Disturbing Data

Data appearing in a new report from the U.S. Department of Education (and summarized in the Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/article/Mens-Share-of-College/65693/?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en) suggest that two trends begun a few years ago are becoming significantly stronger. First, the higher education sector, at least in terms of undergraduate students, had been becoming more and more female and less and less male. While the swing from how overwhelmingly male these numbers looked, say, in the 1960's is welcome, the trend appears to be accelerating well beyond an approximation of gender parity or equivalency with societal gender demography.

Good questions for boards and administrations:
Does this say anything about elementary and secondary education? If the trend is really a reflection of how the larger culture differentially socializes boys and girls, how should schools respond?

The second trend portends a threat to independent education's traditional competitive advantage: small class size. It seems that average class size In U.S. public schools had been dropping steadily, on a vector toward the level of independent schools, at precisely the same time that, in the name of sustainability, independent school ratios have been rising.

Good questions for boards and administrations:
Where is our competitive advantage when class size reaches approximate parity? How do we reframe our value proposition when smaller class size has dominated what we say and what our customers believe? (Hint: The future conversation is going to be more about how teaching and learning happens than just how many bodies are in the room.)

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