Attacking a critical market failure Measuring critical thinking skills for success in the workplace B ecause today's bachelor's degree no longer conveys sufficient in- formation about the skills grad- uating seniors possess, there is a market failure that affects employers, students, and colleges. Too many deserving stu- dents do not get an interview with poten- tial employers because employers don't have the appropriate data to find the prospects they need. Colleges don't know which students to promote for which kinds of jobs, nor do they understand what kinds of specific skills employers are looking for. In reality, we do not have an effective or efficient market to better serve employers, students, and colleges. To correct this market failure, we need to level the playing field for all participants. THE CASE If we did not have the SAT and ACT in place, admissions officers would only have students' high school GPA to rely upon for admissions decisions. There likely would be fewer students from under-represented groups admitted to the most selective col- leges because the SAT provides important additional information to students' high school GPAs. College-to-work presents a more se- vere market failure because there are no standardized tests to accompany stu- dents' college cumulative GPA that could control for the grade inflation and vari- ability of grades across colleges. The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) is appropriate for graduating college seniors who are seeking employ- ment. CLA+ measures critical thinking skills that leaders agree are a key requisite for success in the workplace. Graduating ** (WA) seniors who take CLA+ gain important additional information about the skills they have acquired in college. Colleges also will benefit from having more in- formation about the skill levels their students achieve. The focus on critical-thinking skills including analytic and quantitative rea- soning, problem solving, and writing is consistent with a shift in the way knowl- edge is now defined. It is more impor- tant today to be able to access, structure, and use information and apply what one knows to new problems than to merely memorize facts. Of course critical-thinking skills do not cover all aspects of either education in college or what employers look for in po- tential employees. However, they are es- sential to most occupations. Here are the principal market failure issues students, employers, and colleges face. STUDENTS Grade inflation has resulted in the na- tional mean college cumulative senior GPA rising to 3.3 (on a four-point scale). This means most graduating seniors do not have an objective way of distinguish ing their skills from other students when By Roger Benjamin they apply for jobs-they are all above average. Students who attend the top 50 selective institutions are likely to get a pass because many employers will choose students based on institutional prestige. But more than 90 percent of graduating seniors attend less selective institutions. A great number of these students have the critical thinking skills and abilities that employers prize. EMPLOYERS In the age of grade inflation, how do hir- ing managers decide who to interview in the first place? If, in addition to rsums and college transcripts, hiring managers have the results of a valid and reliable crit- ical-thinking test, their pool of potential applicants would be enlarged. The em- ployment process would be more effective and efficient, and employers would be bet- ter equipped to tap the social, economic, and ethnic diversity of students reflected in all of our colleges and universities. COLLEGES Since these colleges do not have reliable tools that make the case for their stron- ger graduating seniors, employers never discover the best students. Less selective colleges, in particular, should consider recommending that their graduating se- niors take CLA+. This should increase the number of graduates from less selective colleges who are noticed by employers. If this turns out to be the case, less selective colleges will change employers' precon- ceived notions about their graduates and the colleges that produce them. UB Roger Benjamin is president of the Council for Aid to Education. COMM104 - Learning Communities Week 5 - APA Crediting Sources Assessment This Assessment is part of the Assessment category, worth 15% of your grade. Deadline Due by the end of Week 5 at 11:59 pm, ET. Directions Imagine you are writing a paper about why critical thinking skills are important in the workplace. Review the lectures on Crediting Sources, APA, and Avoiding Plagiarism. Then read this article about this topic (the article is also available in the course in case the object link below does not work): POF College to work - week 5 Citation.pdf After reviewing article, select a sentence that would be strong support for a paper on critical thinking in the workplace. In a paragraph submitted as a Word document, include the following: A sentence to introduce the main idea of the article. A signal phrase to let the reader know the following information is from a source The quote from the article, including quotation marks and in-text citation. A sentence that discusses the quote you chose and connects it with your imaginary paper. Please review the rubric below for grading criteria.