Equity: Everything and the Kitchen Sink
Equity seems to be the “it” term of the day when it comes to student success and college completion. You’d be hard pressed to find an institutional strategic plan or statewide task force report focused on increasing postsecondary attainment that doesn’t reference a commitment to equity, or its oft used counterparts, diversity and inclusion. Everyone’s…
Read MoreAffordable Higher Education is Essential to Preserving the Black Middle Class
Higher education has long been touted as a gateway to the middle class. This is especially critical for black Americans, as blacks still face economic adversity in not only achieving middle-income status, but also maintaining this status for future generations. In 2017, about 40 percent of black households qualify as middle class, with household incomes…
Read MoreWhen Brand Names Don’t Fit
Over the past few decades, many education advocates and reformers have advanced a philosophy that what low income, students of color need most is to attend a brand name institution, filled with wealthy students whose families have attended college for generations. For years, people have focused on undermatching – a philosophy that says that very…
Read MoreBeating the Odds in Tennessee: A Q&A with Kenyatta Lovett, Executive Director of Complete Tennessee
Insights & Outlooks: Can you share more about your personal story and why equity in higher education matters to you? Kenyatta Lovett: My higher education story begins with the college journeys of my father and mother. Both were the first in their family to go to college. My father sat out a year after high…
Read MoreStephanie Shaw: Using Business Acumen to Drive Change in Education
It was never a question of if Stephanie Shaw would attend college. She always knew she would. A first-generation college student, she had to rely heavily on her extended family members, friends, and teachers who had attended college to lead her in the right direction. “I have been very, very fortunate to have educators in…
Read MoreI’m Not Wonder Woman: A Student Parent’s Story
“There’s never enough time!” As a parent and student, I say this to myself nearly every semester, but yet I keep signing up for a full course load. I guess I must be a glutton for punishment, as I barely have free time to begin with without the added pressures of taking four classes. You…
Read MoreAaron Thompson’s Journey from Childhood Poverty to Kentucky’s SHEEO
“Too many of our students see college as a foreign place that wasn’t designed for them. They hear about it, they went to many schools that they felt disenfranchised in. College just becomes a bigger foreign place to feel disenfranchised in. We need students to feel empowered to maneuver, to self-advocate and put themselves in…
Read MorePartnering to Improve Student Success in Central New Mexico: A Q&A with Angelo Gonzales
Insights & Outlooks: What do you think distinguishes or differentiates the role that a community-based organization like United Way of Central New Mexico can play in supporting student success at the local level? Angelo Gonzales: As the Chief Strategy Officer at United Way of Central New Mexico (UWCNM), I direct all of our grantmaking and…
Read MoreBalancing Quality with Innovation: Key Issues at Stake in Negotiated Rulemaking
This month, watchers of higher ed policy were busy with talk of negotiated rulemaking (or “neg reg”), as the U.S. Department of Education kicked off a series of significant proposed regulatory changes with far-reaching consequences. Federal law requires the Department to follow this complicated process in order to make any regulatory changes to programs authorized…
Read MoreAn Inspired Community College Leader’s Rise from Poverty to the Presidency
With more than 30 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Tonjua Williams is recognized nationally as an expert in student development. She has a passion for helping others realize their potential and has made it her personal mission to do so through her community outreach and higher education career. “I believe everybody’s worth the…
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