The survey, which sought to gain insight into college and career readiness issues, polled 160 guidance counsellors, 120 [university students] and up to 100 recent high school and [university] graduates who are in the workplace today.

Guidance counsellors indicated that they tend to focus on student populations who represent the extremes of the achievement spectrum, with more than 50 percent of their time spent dealing with students who may not graduate, and 36 percent of their time spent on those who are [university] bound. Guidance cousellors also pointed toward [university] ‘eligibility’ as a measure of student success, as opposed to ‘readiness’ with nearly 70 percent of respondents defining success as a student receiving a high school diploma. [University] students, however, indicated that they could have been better prepared to meet [university] academic standards and relied primarily on close friends and family members as mentors.

“Ensuring that our students are prepared to reach their academic and professional goals goes beyond closing the gap between what high schools teach and what [universities] expect,: said Jeff Livingston, senior vice-president of McGraw-Hill Education’s College and Career Readiness Centre. “This survey confirms what we’ve long believed and are striving to change in the educational system; the distinction between [university] eligible and [university] ready. Being eligible for [university] is simply not good enough in the global economy of the 21^st century; our high school students must be richly and rigorously prepared for a lifetime of learning and professional development.”

According to the survey, nearly half of recent high school graduates feel they did not choose the right career – 81 percent felt practical work experience would have helped then make a better choice and an overwhelming amount (96 percent) said that an internship would have made then feel better prepared for the work force. The top three areas where graduates would have liked to receive further instruction in high school/[university] included technology applications (31 percent) and communication skills (28 percent). Further, 72 percent of [university] graduates selected time management as the biggest differentiator between high school and [university], which remained a common theme, as the majority (43 percent) also identified time management as an area where they would have like further instruction in high school.

www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mcgraw-hill-survey-provides-insight-into

As Options Solutions navigates its way through the 21^st century techno-savvy world; we have embarked on the realm of Facebook. It was a difficult leap of faith into this social networking site. We bestow many warnings each year in regards to Facebook (“Effective studying does not include checking your Facebook page.” “If you wouldn’t show it to a parent or grandparent, it should not be on your Facebook page.” “Applying to a post-secondary institution is like applying for a job. You want to present the best you; clean up your Facebook!”), and yet we find ourselves, like countless other organizations, using it as a tool to disseminate information. 　

Facebook has been the headline of many scathing articles, especially in regards to high school and post-secondary students (with many of these situations passing right through the doors of our office). There have been NCAA athletes who have been suspended due to information and photos posted on their personal pages (http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/ncaa-athletes-and-facebook).

With Facebook moving into the work world of most companies, we do feel it is important to be part of that movement as well as to educate our students on the ramifications that this site can have. No longer is there a clear separation between one’s personal life and one’s professional or academic life.

Facebook has become a routine part of turning on a computer for this Millennial generation. Often they find themselves logging onto Facebook unconsciously when they sit down at a computer and many have Facebook as their homepage. Time is wasted daily glancing through friend’s recently posted photo albums and reading friend’s status updates. Many schools and workplaces have blocked Facebook and other social networking sites.

Students today are faced with the adult responsibility of managing their personal Facebook pages. There is a temptation to tag photos, join groups, and post comments that might otherwise be considered private. We encourage students to take an active role in controlling the privacy setting for their Facebook accounts as well as managing the time they spend on it. We encourage them to question: “Is the information on my Facebook page representative of the person I am?

Say what?  Little or no teaching of grammar, cell phone texting, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, all are being blamed for an increasingly unacceptable number of post-secondary students who can’t write properly. 

For years there’s been a flood of anecdotal complaints from professors about what they say is the wretched state of English grammar coming from some of their students.  Now there seems to be some solid evidence.   Ontario’s University of Waterloo is one of [many] post-secondary institutions in Canada to require the students they accept to pass an exam testing their English language skills.  Almost a third of those students are failing.

Ann Barrett, managing director of the English language proficiency exam at Waterloo, says the failure rate has jumped five percentage points in the past few years, up to 30 per cent from 25 per cent.  Even . . . [the] so-called [academic] elite students, “often still can’t pass our simple test,” she says.

Barrett thinks that poor grammar is the major reason students fail.  “If a student has problems with articles, prepositions, verb tenses, that’s a problem.”  Some students

 . . . are no longer being taught grammar, she believes.

At Simon Fraser University (SFU), one in 10 new students are not qualified to take the mandatory writing courses required for graduation.  That 10 per cent must take “foundational” writing courses first.  SFU’s director of academic advising, Rummana Khan, says, “There has been this general sense in the past two or three years that we are finding more students struggling in terms of language proficiency.”  Emoticons, happy faces, sad faces, “cuz” are just some of the writing horrors being handed in, say professors and administrators at SFU.

Though spelling has improved because of Spellcheck, words like “a lot” and “definitely” are still frequently seen as “alot” and “definately”.  Paul Budra, an English professor and associate dean of arts and science at SFU, says he is floored by some of what he sees.  He says that commas are sprinkled around like parmesan cheese and that students seem to have absolutely no idea what an apostrophe is for.  Punctuation errors are huge, according to Budra.  He also blames poor – or no – grammar instruction in lower schools, and, consequently, he’s been reduced to teaching basic grammar structure himself.

The teaching of grammar in both Ontario and British Columbia is part of the elementary and high school curricula.  Barret, however, says that the university level doesn’t have a formal relationship with secondary teachers in Canada, so there’s no simple way to communicate the skills that are necessary for success in university.

Concerns about the language skills of young people are not confined to North America.  The rise of computers and mobile phones has spread this linguistic anxiety across the globe, from India to Australia to the UK. 

Regardless of the source of the problem, it is time to sit up and take notice and start dealing with the white elephant in the room.

(Source:   http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5102uYbAZSE3AovHS_sJEnz407ww   and   http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/08/7395.ars)