Search
• Data Analysis (Excel)
• Leading a Meeting or Team (Communication)
• Managing Time (Prioritization, Focus) 
• Constant need for approval, high self-assessment
• Multitasking (Yeah, Stanford says "Not so much")

Problem 1 - Education - Lack of Curriculum and Tools

The MyMiolos (My Brain) blog lives… as web-based media. MyMiolos has the goal of showing techniques to leverage technology to improve learning. I use the Microsoft ecosystem (I’ll be on the lookout for Google and Apple ecosystem bloggers), create simple workflows to discover content, then provide users with plenty of use cases, examples, and templates. 

Unfortunately, the world still needs to build solutions for end users that need paper based solutions. The reality of the situation is that not all kids have access to technology resources, not all kids have a supportive after school learning environment.  

My daughter’s 6th grade assignment, the "Universe", will be expanded in the 8th grade. How can she carry the lessons of today… two years into the future? How do other kids, without access to computers, or to the internet, or to parental resources, manage to complete the assignment today?

STEM – Not STEAM

School districts are adopting STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. In our area, The Austin ISD, Round Rock ISD, and Pflugerville ISD are up and running (Community Impact: “Local Schools Invest in STEM”. Teachers are scrambling to build curriculum for STEM. Decidedly missing is “Art” which lends to the STEAM acronym. Art in the broader sense, music, graphic arts, writing, are all pushed aside for the guaranteed future STEM careers.

Also missing is the basic study of how computers work -- as the local school district jumps directly into STEM classes for Architecture and Engineering. Maybe STEM is a new wrapper for existing curriculum. But, if foundational understanding is missing, then limited STEM focus is not built on the Monte Python Doune castle foundation, but is built like the Monte Python swamp castle.

Does Wide Range of Ability = Wide Range of Grades

We discussed the Science project at a recent meeting with our middle school vice-principal and counselor. How were the other kids able to complete this assignment?  The range of skills and knowledge would seem to indicate a wide range of execution. The assignment might be completed in 2-3 pages with simple definitions and small drawings. A better solution might have a separate page for each definition, graphics from online resources, etc. An electronic version (using the new Microsoft Mix product) might include embedded videos and quizzes - a multimedia smorgasbord. 

How does a teacher grade an assignment when the range of responses run from simple to exotic?

What if the learning process is inverted (Flipped Classroom model)? Or, what if Seymour Papert’s book “The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer” (published April 1994) gains traction? Why study books when the computer allows serendipitous learning about anything?  (Amazon link at the bottom of the post). 

In 1993 Papert published "An Obsolete Skill Set, the 3-Rs" in Wired Magazine. He criticized books and book learning and the “practices, schools reflect (and amplify) the poverty of media that has plagued society in the past.” We have more access to more media types. Books, well they force kids into bad behavior. “Literacy should not mean the ability to decode strings of alphabetic letters.” 

Who needs a solid foundation, let’s build castles in the swamp!

Moving the spotlight from the 6th grade to college, the New York Times interview Arthur Levin in an article "Digital Natives and Their Customs", introduces the modern student - pragmatic and emotionally fragile. Can you be passionate about your career if you start compromising on your major?
  

    “They’re much more pragmatic. They say their primary reason for going to college is to get training and skills..." that will lead to a job, and let them make money. They’re willing to have a major they’re not really interested in if they think there will be job growth in that field."

    "They’re much less likely than their predecessors to say they’re in college to develop their personal values, or learn to get along with different people."

"...And they have a great fear of failure."

Online Learning Example – A Personal Story 

Stanford Advance Program Management (SAPM) lectures are delivered via video, case studies, PowerPoint decks, PDF files and practice sheets. I took notes in OneNote while watching the videos, capturing key ideas, collecting screenshots, etc. I went the extra mile to purchase and read the two book that were part of the class (by Gerstner and Moore, linked below).

So, how did it go? Crappy. I failed the final exam for the Stanford SAPM class (multiple times). The Association for Psychological Science recommends the BIC method for taking notes… as in, get a BIC ballpoint pen and a pad of paper.

The 6th grade teacher asked for hand-written definitions and drawings in full color -- employing the BIC method, forcing creative synthesis, and adding color for impact. My own Copy and Paste, and typing are not very successful. My daughter did hand-write all of her definitions in her class notebook. Would she have learned anything if she had completed the project entirely in digital context?

Is there any truth to the idea that engaging more of the senses and motor skills will improve learning?

Problem 2 - Employment Mismatch

Employers want the perfect employee. Whether you consider soft-skills or hard skills, a corporate job description covers a range of key attributes. Pull any job description and break down the employer requirements. Can you see how soft skills are required in combination with technical skill? Do millennials have all, or part of these skills:
   

• Communication - listening, communicating, verbally and in writing, confident presentations. Must be able to contribute to innovative ideas; provide thought leadership to greater team
• Computer Literacy - demonstrate intermediate level Excel skills, including the ability to quickly generate pivot tables, charts coupled with business analysis and, formulate recommendations based on data.
• Time Management / Organization - Flexible, ability to juggle priority, multiple assignments, goal setting, project execution
• Interpersonal, Cultural and Leadership skills - Ability to work in multicultural, globally dispersed workforce, able to motivate oneself and a team
• Analytical Skills / Problem Solving Skills- Ability to identify, evaluate, and improve, using innovation creativity, and reasoning. Strong problem-solving skills using complex tools and technology systems
• Attitude - Ability to properly criticize and take criticism, dedication, passion

If computer literacy is air for the digital native, then the hard and soft skills required for success need to become air as well. Some companies emphasize the soft skills right in the middle of the hard skill requirements. For others you might find clues to the soft skill requirements listed in the Additional Qualifications section, or the Our Team Values. But it seems clear that the filter "digital native" does not satisfy the gap of technical and soft skills. 

Millennial Mismatch

It’s not hard to find evidence of the mismatch. BusinessInsider highlights the expectations gap of soft skills and unreasonable expectations by both employer and employee.   Forbes points to mismatch by describing the importance of texting and creating the perfect playlist. USA Today asks the basic question, “Aren't these kids well educated, with technology expertise and social networking skills like no other generation?” Then provides a firm rebuttal citing “poor work ethic and a lack of critical thinking and problem solving “.  Fox News reinforces the soft skills gap - if only the Digital Natives had soft skills. If. Only.  

Problem 3 - Race and Gender - Into a Dark Place

Alarms are sounding about potential age discrimination. After all, digital natives tends to be young. But a more subtle discrimination lies just below the surface.  The mainstream media has fixated on age, but academia is digging much deeper. 

The Evidence

ECDL.org provides computer skills certification. Their article “The Fallacy of the Digital Native” defines the digital native, then makes several clear points about the fallacy of the term. They highlight “Economic barriers to PC and Laptop ownership (access to resources), and “Gender differences in PC/Laptop ownership and time spent online.

WebUse.org points to an established handicap – socioeconomic privilege. Ignore the hot button term privilege and consider "parental education... matters in explaining variation in user skill."

InsiderHigherEd.com provides precise examples of failure to leverage the expertise of librarians, and BoingBoing drives the final stake, "...at Illinois Wesleyan University, “The majority of students -- of all levels -- exhibited significant difficulties that ranged across nearly every aspect of the search process…” ...  "in other words: Today’s college students might have grown up with the language of the information age, but they do not necessarily know the grammar." 

A useful example, again from my daughter. Band assignments change in the 7th grade. After testing into advanced band, we received a nice note that said we should continue with summer tutoring sessions as a condition to stay in advanced band. $45 a month for instrument rental and $125 for lessons - or, more than $2000 per year. This is a pretty high hurdle for some families to clear - regardless of race.

Author comment: I have a BA History and spent many hours in cohort with Librarians whose brilliance is only exceeded by their patience. Tools, no matter how useful, cannot replace mentorship, cannot replace the expert, cannot replace people that care.

Why so much Ego Frailty

Why is the college to work transition so hard? Let’s go back to “Generation on a Tightrope” by Levin and Dean (2012).

"This is a generation that was not allowed to skin their knees. They got awards and applause for everything they did, even if it was being the most improved, or the best trombone player born April 5. So, it makes sense that they think very highly of their abilities and expect to go on getting awards and applause."

It's only a short intellectual leap to see how the digital natives are attracted to the nacent social justice arguments for improved human rights (everything is becoming a right), living wages, non-discrimination, mass-surveillance, and privacy (please feel free to add to this list). The Matures and Gen-Xs are oppressing everyone!

The Bottom Line

The term "Digital Natives" may include embedded social barriers based on age, race, and gender. Educational assumptions about computer competency are too large, creating a digital effectiveness gap. At the same time that Digital Natives are considered “connected”, they lack the face-to-face soft-skills needed for workplace and the real world. No tool (not even the internet) can replace the underlying knowledge required for social and workplace success. Searching for the self-declared and self-absorbed digital native to fill a career opening is ineffective, and probably discriminatory – beyond age discrimination.
 
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, personal values and inter-personal interaction must resume their place as "core skills". Substituting “Digital Native” attributes will be a disaster.

~Tot1
P.S. Put the phone down and engage. 

Amazon Links 

Papert - The Children’s Machine

 
Levine - Generation on a Tighrope

Gerstner - Who Says Elephants Can't Dance

Moore - Crossing the Chasm

Stanford SAPM Program