History
These units came about during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through a series of three disjointed events, all designed to standardize the collegiate educational experience. Prior to this time (late 19th century) admission to post-secondary education involved comprehensive examination, either by public oral process, or private written process. These processes varied greatly among U.S. colleges and universities, due to the highly subjective nature of these types of examination. Eventually, these methods were slowly discredited due to their poor reliability and validity. Charles W. Eliot at Harvard University, in the late 19th century, devised both a contact hour standard for secondary education, and the original credit hour collegiate post-secondary standard. In 1894, the National Education Association endorsed the standardization of secondary education. Widespread adoption of the 120 hour secondary standard did not occur until the Carnegie Foundation, established in 1906, began to provide retirement pensions (now known as TIAA-CREF) for university professors with the qualification that universities must enforce the 120-hour secondary standard. By 1910, nearly all secondary institutions in the United States used the "Carnegie Unit" as a measure of secondary course work. As part of their framework, the Carnegie Foundation also established that both high school preparation and college "work" would include a minimum of four years of study. On a parallel track, the Carnegie Foundation also underwrote the work of Morris L. Cooke's "Academic and Industrial Efficiency." Again, the motive here was to standardize educational outputs and faculty workloads. Cooke established the collegiate Student Hour as "an hour of lecture, of lab work, or of recitation room work, for a single pupil" per week (1/5 of the Carnegie Unit's 5-hour week), during a single semester (or 15 weeks, 1/2 of the Carnegie Unit's 30-week period). (The Student Hour would technically be 1/10 of the Carnegie Unit: 1/5 hour per week times 1/2 year = 1/10.)Use
Academic calendars
Some American colleges and universities do not use the semester as the basis of their academic calendar, but choose to use otherAnalysis
Today, the Carnegie Unit and the Student Hour are a cornerstone to the administration of higher education institutions. As higher education is undertaken by the "masses" in the United States, these tools provide the ability to manage and compare students, faculty, and institutions. These units continue as the basis for evaluating student entry into college, and for determining student completion of course work and degrees. Faculty workload, efficiency, and evaluation are rooted in these units. And comparison among institutions, such as that undertaken by '' U.S. News & World Report'', relies heavily on these units. Public and private administrators and state legislators also use these values for budgeting and planning purposes. However, many are critical of these units due to the arbitrary use of time as the basis for measuring educational attainment. Generally, the criticism is that student learning varies greatly even among individuals who teach the same material. Variations are even greater among the various faculty members, departments, topics, schools, colleges, and universities. This has become an even greater concern in this era of distance learning and telecommunication. Frustration is particularly high among those involved with transfer of credit among institutions. The Carnegie Foundation has stated that, while the Carnegie Unit system is imperfect, it is among the best measures we currently have of student learning, as well as too important for our education system, and for now it should stay.Fain, PaulSee also
* Credit hour * European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carnegie Unit And Student Hour Academic transfer Student assessment and evaluationExternal links
* Cooke, Morris L. (1910