The findings have implications for things that range from how many students will go on to college to how many will start their own businesses, according to the poll, titled “Engaged Today – Ready for Tomorrow.”
Specifically, high school students who are engaged and hopeful are about 1.6 times more likely to report that they are headed to a two-year or four-year college after high school, compared to actively disengaged and discouraged high school students.
“Hope is a strong predictor of academic success, including graduation from college,” said Shane Lopez, senior scientist at Gallup, speaking during a panel discussion he moderated at Gallup World Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“It’s a better predictor than the ACT, SAT, and high school GPA,” Lopez said of the findings of a soon-to-be-released Gallup paper on the subject.
The findings from the Gallup Student Poll released Tuesday reflect the need to redesign school systems and change the way teachers educate students, speakers at Tuesday’s panel discussion said. “If we’re going to a system that works for all, we have to start confronting some fundamental issues of design,” said Sam Chaltain, an educational consultant and partner at Wonder, By Design, an enterprise that deals with the future of learning.
Chaltain proffered a critique that has become somewhat archaic in itself-that too many schools are designed for and operate as if they were still in the industrial age. He also lamented the whole “blank slate” education paradigm in which teachers are seen as learned individuals who are supposed to deposit what they know into the heads of students.
“Content is becoming asynchronous, but not for the purpose of replacing human beings but recognizing the way in which the phones in our pockets have changed our relationship to content knowledge,” Chaltain said. “So it’s no longer about transmission. Is there a way to let people navigate their own path with constant guidance and support?”
“That’s the power of mentoring and bringing people into the schools to try to help, not to supplant what the teacher does but to supplement what the teachers are doing,” Harold Fitrer, president and CEO of Communities in Schools of Richmond, said.
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