barry.wynn@gmail.com recommends this article from The Christian Science Monitor
"...the heads of 19 state university systems are joining to make sure their policies match their rhetoric about more diversity and better learning. At stake, say policymakers, business leaders, and academics, are America's competitiveness, and its ability to deal with the costs of an aging baby-boomer population."
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Headline: Colleges pledge support for low-income students
Byline: Stacy Teicher Khadaroo Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Date: 11/01/2007
- Higher education leaders hear the rumbling – the steady complaints
that college is too expensive, and that even for those who manage to
find funding, too many fail to graduate.
In response, the heads of 19 state university systems are joining to
make sure their policies match their rhetoric about more diversity
and better learning. At stake, say policymakers, business leaders,
and academics, are America's competitiveness, and its ability to deal
with the costs of an aging baby-boomer population.
The National Association of System Heads (NASH) announced the launch
of the Access to Success Initiative Oct. 31. Its main goal is to
improve college attendance and completion for low-income and minority
students – and to close the gaps between them and other students in
half or more by 2015. The 19 systems – from Maryland to California –
will start collecting new sets of data to gauge progress.
"They're going to publish this information ... so they can have an
honest dialogue and make good on that public commitment to
transparency," says Ross Wiener, a vice president at The Education
Trust, a nonprofit that designed the tracking system with NASH. The
initiative is backed by the Lumina Foundation and the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation.
This new level of leadership reflects a growing concern that the low
percentage of college degrees among some segments of US society holds
back not only individuals, but the nation as a whole.
Demographic projections for K-12 education show a steady rise in the
numbers of low-income and minority students, many of whom would be
the first in their family to attend college. "Every year it gets more
clear that ... the students we need to do best by ... are the
students that we've done worst by in the past," says William Doyle,
assistant professor of higher education at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville.
There's also a fairness issue, some say. "Capable students should not
be denied a higher education simply because of their income status,"
says Tom Meredith, NASH president.
Only 36 percent of college-qualified low-income students complete
bachelor's degrees within 8-1/2 years, compared with 81 percent of
high-income students, according to last year's report by the
Commission on the Future of Higher Education. And while state funding
for merit-based scholarships has grown 300 percent in the past 30
years, need-based aid has grown only 70 percent in the same period,
The Education Trust reports.
Redirecting financial aid toward those who need it most is high on
the Access to Success agenda. Participants have also formed a working
group to try to bring college costs under control.
Because public universities alone can't reform education, many of
them plan to form deeper connections with K-12 systems as well. Some
are working to boost teacher development so that fewer students will
be taught by those who lack expertise in their subjects.
Public colleges are finding that open access isn't enough, says
Professor Doyle: Students are often admitted based on minimum
standards, but then face "really tough standards ... when they take
the placement exams." If they have to take remedial courses, or if
they don't do well in "gatekeeper" courses, many drop out. Now, many
are considering revamping introductory courses and improving advising.
As president of the University of Louisiana System (one of the 19
participants), Sally Clausen wants to leave a legacy of a changed
culture in education. The Katrina disaster, in which she observed
that many poor and undereducated people had trouble accessing support
systems, "was a turning point for all of us [in education]," she
says. Instead of perhaps believing that when students drop out of
college, it's their own problem, "now we're taking the attitude that
.. it is our obligation to ensure that barriers are removed, that
advising is real and personal, that courses are available, that
tutors are available."
Ms. Clausen cites a 2006 report that estimated that if racial
minorities had the same educational attainment and earnings as
whites, personal income in Louisiana would be $4.6 billion higher.
"But it's more than that," she says. "We have a democracy in this
country that purports to provide for all, and we are just not doing
that as well for our underrepresented students."
Currently only about 40 percent of students in her system graduate
within six years. But in 2004, her universities set a goal to surpass
the national graduation rate by 2012. "We're treating all of our
students as we have treated honors students and athletes – we want to
track them and understand what their needs are," Clausen says.
Future downturns in higher-ed funding are a potential roadblock, says
Mr. Meredith of NASH. But he is hopeful that the commitment will hold
because so many state systems have joined together on it. The 19
systems enroll more than 2 million undergrads, including about
one-third of the low-income and minority students at four-year public
institutions, according to Education Trust.
(c) Copyright 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
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