Public hearing addresses higher-ed challenges in Southeast Missouri

Educators from across Southeast Missouri spent Thursday discussing college completion rates, educational challenges in rural settings and teacher preparation at a public hearing hosted by Missouri's Coordinating Board for Higher Education at Southeast Missouri State University.

The board is responsible for creating a coordinated plan to address the state's higher-education needs and has been hosting public hearings throughout the state since December to gather information. The last plan was adopted in 2008.

Thursday's panelists spoke with members of a steering committee who are working with the coordinating board to identify issues and develop recommendations for improving the state's higher-education system.

By 2018, an estimated 60 percent of all jobs in Missouri will require some form of postsecondary education, according to the Missouri Department of Higher Education. The state has set a goal to increase the percentage of working-age adults with a two- or four-year degree or professional certificate to 60 percent by 2025. Currently, about 49 percent of Missourians have a college degree or certificate, according to the department.

To keep pace with Missouri's higher-education needs, the state department is developing a new coordinated plan called "Preparing Missourians to Succeed: A Blueprint for Higher Education." The final plan will be presented for approval to the coordinating board in December.

Officials from Southeast, East Central College in Union, Missouri, and Moberly Area Community College in Moberly, Missouri, discussed completion strategies used at their respective institutions. They also discussed what causes students to drop out, such as lack of financial aid and other barriers.

Debbie Below, vice president for enrollment management and student success and dean of students at Southeast, presented the university's strategies to retain students. Those included helping students meet the needs of a workplace, connecting students to their majors as soon as possible through academic support and helping students graduate in four years.

Alvin McFerren, superintendent of the Scott County Central School District; Steven Kurtz, president of Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Missouri; and Wes Payne, president of Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, spoke of the struggles they see among students in rural areas, where poverty is common and students frequently drop out to help their families pay bills.

Many high-school students in rural areas, they said, don't view college as an option or are encouraged by their families to stay at home.

"The No. 1 reason a student fails to persist is that life happens as a result of the socioeconomic conditions they're facing," Payne said. "The first thing they give up on is college."

McFerren praised the state's A+ Scholarship Program, which provides scholarship funds to eligible graduates of designated high schools who attend a participating public community college or vocational/technical school. He implemented the program at Scott County soon after becoming superintendent, he said, and it has helped several students who wouldn't have attended college otherwise.

Sherry Copeland, assistant superintendent of academic services at the Cape Girardeau School District, was among four panelists who discussed how to prepare the next generation of teachers. Other panelists included representatives from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Crowder College and Saint Louis University.

"What we face is institutions are not preparing students equally," Copeland said. "And that really hurts. I feel sorry for a really good candidate that might come in -- nice person, but they don't have that content knowledge, that pedagogy that we need."

Copeland added applicants also may be victims of where they taught as students.

"Because we know, too, that our schools are at different places," she said.

Those who were unable to attend the public hearings can submit comments on how to improve higher education through June 30 at dhe.mo.gov/blueprintcomments.php.

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