education

Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

How should we measure the size of a university’s endowment?

Sarah Waldeck, Seton Hall University

Congress is rattling its saber at colleges and universities with endowments worth U$1 billion or more. Committees from the House and Senate have sent a joint letter to 56 private colleges and universities, asking for comprehensive information about endowment spending and management policies.

Thomas W. Reed, representative for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, is talking about legislation that would require colleges and universities with endowments of $1 billion or more to spend 25 percent of their endowment earnings on financial aid or forfeit their tax-exempt status.

But what is so significant about the $1 billion mark? Are all endowments with $1 billion so huge that Congress should treat them differently than endowments with less than $1 billion? And are all endowments less than $1 billion so small that Congress should ignore them?

From my perspective as a professor who has studied endowments, the only real significance of $1 billion is that it shocks the public because it sounds like so much money.

What really matters is how much buying power a school needs and how much buying power an endowment has. The bigger a school’s budget, the more endowment is necessary. To figure out which colleges and universities have large endowments, you have to consider a school’s expenses.

How do endowments work?

An endowment is like a savings account that exists to support college or university operations. The assets in an endowment usually come from donations. The funds in an endowment are invested; each year a school spends a portion of these returns and then puts the remainder back into the endowment.

In good financial times, an endowment allows a school to spend more on priorities like financial aid, research budgets or professor salaries. In bad financial times, an endowment acts like a rainy day fund to ensure that schools will not have to dramatically reduce spending in important areas.

Because an endowment’s primary purpose is to support institutional operations, the strength of a $1 billion endowment is relative to the size of an institution’s expenses.

How does an endowment work?
Philip Taylor, CC BY-SA

To illustrate, I want to take a closer look at three of the schools that received the congressional request for information because they have endowments of $1 billion or more. In the context of this discussion, there’s nothing particularly special about these three schools except that they demonstrate why expenses are relevant to endowment size.

Each year, the National Association of College and University Business Officers ranks endowments by their absolute value. In 2015, Harvard was at the top of the heap with an eye-popping $36.4 billion endowment. Vanderbilt University was in 23rd place, with $4.1 billion. Grinnell College was considerably farther back, coming in 50th with an endowment of almost $1.8 billion.

Now let’s add a fourth school to the mix: Colgate University. As before, in the context of this discussion there’s nothing special about Colgate except that it helps illustrate why endowments and expenses need to be considered simultaneously.

When measured only by absolute endowment value, Colgate is way behind Harvard, Vanderbilt and Grinnell. Colgate comes in 103rd place, with an $892 million endowment. And Colgate was spared the congressional letter because its endowment did not exceed the $1 billion threshold.

Expenses matter

Now consider these same schools, this time in light of both absolute endowment value and all expenses – the costs incurred to fulfill the school’s educational mission, to administer the institution and to fundraise. Unsurprisingly, these four schools have wildly different expenses. Harvard and Vanderbilt are large research universities, while Grinnell and Colgate are small liberal arts colleges.

In 2013 (the most recent year for which data is readily available), Harvard had expenses of $4.4 billion; Vanderbilt, $3.8 billion; Grinnell, $97.6 million; and Colgate, $172.2 million. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether colleges and universities are doing enough to control costs. But to measure the strength of an endowment, we can assume that current institutional expenses are representative of future institutional expenses.

An endowment helps fund scholarships and research budgets.
kylebaker, CC BY-NC-SA

Grinnell’s endowment is so enormous that it can pay for a whopping 18 years of expenses, until today’s infants are ready to matriculate. Harvard’s endowment is large enough to cover eight years. And Colgate – which does not exceed the $1 billion threshold – can pay for five years.

But Vanderbilt, with its $4.1 billion endowment, cannot cover even two years’ worth of expenses.

Some academics have argued that endowments are excessively large once the endowment can cover more than two years of expenses. Others have suggested that an endowment is much bigger than a school needs when it can pay for more than five years of expenses.

At some point, an endowment may become vastly larger than what a college or university needs to ensure its success. No school really needs an endowment that is large enough to cover a half-decade or more of expenses. But to determine whether an endowment is so large that it warrants different treatment than others, Congress must consider the endowment in relation to institutional costs. It cannot simply use $1 billion as some kind of magical threshold.

Modifying endowment tax policy

Favorable tax policy is one of the reasons that endowments can accumulate $1 billion or that a school can have an endowment large enough to cover 18 years of expenses. The government collects fewer tax dollars than it otherwise would because donations to endowments qualify for the charitable deduction, and endowments do not have to pay taxes on their investment returns.

In my view, schools like Harvard and Grinnell are going to fight tooth and nail to hang on to this preferential tax treatment. But when a college or university has an endowment that is large enough to cover its expenses for years and years into the future, I believe lawmakers should conclude that the forgone tax dollars would be better spent elsewhere. At some point, an endowment has such ample funds that it no longer needs government subsidy. This means goodbye to tax-free investment returns and to the charitable deduction.

Eliminating the charitable deduction may mean that donors would give less, but they would not stop giving altogether. As I’ve described elsewhere, research has shown that the charitable deduction is only one of the reasons that donors give to colleges and universities. Some donors feel a responsibility to “give back” to their alma matter. Others desire the social status and public recognition that giving can provide, or want to influence institutional policy. Some people give simply because it makes them feel good. For many donors, a combination of all these factors motivates them to give.

But even if eliminating the charitable deduction means that some donors would choose to direct their giving elsewhere, chances are that the recipient organization would need the donation more than a school with a very large endowment.

Although schools are unlikely to see it this way, less preferential tax treatment would actually be a sign of success: it means that donors have been so generous and the endowment has been so well-managed that the school now requires less public assistance than others do.

So, legislators should stop fixating on the $1 billion mark and instead evaluate endowments in their larger institutional context.

Before Congress singles out certain endowments for less preferential tax treatment, it needs to distinguish between endowments that sound obscenely large and those that actually are.

The Conversation

Sarah Waldeck, Professor of Law, Seton Hall University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity

We cannot teach race without addressing what it means to be ‘white’

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

Jennifer Harvey, Drake University

We have steeped ourselves in higher education today in a framework for understanding difference that insists we should “value diversity.” Even then, in terms of realizing a robust multiracial environment in colleges across the nation, we have a very long way to go.

We know higher education’s commitment to diversity is not mere window-dressing.

For instance, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), an independent corporation founded in 1895 that grants accreditation to post-secondary educational institutions in 19 states, requires a commitment to diversity.

But the skyrocketing costs of college, which make access difficult for the more economically marginalized, and an incarceration crisis that sees young black men and women imprisoned at astronomical rates, are only two of many factors that create racialized outcomes when it comes to higher education.

Colleges and universities bear institutional responsibility for taking such racialized outcomes seriously (as the HLC accreditation processes insist). One small but important piece of such responsibility means considering how discussions of race take place in classrooms.

Some of the questions that arise in this discussion are: how can academics help students engage meaningfully in the public discussion now riveted on race and racial violence? What is missing in our current understanding of diversity? And is our current paradigm of diversity adequate for including challenging issues that get raised in regard to white racial identity?

These are important questions to ask, especially since events in Ferguson, Missouri last August that have been followed by numerous killings of African American men, women and children — first by the police and now by a 21-year-old white male in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

As a professor of religion and ethics who writes extensively about the role of faith communities in challenging racial injustice, I’ve been grappling with these issues as they show up in my classroom for many years. How do we effectively teach the next generation of young people such that they are better prepared to make a desperately needed impact on the US racial climate?

White racial identity

When 70% of blacks cite problems with policing relative to race and only 17% of whites do the same, we, as academics, know that able teaching on racial difference is essential for students.

But the very way in which diversity is framed creates a serious logjam when it comes to race in the college classroom. The premise of diversity is not merely that we are all different (and that students need to learn about that), but that our differences are goods to be celebrated and embraced.

We tout the innate value of diversity for college life: citing the importance of learning in diverse environments to equip our students to navigate a pluralistic world.

But there’s a major gap that goes unaddressed in this framing.

The particular difference “white” racial identity and experience represents in the context of US history and current climate makes it hard to “celebrate” the “goodness” of whiteness.

How far is white racial identity considered in discussions?
greg lilly, CC BY-NC

Students know this. I regularly help my students explore the failure of the diversity paradigm by asking them whether a group of black students carrying signs that read “Black is beautiful” is the equivalent of a group of white students carrying signs that read “White is beautiful.” They quickly shake their heads and tell me “no.”

“Why not?” I ask. “Shouldn’t valuing diversity include all diversity? If we can’t equally celebrate both of these scenes, then what are missing?”

They typically can’t explain why these two scenes are not the same. But, they know they are different. And understanding the reasons the scenes are different becomes a critical starting point for us to think about the historical, ethical and moral challenges of “whiteness” in the United States.

Inadequate framing of race

I believe our “diversity” paradigm is failing because it does not give us the tools to unpack and explore this conundrum.

The need to ably teach matters of race difference and historical as well as contemporary racial realities in the US could hardly be more urgent. But our ability to engage, discuss and home in on “whiteness” is stymied by a paradigm that cannot help students understand the difference between the two scenes just described.

Such inadequate framing of race certainly does not help us engage white students in the room, for whom the conundrums evident in the difference between these two scenes are embedded in their actual racial identities as “white people.” (Ask students of color in the room to talk about their racial identity and most can do it. Ask white students to do it and you get an uncomfortable silence.)

So, the diversity paradigm needs something more that can help faculty and students alike directly engage the complexities “white” poses for thinking about race.

How to engage white students

Academics are recognizing this and finding different ways to address these challenges. At a recent gathering of the National Conference of Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE), several workshops focused on the distinct challenges of engaging white students on race.

Psychologists who study racial identity development have helped educators think about the ways racial identity is formed in response to racial environment.

Such studies explain a great deal about the reactions of white students to racial conversations. For example, if you are taught to genuinely believe in “equality” but experience “white privilege,” the high level of cognitive dissonance that it generates has to be first addressed. Only then can any effective teaching take place about race and racial injustice.

Through race theories and historical work, academics are enabling students to understand how race and racial identities are constructed. These tools help students see the many challenges of a white racial identity as well as that of black or Latino. This can be a potentially transformative education for students today.

Lean in to move forward

There’s an irony here, of course.

It’s people of color who are most negatively impacted by the racialized outcomes of higher education and the structural violence of our national landscape. Yet, the gap educators are starting to address puts greater focus on the study of “white.”

So, let me be clear. The point is not that academics believe white students should get even more resources and attention. The point here is that we are coming to recognize that our racial destinies are completely bound up together.

We need to lean in, and explicitly take up the challenges of whiteness if we are to produce teaching and learning that can adequately impact the lives of all, in this racially plural, white hierarchy that is the United States.

____________The Conversation

Jennifer Harvey is Professor of Religion at Drake University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

4 Types of Media That Schools Should Use to Tell Their Stories

Whether local, national, or social, each type of outlet serves a distinct purpose.

Guest post by Christopher Piehler

In the first part of this two-part series, I wrote that “Schools Should Shout Their Success Stories from the Rooftops.” This time around, I will take a look at the benefits of telling those stories in a variety of media outlets.

Local media is the best place to start. Whether your local news coverage comes from a massive daily newspaper and three TV stations or just a website run out of someone’s spare room, outlets that focus on your community are vital to telling your story to the people whose votes can change how you do your job. Yes, it’s nice for people in your immediate area to know about the great teaching and learning that happens every day at your school. But on a more practical note, the local media can be a crucial ally to a district that is presenting a bond measure to the public. If you aren’t working with them to tell your story, you are leaving it up to them to hopefully “get it right”.

I recently spoke to a superintendent in a district that serves 32,000 residents, more than 50 percent of whom don’t have kids in the school system. When he introduced a bond measure in 2015, he started his outreach to those non-parent voters by building an ongoing relationship with the local media—which in his case consisted of one local news site. As a result of this and other efforts (which I’ll get to later), he succeeded in passing a $67.5 million bond. And now, when he wants to share his district’s challenges and successes with those non-parents, he knows he has a place where his voice will be heard.

National media can be a harder nut to crack, but it’s worth the effort. If there’s a glaring need in your district, the more people you ask for help, the better chance you have that someone will help. For example, a teacher I know was trying to crowdfund four classroom audio systems for her school. She was far short of her goal—and then The Rachael Ray Show found out about her quest and devotion to her students. The next thing she knew she was on TV, answering the door to a mailman who delivered the donated audio systems.

Of course, national media coverage is about more than just pointing out a need and getting free stuff. Having a positive story about your school or district told by a high-profile TV show, magazine, or newspaper puts a powerful seal of approval on the work that you’re doing for your students and community. It’s also a great morale-builder for teachers and staff. As a bonus, the fact that a local school was featured in the national media will often become its own local news story, with a heartwarming headline like “Celebrity chef Rachael Ray gives teacher an on-air technology gift.”

One tip about approaching national media outlets: The bigger the organization, the more likely it is to have an education specialist. Find that person and follow his or her work for a few months before pitching your story.

B2B or trade publications are not as glamorous as The Rachael Ray Show or as widely read as Time magazine, but having your story showcased in Scholastic Administrator or eSchool News has both short- and long-term benefits.

In the short-term, sharing your story with your fellow educators around the country opens the door to fruitful collaborations. In the long term, developing a reputation for innovation serves as a job recruitment tool for educators who may be moving to your area.

Social media and community portals: In part 1 of this series, I wrote about the power of Twitter, so I won’t go over that again, but I will say that social media is an indispensable part of every school’s storytelling operation. On Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you have complete control over the text, images, and timing of everything you post. These are fantastic places to solidify your brand with your community, parents, and staff. And because most people have personal social media accounts, they’re familiar with how the platforms work, so pretty much everyone can help their district maintain a positive social media presence.

If social media is the cake, community portals are the icing. Back to that superintendent in the district of 32,000: At the same time he was telling the story of his bond to the local media, he added a button to his district’s website that let anyone in the community ask a question, which would then be promptly answered by the appropriate person.

The superintendent said that this one-on-one communication played a big part in clarifying the benefits of the bond and ultimately getting it passed. Districts around the country are using various portals to connect with their communities, and they’re learning an important lesson: Sometimes the most important part of telling your story is listening first.

_________

Christopher Piehler is the Lead Storyteller at PR with Panache! The former editor-in-chief of THE Journal, he has worked for a variety of consumer and B2B publications. He has been an ed tech commentator on both TV and radio, has served as a CODiE award judge, and has been a speaker at the FETC and CoSN conferences.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

Are You Prepared for These Drawbacks of Bringing Tech to the Classroom?

As much progress as technology can help a classroom make, it isn’t always a positive force. There are some drawbacks to trying to introduce technology into classrooms, even when the implementation is done in the most thoughtful and well planned out of ways.

Most dramatic shifts in how humans act and interact are accompanied by difficulties, especially at the outset. Though these difficulties may not outweigh the benefits of the new paradigm, they are nevertheless real. Technology in schools is no exception. Some of the problems associated with technology are mechanical: we all have memories of a teacher struggling to get a projector or program to work, or of losing a week’s work on a project because of a glitch in a system. Other problems may be less obvious.

Many schools must deal not only with students who lack access to technology, but also with those who have too much access. Some students spend most of their free time at home playing computer games, surfing the Internet, or texting on their cell phones. This obsession with technologically based entertainment spills over into the school environment. Teachers must be aware of students who are surreptitiously playing games on cell phones or tablets in the classroom, who are using school computer time to communicate with friends, or who are not getting the social contact or exercise they need because they are hunched over their device at every free moment. See the accompanying “Survival Tips” for help with students and cell phones.

Another difficulty is that the World Wide Web contains not only beneficial information, but also information that may be harmful. Young people may not have the skills or desire to filter out the negative elements from the positive. As a teacher, you should be aware of this and should make an effort to tutor children in possible danger areas on the Internet: chat rooms, sexual trolls, and so on.

Just as you as a teacher must do your research on how to best extract benefits from technology, you must also do your homework when it comes to being prepared to combat the negative impact technology can have. Make sure you’re equipped to handle not just the best, but also the worst of what happens when the modern age comes to school.

Educators – how do you deal with the difficulties of seamlessly incorporating technology and teaching?

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

5 Degrees You Can Earn in Less than 4 Years

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Brooke Chaplan

Not everyone is able to spend four years and tons of money to earn a bachelor’s degree. You may be limited by circumstance, finances, family, and many other factors. Some students are tactile, hands-on learners, who may not thrive in a university environment. If you still want to improve you education, but aren’t looking for the traditional route, you may enjoy one of these five degrees.

Electrical Technology
Electricians traditionally complete a two-year degree at a technical school, and then transfer to a sponsored apprenticeship that takes four to five years to complete. During this time, most apprenticeship programs require attendees to take continuing education courses related to safety, regulations, and specific products or techniques. Students who study electrical technology will learn advanced math, electrical theories, code requirements, and first-aid practices. Apprenticeships are available through local unions, contractor associations, and state employment agencies.

Dental Hygienist
Dental hygiene is an excellent entry-level health care job that only requires a two-year degree and advanced training. In fact, some programs only require two years’ worth of related college coursework without an actual degree. The work environment is relaxed, the hiring outlook positive and the income levels good. Dental hygiene is considered an excellent academic choice for students starting their career over, and almost all states require dental hygienists to pass regional and national board exams to obtain the proper licensure.

Paralegal
Most companies hire paralegals fresh out of college with a program diploma, or those with extensive legal experience. Paralegals are attorney assistants who perform in-depth research, investigate facts, and prepare legal documents. Paralegal diploma programs often take one year to complete and will teach students how to properly conduct legal research, formulate defenses, and initiate legal actions. The median pay for paralegals is excellent and the work environment is intense, yet very professional.

Web Development
Web developers rarely have a formal degree. Instead, they have thousands of hours of personal time invested in creating, analyzing, and developing websites. Web developer programs take one to two years to complete and teach students how to analyze user needs, create content, and modify the performance of websites. Some also learn how to integrate websites with other software programs or convert audio and video elements between different standards.

Safety 
Occupational safety degrees and emergency management programs are becoming more popular as employees, the government, and the public in general realize the benefits of safety planning and emergency response. For example, state safety programs need their own OSHA inspectors to ensure the occupational well-being of workers. Emergency management is a growing profession because the need for public safety professionals is rapidly increasing.

Human Resources
Another option for students who want to quickly complete their degree is human resources. Many HR professionals start out their career with only college coursework and industry standard certification.

 

Going to college isn’t for everyone, but furthering your education can be. With these ideas you can still get a degree and more education without sacrificing four years of your life.

_______________________________

Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most her time hiking, biking and gardening. For more information contact Brooke via Twitter @BrookeChaplan.

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Higher Education, Matthew Lynch

Retirement in Presidential College Ranks Opens Diversity Door

College presidents must be able to multitask. Though not in the official job descriptions, these administrative leaders must be figureheads, court the general public, delegate effectively and always keep an eye on the horizon to guide their ships to bigger, better waters. It is a tough job and like many high-profile ones, comes with its share of scrutiny in the public eye.

As the latest wave of college presidents looks towards retirement, the higher education community has the opportunity to promote a more diverse presidential core. The next five years will set the tone for college leadership at the highest level for the coming decades and really for the entire student population too.

Just the Facts

• 61. Average age of college presidents in 2011.
• 92. Percentage of college presidents aged in the mid-50s to mid-70s.
• 14. Average number of years retiring college presidents first serve in the role.
• 40. Normal number of new college presidents in the American Association of State Colleges and Universities every year.
• 109. Actual number of new college presidents from April 2011 to August 2012.
• 6. Number of new college presidents this school year in the California State system alone.
• 13. Percentage of college presidents who are racial or ethnic minorities, as of 2012.
• 14. Percentage of college presidents who were racial or ethnic minorities in 2006.
• 26. Percentage of women college presidents.

Qualified Prospects

In the past, college presidents from other schools and college vice presidents have most often ascended the ranks to fill empty presidential seats. While this still happens about 19 and 25 percent of the time, respectively, other leaders like provosts and deans are increasingly being considered to fill the college president vacancies. Some schools even search outside the college community to find leaders from other industries that fit the bill. There is really no hiring formula that applies to all college president spots and a “qualified” candidate could feasibly jump several levels of hierarchy to claim the spot.

Encouraging Diversity in Presidential Ranks

The first step to building diversity at the highest college administrative level is simply recognizing the opportunity at hand. American institutions of higher education often consider how a diverse student, and even faculty, population should look but do not extend that to top-tier leadership roles. Colleges need to rethink that strategy. I believe the trickle-down diversity effect works well in college settings. Instead of starting with the largest group (students), start cultural change at the top of the pyramid. If a school has a well-balanced student population already in place, chances are that the faculty and administration reflect that fact too.

The next step is to actively include diversity in the search process. I’m not saying that white men with the right qualifications should be excluded from the running; I just mean that colleges with open president seats should make sure the short list of candidates has some variety in experience, ethnicity, sex and race. The Rooney Rule, established in 2003 by the NFL, mandates that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for all head coaching spots. I think colleges need to do that same with their academic leaders.

Those in lower to middle-level leadership roles in colleges that have presidential aspirations should get ready now. Make sure your name is associated with talks about the future of the college by getting yourself involved in the action. Get published. Envision yourself on the same plane as the college presidents that went before you but realize that you have a unique voice to lend to the college community you want to lead. Embrace the turning tides. Be an active part of the changes in college administration and you will in turn be part of the progress.

 

 

 

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education, Matthew Lynch

Will the Coalition for College Success be good for low-income students?

A guest column by Carol Barash, PhD

Just about everyone agrees that the Common Application, whose founding mission in 1975 was to simplify and streamline college admissions and level the playing field, has made US college admissions more centralized, but not simpler. The massive tech failure of the new version of the online Common App in 2013 pushed various groups to explore other options.

When the Coalition for College Success presented its new plan to transform the college admissions gateway at NACAC, there were naysayers in many camps. The Common App’s virtual monopoly, however flawed, patched over a quagmire of inconsistencies that admissions stakeholders are reluctant to give up or to thoroughly think through: one size fits all vs. holistic admissions criteria; admissions favoring the few who can afford to pay for college vs. a level playing field; where students get in vs. what they can afford among them.

These vital discussions around our admissions gateway are part of a much larger rethinking of the role of and pathways through higher education in the 21st century. In that larger context, there are three big ideas in the Coalition’s model that offer fundamental improvements for low-income students:

The portfolio model

This shift in admissions criteria from one standard (transcripts, test scores, diploma) to a “portfolio” model that includes all aspects of coursework, career exploration and community engagement is the most significant change. The Coalition shifted, almost immediately, from calling this a “portfolio” to a “locker,” but the shift is nonetheless substantial and helpful for all students, and especially low-income students from under-resourced schools:

  • Using the International Baccalaureate model, students reflect on their work each year.

  • They develop summative work around their core learning as is common in many European high schools.

  • Students will be able to document real learning outside of school, including summer programs, online courses, work, internships and community service.

  • They will be able to build a collection of materials–coursework, self-assessments, videos, their own blogs and articles–that more broadly reflect what they have learned and where they are going.

Many schools encourage student reflection and self-assessment throughout high school, as a valid and positive aspect of students’ overall academic record. And as there are more and more opportunities for learning separate from traditional schools, this new model provides a framework to capture pre-college learning in all its forms.

Financial transparency and college completion

To be in the Coalition, private colleges must meet a student’s “demonstrated financial need” and commit to 70% graduation rate for all students in  six years or less; public universities must commit to low in-state tuition and offer need-based financial aid.

In a critical article in the Washington Post, Jon Boeckenstedt, associate vice president of enrollment management and marketing at DePaul University, argued that some private college members of the Coalition are among the worst in admitting low-income students, and several of the public university members have very poor graduation rates: “It is one of the dirty secrets of higher education that the most selective and prestigious private universities carry far less share of the load when it comes to enrolling low-income students, especially in light of the enormous wealth they collectively hold.”

But if students are admitted to college without the financial aid or courses and support services to graduate, it doesn’t help them much in the long run. So, yes, the Coalition’s bar is high–aspirational even for many Coalition members–but the basic promise that college must be both affordable and completable for all students is the most significant of the Coalition’s foundational assumptions and one we should all embrace, hard as it may be to implement.

Admissions officers serving as college advisors

The Coalition’s third big idea–that college and university admission officers will step into the breach left by too few college counselors in most public high schools–is another bold step in a good direction. Most people in admissions love high school students; many of them were first-generation students themselves. The more time they spend in local high schools–as teachers, counselors and mentors–the better, so long as they remember that the point of education is not just getting into college, but learning how to learn, innovate and solve problems.

I would argue that the Coalition’s shifts are a solid start in the right direction, but it will take much bolder collective action to change the game of college–to make it both affordable and completable. This is especially true for low-income students. Until there is one fair and shared system for all–one that serves students and families rather than colleges and consultants–let’s extend the Coalition’s bold promises and figure out ways to get more colleges on board.

cb blog.jpg

Dr. Carol Barash, founder and CEO of Story2 and author of Write Out Loud, has been building digital communications tools for over 20 years, and through Story2 teaches the art and science of storytelling to expand college access and career readiness. Have questions about storytelling, college admissions, and life choices? Ask her anything on Twitter @carolbarash.

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, HBCU's, list, Matthew Lynch, Mississippi

4 Interesting Facts about Education in Mississippi

Mississippi is my home state, and an interesting state at that. Some time ago I wrote an article about what MLK would say about education in Mississippi, and I wrote it because of some startling realities about education in this state. I brought up that 24% of people in the state are estimated to live below the poverty line, and that many of Mississippi’s poorest residents are children of color — many of them are black children. For this reason, among others, Mississippi may need special attention when it comes to addressing P-12 education.

Here are a few sobering facts about education in Mississippi.

  1. Public education in Mississippi is ranked last in the nation year after year. Public education in Mississippi ranked last, yet again, on Education Week’s Quality Counts report . The state received an “F” grade for academic achievement, and a “D” for the chance of success for students.

There is no easy fix for this. Even academic programs targeted for at-risk students can only go so far. With a poverty rate of 24 percent in the state, the problems that impact student success in classrooms extend far beyond it. To really see a difference in student outcomes, the state needs economic initiatives that boost the life quality of residents and give more opportunities to students once they are done with school. Recognizing that these outside factors go hand-in-hand with student outcomes in classrooms is the first step toward moving Mississippi out of last place and putting it on course to be a P-12 leader in the country…

  1. Mississippi is short on education funding—by $1.5 billion. Durant Public School teachers in Mississippi spend their evenings on the Internet, browsing for math and other problems to give their students because the school doesn’t have up-to-date textbooks.

School leaders say that new books aren’t in the budget, nor are reading coaches to help improve the districts academic rating of “D.” To save money, teachers and their assistants have already been reduced and administrators took pay cuts.

The troubles in Durant, located about 60 miles north of Jackson, illustrate a picture of the state as a whole. Mississippi legislators have ignored a state law and spend $1.5 billion less on education than what is required; the cuts in the state are the deepest in the country.

State funding was originally cut as tax revenues plunged during the recession. According to early estimates, the state could fall $280 million short again in 2016.

Durant has 588 students in grades K-12. The teacher turnover rate is high, and when new teachers are hired they tend to be recent graduates who are inexpensive to bring on board.

Sanders-Tate, the superintendent in Durant, dreams of raising the schools rating from a “D” to “A,” but knows it’s a challenge.

“When you don’t have what you need, you’ve got to make do,” Sanders-Tate said. “I’m tired of making do for the kids when they deserve the best like everyone else.”

  1. Mississippi has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation, with 50 births for every 1,000 young women between 15 and 19 years old. Despite this, attempts to educate young people in the state about safe sex practices have been met with hostility.

Alarmed by the high rates of teen pregnancy, and high number (76 percent) of high school students who report being sexually active by age 17 in the state, members of the business community lobbied the state to make sexual education courses mandatory in public schools. Those lobbying won a partial victory — but actual implementation of the rule has been slowed down in the religious and conservative state.

The Los Angeles Times reports that mother Marie Barnard was pleased when Mississippi made sex education mandatory after many decades of disallowing it. She was less than pleased, however, when she found out one of the “lessons” involved students passing around an unwrapped piece of chocolate candy and observing how “dirty” it became with more contact. The message does not provide an educated view on sex, or show respect to young people who have been sexually active, she said.

The candy example is just one way the noble goal to educate Mississippi’s youth about responsible sexual activity has gone awry. Part of the enacted law requires parents to sign a permission slip allowing their children to take sex ed courses in the first place. There are also issues of enforcement and the exact curriculum being taught. Individual districts, for example, can choose to implement abstinence-only sex education classes.

So it seems the battle for a sexually-informed generation in Mississippi wages on, even in public school classrooms.

  1. Mississippi received a grade of “B” for its early childhood programs, compared to a national average of “D+.” There is a silver lining to every cloud. Despite being one of the worst-performing states in many categories of education, Mississippi ranks second nationally when it comes to Head Start enrollment (third nationally when it comes to Kindergarten enrollment and access to full-day Kindergarten programs). Getting kids signed up for early childhood programs is just the start of course. These children need to learn enough while in those classrooms, but getting them started as early as possible is definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to the future academic success of students in the state.

It is also one of the relatively few states in America that is pushing for mandatory Kindergarten. Representative Sonya Williams-Barnes, a Democrat from Gulfport, authored of “KIDS Act” that would change the mandatory school age for children in the state from 6 to 5 years old, in essence making Kindergarten mandatory for children in the state.

So how does Mississippi stack up against other states when it comes to the Kindergarten issue? There are only 15 states and the District of Columbia that require Kindergarten by law, and there are actually six states that do not even require public schools to offer Kindergarten. Despite the bad rap Mississippi often gets when it comes to student achievement numbers, the state does pretty well on Kindergarten access and has nationally high numbers for attendance. So adding in a Kindergarten requirement would not make a huge difference in the amount of kids who attended, but will just be more of a formality.

All this said, where Mississippi could really use the legislative boost is when it comes to pre-K education — an area where strides are being made. The Mississippi Department of Education reports that two-thirds of all the kids who entered Mississippi public Kindergarten in the fall of 2014 did not have the base-level skills required for adequate learning. In my opinion, the age of 5 is too old for mandatory education in the state, but it will probably be a few more decades before Mississippi, or any other state, requires it any younger. Hopefully this latest proposal will pass with no problems to show that state leaders are unified when it comes to early childhood education initiatives in Mississippi.

My home state of Mississippi needs to make some big changes as soon as possible. I want nothing more for the state to have sufficient money to put towards improving education, and to see the ratings improve drastically.

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Higher Education, Matthew Lynch

Campus diversity: Are Ivy Leagues getting closer?

America has a love-hate relationship with its eight Ivy League universities. For the majority, these elite schools are seen as unattainable places, reserved for those with superhuman high school transcripts and the deep pockets to afford to attend. Graduating from one is generally viewed as writing the ticket to a comfortable life, though, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t be impressed with your framed Princeton or Columbia degree.

Ivy Leagues are the butt of jokes where snobs are the punchline and often considered out of the league, in both price and performance, for the average American high schooler. Ivy Leagues are viewed as places for already-rich, white Americans to pat each other on the back on their way to acquiring even more wealth. As with most things that are generalized and over-simplified, Ivy Leagues have more complexity in student, faculty and alumni diversity than is often portrayed.

Look at our own President – a minority Harvard graduate who married another minority Harvard grad, made a name for his down-to-earth approach to politics, and went on to become the leader of the free world. Is President Obama an extreme exception, or are we missing the story of true diversity at these stereotypically elite schools?

The truth is somewhere between the extremes. With the right direction, however, Ivy Leagues could really make some headway in improving diversity on their campuses in the next half-decade and could set the example for the rest of America’s university landscape.

Smart recruitment

Ivy League schools aren’t just waiting for minority, first-generation and other disadvantaged future applicants to come to them – they are reaching out, and early. Every Ivy League school is a member of the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success which offers a portfolio-type program for college admittance. This portfolio is intended to start in 9th grade and is often accompanied by guidance from university officials on high school academics and additional items that will boost their final file for consideration.

These portfolios are about more than test scores and report card grades. A “locker” portion allows room for creative work, like visual art and essays. By allowing this application system, Ivy Leagues are setting the stage for students early in their careers, giving them a better chance at earning admittance when the time comes.

It will be a few years before this portfolio system is proven to work, at Ivy Leagues and the other 70+ schools that implemented its use in 2015. The fact that these schools have pinpointed the need to approach and guide students so early in their high school careers is important though. It shows that the schools in the coalition are serious about being proactive in diverse recruitment and are willing to put in the work to make get more disadvantaged students on their campuses.

The reality stands

For all their apparent strides to be more diverse, Ivy Leagues can’t deny the facts of where they stand today. First, there is the issue of money that simply can’t be ignored. Admitting students without concern for whether they can afford the school or not is a luxury of Ivy Leagues, whose alumni giving dwarfs that of typical universities. They can afford to pay the tuition of students who could otherwise not find the money to attend, giving them an advantage when it comes to diverse recruitment.

Even with all that additional money, though, Ivy Leagues are still mainly made up of affluent students. Nationally, 38 percent of undergraduate students earn Pell grants, earmarked for students from low-income families. Only 12 percent at Yale and 13 percent at the University of Virginia received Pell grants in the 2013-2014 academic year.

It’s not all bad news though. Brown University has some promising stats when it comes to its ability to recruit and graduate more diverse students. In its class of 2019, 59 percent of Brown’s accepted students went to public schools. All 50 states are represented, along with 85 nations. Sixty-one percent will need some form of financial aid to afford Brown attendance, and 45 percent identified as African American, Latino, Asian American or Native American (which still means it is a Predominantly White Institution, but not by much).

Cornell’s class of 2019 includes 700 first-generation students, 45 percent female and 48 percent who identify themselves as students of color.

So what will the class of 2025, 2030 and beyond look like at Ivy Leagues? Will new recruitment methods finally bridge the gap between the ideal of diversity and the reality on campuses?

What do you predict will be the future of diversity at Ivy Leagues?

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity

Black students suspended, expelled more than peers

According to a new study published by the University of Pennsylvania, black students make up nearly 40 percent of students suspended in Florida.

“The study details how black students in 13 Southern states receive school punishments disproportionate to their enrollments. In Florida, for example, black youngsters make up 23 percent of the public school population but 39 percent of those suspended.”

That number, unfortunately, matches with the trend of how many black men and women are sent to prison. Making up just 13 percent of the population, people of color make-up about 60 percent of the nation’s prison population. The school-to-prison pipeline is real, even if it is uncomfortable to admit. There IS a correlation between the way behavior issues are treated in our P-12 schools and the people in our prisons.

The Sentencing Project projects that 1 in 3 black men will likely see the inside of a prison cell at some point in their lives.

If that trend continues, suspending more black students will nudge them towards a path of incarceration.

But the study notes that black students are suspended and expelled more due to “unfair discipline practices” and appearing as “disrespectful or threatening.”

While the numbers for the state are bad, it gets worse in Orange County. Making up just 27 percent of the county’s public school population, black students represents 51 percent of the students suspended.

It’s much easier to learn while at school than away from it, and if schools are placing an unfair and undue burden of punishment on black students, our future workforce will suffer because of it.

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