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The Teagle Liblog

March 31, 2008

Women's Colleges: How Good is Good Enough?
By Bob Connor, The Teagle Foundation

There’s good news about academic achievement in women’s colleges, according to a report in Inside Higher Ed . The question is just how good is good enough. Take a look at the second table of survey results.

We have long suspected that for many women single-sex colleges provide an unsurpassed educational environment. These figures confirm that so well that it seems churlish to ask the more general questions—How good is good enough?

Take student presentations in class, probably a good proxy for the extent of active learning in general at an institution. A pitiful 40% at flagship public institutions frequently included student presentations. Forty percent? What about the other sixty? Not much better at liberal arts colleges (43%). A good deal higher at women’s colleges, but is 55% good enough? Is it even a passing grade? Why not 80% or 90% or, for that matter, why not 100%?

And so on down the list. Twice as many alumnae at women’s colleges than at flagship public universities report they received help in learning to write effectively. Great! But what about the other 41%? Is “Great” good enough?

Almost every college these days talks about developing the analytical reasoning capacities of its students. But after four years, the poll suggests, a little over half of alumnae at women’s colleges say they think they reached that goal. That’s a lot better than a little over a quarter at flagship public institutions, but is it good enough? Is it even a passing grade?

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