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Current, Former Students Say Formal College Advice Not That Helpful

Terri Tchorzynski works hard to help young people in the American state of Michigan succeed after they complete high school.

Tchorzynski is a school counselor1 at a special public school called the Calhoun Area Career Center in Battle Creek2, Michigan. There, students in their final two years of high school take classes that relate directly to industries in which they might work someday.

Tchorzynski makes students’ plans after high school a priority3, whether they expect to attend college or enter the workforce4.

Tchorzynski uses many tools to help her students. She makes regular presentations on issues such as financial aid. She offers special tests to help identify qualities in the students’ personalities5 and how those qualities might relate to a job or field of study. And she also directs students to websites that provide information on colleges and universities.

All of Tchorzynksi’s hard work has gained her some national attention. The American School Counselor Association named her its School Counselor of the Year in 2017.

But, a new study finds that many Americans who either completed a degree program or attended at least some college are unhappy with their high school counselors6. They do not feel the advice that their counselors provided about higher education was all that helpful.

Tchorzynksi says a lack of personal attention may be one reason why students are unsatisfied.

But she notes that most school counselors are in a difficult position. They have more to do than just provide college advice to students. Also, she says, many counselors across the United States are overworked.

"In Michigan, we’re about 750 students to one school counselor...The American School Counselor Association says it should be 250 to one. But that’s not the case...So I would say that some school counselors are probably in a spot where maybe they cannot provide the individual services...getting the students exactly what they need."

Not all advice is created equal

The Strada Education network is a nonprofit organization that supports the growth of higher education in the United States. Last year it partnered with the research company Gallup to ask over 22,000 Americans about their experiences with college. Researchers focused on where people received advice about what field to study in college, and how helpful the advice was.

The study found four main sources of advice.

There are the formal sources, such as school counselors, websites and print media.

There are informal school-based sources, such as teachers and other staff.

There are informal social networks, such as friends and family.

And there are informal work-based networks, such as bosses and co-workers.

The study showed that formal sources of advice about what to study in college were the second most commonly used, after informal social networks.

But only 64 percent of people who used formal sources found them helpful at all. In other words, formal sources were the least helpful source.

By comparison, informal work-based sources were the least used, with only 20 percent of people using them. Yet 83 percent of people who did found informal work-based sources to be helpful. In other words, bosses and co-workers were the most valuable sources of all.

Brandon Busteed is executive7 director of education and workforce development at Gallup. He says it is surprising that current and former students find what some might say are the most traditional sources of advice to be so lacking.

“It’s a call to action on a number of fronts, certainly to think about how we improve the formal advising that happens in and outside of schools,” he told VOA. “But also to think about how we can ramp8 up the number of touch points between employers…and students.”

How formal sources can improve

Johnny C. Taylor Jr. is the president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. His organization supports historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, across the United States. Taylor helped connect the Strada and Gallup researchers with minority communities.

Taylor suggests that in addition to being overworked, counselors may also simply have limited knowledge. He argues that many school counselors mostly have professional experience in education. Therefore they may not always know the best way to go about becoming a chemical engineer or graphic9 designer, for example.

The limits of counselors’ knowledge is why schools need to strengthen relationships with both local employers and national professional organizations, Taylor says. These connections can provide counselors with the most up-to-date information about what a job in a given field requires. Counselors can then pass that information to students.

In addition, relationships with professional groups might give students a chance to meet with employers and ask important questions themselves.

Taylor says those connections are especially important for poor and minority students, whose exposure to people with high skilled jobs may be limited.

"Many of them are first generation. And as first generation students, they simply don’t have engineers, doctors, lawyers in their families to give them this advice. The result is that they make really, often times, poor…college going decisions and ultimately10 have a certain level of regret about what schools they chose, which majors they chose when they did go to school, and, ultimately, what careers they found themselves in."

Also, Taylor notes, school counselors need to pay better attention to some other considerations when giving advice. He admits that school counselors do the best they can to get students into college. But they do not often talk about the difficulties of finding a job in some fields, or the consequences of heavy student debt, he says.

Tchorzynski, Busteed and Taylor all agree that, in the end, the amount of time and effort that students put in will decide how happy they are with their decisions. But students still need to be pointed11 in the right direction.

I’m Dorothy Gundy. And I'm Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

counselor – n. a person who gives help and advice to students about educational and personal decisions

priority – n. something that is more important than other things and that needs to be done or dealt with first

financial – adj. relating to money

advice – n. an opinion or suggestion about what someone should do

formal – adj. made or done in an official and usually public way

social network(s) – n. the collection of personal relationships a person has with other people

ramp up – p.v. to increase or to cause something to increase in speed, size or number

exposure – n. the fact or condition of being affected12 by something or experiencing something

major(s) – n. the main subject studied by a college or university student

consequence(s) – n. something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions


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1 counselor czlxd     
n.顾问,法律顾问
参考例句:
  • The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
  • Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。
2 creek 3orzL     
n.小溪,小河,小湾
参考例句:
  • He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
  • People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。
3 priority qQ1xB     
n.优先处理的事,居先,优先(权)
参考例句:
  • The development of the national economy is a top priority.发展国民经济是应予以最优先考虑的事。
  • Things should be taken up in order of priority.办事应有个先后次序。
4 workforce workforce     
n.劳动大军,劳动力
参考例句:
  • A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
  • A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。
5 personalities ylOzsg     
n. 诽谤,(对某人容貌、性格等所进行的)人身攻击; 人身攻击;人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
  • Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。
6 counselors f6ff4c2b4bd3716024922a76236b3c79     
n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 );律师;(使馆等的)参赞;(协助学生解决问题的)指导老师
参考例句:
  • Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。) 来自超越目标英语 第4册
7 executive Ymlxs     
adj.执行的,行政的;n.执行者,行政官,经理
参考例句:
  • A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
  • He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。
8 ramp QTgxf     
n.暴怒,斜坡,坡道;vi.作恐吓姿势,暴怒,加速;vt.加速
参考例句:
  • That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
  • The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。
9 graphic Aedz7     
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的
参考例句:
  • The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
  • Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。
10 ultimately Rluwh     
adv.最后地,最终地,首要地,基本地
参考例句:
  • It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience.那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。
  • Vitamin C deficiency can ultimately lead to scurvy.缺乏维生素C最终能道致坏血病。
11 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
12 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

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