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Supporting the Engagement, Learning, and Success of At-Risk Students
Tom Brown
Compass ProjectLearning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Today’s Workshop….
What existing offices, programs, services, and people need to collaborate in support of specific at-risk groups?
What new programs, services and interventions might you need to develop and implement?
There are within us seeds of who we might become. Thich Nhat Hanh
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people.
K. Patricia Cross, Professor of Higher Education EmeritaUniversity of California, Berkeley
Transforming Students Through Validation
Even the most non-traditional students can be transformed into powerful learners through in- and out-of-class academic or interpersonal validation.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994
Some Institutions seem to be more effective than others in helping students from a wide range of abilities and backgrounds succeed…
How College Affects StudentsPascarelli & Terenzini, 2005
Retention practices with greatest impact
1. First-year programs
2. Advising interventions for specific student populations
3. Learning support
Habley & McClanahan, WWISR 2004
Retention practices with greatest impact
Advising interventions for specific student populations
Treating everyone the same may be equal treatment, but it may not be equitable treatment.
A principle:
Human beings seek to economize
on the energy required to make distinctions.
Human beings seek to economize on the energy required to make distinctions.
Most houseplants die because we treat them all the same.
Categories of “otherness” Beverly D. Tatum, 1997
“Otherness” Race/ethnicity Gender Religion Sexual Orientation Socio-economic status Age Physical/Mental Ability
Form of oppression Racism/ethnocentrism Sexism Religious oppression Heterosexism Classism Ageism Ableism
Some at-risk groups in education
First-generation/Low SES studentsAdult and re-entry studentsStudent with disabilitiesStudent-AthletesFirst-year studentsUndecided studentsLGBTQ studentsStudents of ColorUnderprepared studentsTransfer students
Some at-risk groups in educationFirst-generation studentsAdult and re-entry studentsStudent with disabilitiesStudent-AthletesFirst-year studentsUndecided studentsLGBTQ studentsStudents of ColorUnderprepared studentsTransfer studentsOthers??
First-generation-Low SES Students
Human beings seek to economize….
Multiple issues
First-generation/Low SES AND also…Adult and re-entry studentsStudent with disabilitiesStudent-AthletesFirst-year studentsUndecided studentsLGBTQ studentsStudents of ColorUnderprepared studentsTransfer students
America’s education system is driven by class distinctions to a degree most Americans don’t acknowledge and perhaps don’t even comprehend….
Tearing Down the GatesPeter Sacks, 2007
The idea that the offspring of the poor have chances as good as the offspring of the rich, well that’s not true. It is not respectable in scholarly circles anymore to make that argument….
Gary Solon, EconomistUniversity of MichiganNew York Times, May 15, 2005
Multiple Issues…
Hispanic students are much less likely than white students to have a parent who attended college.
“Academe’s Hispanic Future”Chronicle of Higher Education 11/28/03Peter Schmidt
Non-Academic Challenges for First-Generation Students
Learning to negotiate a campus systemAdapting to a more competitive academic settingHaving family and friends who don’t understand the demands of college and/or who may be unsupportive of students’ decisions to attendFeeling overwhelmed
Texas Tech PEGASUS Program
Academic Challenges for First-Generation Students
Time management issuesLack of adequate academic preparationNeed to connect academic programs to career goalsOthers??
Following identified as critical to student success….First-year programs: summer bridge, orientation programs, FYE courses, Freshman Interest groups (FIGs)Learning communitiesIntegrated courses clusters (e.g., math course linked with study skills and tutoring)
Increasing student success….Continuous advisor/advisee contact throughout the first semester/yearDesignated faculty or staff to act as “first responders” to help students navigate campus systemsProactive referrals to sources of assistance and support (e.g., tutoring, instructional labs, counseling, career services)Outreach to help students feel comfortable on campus and to encourage involvement
Facilitating parent/family involvement and providing means for keeping parents/families informed can help to maintain familial ties that are so important to students.
First-Year College Experiences of StudentsFrom Migrant Farmworker Families, Journal of the First Year Experience, 2004
Orientation and transition programs are critical for new students and their families.
This is especially true for first- generation students.
What strengths do low SES students bring that could
enhance their opportunities for success?
Link to Resources
First-generation Studentshttp://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/1st_Generation.htm
Students of Color Multicultural Students
Categories of “otherness” Beverly D. Tatum, 1997
“Otherness” Race/ethnicity Gender Religion Sexual Orientation Socio-economic status Age Physical/Mental Ability
Form of oppression Racism/ethnocentrism Sexism Religious oppression Heterosexism Classism Ageism Ableism
Not a “zero sum” game, with winners and losers….
COMPETE
Com = together
Petire = to seek
Creating Unum from the Pluribus
“Not everything that is faced can be changed.
But nothing can be changed that is not faced.”
James Baldwin
Some Americans Are Much Less Likely to Graduate From College
Gaps between white and students of color graduation rates range from 15% to nearly 30% at the four Compass campuses.
College Results On-line
A Challenge in Managing Diversity
Efforts to teach about diverse groups can lead to stereotyping.
People from the same group are often diverse based on SES, education, age, gender, individual experiences, etc.
Although there has been widespread interest in addressing issues surrounding the lack of success for Micmac and Maliseet students efforts to date have tended to be “one size fits all” solutions.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal
Diversity in Diversity: American Indian/First Nation
545 Tribal groups recognized by the US government.
250+ languages spoken.
Many identify as members of a specific tribal group and may not consider members of other groups as “Indians.”
Wells, 1989
There are pockets of the UMPI community that do not respect the cultural diversity represented by Native American students.
UMPI Project Compass Assumptions
Asian Pacific American Groups
Asian Indian Chinese FilipinoGuamanian Hawaiian Hmong JapaneseKorean Laotian Pakistani Samoan Thai
Vietnamese
Philippines: 7000 islands 100+ languages
DIVERSITY IN DIVERSITY
Asians reflect both the highest and
lowest levels of academic
achievement….Hmong, Cambodians,
and Pacific Islanders have some of the
lowest academic achievement and
high school graduation rates, while
Chinese and Japanese have some of
the highest.Higher Education Issues in the Asian American Community
Suzuki, 1994
Diversity in Diversity: Black
Is the “Black” student US born, or from a Haitian, West Indian, or African immigrant family?
As with all groups, it is important to make distinctions based on socio-economic class, gender, etc.
African American students are more likely to find faculty members remote, discouraging, and unsympathetic.
Exploring Distinctions in Types of Faculty Interactions Among Black, Latino/a, and White College Students.Cole and Anaya, 2001.
Diversity in Diversity: Latino/Hispanic
Twenty Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere.
Often “Latino” is used in contrast to others who are not Spanish speaking.
Often identify based on country of origin (e.g., Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba).
Students of color base their decisions on whether or not to persist on the quality of their interactions with faculty….
Cabrera, Terenzini, et. al.Journal of Higher Education, 1999
Critical Issues for Students of Color
Difference between college and previous educational settings“Minority” for the first timeLack of mentors and role modelsNegative attitudes of faculty and peersIssues of identity development
Brown and Rivas, 1997, 2004
Minority Identity Development A Stage Model
Pre-encounterEncounterImmersionEmersionInternalization
Cross, 1971; Atkinson, Morten, and Sue, 1983
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
An Example of Minority Identity Development
Racial identity attitudes influence students’ decisions about classes, peers, faculty, advisors, counselors, even the extent to which they identify or disidentify with academic work.
Employment of a Native American counselor to advise students and serve as an advocate for Native American issues on campus…
UMPI Project Compass Proposal
Effective Strategies
Transition programs—summer bridge, culturally relevant orientation programming,Inclusive curriculum and co-curriculumDiverse faculty and staffExpectation of “cultural competence” for all faculty and staffProfessional development for faculty and staff
Effective Strategies
Peer mentoring programsFaculty and staff mentor programsActive outreach to connect with campus and community resourcesIntrusive academic advising program
Pluralistic Teaching and Advising Skills
Understand, acknowledge, value difference.Self-assess biases and attitudes.Increase knowledge base of diverse groupsUse culturally appropriate strategies.Avoid over-generalizations.
Brown & Rivas, 1994, 1997, 2004
What strengths do multicultural/
students of color bring that could enhance their
opportunities for success?
Underprepared Students
Students are not alone; colleges too are underprepared…
Carnegie Foundation, 2008
Most faculty have no particular training to teach underprepared students.
Carnegie Foundation, 2008
A Definition of Underpreparedness
A student whose skills, knowledge, and motivation are significantly below those of the “typical” student in the college or program in which s/he is enrolled.
Maxwell, 1997
The major inhibitor to possible success for the underprepared student is the psychological distance that most faculty maintain between themselves and their students.
Spann, Spann, and Confer. 1995
Cognitive, Emotional and Behavioral Barriers
Undermining attributionsEgo involvementReluctance to seek assistance
Rivas & Brown, 2007
Attributions
When something happens in life, how do I/others explain the cause?
Attributions
The world asks me why.
I provide an explanation (attribution).
My future behavior depends on the type of attribution.
Ability or Effort?By the time students reach high school, they generally believe that ability is a relatively fixed, unchangeable capacity.
British Journal ofDevelopmental Psychology1983
“Those students can’t do Calculus….”
“I can’t do Calculus….”
Shift attributions from ability to background.
Students’ attributions and those of faculty and staff.
Strategies That Work
Proactive interventionsTarget services for specific populationsEncourage group studyDevelop skills in contextEncourage utilization of campus resourcesConnect with mentors
Link to Resources
Underprepared studentshttp://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Academically-Underprepared.htm
Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you can help them become what they are capable of becoming.
Goethe
