Taking the temperature of multicultural factors impacting learning

Miksch, K. L., Higbee, J. L., Jehanglr, R. R., Lundell, D. B., Bruch, P. L., Siaka, K., & Dotson, M. V. (2003). Multicultural Awareness Project for Institutional Transformation (MAP IT). Minneapolis, MN: Multicultural Concerns Committee and the Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, General College, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Retrieved http://purl.umn.edu/5375

The Multicultural Awareness Project for Institutional Transformation (MAP IT) was developed at the University of Minnesota's General College with the goal of integrating multicultural education within postsecondary education. MAP IT is an adaptation of Diversity Within Unity: Essential Principles for Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society (Banks et al., 2001). This publication contains the MAP IT set of 10 Guiding Principles and four survey instruments designed to aid in measuring the extent to which institutions of higher education centralize multicultural education and incorporate the guiding principles. Instruments are provided for survey of the following four groups within the institution: administrator, faculty & instructional staff, student development and support services staff, and student.

I have used the assessment with a graduate course which required students to analyze a learning environment regarding these criteria. The reports received back from the students were powerful for not only identifying unseen barriers to learning, but also serving as a positive prompt for taking action. I highly recommend the instrument. As described above, the questions are customized for the respondants: administrators, faculty & instructional staff, student services, and students themselves.

Social capital and learning assistance

Certain groups of students bring less social capital with them to college— students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, first-generation college stu­dents, and historically underrepresented students of color. Learning assistance services, especially developmental courses, are essential for overcoming disad­vantaged backgrounds. Learning assistance is essential for providing access to a broad range of institutions. This was certainly the case for me. I was the first person in my family to graduate from college (eventually my oldest brother would also graduate from college after a long and distinguished career in the military). My parents twere supportive of my decision to attend college, but had no prior experiences to share with me and provide guidance. On the other hand, there were many other supports they provided for me that helped me in college and life, but that is for another blog posting in the future.

The student groups that had not traditionally attended college before have a variety of overlapping identities, some of which pose barriers that impede success in college. Walpole (2007) analyzed this population and names one group “economically and educationally challenged.” “All [economically and educationally challenged] students, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity, face challenges in accessing, persisting, and graduating from college. The intersec­tions of these identity statuses and educational processes and outcomes are non-linear and deserve additional attention” (p. x). Walpole states that chal­lenges for these students are not the result of a failure to try or that they are somehow inferior to the students from dominate cultures. “Rather these stu­dents must cope with a structure and a system that defines merit in ways that do not privilege them” (p. 15).

Learning assistance can help these new students overcome the barriers that might limit their chances for succeeding in postsecondary education. Deciding whether to curtail or eliminate credit-based learning assistance such as developmental courses does not just affect campus economics or perceptions of institutional prestige. It is not a race- and class-neutral deci­sion. My report illustrates how a wide range of students at most institu­tions, regardless of their classification, use noncredit learning assistance activities such as tutoring, study groups, learning assistance centers, and the like. Lack of access to credit-based learning assistance, however, raises issues of class, race, and culture.

It is a serious decision to tell essentially an entire group of students who share common demographic identities such as first-generation college students, students of color, and low socioeco­nomic students to begin their college career at a two-year college, while privileged students can begin wherever they want. No one quite says it that way. The impact is the same, however, if the needed resources are not avail­able and the campus culture is not welcoming to the new students. The risk is de facto resegregation of postsecondary education in the United States and all the disastrous results for individuals and society that would occur (Bowen, Chingos, and McPherson, 2009). A later blog posting will investigate this issue more indepth and raise the issue of civil rights violation for providing services to previous genrations but denying them to the new students attending college. Social and culture capital must be available for all students, not just those from the privledged classes.

• Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., and McPherson, M. S. (2009). Crossing the finish line: Completing college at America’s public universities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Walpole, M. (2007). Economically and educationally challenged students in higher education: Access to outcomes. ASHE Higher Education Report, volume 33, number 3. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This posting was excerpted and expanded from my recent book, Access at the crossroads: Learning assistance in higher educationpublished by Jossey-Bass/Willey. For more inforamtion about the book, click this link.

No such thing as a developmental student

A myth persists that learning assistance serves only “developmental stu­dents.” Actually, no such thing as a “developmental student” exists.

Rather, it is more accurate to say that some students are not academically prepared for college-level work in one or more academic content areas (English, mathe­matics, or writing) or in specificskills such as reading or study strategies. The relative need and usefulness of learning assistance for an individual student depends on the overall academic rigor of the institution, the subject matter studied, or even how one faculty member teaches a particular course compared with another from the same academic department.

Therefore, the same indi­vidual could be a major consumer of learning assistance at one institution and not at another or even in one academic department and not another in the same institution. The need for learning assistance services is not a character­istic or universal defining attribute of the student; it depends on the condi­tions and expectations of the specific learning environment for a particular course. All college students are on a continuum between novice and master learner. Learning assistance serves students located along this continuum through a wide range of activities and services. The same student is often located at different places on multiple continuum lines simultaneously, one for each academic context and skill area.

Another way to look at this issue is to say that ALL students are "developmental". All people are "developmental". We are all changing and "developing". We are all at different stages in all aspects of our lives. To be human is to be developmental. However, I do not advocate for this perspective since the word "developmetnal" has been steroetyped by so many in a negative way. The argument has been lost among the public and many with the academic world. Therefore, I argue there is no such thing as a "developmental student."

This posting was excerpted and expanded from my recent book, Access at the crossroads: Learning assistance in higher education published by Jossey-Bass/Willey. For more inforamtion about the book, click this link.

Developmental Education is More Than Remedial Classes

Reading the popular and professional press reports about developmental education and learning assistance would suggest the only service provided is enrollment in remedial and developmental-level courses. I use those two terms interchangeably in this blog posting, but most of the time I will use "learning assistance" for reasons revealed in future entries to this blog. There is so much more in terms of services and so many more students participating in academic assistance and enrichment. The stereotype that the only service is nongraduation credit college courses is wrong and harmful to the field and the wide variety of students served. With the President's priority to raise college graduation rates dramatically, this field is more vital than ever.

Learning assistance meets the demands of rigorous col­lege courses through highly varied activities and approaches. The historic role of learning assistance in the larger scope of U.S. higher education is sig­nificant though sometimes low profile. Learning assistance bridges access for a more diverse student body. From students’ perspectives, it helps them meet institutional academic expectations and achieve personal learning goals. From the institution’s perspective, it expands access to the institution and supports higher expectations for academic excellence.

There is no universal manifestation of learning assistance. On some cam­puses, it expresses itself through noncredit activities such as tutorial pro­grams, peer study groups, study strategy workshops, computer-based learning modules, or drop-in learning centers. Other institutions add to these activities by offering remedial and developmental courses, study strat­egy courses, and other services. A few colleges support learning assistance for graduate and professional school students through workshops on disser­tation writing and effective studying, strategies for graduate school exami­nations, and preparation for licensure exams at the conclusion of their professional school programs. Students from broad demographic back­grounds access one or more of these services from all levels of academic preparation and at various times during their academic career. The diverse language used to describe learning assistance depends on institutional cul­ture and history. Some terms associated with these activities throughout his­tory include preparatory, remedial, compensatory, developmental, and enrichment, to name just a few.

Learning assistance provides a universal description for this wide variety of expressions, activities, and approaches. It is the term used most generally in the report, Access at the Crossroads: Learning Assistance in Higher Education. I will be sharing excertps from this recent publication by Wiley/Jossey-Bass. For more information about the book and how to obtain a copy, click on this link http://z.umn.edu/bookinfo Enjoy.

Economics Curtailing Access at Public Universities

The headline of this blog posting is no surprise. At Berkeley they are reducing access for economically-disadvantaged students (which require institutional financial aid) and replacing them with out-of-state or out-of-country students who pay full tuition plus for being out-of-state. The article reported the dramatic change that occurred within a single year.

On one hand we have the U.S. President and the Lumina Fundation (among others) calling for a dramatic rise in college graduation rates needed for workforce needs of society and better lives for the college graduates. On the other hand, the financial support for public institutions has dramatically shrunk with little hope for reversal. The institutions are caught inbetween. They are operating with a "zero sum" financial model. To survive, the institutions replace students with financial need with those that have wealth to infuse. How long until we admit the truth, access to higher education requires an investment. Students are willing to invest their lives. Can't we invest more money for their and our collective futures.

Compounding this issue is that more institutions do not have classroom capacity for the increasing number of students that want to attend college. Another building boom is needed to increase the physical capacity of current institutions and probably to add more campuses. Distance learning does not work for everyone as an effective pedagogy, and besides, not everyone has the technology at home nor the finances for high-speed cable. 

It is a good thing that more students want to attend college. We have a collective responsibility to support them, especially those that are historically-underrepresented and economically-disadvantaged.

July 15, 2010, 12:48 PM ET U.C. Berkeley and the Access Mission of Public Universities, By Richard Kahlenberg, Chronicle of Higher Education.

The latest news involving the University of California—“Berkeley Sees Admission of Latino Students Drop and Nonresidents Jump”—pits two groups, Hispanic students and non-Californians. But of course what’s really going on is a struggle over money, economic class and the question of how dedicated public universities will be to their special mission of promoting social mobility. U.C. Berkeley is cash starved, and one way to raise money is to bring in more wealthy out-of-state students, who pay $22,000 more in fees than resident students. Berkeley didn’t make its change slowly—it more than doubled the proportion of out-of-state students in the freshman class in a single year, from 11% to 23%. And it did so with the full awareness that minority students would suffer. The drop in Latino admissions was 12%. (The data published by the U.C. system addressed changes in racial and ethnic breakdown but not income.) Berkeley has a couple of arguments in its defense. Among top colleges, it has long shouldered more than its fair share on the economic diversity front. In 2007, according to an Education Trust report, 33.0 % of Berkeley students received Pell Grants. By comparison, other leading public universities had Pell grant rates that were substantially lower, including the University of Virginia (9.5%), the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (13.4%), and the University of North Carolina, Chapel-Hill (15.3%). Furthermore, Berkeley admits fewer out-of-state students than other leading institutions. Michigan and Virginia, for example routinely admit more than 30% of students from out of state. Some have noted that the big increase in non-Californian freshman may backfire politically, fueling parochial anger from state taxpayers and further reducing the public support for the U.C. system. But this debate goes beyond politics to fundamental questions about the special role of public universities in American society. As scholar Gary Berg notes in new book, Low-Income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality: Higher Education in America, today most private universities “serve a higher percentage of students from low-income families” than do public universities, undermining the “special responsibility” of public institutions of higher education to promote access. Some will argue that in tough economic times, public universities have no choice but to make financial decisions that hurt low-income students. This sounds plausible, but what, then, is the excuse for the major decline of academically qualified low-income high school graduates at public and private four-year institutions in more financially flush years? According to a recent report of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 54% of such students enrolled in four-year colleges in 1992, but by 2004, only 40% did. U.C. Berkeley has been long been the poster child for promoting both academic excellence and economic diversity—a worthy outlier, defending the particular mission of public universities. Its special status makes the recent retreat especially poignant.

Poor college-bound students making poor decisions?

Once again, poor students are blamed for making a foolish decision to pursue college when they could have went after a cheaper and shorter-term vocational training program. A report from the Gates Foundation, reported through the Chronicle of Higher Education, states too many poor students are unemployed after attending college. The report recommends they consider alternative options for less expensive postsecondary education. (See summary of report from the Chronicle). http://chronicle.com/article/Many-Young-Adults-in-Povert/65826/

Let's change the focus of the problem to include the institution. What did they do to support the poor students (or any of their students for that matter)? These issues are even more important for poor students who are most often first-generation in their families to go to college. They are often historically-underrepresented at the college as well. They lack the social capital and support that other students enjoy. 

• Academic advisors: Did they provide quality academic advising for the student that did more than just help them schedule classes? How long did those advising sessions last? Did they explore why the student was pursuing a partitucle academic major and future career aspirations? Especially if they are faculty members, do the academic advisors receive any training to do their job?
• Course instructors: Did they include anything in their courses on how to take what happened in class and help them interpret it for usefulness in the job market or did they just teach abstract concepts in class with no relevance?
• Student affairs: How sufficient is the number of counselors and career advisors to serve the number of students? Do they provide services for undecided majors? Do they even have a center for career guidance? If so, does it offer seminars for interviewing skills, resume building, and the like. Are these services available when students need them like evenings and weekends?

Like anything, the answers are always more complex. Students have a part in this, but the institution has an even bigger responsibility to support their students (and alumni) with life time success.

From the Chroncile of Higher Education:  Many Young Adults in Poverty Have a College Degree, Report Says By Sara Lipka  http://chronicle.com/article/Many-Young-Adults-in-Povert/65826/

Increasing proportions of low-income young adults are pursuing higher education, but some remain poor even with a postsecondary degree, according to a new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy. In 2008, among Americans ages 18 to 26 whose total household income was near or below the federal poverty level, 47 percent were or had been enrolled in college, compared with 42 percent in 2000. Eleven percent of them had earned a degree, a proportion roughly equivalent to that eight years ago, according to the report, which is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The institute is a nonprofit group in Washington that conducts public-policy research to encourage access and success in higher education.

In introducing its report, the group called into question President Obama's declaration in his State of the Union address in January that "the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education." Poor students go to college academically unprepared, the report says, and, amid competing family and work obligations, they accumulate debt "that could have been avoided by pursuing a different type of degree or a credential."

None of the 11 percent of low-income graduates should remain in poverty, said Gregory S. Kienzl, director of research and evaluation at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. "If you have a degree, you should no longer be poor," he said. Across all racial and ethnic groups, greater proportions of low-income young adults were or had been enrolled in college in 2008, compared with 2000. Hispanic students showed the largest percentage-point increase, to 37 percent from 29 percent. Low-income Asian and Pacific Islander and white students enrolled at the highest rates in 2008, 62 percent and 51 percent, respectively; the greatest proportions of low-income degree holders were also from those groups.

The report, "A Portrait of Low-Income Young Adults in Education," is the first in a series financed in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The next report will focus on attendance and enrollment patterns among low-income students, Mr. Kienzl said, including that black and Hispanic women more often attend for-profit institutions than public four-year colleges.

Learning Assistance Often Ignores Impact of Culture on Learning of Students

Too often learning assistance and developmental education conferences and publications treat the issue of cultural and ethnic diversity as only an issue of demographics and not of pedagogy. Decades ago it was believed that sensitivity in this area was observing and honoring cultural events and including people of various cultures in class materials. This was a good start after that the previous focus only on dominant culture examples.The next step is required in learning assistance, teach multiculturally. WHile this has been widely adopted in education, the learning assistance community is far behind. Following is a good reader to illustrate practical ways to meaningfully engage students of different cultures in the classroom, honor their expertise, and make the classroom a richer and more productive environment for students of all cultures and backgrounds.

Higbee, J. L., Lundell, D. B., & Duranczyk, I. M. (Eds.) (2003). Multiculturalism in developmental education. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Research on Developmental Education, General College, University of Minnesota. Retrieved July 4, 2004, from: http://tinyurl.com/2e5wa23

The first three chapters of this monograph provide models for integrating multiculturalism in developmental education. The remaining chapters focus on conversations related to multiculturalism in developmental education, reported by our colleagues in the General College of the University of Minnesota. The work of these authors reflects the General College's efforts to implement its multicultural mission. The following chapters are included in this monograph: The Centrality of Multiculturalism in Developmental Education (Karen L. Miksch, Patrick L. Bruch, Jeanne L. Higbee, Rashné R. Jehangir, and Dana Britt Lundell); Walking the Talk: Using Learning-Centered Strategies to Close Performance Gaps (Donna McKusick and Irving Pressley McPhail); Creating Access Through Universal Instructional Design (Karen S. Kalivoda); Multicultural Legacies for the 21st Century: A Conversation with James A. Banks (Patrick L. Bruch, Jeanne L. Higbee, and Dana Britt Lundell); Is there a Role for Academic Achievement Tests in Multicultural Developmental Education? (Thomas Brothen and Cathrine Wambach); The Triumphs and Tribulations of a Multicultural Concerns Committee (David L. Ghere); MultiCultural Development Center (MCDC): Sharing Diversity (Ghafar A. Lakanwal and Holly Choon Hyang Pettman); Summary Report on the Third National Meeting on Future Directions in Developmental Education: Grants, Research, Diversity, and Multiculturalism (Dana Britt Lundell); Report of the Future Directions Meeting Multicultural Themes Track (Jeanne L. Higbee and Holly Choon Hyang Pettman); and appendices.